What the new NWDA website means to you

Have you checked out the new Northwest Dharma Association website? Just click on the NWDA homepage button, over there on the top right-hand side of the page.

As you can see, the new homepage is really different. In the left-hand column is an ever-changing selection of articles from Northwest Dharma News. Just to the right of that, events featured from the calendar of events scroll across the page. Below that, a random selection of member groups and events on the calendar display, every time your browser is refreshed.

There are advantages to the new site for both users and member groups. For users, it is very much easier to navigate. You can click to expand any listing without leaving the…

Creating an Osho and a Hermitage at Zenwest

In September Zen teacher Eshu Martin, leader of Zenwest, was affirmed as an Osho (temple priest), and a Zenji (dharma teacher), in the Hakuin Rinzai Zen tradition.

The Victoria, British Columbia, ceremony was conducted at Zenwest by Kokan Genjo Marinello, Osho, abbot of Dai Bai Zan Cho Bo Zen Ji in Seattle.

With this step taken, the new Osho and the Zenwest sangha are now pushing forward an important project: developing a residential training hermitage on the Zenwest property in the town of Sooke, which is about 20 minutes outside Victoria. That property, known as Kokizan-ji or Red Flag Mountain Temple, is to include several cabins to support residential practice. The Osho Martin was affirmed as the abbot of the…

High School Sophomores Learn About Buddhism
In Unusual World Religion Forum

Every year, every one of the sophomores at Snohomish High School gets a mini- course in Buddhism.

Not just Buddhism – the students also get a glimpse of Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism – through a twice-yearly morning program called World Religion Forum.

The event is sort of like religious speed-dating, with a morning and an afternoon session. During each session 10 instructors, two from each tradition, present to 10 small groups of students at stations around the high school library.

Each session is just 30 minutes, and when a buzzer sounds the students rotate on to the next station, with each presenter talking to five groups of students in just under three hours. In each 30 minutes the Buddhist…

The Hidden Lamp, Turned on Bright and Clear

Imagine, for a moment, that half the world’s enlightened wisdom had been hidden from view.

Of course women’s enlightened wisdom has always found a way to express itself, but historically it’s been a hidden voice, one that typically went unnamed, without title or credit. Thankfully that is changing over time, and women’s teachings are being recognized and heeded.

In particular, Buddhist practitioners can be thankful for a new book, “The Hidden Lamp,” just published by Wisdom Publications in November, 2013. This rich volume, edited by part-time Seattle resident Florence Caplow, and by Susan Moon, offers 100 stories and koans from 25 centuries of awakened women.

Paired with these rich offerings, 100 contemporary Buddhist women teachers from around the world, including…

New Program Allows Weekly Prison Buddhist Sits
Even if no Sponsor or Staff is Physically Present

A breakthrough new program is allowing inmates at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center to weekly practice the dharma together, on their own.

The new program, built from trust, a lot of planning and some help from technology, is a significant…

Northwest Monks and Nuns Meet Colleagues
In California for 19th Annual Monastic Gathering

Five culturally Western monks and nuns from the Northwest joined more than 40 colleagues from around the world in late October, for a four-day gathering to explore and strengthen our monastic lives.

The theme of the Oct. 21-25 Western Buddhist Monastic Gathering was “Monastic Formation,” which refers to how training as a monastic helps guide and develop people as spiritual human beings.

We met at the City of Dharma Realm, a Chinese nunnery in West Sacramento, Calif. This was the 19th of these convocations.

“Culturally Western” means that while all the monastics weren’t born in the West, we share certain Western values, and culturally identify more with the West than with Asia. Attending monastics from the Northwest were: Venerable Thubten…