Welcome to the Orlando Zen Center Newsletter!
UPCOMING PRACTICE
Sunday Evening Practice is every Sunday, 6:30pm to 8:00pm on Zoom and in-person at The New Romantics bookstore.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
Our teaching video of the month selectionis “Dharma talk about chanting” by Zen Master Dae Bong.
TEACHING LIBRARY SELECTION OF THE MONTH
Our Teaching Library selection of the month is Faith by Zen Master Bon Soeng.
SANGHA SUBMISSIONS
We encourage all our Sangha members to share Buddhism-related pieces of wisdom with us. If you have anything you’d like to share in our monthly newsletters, please contact us via our website or by simply replying to this email.
This month, Senior Dharma teacher Robert Lockridge shared an original poem with us:
A disingenuous and pretentious inquiry in iambic pentameter
(Except for the first two lines, which are free verse, with an odd rhyme scheme and an explosive disrupter before the final verse)
The last of the questions lying about,
Murky in shadow and bone:
Does I push me out
upon what appears,
Or let what appears
Come hence on its own?
There’s always this doubt:
Is out there in here?
Or is it out there?
Or simply unknown?
BUT!
When roast pork and kraut
For dinner appears
It mostly makes clear
That shadow and bone.
RL 03/26
SANGHA VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
We are always on the lookout for ways to give back to the community. If you know of any local group volunteer opportunities, please contact us via our website.
This month, members of our Sangha attended a cleanup volunteering opportunity at Lake Rowena with Keep Orlando Beautiful. Together we collected over three buckets of trash (and saved a dinosaur)!
(Left to right: Anamaria, Andrew, Robert, Claudia)
There is another cleanup opportunity on Saturday, May 16th, from 9:00am to 11:00am. If you are interested in joining the next cleanup, please click here to visit the opportunity details page, then click the green “Sign Up” button. When signing up, specify that you are with a group, and select Orlando Zen Center. We hope to see you there!
Next week is the final opportunity to bring school supplies for donation to Carver Middle School. he school is looking for the following items:
We plan to coordinate an in-person drop-off before the end of the school year. If you are interested in joining, please reach out to us, or speak with Sangha-member Susie after Sunday evening practice. We hope to make this a quarterly supply-drive, donating to an underfunded school in our area each quarter.
If you are interested in volunteering for certain jobs during in-person practice, please contact us as well. The jobs include opening the altar at the start of practice, performing the Evening Bell Chant, and signaling the start/end of meditation with the chugpi (wooden clapper).
DID YOU KNOW?
Orlando Zen Center is an affiliate of the Kwan Um School of Zen, an international organization of more than a hundred centers and groups.
MEMBERSHIP
By becoming a dues-paying member of Orlando Zen Center, you help support its ongoing practice and programs. You’ll also automatically become a member of the international Kwan Um School of Zen, and part of its effort to bring this teaching to new students and to other parts of the world. The practice is always free, but if you aren’t ready/able to become a dues-paying member, donations are always appreciated and help support our center.
IN CLOSING
Thank you again for signing up to receive this newsletter. We hope to grow it each month with more current opportunities to connect with our Orlando Sangha both in and outside of the Dharma room. We plan to send these newsletters out to subscribers every Monday of the week before Long Sit, so be on the lookout for our next edition on 5/11. If you would like to assist with creating the newsletter, please contact us via our website or by emailing us.