Treeleaf Coffee House - Updates and Secretary Notes

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

With the recent change / no-change from the Treeleaf Tea Party to the Treeleaf Coffee House, Jundo suggested we start a new thread to post the secretary notes in. Whomever acts as secretary to a Coffee House meeting, please post a simple "20,000 foot view" of what was discussed (e.g. specifics are not necessary). Additionally, if anyone has further details, links, etc. to share about a meeting, please post them here as well.

Anyone looking for notes from the Tea Party from 2010 through 2015, please see the old secretary notes thread:
http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?7339-Sharing-Helpful-and-Insightful-Tips-(was-The-Tea-Party)

Thank you all for sharing your time and practice together.

Gassho,
Sekishi
#SatToday

[Sekishi]

Hi everyone,

I am reposting the secretary report for 01/17/2016 to get us started here:

- Jukai and a melding of groups
- Old fashioned hot chocolate
- Netflix Tea Documentary: http://www.allinthistea.com/ (maybe?)
- NHK World (channel and app): http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/
- Where is the path?
- The black belt frays and becomes white again
- Alien in a Can
- Seeing Psycho for the first time again
- Turkish / Greek Coffee
- How to serve hairy food (hint: scrape the hair off)
- Google, how DOES it work?
- Insight Timer
- Star Wars Land
- Playing a piano, listening to silence
- Connecting sitting groups
- Now that is a little Theremin: https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ed82/
- PUNny!
- Hotai and Santa
- Hidden Buddha, Crouching Psychiatrist
- Church of the Later Day Dude
- Where am I, and where did this ink come from?
- 12 steps and Buddha

Thank you all for coming together and sharing today. It was lovely to see you all.

Gassho,
Sekishi
#SatToday

P.S. Rodney / Banto let me know that the video we discussed is called "Cultural Trilogy - Beauty in a Cup of Tea" and is on Amazon Prime video (not Netflix).

[Mp]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse Chatter Report for Jan 24th, 2016

- Snow and sunny weather
- The old days
- Extreme sports and crazy moments when we were young
- Squeaky zazen, actually, squeaky chairs
- Our busy lives and getting to forum threads
- Finding balance in practice
- A Star Trek marathon to take a break from busy life
- What shows to watch and not watch
- Playing with computers and technology
- Practice is both on and off the cushion; being present in both
- The value of friends and family
- Finding balance with and within the Precepts
- Meeting and supporting veterans
- Our we really secure online; is private information vulnerable
- May the Force be with you
- Lay and Ordained ... being of service to the community
- How the gift of giving comes back around
- School experiences

There you have it ... was a great chat today folks, thank you! =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

7379

[Mp]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse Chatter Report for Jan 31st, 2016

- Memorizing chants
- Multi-cultural Sangha
- Dharma translation variations
- Sewing
- Dharma books
- Finding balance when shopping and not buying what we don't need
- Foods that are good for you
- Factoids
- Taking care of our physical self
- Funny moments after surgery
- The value of giving compliments over complaining
- The openness of the Unitarian Church
- #all lives matter
- Dealing with police and one's upbringing
- Making non-bias decisions
- Beans beans the magical fruit ... the more you eat, the more you ... =)
- Different kinds of foods
- Maturity or lack there-of and practice
- Dealing and managing our biases
- The value of difficult experiences and encounters
- The evolution and/or the innovation of the Dharma
- The history of the Buddha
- Posters and advertisements

Thanks for another great chat folks. =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

I forgot to post the secretary report for 02/14/2016, so here it is:

- Sitting with the silence of Super Bowl Sunday
- Sitting as parents, sitting with children
- Medical practice, Dharma practice
- Morning sits vs. evening sits
- Ingress RES Virginia / Ingress ENL Georgia
- Push the button for dopamine and serotonin
- Snowbirds
- Sacred lands
- Sitting with pain
- Ango
- Letting go, even of practice

Gassho,
Sekishi

#SatToday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for February 14th, 2016

- "Pump Up the Volume"
- The Googles says, "Oh snap."
- Folding the rakusu. Link: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14157-The-Rakusu-How-to-s
- It is cold here. Is it cold there?
- Boom and bust
- Do non-sentient beings have Buddha-nature?
- Who realizes Buddha-nature?
- The Six Realms
- The not-quite rakusu: a hangesa (what I believe we looked at) OR a wagesa
- Cloth colors and traditions
- The International Bacon Incident
- Non-denominational support
- Non-Idolotry
- Cameras: new, old, really old, and really really old.
- Dharma names

Thank you all for coming together to manifest Sangha.

Gassho,
Sekishi
#SatToday

[Myogan]

Gassho to all

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for February 14th, 2016

- Health
- Dhamma Brothers (http://www.dhammabrothers.com)
- Upaya Zen chaplaincy (https://www.upaya.org/social-action/chaplaincy/)
- Spam, podcasts and mailing lists
- Buddhism on the internet
- More work for Sekishi
? Quarterly report
- Finding Treeleaf
- Congrats to Fugen
- May the Force be with you ��"the universe is not two"
- Wagesa
- Family and Treeleaf
- Zazenki online vs. Brick and Mortar
- Sitting options
- Sri Lankan experience
- Therevadan precepts, practices, ordination, nuns
- Buddhist women
- The Hidden Lamp (http://www.tricycle.com/feature/hidden-lamp)
- Sekishi's Kesa
- Using the Rakusu in a different group
- Origins of the Rakusu and Kesa
- Silent Calvin Cooledge

As always a pleasure

Gassho,
Marc
Sat

[Joko]

3363

Forgive me if I have uploaded a file in a place it should not go but someone asked me at the coffee discussion today to post a picture of my students in Sri Lanka. Here is a group of them with me visiting the most sacred Buddhist temple in the country, the Temple of the Tooth. There is also, behind his former royal palace now temple, an amazing Museum of International Buddhism. I am often asked if the colors of the robes have any significance and the answer is no. Some countries tend to have one color or another but there is no way to tell any sort of ranking or group from the robe color. These students are, by the way, all from Myanmar, studying in Buddhist universities in Sri Lanka in Kandy or Colombo and they all enrolled in this intensive language course during their winter break. Amazing students and an experience I will cherish all my life.

Sattoday

Joko

[Mp]

That's wonderful Joko, thank you for sharing. =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday


Sent from my mobile, cause I am out & about! =)

[Jakuden]

Cool pic!

Congrats to Fugen,, does that mean what I think? :encouragement:

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday

[Tb]

Cool pic!

Congrats to Fugen,, does that mean what I think? :encouragement:

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday

Hi.

That depends on what you think. ;)
But yes, a mini-Fugen is due next week or so.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[Jundo]

Hi.

That depends on what you think. ;)
But yes, a mini-Fugen is due next week or so.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

Fugen was kind enough to share this invitro photo with me ...

http://st2.depositphotos.com/3674941/7057/v/170/depositphotos_70572823-Baby-Buddha-in-Womb.jpg

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Jika]

:)

[Jakuden]

Haha cute pic... i thought maybe s/he had made her grand entrance, it seemed like it should be getting close now! I'm sure she will be born with lightsaber in hand, ready to take on the dark side.[jedi]

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday

[Mp]

Hi.

That depends on what you think. ;)
But yes, a mini-Fugen is due next week or so.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[claps]

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Myosha]

Fugen was kind enough to share this invitro photo with me ...

http://st2.depositphotos.com/3674941/7057/v/170/depositphotos_70572823-Baby-Buddha-in-Womb.jpg

Gassho, J

SatToday

Hello,

Outstanding. All the best, mate!

So . . . the birth on Hangout?

Just sayin' . . .^^


Gassho
Myosha sat today

[Tb]

Hello,

Outstanding. All the best, mate!

So . . . the birth on Hangout?

Just sayin' . . .^^


Gassho
Myosha sat today

Hi.

Thank you, we thought more in lines of periscope, to compensate for the timezones... ;)

But seriously, we'll keep you posted on the events.
Right now, everybody's just tired, she don't sleep which means i don't and she can't do much home but rest which means i work 2 Jobs and take care of mostly everything at home, so...
Yeah, it is all good practice.

