In the only use of the new zendo since its completion, Grady Hongaku Tarbuton receives his rakusu, which signifies taking the precepts, from Guiding Teacher Abby Mushin Terris.
Photos by: Rich Duncombe, Judy Good, Pam Muir, Abby Mushin Terris

After seven years of planning, fundraising and construction, our Oregon Zen center finally received the occupancy permit for our new zendo…and then immediately had to close it to group practice due to Covid-19. 

The Sangha of Corvallis Zen Circle then immediately pivoted to offering online Dharma, leaving the new zendo mostly unused. We started referring to our online space as our “zoomdo,” just a bit of the humor that kept us going.

Intaba Hokyo Liff-Anderson and Grady Hongaku Tarbuton bow, while others watch via Zoom.

The experience of the pandemic has affirmed our realization of patience, humor, and resiliency. We are living into the Dharma teachings that help us to hold steady, and to deepen our tolerance and compassion in today’s uncertain world.

In another change, what has been Corvallis Zen Circle is now shifting to a new name, Sangha Jewel Zen Center.

We’ve only used our new zendo once since the pandemic hit, for an October precept ceremony.

With careful adherence to Oregon safety rules, Guiding Teacher Abby Mushin Terris in October offered jukai to two members. Jukai is a lay ordination in which members receive and acknowledge the 16 bodhisattva precepts as an ongoing path in their lives. Mushin also gave the five foundational precepts to two other members.

A bittersweet, heartfelt moment in the midst of the pandemic, this was a perfect first ceremony in Sangha Jewel’s new zendo, as Sangha, family and friends watched on Zoom.

The entry and landscaped grounds of the newly completed Sangha Jewel Zen Center.

We are affiliated with Great Vow Zen Monastery in Clatskanie, Oregon, a Soto Zen Buddhist community in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Our guiding teacher, Abby Mushin Terris, has been practicing Zen since 1977, and received lay transmission from Jan Chozen Bays Roshi in 2013.

The October in-person ceremony was only a footnote to the vibrant online presence we’ve been cultivating since state health authorities instituted lockdown in March.

Knowing how essential our welcoming and inclusive presence is to members, in March we started what we called a “Work-A-Day retreat.” During this retreat we met daily from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. for zazen meditation, then attended to the work of our daily lives, and finally returned from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. for dinner and zazen together.

During these months of pandemic living we’ve created other robust online offerings of meditations, teachings and retreats to meet our Sangha’s needs. We have creatively adapted how we sit together onto computer screens, bringing the Dharma into living rooms and offices.

Our Sangha includes people new to Zen, and a growing number of long-time practitioners coming into leadership roles.

The interior of the new zendo, ready and waiting for our practice.

Under the guidance of Mushin, whose shining warmth and wisdom permeates all our activities, we’ve come together as a strong, well-seasoned Sangha.  Accepting what is, practicing with what is available, we offer a warm welcome to anyone who joins us online.  And it’s working! Our membership continued to grow in 2020.

To address the problem of Zoom fatigue, Mushin and our program committee have come up with innovative strategies to safely blend coming together online and in person practice, keeping us engaged and inspired as a Sangha.

One approach was retreats such as our “Home as Sacred Space” daylong. This was a blend of on-screen and off-screen times, where we tended to our home meditation spaces and altars to sustain us as we sat, often alone, at home.

Another offering was the annual “Interdependence Sesshin,” with sister Sangha Zen West–Empty Field in Eugene. Members of both Sanghas sat together on screen and individually off screen, inside and outside, mindful and appreciative of our inter-being with all living beings.

Bowing after the fall garden work party circle. From left clockwise includes:  Mushin, Thia Wolf, Justin Lodge, Ellen Parker, Es Mae, Michael Harkerl.

Face to face – even while masked – is still most heartfelt.  Our “Kinhin (walking) Retreat” last summer brought us together for a silent morning of slow-paced walking together through the fields and woods of Finley Wildlife Refuge, aware of and appreciating our natural world.  Even while maintaining noble silence, the physical presence of others was medicine and spiritual healing for the ongoing isolation.

