NWDA News

Northwest Dharma News Going Twice Yearly

Sangha Support Needed to go Quarterly Again Starting with this winter issue, Northwest Dharma News will be shifting to twice yearly instead of quarterly. How long it remains that way, and if it’s able to continue publishing at all, depends partly on the financial and human generosity of the region’s dharma community, the mahasangha. Since you’re reading this, it also means you. While we keep expenses low, publishing quarterly still costs about $1,000 an issue, and the Northwest Dharma Association coffers are bare. We’re throttling back publication until hopefully we’re in better financial shape, which means more support from the Buddhist…

Compassionate Action

Offering Buddhist Hospice Support for Animals

H.E. Dagyum Jusho ( Dagmola ) speaks to the group about the death process of animals from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective

An organization of Seattle Buddhists is offering a new expression of compassion, a program of hospice support for animals at the ends of their lives. The program, called HOSTA (Hospice Support for Animals) was launched late in 2018 by members of the Marici Fellowship, the social outreach program at Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in Seattle. When our animal companions become sick and are approaching death, care givers are frequently left with feelings of loss, helplessness and confusion. In Western culture euthanasia is often the accepted way of dealing with this time in an animal’s life. The field of veterinary…

Dharma Arts

Koro Kaisan Miles: Zen and the Art of Astronomy

MILIFE photo 1 – Richard Miles sipping well-aged pu’er tea with friends, in Portland, Oregon. Left to right: Jack Pockley, Richard Fagan, Miles, Eric Reed and Jeff Miles.

As a 10-year-old boy gazed through a telescope at the mystery of the night sky, he dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Today, sitting beside his own paintings of planets, moons and stars, drawn from first-hand observations and impressions, Richard Miles (as Zen teacher Koro Kaisan Miles), speaks of teaching college astronomy and preparing fuel for his next rocket launch. “I’ve always been a space cadet,” he jokes, telling of the eighth-grade lad who built rockets. So serious about space was he as a child that he wept when a NASA official visiting his school told Miles his prescription glasses would…

Dharma Education

Online Teaching in Multiple Places At Once

Students gather, virtually and in person, for a dhamma class.

I am unable to be in two places simultaneously, or three places. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t do it. And yet I want to be able to work with my students in Denver, Colorado, and at three temples in Oregon. Practitioners want and need the mutual support of others, and their teacher’s guidance. But I just can’t travel continuously. In the summer 2018 a family problem cropped up, requiring me to stay at home for several months to help out. I just couldn’t get away. I was frustrated on the one hand, but glad I could…

Prison Dharma

Prison Dharma Grows and Deepens in Washington

Volunteers at Twin Rivers Unit in October. 2018. From left to right: Jordan Van Voast, Jean Berolzheimer, Venerable Thubten Chodron, Jack Buce, Colette Janning, Eric Schmidt.

More people serving time in Washington state prisons are practicing the dharma, and doing so more deeply, as a growing number of volunteers offer a widening array of options. The increasing activities include more people taking refuge, more people doing retreat, and more people studying from the growing Buddhist library collections, and with the guidance of visiting Buddhist teachers. These programs are very worthwhile, and are making a difference in the lives of people here in the Northwest. We welcome new volunteers to maintain and expand our Buddhist meditation programs. When inmates were asked at a gathering one day, “Why…

Sangha News

Prior Friends Speed Growth of Anacortes Sangha

Jonathan Prescott offers a dharma talk on preparing the mind and body for meditation.

Building on relationships members have created in the community, the Anacortes Mindfulness Community was recently offered a rent-free home in Christ Episcopal Church’s parish hall. The new space in the small town of Anacortes, north of Seattle, was timely. In fewer than two years the Anacortes Mindfulness Community has grown so rapidly it has quickly needed more room. The parish hall gives us access to a large room for meditation practice, as well as a kitchen, meeting area, and children’s space, all free of charge. Now we’re offering sitting and walking meditation on Tuesdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.,…