Thank you again My friends.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

#Sat2day

[Yugen]

Fugen,

Deep bows my Brother
Yugen


sat2day

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for February 29th, 2016

- Chair Yoga
- Sitting groups
- Sitting in the morning, sitting in the evening
- Buddhist fora
- Trek, Battlestar and Ron Moore's evolution
- Taishi's book
- Presenting: A Prison Escape
- The Okesa
- Compassion and tornadoes up the road
- Yokoji Temple in CA
- Chesapeake Bay
- Group and core group
- The Truth of Writing
- Caretakers
- Being the Professor
- Fugen and Jannica - MTFBWY!

Thank you all for manifesting Sangha.

Gassho,
Sekishi
#SatToday

[Mp]

Hey folks,

Here is the breakdown for todays Coffeehouse chatter ...

- Star Trek (both original and next generation)
- Sending our ashes to space
- I am Spock; I am not Spock
- Fugen dropped by with Momma and baby Noah [claps]
- Where we all live
- Family & kids going to college; what they study
- Cut backs in our school systems
- Our pets
- Horses coming as Coffeehouse guests
- Rakusu: how one gets one and the value/teaching of sewing one
- Meanings behind our Dharma names
- Life gets in the way
- Babylon 5 & Battlestar Galactica
- Windows 10 security
- Lotus Sutra
- Kids using drugs & alcohol
- AA & NA having an open approach to different religions and/or faiths
- What it is to be a priest

Thank you all for a great sit down and chit chat ... always good to get to know you all better. =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Mp]

Hello Leafers,

here is this weeks Coffeehouse ramblings. =)

- Finding balance in life and the Dharma
- Technology and its challenges
- Wacky weather
- Funny work stories
- Here comes Spring .... and taxes!
- What? Unethical and egotistical CEOs? No! *LOL*
- Learning Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement)
- Tea ceremony and making a good cup of tea
- Sewing the rakusu
- Being a vegetarian or meat eater and the precepts
- Google+ and its goofiness
- Ham Radio
- Taking care of your health (make sure you get your check-ups folks) =)
- Technology, emulation, and Turing Completeness
- Old Zenith TV ... is it a TV controller or an Intergalactic Transport Device?

3410

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Mp]

Hello folks,

Was a short Coffeehouse today, but we had a nice surprise with a visit from Fugen and baby Noah, so that was very nice. =) Also we sat together in celebration for Treeleaf's 10th year ... here is some of what we talked about.

- Shape shifting
- Star Wars (the new one specifically)
- Holding babies
- The smell of new babies
- Making bread

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

While I was away I did not post secretary reports. So here are a few weeks worth. gassho1


Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 10th, 2016

- Old friends. New friends.
- Snow!
- Circadian rhythm - it is DARK out there
- Mammalian memory - babies, faces, and smells
- Name your price - good or bad (and the "maybe so" tale)
- I [heart] NY
- 20M people
- 10 days for 10 years
- "The Winter That Never Ended"
- "Opening up time" - chop wood, carry water, do the dishes
- Lawrence Welk
- Canada (and the Film Board(s) of Canada)
- Danger Pay
- Beach Combers
- __Trouble with Traci__
- The nature of things
- "Going Down the Road" by Dan Shabib
- Politics and borders
- President = Prime Minister + King/Queen?
- Benedict Arnold - the hero across the lake
- The same but different
- "Slavery" vs. slavery
- RZC and Xerox
- The health and viability of PBS
- Anglophone - Francophone
- Symbols disconnected from source materials
- "Too much skin, not enough bees."


Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 24th, 2016

- Will in England
- Spouses in practice - timing
- Audience at Sarnia
- Photos and stories from ordination
- Body practice
- And now, dirty laundry...
- Well that panel is backwards...
- Dog hair and retreats
- Sesshin silence, radio silence
- The young man's dungeon
- "You and misery until you fade and misery becomes universal suchness"
- Theravada and nine day retreats
- The heavenly realm of stretching the legs
- Mindful movements and the awareness speed limit
- Wishing for an experience while on retreat
- Quadracopter lotus
- "What does it feel like to want to have an experience?"
- Goal?: uproot defilements and no longer be reborn into this world
- Goal?: raise funds to build something
- Buddhist fora
- Sangha that uses a forum vs being a forum
- Virtual vs "virtual"...
- "Hollow mountain Zendo" in Minecraft...
- Treeleaf 3.0
- Noah, Jannica, Fugen, and Brian Karrig (sp?) at the Jazz festival
- Injections, pain medications, being immobile
- Pain groups
- Self sabotage and politics
- Sitting in chairs


Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for May 1st, 2016

- Google plus responsibilities (fukudenkai)
- Google events changing again?
- It's not safe to hope for the best (without preparing for the worst)
- Google video
- Hosting providers
- Building a coffin...
- Kylo Ren and Vader (and Bill Watterson)
- Wookie the Chew
- Yoda statues!
- Buddha in Minecraft
- Maroon and black...
- Right speech
- Letting go, but it still stings...
- Priests and spouses
- Europe, Dogen Sangha, and Treeleaf
- Membership and numbers
- Just sitting vs. "just sitting"
- Sangha getting us to the cushion
- Buddhist practice and marketing
- Why priests? YOU do the work!
- Substandard Internet
- Genealogy
- "Yankee"
- The two party system
- The electoral college
- Abolitionists and methods
- "Someone is wrong on the Internet!"
- The US is NOT a post-racial society
- Jerrymandering

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Here is the Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for May 8th, 2016

- Juzu beads
- Don't (sun)burn the baby
- Forest fires in spring
- Moving to a cabin (without kids)
- Siding and houses
- Babies and sleeping
- "Today is the first day of the rest of my life"
- Joko Beck
- 140 characters of self aggrandizement and offensiveness
- The Donald and the future of the Unitary Executive
- Who will be the First Lady to HRC?
- Hanging photography
- WiiU and PS4
- Walking the neighborhood
- Virtualization and The Cloud
- White beard vs. grey beard
- AA
- The serenity prayer
- The earth in 300 years...
- Sociology of death
- Where the ashes go
- Facebook vacations
- Cameras, prime lenses, rectilinear lenses and other photo nerdia

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Here is the Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for May 15th, 2016

- What's in your cup?
- The view from your window
- Hawaii
- Spam sandwiches
- Vacations with kids
- Kids making the world new again
- Grey hairs
- Weaponizing Murphy's law
- The social cost of hyper-miling
- Keep your hands on the wheel
- Dawgs and dogs
- The U.S. elections
- Healthcare and pre-existing conditions
- College
- Squirrels
- Oahu
- Monastery in New Zealand
- A Treeleafer in Rohan
- Electric fences
- Wearing the Kesa

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Here is the Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for May 29th, 2016

- From Indiana..
- Hawaii slideshow
- Feral chickens
- Scouts Canada
- Kittens
- 0c to 30c in one week
- The gift of air conditioning
- High fructose corn syrup
- Fermentation in its many forms
- "Sushi and Beyond"
- Japanese cuisine in Hawaii
- Debt and Daruma
- Motion sickness
- Cord cutting
- "The Last of Sheila"
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_Sheila
- Quadrupeds finding home

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Meian]

Wild temperature and weather changes, check! Fibromyalgia and weather changes don't get along. I am interested to know about the "debt and daruma" topic: is that a Buddhist form of debt management? :)

Gassho
Kim
Sat today

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Here is the Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for June 19th, 2016

- "Oh bluetooth"
- Fathers
- Cow-nose rays
- The cloud...
- Pain
- Heat
- Sewing
- Hiragana & katakana
- Tsunami stories
- $$$
- Medicine
- The Marx Brothers
- "Lydia the Tattooed Lady"
- Dabbling in music
- The Treeleaf Band ^_^
- Gandalf the Grey (Cat)
- NOMs the Dog
- The domestication of dogs (and cats)
- The Donner Party

