About Our Sangha: Re-Beginnings

After about two years of meeting at the Cherrydale Fire Hall, conditions and contingencies led Rev. Lissabet to move the local Tendai sangha to the Walden Room of the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Arlington.

This move was an auspicious one in many respects: for starters, many of our regular sangha members became involved on a walking-down-the-hall basis. Our association with the UUCA has been fruitful for us, and I hope mutually beneficial. We still meet at the UUCA, down the hall from the Walden Room.

I was asked to assume leadership of the Tendai sangha in Washington in the summer of 2010. Although I was not a regular attendee of sangha functions, I had maintained an affiliation with the group since its days in Cherrydale.

The rest of the beginning is here for you to see. Beginnings take time and energy. I invite you to join in an help us advance this story past the introduction.

Contemplation: The Regarder of the Cries of the World

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take this section of the Lotus Sutra as your object of contemplation:

If sentient beings are in great adversity,
And immeasurable pain afflicts them,
The wonderful power of the wisdom of the Cry Regarder
Can relieve the sufferings of the world.
Endowed with transcendent powers
And having fully mastered wisdom and skillful means,
In all the worlds in the ten directions,
There is no place where she will not manifest herself.

Lotus Sutra, Chapter 25, as recited at the Tendai Buddhist Institute

NOTE FOR STUDENTS: The Cry Regarder is a translation of a traditional Chinese interpretation of the name Avalokiteshvara. The Cry Regarder in the Lotus Sutra and Avalokiteshvara in the Heart Sutra are identical.

About Our Sangha: Beginnings

Great River Ekayana Sangha began as Washington Tendai Sangha, under the leadership of Chion Ernest Lissabet. Washington Tendai initially met at the Cherrydale Volunteer Fire Department hall in Arlington, Virginia. This is where the sangha was first consecrated by Monshin Paul Naamon of Tendai Buddhist Institute on December 8, 2006: Rohatsu or Bodhi Day.

In addition to regular meetings at the fire hall for services and meditation, the sangha convened for occasional conversations about Buddhism and Buddhist practice over breakfast at a nearby diner. This was an ambitious itinerary, especially for a small group in its infancy.

Event: Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship

Our sangha is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship. This is a space in which the overlap between Unitarian Universalism and Buddhism can be explored. Since many of our sangha members are UU members, and because we have long been meeting at a UU church, it seems right and appropriate that we should participate.

One such opportunity for participation is coming soon. Please read this message from Bob Ertman of the UUBF for more on this:

The UU Buddhist Fellowship will hold its fourth convocation April 8-10, 2011, at the Garrison Institute in Garrison, NY.

The Convocation theme will be "The Interdependent Web of Unitarian Universalism and Buddhism" and the teachers will be James Ford and David Rynick, Leaders of the Boundless Way Zen Community. They represent the first Zen community in North America to bring teachers of different Zen lineages together to create a distinctively Western and American vision of Zen. Boundless Way teachers have been influenced by their experiences as leaders and participants in Unitarian Universalism.

There will also be an Arts Practice Workshop on calligraphy with Mike Gold and a Prison Dharma Workshop with Rev. Patty Franz, Director of Prison Ministries, Church of the Larger Fellowship. And perhaps most valuable of all, opportunities to meet and talk to other UUs interested in Buddhism.

Take advantage of the early registration rate of $60, ending January 1. For the Convocation flyer & registration form, visit the UUBF home page (just Google uubf).

Gassho,
Bob Ertman, Editor, UU Sangha

May this Fellowship bring great benefit to all beings!

Contemplation: The Body of Truth

After considering the guidelines for practice, take this as your object of contemplation:

Subhuti, what do you think? May the Tathagata [the Buddha] be perceived by the thirty-two marks [of a great man]?

Subhuti answered: Yes, certainly the Tathagata may be perceived thereby.

Then the Buddha answered, Subhuti, if the Tathagata may be perceived by such marks, any great imperial ruler is the same as the Tathagata.

Subhuti then said to the Buddha: World-Honored One, as I understand the meaning of the Buddha's words the Tathagata may not be perceived by the thirty-two marks.

Whereupon the World-Honored One uttered this verse:

Who sees me by form,
Who seeks me in sound,
Perverted are his footsteps upon the way;
For he cannot perceive the Tathagata.

Diamond Sutra, chap. 26

Contemplation: To be Rid of Bewilderment

After considering the guidelines for practice, take this as your object of contemplation:

This great assembly should now rid itself of bewilderment.
Of those hearing this Dharma
There will be no one
Who will not become a Buddha.

(that means you)

From the Lotus Sutra, chapter 2, as recited at the Tendai Buddhist Institute

Contemplation: Like Dust, Like a Visitor

After considering the guidelines for practice, take this as your object of contemplation:

the Thus-Come-One [the Buddha] told everyone in the assembly, 'All beings need to understand that whatever moves is like dust and, like a visitor, does not remain'.

Surangama Sutra, p. 45