NW Dharma News

Around the region Sanghas adapted to the COVID-19 lockdown, and the shift to virtual Dharma, in creative and varied ways. For instance Seattle Betsuin, one of the region’s oldest Sanghas at 117 years, developed multiple digital channels such as this one

Summer 2020, Volume 33, #1

NW Dharma News

NWDA’s New Website Group and Event Listings!

The new group member directory will include simpler and more comprehensive searches, an easier registration process, and linkage with Google Maps

Your Northwest Dharma Association (NWDA) website is getting a 2020 technology boost that will make it easier for group leaders to list events, and for Sangha members and anyone else to utilize the site. For Dharma groups: Dharma group members will find the new system far easier for building and editing profiles of their groups, and for sharing lineages, practice schedules, and contact information. Leaders will be able to more easily enter and edit calendar listings, with less confusion and fewer problems needing solutions from NWDA volunteer staff. Groups will find it easier to promote their practice schedules and events…

Dharma Education

Pariyatti Books Expanded During the Pandemic

Pariyatti’s efforts to respond to the growing pandemic started when a pilgrim felt dizzy climbing Vulture Peak, shown. Luckily, she didn’t have COVID-19

For Pariyatti the COVID-19 era began with a 5 a.m. distress phone call. It was January 27, and 16 pilgrims were one week into their three-week pilgrimage through India and Nepal. Calling from India, the Pariyatti team member said one of the pilgrims had become dizzy while climbing to Vulture’s Peak, one of the Buddha’s favorite places to meditate. She said, “Could it be the novel coronavirus?” Washington-based Pariyatti, the nation’s largest distributor of Theravada books and materials, organizes several pilgrimages each year for vipassana meditators in the tradition of S.N. Goenka. This journey catered specifically to Chinese-speaking participants. Luckily…

Dharma in Canada

Children Learning to Notice what They Notice:Introducing Mindfulness at the Art Gallery

Margo McLoughlin telling a story with musical accompaniment

Between October of last year and the middle of March, more than 700 children came to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria to participate in a new program called “The Art and Heart of Mindfulness: Discovering the Gift of Perception.” The gallery sits at the top of Moss Street, a short drive from downtown Victoria in British Columbia. Surrounded by Garry oak and Douglas fir, the original building is a Victorian house, beautifully trimmed in grey-green and burgundy. Beside it stands a low structure of post-modern concrete. Art galleries are all about looking and seeing, which makes them perfect sites…

Compassionate Action

Breathing with the Disagreeable

Selfie at the Lynching Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama

The Deep Time Liberation Retreat, for descendants of the African diaspora, was cancelled due to the pandemic. Ancestral healing would have to wait. Visiting slave plantations with the support of Black practitioners and teachers was not going to happen. Now I had two weeks of unplanned time off from the hospital. I was sad to miss this retreat, and yet grateful for the respite from the current healthcare grind. I decided to get up early every morning and walk around parts of my Seattle Maple Leaf neighborhood that I had not yet explored. In that process I discovered Kingfisher Natural…

Dharma Healing, Arts

Sue Tomita: A Deep River of Loving Compassion

As a co-founder of Asian Counseling and Referral Services, Sue remained active, here in 2017 May Day March

Whether family or friend, to be with Susan Kiyoko Tomita was to bask in her warmth and care, rooted in her deep meditation practice. As Sue passed away Sunday evening, May 10, 2020, at 74 years old from pancreatic cancer, she was serene throughout. With great forethought Sue wrote her own memorial, understanding the reality of her diagnosis, which she shared with her mother who had died years before. In her memorial Sue wrote only of her family, her love of her partner Gregory, of her sons Jason and Mizuho, and of her beautiful grandsons, Max and Julian. She…

Sangha News

Seattle Betsuin Taps its People to go Digital

Rinban Kusunoki chanting a sutra during one of the online Sunday services Seattle Betsuin has been offering since late March

In early March, the Seattle Betsuin Buddhist temple closed its doors to visitors and temple members in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But since March the temple has been re-opening through innovative uses of online technology, a transformational step for a traditional organization that offered its first service 119 years ago. Seattle Betsuin is the oldest Buddhist group in the city. The March closure was significant for temple members, because it meant cancelling the annual salmon dinner fundraiser, numerous classes, social programs, and perhaps most impactful, the Seattle Seafair-sanctioned Seattle Bon Odori Festival normally held in July. While the doors…

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Featured Events

Buddhist Essentials – 9 Class Series

This 9-Class Series will meet on the 3rd Wednesday of the month from June 17, 2020 through February 17, 2021 from 7-9:00 PM. Depending on COVID-19 restrictions, the class will be held either at University Friends Meeting House or via Zoom Meetings. For latest information about status of classes and events, check our Status page. Information will be mailed with Registration. Class materials are available here. The Class Schedule is as follows: June 17 The Three Characteristics – with Lyndal Johnson and Anna Ossenfort The Three Characteristics are the three aspects that pervade all of conditioned phenomena: anicca, dukkha, and anatta. When we…

Featured Event

Mahasangha Event

Member Group: Seattle Insight Meditation Society

Start: Wednesday, June 17 @ 7:00 pm
End: Wednesday, February 17, 2021 @ 9:00 pm
Event Type: Class, Featured Event

Tradition: Vipassanna
Teacher: Lyndal Johnson and Anna Ossenfort

(Online) Eye of the Storm: Navigating the Modern World

Do you struggle to keep momentum with your spiritual practice? It is easy to feel one’s energy get drained away and get lost in the struggles and distractions of the modern world. It’s like trying to cross a desert, and holding precious water in a leaky cup with no lid. This course will teach you about the art of the spiritual container. By repairing the holes in your metaphorical leaky cup, you can redesign your everyday life to be more like you’re in the protective space of retreat. From years of being a refuge for spiritual explorers, our meditation centre,…

