Buddhist Women Sharing
the Way of the Bodhisattva,
Generation to Generation...

When sangha member Kathleen Duffy wrote The Space Between Us she knew neither Chaplain Katie Egart nor nor Laura, Erica, or Kerry. And she didn’t know that Katie received her chaplaincy ordination from Sensei Tricia Teater.
 
Yet Kathleen found inspiration from these women and they, too, are totally inspired by her – stitch by stitch.
What a lovely prayer of reciprocal becoming….

Read Kathleen's Duffy piece The Space Between Us here.

Ino: Joe Witt

                                         
                                                 To Those Who
                                  Study The Mystery

                                   Sensei Beth Jacobs
 
       A twist of smoke draws a squint from us all
       But no one saw the same gray ribbon
                 We huddle around fire in a trance
                 Inside is a silent gray sea we can sense
       We swim together in a silent sea
       And cast language nets over mystery
                 Each word we use carries a net
                 Or bears a kite tail that turns and flips in the wind
       The common wind carries separate seeds
       We meet where we touch shared earth
                 The earth is our witness
                 The elements our difference
       Our differences are total
       We all speak sangha as a second family
                 We bring shards of family to the group
                 And heaps of gooey longing too
       We share longing and divide resources
       We make silence together and combine into chords
                 We shovel silence in turns
                 Like filling a grave with dirt
       Filling a grave with peace
       We buoy each other with close by knees
                 Close by knees and hearts in a row
                 There is no space between the warmth
       Space fills with our particulars
       While time wears off the edges
                 Cushions and nests don’t have edges
                 We never let our fledglings fall
       Falling back and letting go
       Our private efforts, common goals
                 Each private inhale smells incense
                 A twist of smoke draws a squint from us all
 
       * This poem uses the Duplex form invented by Jericho Brown.

Auspicious News  - Sensei Myoshin Tricia Teater and the Udumbara Zen Sangha of Evanston congratulates Board President and Sangha member Komyo Beth Jacobs on the  October 22, 2017 occasion of her Lay Dharma Transmission by Sojun Diane Martin. Such a joyful time!