We also organized a garden work party at Sangha Jewel last fall. Take a moment to visualize 10 masked people wearing heavy warm clothing, boots, hats and hoods, barely recognizable at times.  Then imagine hearing the joy in their voices and seeing the smiles in their eyes as they worked together in the rain and mud.  While Zoom is a most appreciated resource, being together felt even more wonderful in its rarity!

Increasingly during the recent years of political and racial conflict, environmental crises, and most recently the pandemic, we’ve investigated the integration of Buddhist practice and social engagement. Our daily chanting services emphasize the interdependence of all life, and the necessity of tending to our Earth in crisis.

Several of our members are also involved in Buddhists Responding Corvallis, a socially engaged group of practitioners from several Buddhist traditions.

A kinhin (walking) retreat at Finley Wildlife Refuge.  We’re slow-walking and taking time to notice the world around us.

After decades of renting space at a local yoga studio, our journey to build a home for Zen practice started in 2013. To launch this we began regular fundraising and planning meetings, while searching for property or a suitable building.

During the project’s early years Hogen Bays Roshi, co-abbot of Zen Community of Oregon, joined us for a Sunday morning service to offer an “entering the stream” ceremony. During this Mushin acknowledged the significance of a dedicated Zen center in Corvallis, giving it the new name “Sangha Jewel Zen Center.” 

During this time Mushin held a vision of a dedicated Buddhist center in the Willamette Valley that she said “offers an enduring sanctuary for cultivating a clear, quiet mind and a grounded, open-hearted way of life in the Zen tradition.” This inspired the community to find a new home that could meet the conditions and needs of our current Sangha, and the needs of future generations.

In 2018 we purchased a 1970s ranch-style home in a residential neighborhood next to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis.

The new zendo at dusk, showing the new exterior built while the existing building was renovated.

We next hired a contractor to renovate the building interior, and to replace the garage with a zendo and sanctuary.  During 2019 we were able to use the renovated living room as our zendo, and moved all events there.  The larger zendo was completed at the beginning of 2020. 

Sitting here today in this beautiful new zendo, I think about the perfection and the irony of our first offering – our 2020 Precept Ceremony last October. While we currently meet online in the zoomdo, eventually we’ll return to our Sangha Jewel Zen Center with its spacious zendo flooded with natural light, and its beautifully landscaped grounds. 

When we do gather again we’ll be led by Guiding Teacher Abby Mushin Terris, a well-known and beloved spiritual leader in our community. She engages the Sangha and greater community with her Dharma talks, classes, and regular Tuesday evening Dharma discussions. She also leads sesshins here in Corvallis, at Great Vow Zen Monastery, and with Debra Seido Martin, at Empty Field Zendo in Blachly, Oregon.

Sangha members exult after priming the new zendo’s exterior, in 2018.  Left to right:  Rich Taigen Duncombe, Trevor Ruiz, Libby Zuiko Bailey, Abby Mushin Terris, Michael Stanley, Mary Leigh Doryu Burke, Judy Junyo Good.

All of this Mushin started in 1992, when she launched Corvallis Zen Circle as a small sitting group in her living room.  

Now at the beginning of 2021, with the last details of construction completed and a building waiting for us, we have begun a 10-year visioning process.  As we approach the current moment with “don’t know mind,” we notice how well-received and attended are our offerings. This encourages our vision to be broad enough to accommodate even-greater numbers.

The warm-hearted spirit of our vision emphasizes creative ways to offer the Buddha’s teachings, in language relevant to modern circumstances. How to adapt these teachings inspires and vitalizes our practice. Through these offerings, vibrant Sangha engagement, and with the generosity of our donors, we are maintaining financial stability.

We now look to a future when we can meet again at Sangha Jewel Zen Center, in our spacious new zendo.  We offer our greater community a venue where we can deepen our spiritual practice, as we walk this path together.