Upcoming Dates to Note:

• Visit by members of St Peter’s Church this Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
• Vesak Sunday 10 June at 10:30 a.m.
• Matariki Jukai Saturday 16 June at 5:30 p.m.
• Sesshin Planning Meeting after sitting, Sunday 17 June
• Winter Sesshin 22-29 June (deadline for applications 8 June) – sittings resume at Pah Road on 3 July (with Term Intensive Opening Ceremony)
• Term Intensive 3 July to 7 August

Visit from St Peters

Members of St Peters Anglican Church in Onehunga will be visiting the Centre this Thursday evening. Sensei will give them a tour of the Centre, explaining some Zen iconography and ritual, and then we’ll have tea and dessert. Anyone who’d like to join in hosting the visit is welcome to attend. Email aucklandzen@yahoo.com.au if you plan to come, and please bring a plate. Last year a small group of us were invited to St Peters and made a warm connection there.

Vesak

This Sunday at 10:30 (after sitting and teisho) we’ll celebrate the Buddha’s Birthday with a story, a short ceremony (bathing the baby Buddha) and birthday cake. Children and spouses welcome.

Matariki Jukai and Rakusu Ceremony

Jukai, the Mahayana Taking-the-Precepts ceremony, will be offered on Saturday 16 June at 5:30 p.m. The zendo will be open for an hour beforehand for informal zazen.

The precepts are available to read on the AZC website, and Sensei has given a series of teishos on them, so if you want to learn more, borrow any of the recordings that are available at the zendo. (A reminder that if you are not a member a donation is appreciated when you borrow recorded talks, to help cover the costs of producing them.)

The Ceremony is again being held in conjunction with Matariki, the Maori New Year. Matariki is the name for the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, star cluster. The exact time when the New Year is celebrated differs from tribe to tribe, but in all it is related to the first pre-dawn appearance of Matariki in the eastern sky. Some tribes celebrate at this time, others at the next full moon, others at the next new moon. This year the Matariki new moon appears on 15 June. For all New Zealanders, Maori or Pakeha, the time around the winter solstice (the shortest day) is our natural New Year – the moment when our part of the globe starts to spend more and more of its daily cycle in the light, and less and less in the dark. Everywhere in the world, back when people paid more attention to such things, this turning-point was intuitively felt to be the moment when the year was reborn. In traditional Maori societies it was a time for coming together to feast and rejoice, and also a time of seed planting. Taking Jukai is very much about planting positive karmic seeds; about establishing or renewing in our hearts an orientation towards awakening.

There is an opportunity to offer dana to Sensei at the beginning of the Jukai ceremony. Unlike the usual dana given at a sitting, which goes to administration of the AZC, this offering is to Sensei personally, a token of gratitude for receiving teachings. Envelopes will be available outside the zendo; put your (anonymous) donation in one and keep it with you.

Sunday Sitting and Sesshin Planning Meeting

On Sunday 17 June there’ll be a meeting after the sitting (about 10:45) to plan sesshin setup for the following Friday. On that same Sunday, instead of teisho Sensei will give a short informal talk/Q&A and offer dokusan for people who have trouble making it during the week (usually this is done the last Sunday of the month but it didn’t happen in May and won’t at the end of June either).

No Sittings at Pah Road During Sesshin

The Winter 7-day sesshin will be held at the Aio Wira Retreat Centre in Swanson from 22 to 29 June. The last sitting at Pah Road before the sesshin will be on Thursday 21 June, and formal sittings will resume on Sunday 1 July. As usual, people not in sesshin may join the sesshin for the teisho block at 9:30 a.m. Go to www.aiowira.org for directions.

Term Intensive

A Term Intensive is a practice period designed especially for people living busy lives. We had our first TI last winter and many people found it extremely helpful. Our second TI runs from 3 July to 7 August, followed soon after by the August 4-day sesshin. There will be extra opportunities to sit formally at the zendo as well as regular group discussions of practice issues.

Essentially, participation in a TI involves making a pledge to intensify one’s practice for a limited period in specific ways – it could be a commitment to sit or chant a certain amount each day, work on a particular unskilful habit, cut something out, or do some Sutra study – or some combination of these. Because it is undertaken for a limited period, and with the support of others, it is a chance to stretch in ways that we might not otherwise dare to attempt, and an opportunity to discover what we are really capable of. Details of how it works, plus a pledge form, will be sent separately next week.

Extra sittings offered during the TI will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings 6-7:15 a.m., plus Saturday afternoon yoga, if there are enough takers.