Here is Lydia's song:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4zRe_wvJw8


Gassho,
Sekishi
#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Here is the Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for June 26th, 2016

- Kesa practice
- Facilitating chants
- Being greeted by name
- Sitting in a room
- The four horses
- Hard lessons go deep
- The temperaments of sentient beings
- Narcissistic disorder?
- Stepping outside ourselves
- Gary Snider
- Physical limits
- Birth, sickness, old age, death
- "The Sun, My Heart"
- The definition of poetry
- Tranquility that "I" feel
- The sense of "me" = dukkha

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Here is the Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for June 26th, 2016

- Kesa practice
- Facilitating chants
- Being greeted by name
- Sitting in a room
- The four horses
- Hard lessons go deep
- The temperaments of sentient beings
- Narcissistic disorder?
- Stepping outside ourselves
- Gary Snider
- Physical limits
- Birth, sickness, old age, death
- "The Sun, My Heart"
- The definition of poetry
- Tranquility that "I" feel
- The sense of "me" = dukkha

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Here is the Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for July 3rd, 2016

- Cancer and heredity
- Internet and Thunderstorms
- The birth of Spock
- The Wrath of Khan
- Inauspicious beginnings
- Kosho Uchiyama Roshi
- Sitting in a chair
- Pain killers
- Health insurance
- Mothers and fathers
- Soto Zen in Japan
- UU Buddhism Study Group
- Bipolar disorder
- The Harvard Brain Bank
- Direct Interment
- Sobriety Day by Day
- "I'm OK"
- St. John of the Cross
- "Living Buddha, Living Christ"
- The Purple Pen

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Just as a reminder, if you ever wish to join the Coffeehouse, but did not receive an invitation for some reason (there is no accounting for the vagaries of Google Plus), I always post direct links to the Hangout in this thread:

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sattoday

[RichardH]

Hi. Here is the Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for July 17th, 2016


- Pain
- Infant health
- medicine
- Fraying fabric
- Air conditioning during sesshin
- Conifers displacing birch
- Twisters
- people chasing twisters
- Swedish farmland
- European Union
- A cat meowed
- Migration
- Work without citizenship
- Multiculturalism
- A Chinese government sanctioned Dalai Lama
- The Chicago Bulls and mindfulness
- Short and long sittings
- Half lotus vs. Burmese
- Getting into the full lotus and remaining stuck like a pretzel
- Poultry
- Raising Kids
- A new Star Trek TV show with a large budget
- Jean-Luc Picard was the best captain
- Babylon 5
- Space Engine


Gassho
Daizan

sat today

[Jika]

Jean-Luc Picard was the best captain
Yes!!!! :)

Thank you all for keeping the coffee or tea house open.
I'd like to join, but (yawn)

Gassho
Jika
#satto-yawn-day

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Was going through my notebook, and found notes from an old Coffeehouse...

Here is the Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 17th, 2016

- Hospitals and surgeries
- Jukai and ceremonies
- Blessings of clothing
- Nursing is a calling
- Clergy
- "I'm hopeful" and "Be hopey" (Ajahn Brahm)
- "Enterprise"
- Becoming human
- Houses
- Care callers and volunteers
- Crypto-currency
- We do not get to choose...
- Bowie
- New Model Army - "I love the world!"
- Benny Hill and "Yakkity Sax" (makes everything better!)
- Charleston Heston and One Hundred Thousand Frogs Per Mile
- "Oh poop, I'm going to die"
- Nausicaa
- Daizan and The Titans of Brah
- Techo lenses for smartphones
- Opiates
- Bubbles!

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Got a few weeks worth of notes to check in with here...

---

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for July 10th, 2016

- "Fun" with Google Hangouts
- Greed (look out -- it comes in many forms!)
- Buddha in the sock drawer
- Live in the now (where else can you live?)
- Wifi is also "fun"
- "New person"
- We may not meant to walk on the sides of our feet...
- What's in Marc's lunch?
- That is a big blackberry!
- How do we all access the forum?
- Opening the Hand of Thought
- Molecular Gastronomy
- Dissecting a Hoho
- Who toasts a poptart?
- Prime day!
- The harmonica
- Thrift store finds
- Paranoia
- Up the creek...
- Arthur Murry Hollywood Review
- "The Beef of a Thousand Cows"
- Pigeonholes that put food on the table
- Oppositional Defiance Disorder ^_^

---

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for July 24th, 2016

- Poor hot dogs
- Knee replacement
- All the computers
- Synthesis
- Pokemon Go
- Dharma names
- Right speech and teh Facebooks
- Practice in not putting up a wall...
- Parable: "The Three Questions" **
- The Tenzo
- Sociology and Organizations
- Kids
- Sitting and spouses
- Please, lets all be verbs!

The parable discussed was "The Three Questions" by Tolstoy:
- What is the right time to begin anything?
- Who are the right people to listen to?
- What is the most important thing to do?

You can read the parable here:
http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2736/

But (spoiler alert) here are the answers:
- NOW
- The person you are with
- Do good to the person you are with

---

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for July 31th, 2016

- Facebook
- Almost Ango time!
- Enku's 120,000 Buddhas
- How would YOU carve a Buddha?
- Fugen and Kesa fabric
- "KFC"
- Views
- Fugen's wedding!
- "Do or do not, there is no try."
- Starbucks
- Tesla and charging stations
- Green building codes
- Ingress
- Utopia
- Protein folding
- The Sheldonest Person
- Sewing and Jukai
- Google Plus retiring
- Events on the forum
- Meeting
- On being first tenor
- Paraguayian harperists
- 29 Years Sober
- Uchiyama
- More Ingress..

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Jika]

As always in the long tradition, the notes sound mouth-watering!

Gassho
Jika
#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Checking in with notes from the August Coffeehouse meetings.

---

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for August 7th, 2016

- Google+ struggles
- "Companion on the Way"
- Upholding promises
- Transmission
- Sewing
- A trip to Europe?
- Yugen training in Okinawa
- Married life
- Facebook - the Ego Manifestation Chamber
- SPAM
- Prayer without an answer
- Metta "Victems"
- Thank you. I am sorry. Making people smile.
- Humor as a gift
- Treeleaf as self-selecting "goodies"
- Kesa parts, Rakusu parts
- The Coffeehouse and Ango?
- Flattening groups and relationships
- "Official Sittings" and "Community Sittings"
- Podcast episodes

---

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for August 14th, 2016

- Ango partners
- Meditation cushions for chairs
- Facebook "Friends"
- To be a "good Buddhist"
- Try on my Karma, I'll try on yours.
- Online churches
- Being Christian, Practicing Buddhism
- TRUMP!
- Expecting something
- Lawn maintenance and the Verse of Atonement
- Sobriety
- The Heart Sutra
- Photography
- Knee replacement
- Good bricks, bad bricks
- Narcotics
- Jesus the man
- "Starstuff"
- Leonard Cohen
- Lincoln
- Library fines
- Average teachers, normal humans
- A trip to Amsterdam
- Never a latecomer, just get started!

---

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for August 21th, 2016

- Qualia
- Factory farming
- Petroleum based farming
- Indian Agricultural Program
- Progressive taxation
- The training program
- Kittens and Feline Allergies
- Wildfires
- Totoro
- Rail travel
- Washington DC and the cherry blossoms
- Fireworks
- Cats and spray "cheese"
- Soda / pop / Coke / Pepsi
- Dam Duck Race
- Sewing
- Baseball
- College loans
- Vertical markets
- Swiss Crackers

No really, there is a "Dam Duck Race": http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hobart/th-annual-dam-duck-race-set-for-sunday/article_80a1959c-c027-516a-b77d-e90001d44ccc.html

---

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for August 28th, 2016

- Ango commitments
- Bacon!
- Mindful eating and MFP
- Thich Nhat Hanh Book: "Savor"
- Kwan Um traditions
- When is a gong not a gong (hint: when it is something else, like a bowl, or a pan)
- Small schools
- TNH
- Ango / Jukai
- "Uncommitted Agnostic"
- Ancient Dragon Zen
- The difficulty finding a live chicken ... for Jukai?!
- "Coming out" as Buddhist
- Movie: "Dharma Brothers"
- Metta chant
- Come to the Dharma -- we have tea and cookies (and walls to stare at)
- Dana collection for rent
- The 108 prostration workout!
- Train meditation
- "The Five Minute Buddhist" and Harold Ramis
- http://tricycle.org/trikedaily/five-minute-buddhist/
- Daytrips and vacations
- "You cannot step in the same stream twice."


Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Here is the Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for September 4th, 2016:

- Google Plus
- Facebook
- Servers
- Clinton Emails
- The City of Treeleaf
- How to *properly* take someone's temperature
- "I like having a clear mind, so I try to get enough sleep."
- The enteric nervous system
- Bariatric surgery and mental formations
- Dharma names
- Dokusan
- Two teachers
- Timezones
- Insight Timer ("I don't have to show you any stinking badges"...)
- Tricycle - "When Would Buddha Eat"
- http://tricycle.org/trikedaily/when-would-buddha-eat/
- "Term Intensive" and online retreats
- Cutting away worldly attachments
- Friendly cities
- Enlightenment: It is NOT chasing your friends with a Roman candle...
- Enlightenment: Is it like burning trash in a hurricane?
- The art museum as a sacred space
- Digital art, and the politics of software
- Supporting each other in Sangha
- Like attracts like...

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Meian]

I just bust out laughing at a few of these, and my family asked why ...... so I just said "Buddhist jokes" and they looked at me like I had three heads. :) I wish I could have been there, but I would have been laughing too hard :)

Gassho
Kim
Sat today

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[Ongen]

[emoji16]

Gassho Ongen

[Sekishi]

...... so I just said "Buddhist jokes" and they looked at me like I had three heads. :)

I found an old picture of you back when you had ELEVEN heads... [happy]

3654

That is Avalokiteshvara with 11 heads and many arms (sometimes a thousand of them)! All the better to hear the cries of the world and to offer help (I think each of the heads / faces also sometimes corresponds with an aspect of compassion):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalokite%C5%9Bvara

May we all listen and offer compassionate help when we can.

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Here is the Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for September 4th, 2016:

- Painting and art with a deadline
- Ango partners
- Keep it simple (in the whispering cedars)
- Relationships and significant others
- Life creates obstacles
- Seeking to attain
- Mind theater, mouth theater
- "The World is Made of Stories" (David Loy)
-- http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/world-made-stories
- Lisa Simpson narrates my life...
- Boogers on a shoe!?
- Tinnitus and resonant heads
- Hearing everything, hearing nothing
- Slow connections, fast connections
- Board certification and fellows
- Psychiatry and feeling too much
- Traits vs. disease vs. disorder
- Diagnosis of certifiable politicians
- Getting started with Ango
- The life expectancy of married men and married women
- Nitrates in European wine
- Matchmaker matchmaker make me a match!
- "Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?" (Ajahn Brahm)
-- http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/who-ordered-truckload-dung
- "The Four Noble Truths" (Ajahn Semado)
-- Ebook version: http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/4nobltru.pdf
- The Buddha Basics - fundamental water in which the ancients swam
- Putting your (Zen) pants on one leg at a time
- Willy Wonka on the big screen
- Gene Wilder (x4)

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Ongen]

Sorry I missed it... next week!

GAssho

Ongen
Sat today

[Myogan]

Some difficulty starting up but pain shared is half the pain and laughter shared is doubled.

Switching Sanga to YouTube?
Sekishi Lives!
Medication onset
Grieving animal and human
Pain
Being the Mama Grizzly
Chest surgery
Film accidents
Tv tropes (http://tvtropes.org)
Beards
Laughter relief of pain/ Alan Funt
Alan Funt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGb_jzaUWOg)
Gabapentin
Internet connection
Ring tone
Max headroom
Max Headroom (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzxHDqUz8Sk)
Horrors of life
Animal shelter stories
Evolution of dogs
Vacuuming dead skin cells
Kusala Bhikshu and zen cats
3776


May All Beings Be Happy

[Sekishi]

Thank you for taking notes Marc.

Deep bows,
Sekishi
#sattoday


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

I am way behind in posting secretary reports (what can I say, I am good at taking them, bad at typing them up apparently). :-/

So here is a backlog of reports from September 11 through today (November 13)

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for September 11th, 2016:

- Painting
- Deadlines for artists
- Ango partners
- Keep it simple cedars
- Having partners and spouses who help with practice
- Life creates obstacles...
- Seeking to attain
- Mind Theater
- "The World is Made of Stories": http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/world-made-stories
- Lisa Simpson narrates my life!
- Boogers on shoes...
- Tinnitus and resonant heads
- Hearing everything => hearing nothing
- Slow connections, fast connections
- Board Certifications and Fellows
- Psychiatry and feeling too much
- Trait / disease / disorder
- The diagnosis of politicians
- Getting started with Ango
- The life expectancy of married men vs. married women
- Nitrates in European wine
- Matchmakers
- "Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung": http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/who-ordered-truckload-dung
- Ajahn Sumedho's "The Four Noble Truths": http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/4nobltru.pdf
- Buddha Basics - the water in which we swim
- Putting your (Zen) pants on, one leg at a time


Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for September 25th, 2016:

- Windows 10 updates
- PPEs
- Baby book email account
- Kid Logic
- "One in a row?"
- "I amn't going to do that."
- "When do we get small?"
- Facetime at the oil rig
- Foreign object in the ear? Make sure to check the nose too...
- Soda / Pop
- Ango at the drive-in movie
- Seiza
- Buckwheat vs. kapok
- Sitting room?
- Deduction PRO!
- Fat and healthy
- Heart rate and Zazen
- "Breathe" app
- Intermittent fasting
- Reddit: an intoxicant
- "One of US!"
- Cats and power supplies
- The Cone of Shame
- Gandalf the Grey (Cat)
- Kosher Zen
- Chromebook vs. notebook
- Ginko leaf pattern


Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for October 2nd, 2016:

- Opiates
- Facebook messenger
- Camera
- Chromebook
- University Training
- Reading Dharma books
- Saying "Yes" to all
- Leaving the candle burning
- Burning down the house
- Hypomanic episode
- 211
- Planting trees
- NAMI Hall of Fame
- Reaching for the missing dog
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
- Hospice
- Shel Silverstein (and "avoidance by incompetence")


Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for October 9nd, 2016:

- Raj at midnight
- Dharma of the Hokey Pokey
- Vicodin + meditation: a powerful combination?
- Trains of thought: clickity-clack
- Loosing our tempers
- ANGER!
- Who are the heroes of Treeleaf?
- Unitarians online (Facebook)
- Sewing retreat
- The spouses of Treeleaf
- The Friends of C.E.T.
- Working in fast food
- Everything we encounter is our lives...
- Ugh, new software
- Muho and "the German approach" to Antiji
- Samu
- TODO lists
- The frequency of a cat purr
- "I made a lot of things mine!"
- Can't Cook, Won't Cook (in SPAAAAAACE!)
- Sacrificing watermelons...
- Friendships as youngsters
- "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" -- Stand By Me

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for October 23nd, 2016:

(Marc took notes on Oct. 23 too -- see above for a second opinion :-)

- A case for pop-tarts
- Dogs and people
- "Poop! There is IS!"
- Cat food has more fat, dog food more protein
- Valve replacements
- "STS" score
- Arnold's voice after valve replacement in Batman
- Aragorn kicks a helm
- Star Trek: First Contact
- tvtropes.org? I hope you have four hours to kill...
- A beard reveals more than it hides...
- Alms rounds
- Vaccines
- Ring tones
- Max headroom!
- CPR for infants
- Cat intubation
- Kusala Bhikshu


Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for October 30th, 2016:

- Giving away computers
- Opiates
- Rakusu bag
- Esophageal ultrasound
- The Lord's Prayer
- Linda Lovelace
- Unitarians online (Facebook)
- Servers
- "Triumph of the Nerds"
- CP/M and MS-BASIC


Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for November 6th, 2016:

- Don't ruminate, MEDITATE!
- Sit where you are
- Baby gate on the cat room
- Oh bandwidth...
- Compassionate argument
- UK Treeleafers
- "Old Path, White Clouds": http://www.parallax.org/product/old-path-white-clouds-walking-in-the-footsteps-of-the-buddha/
- "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching": https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Buddhas-Teaching-Transforming-Liberation/dp/0767903692


Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for November 13th, 2016:

- Computer updates
- Van Gogh
- Checking out artworks from the library
- Going to the park? Leave your camera home...
- Politics, the US election, and Dukkha
- As It Should vs. As I Would Like
- Cats everywhere: "Doors, how do they work?"
- Politics, the US election, and Dukkha
- And another thing about cats...
- Too busy caring to notice "defects"
- Buddhas EVERYWHERE
- How to grow a Bodhi tree (by accident)
- A coalition for inclusiveness
- I want my children not to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but to climb from my shoulders
- Migraine aura
- Death stories
- Greed vs. selfishness
- I have the GREATEST humility!
- Women in Zen
- Comcast
- Nest
- 1006 feet square
- The oboe that did its job


Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for November 20th, 2016:

- Village Zendo
- Ango
- Intoxicants
- Murder She Wrote!
- Arsenic in cow dung?
- Ka-ru-pi-su vs. calpico vs. kefir
- Kombucha
- So many friends in fermentation
- Sumatran coffee
- Kopi luwak coffee (just don't ask where it has BEAN!)
- Sweet Maria's green beans and a popcorn popper
- Melodicas and accordions
- Hayao Miyazaki's sixth "retirement" and "Kemushi no Boro"
- Adam Savage and "Tested": http://tested.com/
- Clay Jenkinson and "The Thomas Jefferson Hour": http://jeffersonhour.com/
- Ajahn Chah - on sitting vs. going to Bangkok
- US Thanksgiving plans
- "The Gallery of Regrettable Foods" and "The Aspic Cookbook: A Collection of Unfortunate Atrocities"

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for November 27th, 2016:

- Morning in New Zealand, afternoon in Virginia
- Sitting in a physical space
- "Zen and the Art of Archery": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_in_the_Art_of_Archery
- Martial arts and injury
- Pain and hospice
- Snow tire laws in Quebec
- Distant butterfly wings and the cost of firewood
- The physics of catalytic converters
- Low impact exercise ideas
- The politics of bicycle lanes
- Two wheels vs. three wheels
- Gadget Zen
- Embodied action and the mind
- iPhone 6, iphone 7
- Flipboard, Feedly, Facebook, oh my! http://feedly.com/
- Jundo and the Unitarians
- Pokemon Go and Ingress
- Pinky and the Brain
- Siri said what?
- Employee health insurance
- Jukai
- Wagesa
- Mothers and sisters

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for December 4th, 2016:

- Gabapentin & nerve pain
- Facet rhizotomy
- Health insurance
- Home schooling
- Ango and committments
- Tumblr
- E-prime and other language hacks
- Linux
- The Freethought Society
- Volunteering
- NAMI
- The logistics of food banking
- Ango donations
- Cognative dissonance
- Snow!!
- "Like snow off a dove's back"
- Flickr
- Tardive dyskinesia
- Self-rescuing princesses
- Hayao Miyazaki and the "Spirited Away 15th Anniversary"
- iphone 6, iphone 7
- The verse of atonement (confession optional)
- All ashes are my ashes
- "Foot in Mouth Disease"...
- How many amps?
- Jukai
- Wagesa

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for December 18th, 2016:

- Silence. :emptiness:

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Mp]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for December 18th, 2016:

- Silence. :emptiness:

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

Sometimes this is the best teaching. =)

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for January 1st, 2017:

- Joya-no-Kane (we did our own version today with whatever bells / noisemakers were available)
- Binge watching and vacation
- Untold History vs. The Crown
- Top Gear
- Confirmation bias
- Spider silk in hell (and pretas)
- The ant force multiplier
- Ants and relativistic velocity
- Music genres
- A Trap Christmas
- Rural living and practice
- Local sitting groups
- Home automation
- Raspberry Pi
- High fidelity
- Cryptocurrency

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for January 8th, 2017:

- Robe verse followed by the verse of atonement and the four vows
- Silence for 30 minutes. :emptiness:

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for January 15st, 2017:

- Robe verse followed by the verse of atonement and the four vows
- Bells from the "dollar store"
- Tokugawa and Meiji era history
- Admiral Perry
- Taxes and expats
- Golden Monkey Oolong
- "Snapshots of Their Lives"
- Hangouts changing?
- API, a pi, a pie!
- The Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra
- Twelve steps (and different forms)
- Atonement and finding gratitude - two sides of a coin
- Age and practice
- Linux and Gimp
- Making water better...
- Bigotry comes in many forms
- Politics is good practice
- "Nan's Never-Fail Mayonnaise"

Gassho,
Sekishi #sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for January 22nd, 2017:

- Robe verse followed by the verse of atonement and the four vows
- The legend of Bodhidharma
- Gabapentin
- Cats
- Looking directly in vs. looking away
- NAMI Connection
- CRM is what?
- On being a whole person
- The ipad and the crushed cup
- The fist of equanimity
- Hotel, hospital, dinner
- Make pain the practice
- Dysentery Dharma
- Alarm! A baby is born.
- A ten minute standup routine on childbirth
- Paging Dr. Scooter (250cc)
- Raspberry Pi
- ER Scheduling
- "Patient abandonment"
- Golden Shield?
- GeoGuessr: https://www.geoguessr.com/
- Clock speed vs. core count
- Pay to Play
- The Dark Knight
- Project Gutenberg

Gassho,
Sekishi #sattoday

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for January 29nd, 2017:

- Robe verse followed by the verse of atonement and the four vows
- Exercising through pain
- "Computer glasses" != Google Glass
- The Heart Sutra translated by Red Pine: https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Sutra-Red-Pine/dp/1593760825
- Does Walmart own Firefox? (no, they do not)
- Rakusu bags
- Rakusu colors
- Distracted driving in Texas (vs. Virginia vs. Maryland)
- On being visibly liberal
- Calendars on the wall, calendars on computers
- "Wait until you can actually do something."
- "When you are going through hell, keep going" like firewalking...
- But what about Ojizo?
- How to sell a house (hint: hardwood floors)
- Smoking in cars, smoking in living rooms, smoking in lungs
- Three nice pickups in the driveway? Texas and Geoguessr
- "The Shipwreck" is a volcanic plug
- Wall Drug - Free Ice water! http://www.walldrug.com/
- Dorris Day and Rock Hudson - Pillow Talk / Lover Come Back / Send Me No Flowers
- "This will pass."
- Hypostomus plecostomus, cichlidae, and corydoradinae
- X-ray specs? Meh. Sea-monkeys? Ok. Pen telescope? Not bad. Tippy the Turtle? DONE!
- Chrome and anti-virus
- The "Internet of Things" and botnets
- Zen and the Art of Volkswagen maintenance
- Where? "At the gettin' place."
- After a nap...
- Willie Sutton knows why.
- Dreaming of sludgy double-jumps (or - how to fly by falling and missing the Earth)

Gassho,
Sekishi #sattoday

[Mp]

Hey there folks,

Here are the notes from our Treeleaf Coffee House meeting on Feb 5th, 2017

Life and family - the challenges we can face with both
Our practice and making time
Practice is both sitting and engaging with the world
Superbowl
Surgery and recovery
Spock and the Buddha's hand mudras
Our jobs - what we do for a living
Other religions being open and accepting of other religions
The Six Realms of Samara - literal or figurative?
Mental health awareness
Not being defined by labels

Thank you for coming together, sharing, caring, and growing. =)

Here is Buddha and Spock ...

3973

or

3974

or

3975

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Sekishi]

Thank you Shingen.