Featured Event

Mahasangha Event

Member Group: Planet Dharma

Start: Monday, October 12
End: Sunday, November 8

Event Type: Class, Featured Event

Tradition: Namgyal Lineage
Teacher: Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat

Living with Grief

This daylong retreat will begin at 10 am, but attendees are encouraged to come early and attend the weekly temple services in the temple, as this is also a Buddhist holiday. We will be celebrating the bodhisattva Quan Yin’s renunciation. The remainder of the day will consist of teachings from the Abbot Thay Kozen regarding death and dying in Buddhism, opportunities for sharing, and rituals for honoring our grief, in whatever form it exists. Please plan to bring a sack lunch.

Featured Event

Mahasangha Event

Member Group: Mount Adams Zen Buddhist Temple

Date: Saturday, November 14
Time: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Event Type: Featured Event

Tradition: Thien (Chan), Zen
Teacher: Ven. Thay Kozen

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What's Happening

Dharma Relief: Let’s get medical supplies to where they’re needed!

Several Buddhist groups are organizing a charity relief program to help deliver medical supplies to where they are needed. You can help by donating and by coordinating supplies. Visit DharmaRelief.org

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Buddhist Centers Respond to Pandemic

Responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic are shifting rapidly. Many centers have suspended public events and are streaming programs via Zoom, YouTube, Facebook, and other video platforms. The following are a few announcements made in recent days. Check with your local center to confirm whether events are being held.

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Finding upsides in digital sangha when we have no choice

Practical tips on leading meditation and discussion using video conferencing.

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Group Members

Everett Insight Meditation

We are a member led meditation group formed to support the Dhamma practice and teachings in the Theravada Buddhist traditions. We meet every Thursday evening for 90 minutes. Our practice includes a 30 minute sit, with time afterward to listen to a recorded talk and/or share our experience of practice together. People new to the practice are welcome to join us, though no beginner instruction will be provided.

Tradition: Vipassana || Location: Everett, WA

Pine Street Sangha

Welcome to the Pine Street Sangha: Befriending Meditation, Exploring Experience, Integrating Insight We meditate in a gentle and accepting way, allowing whatever occurs in our inner worlds to unfold naturally. At the conclusion of meditation, we reflect upon and consider what happened during meditation through journaling and exploring our experience with a teacher. Over time, we learn more about the inner conditions and habitual patterns of thought and feeling that shape our lives. We grow to understand which conditions shape difficult inner states and those that shape beneficial ones. By letting our meditation into our lives, our meditation enters and...

Tradition: Vipassana || Location: Portland, OR

Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Seattle Chapter

We welcome anyone passionate about the living, breathing intersections between Buddhadharma and social justice. Our intention for the evening is to connect, listen, support, share resources, and inspire each other's commitment to liberation of all beings.

Tradition: Non-sectarian || Location: Seattle, WA

Seattle Soto Zen

Come Sit with Us Our weekly Sunday sitting is open to all. Beginners are more than welcome. We offer zazen instruction at 9:10 AM. Seattle Soto Zen practices in the tradition of Suzuki Roshi, founder of the San Francisco Zen Center. We follow the forms of Soto Zen with a spirit of warmth and inclusion. Anyone interested in meditation is welcome. Our practice includes sitting meditation, walking meditation, liturgy, a Dharma talk and discussion. We conclude with tea and cookies.

Tradition: Zen || Location: Seattle, WA

Kadampa Meditation Center Washington

Kadampa Buddhism is a Mahayana Buddhist school founded by the great Indian Buddhist Master Atisha (AD 982-1054). His followers are known as 'Kadampas'. Ka refers to Buddha's teachings, and dam to Atisha's special Lamrim instructions known as 'the stages of the path to enlightenment'. Kadampas, then, are practitioners who regard Buddha's teachings as personal instructions and put them into practice by following the instructions of Lamrim. The Kadampa tradition was later promoted widely in Tibet by Je Tsongkhapa and his followers, who were known as the 'New Kadampas'. Through the activities and dedication of the renowned Buddhist Master, Venerable Geshe...

Tradition: Tibetan || Location: Seattle, WA

Tibetan Nuns Project

The Tibetan Nuns Project provides education and humanitarian aid to refugee nuns from Tibet and to nuns from the Himalayan regions of India. It is a registered charity founded in 1987 and supports over 700 Tibetan Buddhist nuns and 7 nunneries in India. Donations help provide facilities and programs to educate, empower, and improve the status of ordained Tibetan women.

Tradition: Tibetan || Location: Seattle, WA

Dharma Drum Vancouver Centre

The Dharma Drum Vancouver Center (DDVC) is dedicated to practicing the teachings of the Buddha through the Dharma Drum lineage of Chan Buddhism, as established by Chan Master Sheng Yen. We welcome all who seek freedom of mind and heart to practice Chan Buddhism with us. Our experienced monastic and lay teachers offer guidance in Chan meditation practice. While the context is the Buddha’s teaching, these practices are universal in scope. They help to develop awareness and calm within ourselves, and to lead a life of cultivating compassion and wisdom. People of like minds from all walks of life come...

Tradition: Chinese Chan || Location: Richmond, BC

Metta Programs

Our community extends globally, coming together on teacher-led retreats, in online practice, and in local peer-led groups. We warmly welcome all people to explore with us the practices of Insight Dialogue and Dharma Contemplation, and teachings of relational Dhamma.

Tradition: Theravada || Location: Seattle, WA

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