Here we are again the same – song with different verse.
Welcoming a new year is ceremonial. A ceremony implies a decision to celebrate at a certain time, often at the same place, by doing specific acts. It is a packaged deal. For example Susan and I follow a ceremony each midnight on New Year’s day. It is a simple sharing of two phrases offered by her family when they were together at the stroke of the appointed hour. I welcome this ceremony as a part of celebrating the new and unknown with someone I share with and care about. To welcome is to be open while hopeful.
For The Falmouth Soto Zen Sangha, it will be a year of transition wherein I step back from performing 2/3rds of the responsibility of the sangha to 1/3rd. All of which will be focused on teaching and counseling, in my role as priest and guiding teacher. This information about how this will happen is available at: Sangha Responsibilites
However the thoughts offered here are examples of the point I’d like to present next. “Well” is an interesting concept. It opens possibilities, can suggest completeness, or surprise, and is a placeholder for possibilities; and it can hold water. Here is a short story:
Well, come on in. I hope you are well and please know you are always welcomed here. Thank you for the welcome and I hope you too are well and that times unfolding will serve us all well in the year ahead. Well, funny you should express life this way. I too feel a relationship with others and even a responsibility or at least an opportunity to put forth an effort to help others well…
The short paragraph above is exploration in service to each unfolding moment whether of long past or short future, but mostly in the perspective of the unfolding now. When I was deep in my practice as a strategic planning consultant, there were two phrases that I would use often that fit my point in these thoughts. They were: Turning vision into reality, and how well can you do good.
The first phrase was exhausting action dependent upon one's willingness to consider the latter’s truthful realization. What you are doing is well and good but what does it mean? As you can see these are interrelated for others and are directed to enable them to become more– well. Emerson would ask people he had not seen in a while…”what have you learned since last we talked?”
How are we doing so far in this construct called 2-0-2-5? Well, we are into it and life is afoot.
In Zen practice through mindfulness, "welcome" represents accepting life’s unfolding, whether it brings joy or sorrow. Dogen’s teachings encourage us to welcome the impermanence and interconnectedness of all things, seeing each moment as sacred, embracing both the light and shadow aspects of existence without judgment.
So we welcome everyone to join us in 2-0-2-5 to follow the way… Unsui “cloud water”—one who moves from place to place as necessary without obstruction, without attachment, like a cloud; and one who fits into whatever situation arises without resistance, like water. https://www.lionsroar.com/living-a-life-of-vow/
As for we of The Falmouth Soto Zen Sangha in this our Fifteenth Anniversary Year:
We vow to be welcoming to newcomers and inquirers
We vow to consider all beings as our Sangha, as best we're able,
and to continually express the dharma through body, speech, and mind
We vow to welcome and include all who want to learn, practice, and live the dharma
We vow to take-up the way of listening deeply
We vow to live a life of self-learning
We vow to help others deepen our practice
We vow to make no distinction between ourselves and others
We vow to express compassion in our thought and action
We vow to support the Guiding Teacher and Practice Leader
We vow to pay respect and take refuge in the three treasures for ourselves and others
We vow to create a harmonious community by mindful and compassionate behavior
We vow to not waste this life.
Unshin Sangaku Dan Joslyn, sensei
Founder and Guiding Teacher
Falmouth Soto Zen Sangha
404-702-7646
Tuesday Night Service 7:00 at the First Congregational Church in Falmouth, MA
Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/7096899032?status=success#success password: FSZS
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