Deep bows,
Sekishi #sattoday


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Jakuden]

Love it! I have no doubt that Mr. Spock planted some pre-Zen seeds in my brain. Peace and long life [emoji868]
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

I have to say something about Mr. Spock's salute and its historical origins (By the way, I am rewatching the original series now in anticipation of the new series coming). The Salute is actually an old Jewish thing that Leonard Nimoy borrowed ... known as the COHEN PRIEST BLESSING.

https://meromtzion.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/priestly_blessing_pix_2.jpg

Small bit of trivia ...

Cohen =

"Kohen" (alt. "Cohen") - (pl. "Kohanim" or "Cohanim") - Priest;

The Kohen is a descendant of Aharon, the High Priest, the brother of Moshe. His task is to work in the Temple, be involved with the offering of sacrifices, and with Blessing the Congregation of Israel. A Kohen (or kohain; Hebrew: כֹּהֵן‎, "priest", pl. כֹּהֲנִים‎ kohanim)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohen (http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohen)


Question: What is a Kohen?

Answer: Temple Priests

In the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, Kohanim (plural for Kohen) were priests responsible for worship ceremonies, such as leading services, offering sacrifices, burning incense and more. To maintain a high degree of purity, Kohanim observed certain prohibitions concerning marriage and contact with the deceased.

The High Priest

The High Priest, called HaKohen HaGadol, was the head of all the priests. He conducted services in the Temple on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. And he was the only person allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, the holiest place in the Temple.

So, sometimes I like to think that I took up the old family calling ... without the cow and goat sacrifices.

Yes, some of my seeming ancestors were possibly the "bad guys" in the Jesus story, who turned him in to the Romans ... for which I am very sorry. Truly.

http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/spock-vulcan-salute-20090521-094535.jpg

The Vulcan greeting is based upon a blessing gesture used by the kohanim during the worship service... Leonard Nimoy drew upon his own Jewish background to suggest the now-familiar salute.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_salute

Headstone commonly seen in many Jewish cemetaries.

http://ourrabbijesus.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Cohen-Grave-Stone.jpg

All that and $1 will get me a black coffee at McDonalds.

Gassho, Live Long and Prosper, Jundo

[Mp]

That is pretty cool Jundo ... are you an ancestor of Spock? =)

Oh no ... I just thought, I know Jundo doesn't use a Keisaku stick, but you might have these powers ... [claps]

3976

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Jishin]

From familytreedna.com:

Is my direct paternal (Y-chromosome DNA) line Cohanim?

Because the Jewish populations of the world have suffered many trials and population upheavals, it is not possible to say definitively that one person is genetically Cohanim while another is not. However, scientific papers over the last decade have shown that many men with a family tradition of being Cohanim belong to the same genetic Y-chromosome lineage. This is the Cohanim Modal Haplotype (CMH). In popular culture, it is sometimes misnamed the Kohanim Gene.

I am pretty sure Jundo is the real deal. It's in his genes. [emoji2]

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Jundo]

I am pretty sure Jundo is the real deal. It's in his genes. [emoji2]

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

Ah, yes, the famous Cohen Jeans ...

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/90/45/fd/9045fd86dfe55a9a61315d742d44e208.jpg
http://thejeansblog.com/new-denim-brands/jacob-cohen-jeans/

They might not be in me, but I can be in them.

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Zenmei]

Ah, yes, the famous Cohen Jeans ...

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/90/45/fd/9045fd86dfe55a9a61315d742d44e208.jpg
http://thejeansblog.com/new-denim-brands/jacob-cohen-jeans/

They might not be in me, but I can be in them.

Gassho, J

SatToday

I love this place.

Gassho, Zenmei
#sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for February 12th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Silence for 45 minutes

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Jundo]

Hello everyone,

Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for February 12th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Silence for 45 minutes

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

Oh, best Coffeehouse yet! gassho2

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Jika]

Thank you, Sekishi.
gassho1

Gassho
Jika
st

[Jiken]

Gassho,

Jiken

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for February 19th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Ango
- Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta
- The Zen of no beliefs
- Scarlet fever
- Keeping a quiet mind
- Ikkyu: "Attention Attention Attention!"
- Psych wards and loved ones
- Art Spiegelman's "Maus": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus
- 75th anniversary of Japanese internment
- Do we need more supervillians? At least they are easy to recognize...
- Geopolitics and religious desecration
- National anthems: as they were, as they are, and ones that have not yet come to pass
- Practice management software
- Kids these days (and their mobile soundboards)
- All the bells, bells, bells, BELLS!
- Zazenkai recordings
- The effects of Treeleaf on mobile data plans
- A meditation on jet engines and clean houses
- Old dog new carpet, new dog old carpet
- Subscribe and save - Science Diet
- Before enlightenment, do your taxes. After enlightenment, DO YOUR TAXES.
- LIFO vs. FIFO
- Keeping your living will up to date
- The three "P"s of medicine (patients, politics, and paperwork)
- The socio-economics of chicken nuggets
- The "paperless" office
- Square roots and lookup tables
- Backups ... in the cloud!

Ikkyu on Attention:
4010

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for March 5th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Make sure you have a living will AND a will will
- Work acting as a splint ("Idle hands are the devil's handiwork")
- "Idle Hands" (film) - a "stoner black comedy body horror": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138510/
- On being a bachelor
- Why don't cats get gray as they age?
- Kevin Smith on why God is likely a woman
- "The Shack" (book and now film): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872518/
- Audiobooks
- Cat apps, and apps for your cat
- Cats and doors...
- Thich Nhat Hanh and the Heart Sutra: https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Understanding-Commentaries-Prajnaparamita-Sutra/dp/1888375922
- S.N. Goenka
- Korean Zen and staring at feet
- Making up stories!
- Sit with what is - "like a cow chewing his cud"
- Seeking atonement
- Sewing the Kesa for a tree: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?12238-Street-kesa-Buddha-tree
- Day planner, digital planner
- The vows cannot be broken, so do your best not to break them
- Realms of heaven and hell, right here in the middle of the turmoil
- The verse of atonement -- what are we atoning for?
- Dharani (Kshitigarbha / Ojizo Dharani, the Great Dharani, etc.)
- Statues abound!
- A plasma cosmic belly on Hotei
- 7 Billion Buddhas...
- Oryoki and knots
- Alton Brown's way to cook Irish oats: http://altonbrown.com/morning-steel-cut-oatmeal-recipe/

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Jakuden]

I wish I could attend these, but Sunday afternoon is family time (plus the $&@% $$$ data modem). Funny to read the recaps though, thanks [emoji1]
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for March 19th, 2017:

- A punk-rock Kesa
- Sewing talk
- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- OK management, back to school!
- Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC)
- It is all good (mal)practice
- "When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras.": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_(medicine)
- The "roots" of gardening (teehee)
- Zombie Roomie (webcomic): http://zombieroomie.com
- "Hi, I'm Phil from Punxsutawney."
- Gandalf and the Cone of Shame
- Silver Spring Zendo / One Heart Sangha
- MBSR classes
- Where do you come from?
- "Woo-woo" is all relative
- Sometimes arrogance is baked right in
- Acting like a drill sergent, acting like a chaplain
- The Naming Of Cats by T. S. Eliot (see below).
- The antigens of cat saliva
- Treeleaf on Insight Timer
- "Doctor" means "teacher" in Latin
- The Heart Sutra
- smile.amazon.com
- Sunday sitting
- The three "P's": patients, paperwork, politics
- Misuse of sexuality
- Cameras at the park
- Face It Together: http://www.wefaceittogether.org/
- Addiction, work, and hitting bottom (or moving the bottom up)
- Removing all routes of escape...



The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey--
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter--
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum-
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover--
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.


Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Ryumon]

How does one access this again? I can't find anything in this thread. It might be good to include access info in each recap for those wanting to join.

Gassho,

Kirk

[Mp]

How does one access this again? I can't find anything in this thread. It might be good to include access info in each recap for those wanting to join.

