(Follow this link to see the February 2024 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.) Anna Ayse Atika, OBC — The Netherlands — This article first appeared as a posting on the blog Jade Mountains Buddha Hall in autumn of 2009. The article also appears in the winter 2009 edition of the Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. It appears here with permission of the author. Ayse is a lay minister of the OBC living in the Netherlands. She contributes, with other lay ministers of the Order, to the blog Dew on the Grass. Rev. Leon’s Personal Altar Due to orthopaedic surgeries and ..read more

(Follow this link to see the January 2024 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.) – Rev. Master Berwyn Watson, Abbot of Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, Northumberland, UK. (This article originally appeared in the Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplative and can be viewed here. It appears in this newsletter by kind permission of the Journal and the author.) Enlightenment Day 2023 The brief answer is: it depends on what you mean by ‘religious’. If we see ‘being religious’ as believing in a set of religious doctrines that define belonging to a particular religion, then I would ..read more

(Follow this link to see the December 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.) Kanzeon Sits Quietly In Impermanence There is a traditional teaching in Buddhism about what are called the “Eight Worldly Conditions.” These conditions are gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame and pleasure and pain. (These conditions are mentioned in the Dutiyalokadhammasutta one of the sections from a collection of Buddhist sutras called the Aṅguttara Nikāya.) The sutra opens with the Buddha saying “Bhikkhus, these eight worldly conditions revolve around the world, and the world r ..read more

(Follow these links to see the September 2023 Priory Newsletter, the October 2023 Priory Newsletter or the November 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was published in three parts.) – Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett The following is a transcription of a lecture given by Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett to all monks and lay trainees during the Segaki sesshin held in the fall of 1980; the lecture was given on October 29 of that year. In this Dharma talk, Rev. Master Jiyu has used paraphrased quotes from Volume I of Dogen Zenji’s Shobogenzo. (Shobogenzo, Volume I, trans. Kosen Nishiyama and John Stevens, Tokyo ..read more

(Follow this link to see the August 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.) Rev. Master Meiten McGuire – Victoria, B.C. Canada – From Reflections on the Path: Zen Training in Everyday Life, the first book of Rev. Master Meiten’s teachings. It was published by the Vancouver Island Zen Sangha. Rev. Master Meiten died in January 2018 in Victoria, British Columbia. She was 92 years of age. Rev. Master Meiten’s writings have been compiled in a new volume entitled Coming Home: Taking Refuge Within which is now available on Amazon. The chapter “Being Comfortable” was published in t ..read more

(Follow this link to see the July 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.) Kanzeon In Our Library The altar pictured in the first image of this newsletter sits in our library upstairs where we hold our classes and broadcast our Zoom meetings. It is not usually in the Zoom picture since the camera for broadcasting and the screen for viewing the Zoom meeting sits on a shelf below this altar. This statue will occasionally come to mind while we talk and, since we have been thinking and talking a fair bit about Kanzeon (Japanese; Guanyin, Chinese; Avalokiteshwara, Sanskrit; Chen ..read more

(Follow this link to see the October 2022 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.) (Our full “Building A Meditation Hall” page can be viewed Here.) Rhone St. view of the proposed addition. We have been working steadily on moving our building project forward and I thought I would take a minute to bring you up to date on our progress. Last fall we began looking for an architect or designer that could help us with our project and we found the architecture firm Woodblock Architecture here in Portland. One of the principle architects at this firm is Jonathan Dunn who very kindly dona ..read more

(Follow this link to see the June 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.) – Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett (This article was originally given as a lecture on April 5, 1982; it appeared in written form in The Journal of Shasta Abbey in the November-December, 1982 issue. It is reprinted here with permission from the OBC Journal and Shasta Abbey Press.) Kanzeon With Rhododendrons I received a letter from one of our lay members of the Sangha recently which I felt was of such great importance that I wished to share a portion of it with you and make it the starting point of this Jūkai ..read more

(Follow this link to see the May 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.) Our Broken Tree Some of you may have already heard that on Thursday, April 27th, a tractor trailer truck tried to make the turn from the northbound lane of Milwaukie Ave. onto Rhone street and snagged enough of one of our venerable horse chestnut trees with the top of his trailer that he tore off a big section of the tree. The tree fell toward the house and took down the power line supplying the house and our internet line. Happily no one was injured, although the accident managed to make a fair bit o ..read more

(Follow this link to see the April 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.) Fixing and air leak at a recent work day. There is a story I heard once about how the Buddha, hearing reports that a local king was preparing to go to war with a neighboring kingdom, wanted to do something to help. Because he had known the father of this local king, the Buddha went to talk with him to see if he could persuade him to leave off his intention toward war. Even after trying a few times, the Buddha was not able to convince the king and the war proceeded, creating much destruction and deat ..read more