Gassho,

Kirk

Hey Kirk,

This is just the summary of the Coffeehouse, all the information to access it is in this thread. Sekishi will always post it here: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Sekishi]

How does one access this again? I can't find anything in this thread. It might be good to include access info in each recap for those wanting to join.


Hi Kirk (and anyone who has this question),

As Shingen's points out, on Friday or Saturday I post a new announcement and link in the sticky thread 'Please Join Our Weekly "Treeleaf Coffee House"' under Topics About All of Life.

I also post an event to the Treeleaf Sangha Google Plus group, and send out an invitation to all members of that group. If you are a member of the Treeleaf Sangha group on Google Plus, you should get a notification, and see it as an upcoming event under the "Events" section. For example (these are past events, but same idea):
4088

In the future I will also include a link to the Coffee House thread in my weekly secretary notes (good idea!).

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Ryumon]

Thank.

I don't use Google Plus any more, so I wouldn't see the notifications. I do follow the Treeleaf group on Facebook though...

Gassho,

Kirk

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for March 26th, 2017:

- Calendars
- Manitoba
- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Now entering: "Bonus Years"
- Regrets, I've had a few... ("My Way" by Frank Sinatra):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E2hYDIFDIU

- Jukai and Dharma names
- Van Gogh and bipolar disorder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh%27s_health
- "Lust for Life" by Irving Stone
- James Michner (Hawaii, Chesapeake, etc.)
- Dr. Who
- Hey app, can you guess my age?
- "Three Pillars of Zen" by Phillip Kapleau
- Google Plus and Hangouts: whats new this week?
- "Liberty's Kids"
- "Old Path White Clouds" by Thich Nhat Hanh
- Crabapple blossoms and Facebook
- Taking photos in public (and taking photos OF the public)
- Sending a flower for a flower
- What was his name? Mahakashyapa!
- The Dogen / Zen movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s5Uz8XSc-Y

- Dr. Who Dharma: "Like breath on a mirror."
- "We all change, when you think about it, we're all different people; all through our lives, and that's okay, that's good, you've gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be."
- It takes a while...
- Used cameras and factory refurbs
- The Harvard Brain Bank
- Tardive Dyskinesia
- Sweetgrass smudge? I'm trying to work here!
- Intoxicants (in their many forms)
- Soda and energy drinks
- The precepts and bosses
- Kombucha!
- The Coffeehouse - an intoxicant?

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 2nd, 2017:

- Housework
- Around and around the DharmaWheel(.net)
- Sojiji and Eihiji
- Dogen and history
- Ordination
- John Daido Lori on VHS
- Vudu and media
- The Charlie Chan films
- Bela Lugosi
- Books
- The Thin Man
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man_(film)
-- Radio drama version: https://archive.org/details/thinmanotr_201412
- The Last of Shelia

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 9nd, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Preparing kids for university
- Empty nests...
- Practice - like brushing your teeth
- Shakuhachi as practice
- Fuke Zen (sect): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuke-sh%C5%AB
- Being social
- Treeleafers in Virginia
- Ordination and Treeleaf
- History and keeping good records
- When every threat is an existential threat.
- Book - "Zen at War": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_at_War
- Buddhism's fluffy reputation in the west
- Institutions and power structures
- Book - "Prisoners of ShangriLa": https://books.google.com/books?id=mjUHF7kQfVAC
- Mental illness and art
- Perceiving via the sixth sense gate is no more a fabrication than any other
- Apophatic (philosophy via the "negative") vs. Cataphatic (philosophy via the "positive")
- Like a polar-bear in a snowstorm

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 16nd, 2017:

- Commodore 64's, 1541 drives, and creativity
- Quick Brown Fox
- Attention to detail
- Alan Watts
- Creation grows vs. creation was made
- Some mental experiences are amazing, but you cannot use the data...
- The Vallejo Ferry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallejo_(ferry)
- Dill pickle ice cream?
- Treeleaf friends
- Proximity breeds familiarity
- Easter as a batchelor
- Local sitting groups
- Video hangouts via: zoom.us
- Skillfull media consumption
- Turning the firehose into a squirtgun: feedly.com
- Aches and pains of social isolation
- Google Plus
- Walking
- Human echo-location: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_echolocation
- Dog stories

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 23nd, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Pets and practice
- Cat logic - a lesson in perspective
- Kwan Um
- Rakusu case how-to
- Le Pen, Trump, and the state of US & European politics
- Jeffersonian history and writing
- Cashing in on that sweet sweet Hatfield-McCoy feud money
- Prolactin, neonatal galactorrhea and pseudomenses: http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/512784
- "Catlateral Damage" - The premier first-person destructive cat simulator.: http://www.catlateraldamage.com/
- Summer is (almost) here and the lawn grows by itself
- Hunters, dogs, and interbeing
- Repainting a dungeon
- 3d print your own 22x22 Rubik's Cube: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1267855/
- Physical beings like physical artifacts
- A Buddha in Vegas
- How to pack for a 10 day trip with only carry-on luggage
- Hurry up and sit (or "how not to get a speeding ticket on the way to a sitting")
- Chinchillas and cat stories

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for April 30nd, 2017:

- The jingle of a dog collar would be good right here
- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Watching Trek in order
- Syndication == "no end customer in mind"
- Swamp Thing - the series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp_Thing:_The_Series
- "Avatar with Blue People" vs. the swamp benders:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xVaXc8fmFE


You think you're any different from me or your friends or this tree? If you listen hard enough, you can hear every living thing breathing together. You can feel everything growing. We're all living together, even if most folks don't act like it. We all have the same roots and we are all branches of the same tree. ...
Time is an illusion and so is death.
~The "Swampbender" Huu


- Breaking the outer glass on the Trieste
- Jenner and self-testing smallpox inoculation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner
- Licking the pellagra saliva sample
- Corn, grits, and Montezuma's REAL revenge
- Sewing as a lifelong practice
- The subcuticular stitch - Namu Kie Butsu...
- My dog, the unwitting terrorist
- "Nature's Miracle" and bio-enzymatic awesomeness
- Sitting and sewing - no talking! :-P
- Dharma names in different traditions
- Rokugo and Katsura Sunshine:
https://youtu.be/cY3Gb-aanyA
- Dave Bull's modern ukiyo-e heroes: http://ukiyoeheroes.com/
- He-gassen paintings (historical fart art): http://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/chi04/chi04_01029/chi04_01029.html
- "Supreme Skills" on NHK World: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/supremeskills/
- The Treeleaf Kombucha Cafe
- Kana vs. romaji
- Supportive housing for homeless veterans
- Alpha dogs, omega dogs
- David Loy's Zazenkai and talk
- Brainstorming the Treeleaf Engaged Center
- A Bodhisattva does not refer to herself as such
- Am I doing enough? Pick a problem and work it!
- The value of a smile or a laugh
- The virtue of short legs
- You never know...
- Gojo Bodhisattva
- Monthly engaged practice?
- People are people, not vending machines
- "Little Kindnesses"

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for May 7th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- City and country
- GABA analogue
- Chanting and memory
- Right to the heart of the matter...
- The Heart Sutra as expounded by TNH and Red Pine
- Friends and circles within the Sangha
- Sit like a cow...
- The house Norwegian brothers built
- What is retirement all about?
- The pain of fast movement, the pain of slow movement
- "It's neat to be 65!"
- Debt, consolidation, and avoidance
- Big Poetry thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15072-Big-Poetry
- Therapy over the long term
- The gassho -- less intrusive than a handshake and includes all beings!
- The Litter Kwitter: https://litterkwitter.com/
- echo .. Echo .. ECHO!
- Jukai and formalities and joyful noises
- Breaking vows in order to make vows
- Water rockets -- a gateway to larger rockets
- Gliders
- Radio controlled paper airplanes: https://www.poweruptoys.com/products/powerup-v3
- Turning a 1992 Reliant Robin into a space shuttle: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074gf0
- Adam Savage and Tested: http://www.tested.com/
- Adam Savage and Michael Stevens in Brain Candy Live: http://www.braincandylive.com/
- Digital Art
- Mothers and Fathers
- Sailing
- Endings? What endings?
- 360 projections and Google Cardboard: https://vr.google.com/cardboard/
- Sangha in my pocket
- Heart Sutra, memory, and the mokugyo
- "Egg pod" burial? http://www.capsulamundi.it/en/
- Ask a Mortician: https://www.youtube.com/user/OrderoftheGoodDeath
- "My father the Alpo"
- Clandestine cremains
- Small towns

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for May 14th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- The world is not flat, for if it was the cats would have shoved everything off by now
- Nothing brings us back to the present moment like a locomotive passing by
- Be with what is, even if that is a dog barking in the Zendo for 15 minutes
- Ikea mutants - those who visit but do not buy, those who have never been
- Curbside shopping? Good deals can be found at the end of the semester
- Cloth and clothing: fabric weight vs. airflow
- Puppies! :-) Carpet. :-(
- Media storage
- Butter - helps the powdered cheese stick better
- The Drive-in Theater - A way to singing along to Beauty and the Beast in the privacy of your car
- Mosquito coils - "PICs for punks"
- Throat singing? Nope.
- Sino-Japanese vocabulary and pronunciation
- The dialects of ASL and other signed languages
- (Re)introductions
- Canada, Ned Flanders, and the Devils Lettuce
- "My Winnipeg": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093842/
- That theatrical production in the church basement
- People watching
- A flaneur - A "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", or "loafer" (from the French noun flâneur), searching for adventure and excitement
- Yoda says ...
- The 1953 watersnoodramp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_flood_of_1953
- The grammar of "teutophile"
- The memorization and cross-pollination of the Heart Sutra
- On training for chaplaincy
- When the cat produces a hairball made from dog hair
- OK Google, when do cats ... lose their baby teeth
- Practice like a weeble, wobble but do not fall down
- Summer retreat
- On saying "yes" but maintaining boundaries
- A proposal: UTC-only for all Treeleaf events (no really, it is a good idea!)
- A blind tiger

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat

[Jakuden]

- The world is not flat, for if it was the cats would have shoved everything off by now


[claps]

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday

[Meian]

"- The world is not flat, for if it was the cats would have shoved everything off by now"

I have seen this circulating on social media and it still makes me laugh! I have two cats (or rather, they have me) - and this is very true! My dog has no attention span (except for food and the cats!) and even he respects flat surfaces more than my cats do. :)

I hope some day to attend this get together - I always seem to have family activities going on at the same time. But i read the notes and find them so amusing and interesting, one day maybe I can stop in and say hello ♡

Gassho
Kim
Sat today

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for May 29th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- (Ack, no meal verse this week?!)
- Zazen
- "Fine, real fine."
- Sesshin
- Nebraska Zen Center
- Mutt Practice
- Gifts from friends
- 30 years of AA
- Astronomy
- Children and parents
- "When laughing, laugh. When crying, cry. When eating a cookie..." [OM NOM NOM]
- Giving advice, listening to advice
- Sit short, sit long, just sit!
- Waiting for something to happen
- Writing and reading poetry on Google Plus
- Sitting groups using Zoom: http://zoom.us/
- Heart Sutra in the car
- Dokusan?
- On being a poet (and looking for an audience)
- On searching for a "higher power"
- Relationships as living breathing things
- What the poet sees
- Impermanence and Shakespeare
- "The wheels of the Dharma bus go round and round (though reality is boundless!)"
- Juzu beads
- On ordering a Facebook photobook
- "Take this Lollipop": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_This_Lollipop
- On building a computer
- Shel Silverstein and "avoidance by incompetence" (why yes, this topic IS Deja Vu...)

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat #lah

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for June 4th, 2017:

- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Poetry big and small
- "Desiree" is a beautiful name
- Verse of atonement (yes, again - we can never have too much atonement)
- The semiotics of the icepack
- How wonderful the bones in the back of the throat
- On getting "unstuck"
- Fugen
- Teachers, teachers EVERYWHERE
- It is all about love
- 1/#'"[carrier lost]
- AA
- "Ocean's 11" (1960 vs. 2001): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean's_11
- Free Wifi in Vegas!
- Ginkgophyta ginkgoopsida ginkgoales...
- The hangesa and wagesa

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat #lah

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for June 11th, 2017:

- The world is bowing
- How do YOU fold the Rakusu?
- Reviewing Taigu's videos
- On de-linting
- Silk, cotton, and the tree in the courtyard
- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Zazen
- Dharma tracks...
- You go north, I'll go south
- On Kannon and canons
- Trapdoors for old monks with sore legs
- Just sit, then just fall (but try not to please!)
- On waiting for the eldest to rise before standing
- How an echo shuts down the brain
- Wooden mortar or salad bowl as Mokugyu? It is all just words!
- The snipe-bot bodhisattva - showing us our attachments
- Propane tank gong
- On winning millions in the Powerball, but coming to the Coffeehouse anyway
- On having your son returned from the ocean, but without a hat
- Deepening our institutional understanding of the Kesa and sizing
- Measuring this body for the Kesa
- Concrete waits for no woman!
- Tall pants on the bottom shelf, short pands on the top shelf
- Don't panic, but it's The Hitchhiker's Guide...
- On 35 years of marriage
- How to appear twice on the Treeleaf member map
- On visiting the British Museum of Plundered Goods
- Dharma tracks (again)...
- The Ego
- Ownership? Pshaw. Not "my hearing" nor "my thoughts" nor "my body" nor ...
- Partner say "Go read this book about Buddhism" ... Pleeeeeaaase?
- (Good thing) "I did it!" vs. (Mistake) "I did it!"
- Dr. Strange and the "little I"
- Potato practice
- Loren Eiseley on Starfish - "It sure made a difference to that one.": https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/56782.Loren_Eiseley
- Monty Python and The Universe Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq4uCWtQE24

-- Or if you prefer - here is a version performed by Stephen Hawking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfcC6FYyL4U

- "One raindrop raises the sea.": https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/254699-survival-of-all-or-none-one-raindrop-raises-the-sea

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.annmariegarden.org/annmarie2/sites/default/files/www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat #lah

[Sekishi]

Hello everyone,

The Treeleaf Coffeehouse secretary report for June 18th, 2017:

- Hiding cat, crouching tiger
- The week
- Robe verse
- Verse of atonement and the four vows
- Meal verse
- Zazen
- Insight Timer idea - Treeleaf ceremonies followed by 15, 20, and 30 minute sittings
- Teaching of an "imperfect" bell
- Dharma "Mancave"
- Simile of the (Australian) shepherd leading the (German) shepherd
- Short delay = brain failure
- No, really! Brain. Failure.: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speech-jammer/id597426372?mt=8
- Undertaking the precepts with burning yarn (on the skin!)
- Buddhist reading? Just garbage!
- Every patient-doctor interaction should be a teaching.
- On hating reading.
- Tricycle, Lionsroar, and other Buddhist magazines
- The map is not the territory.
- Idea: perma-Hangouts?
- 360 degree cameras
- A kechimyaku goes into a Michaels...
- On the value of aspirational practice
- On form and emptiness (and the balance between them)
- Meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. Meet a ghost, kill the ghost.
- On cube shaped marshmallows
- SNAKISMS - Various philosophical -isms explained with a classic video game: https://www.pippinbarr.com/2017/01/25/snakisms/
- Memory, it is the second thing to go.
- Watch out for the Goldwater Rule yo!
- "Traits" vs. "disorders"
- The Price Equation - a mathematical basis for altruism (with a sad ending): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_R._Price

Want to get to know your fellow Sangha members in an informal setting? Join us for a brief ceremony and casual discussion on practice and life via Google Hangouts every Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm EST. A link to the Hangout is posted sometime the day before in the Coffeehouse thread: http://www.annmariegarden.org/annmarie2/sites/default/files/www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14143-Please-Join-Our-Weekly-Treeleaf-Coffee-House

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat #lah