Just Paint Spring

Perhaps you’ve been hearing about the Poor People’s Campaign. Starting May 14th, many communities in the US will be engaging in 40 days of nonviolent actions and organizing around poverty, inspired by the original campaign led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In solidarity with that movement, Peg, Daishin and I will engage in a 40 day practice of bearing witness to the issues of hunger and food insecurity as they are experienced by people who depend on government-issued food stamps to buy their food. We will limit our food budget to the average food stamp allotment in the US. We will consider ourselves a family of three, which qualifies for a total of $511 a month for food.

The purpose of the practice is to get an embodied experience of the challenges of living on a strict food-stamp budget. We recognize that we are privileged and will not actually experience the physical and psychological impact of chronic poverty. Our practice during this time, however, is to do our best to bear witness and bring attention to this issue. We will periodically document our experience on our website and Facebook.

We want to invite others to join us. If you can’t commit to the whole 40 days, you can bear witness for a week, a day, or even a meal by budgeting yourself to $37 per week, $5.29 a day or $1.76 per meal, if you are single. Please share your experience with us.

Taking Up Residency!

Peg Reishin Murray, M.Ed., has been committed to practicing the Eightfold Path since 1995. Originally a student of Thich Nhat Hanh, she received the precepts with Thāy in October 1997 and lay ordination in September 2007. In October 2007, she moved to Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe where she received jukai from Joan Halifax, Roshi and lived in residency as a personal and administrative assistant to Roshi for 6 years. While at Upaya, Peg served as coordinator for the annual Being With Dying contemplative end-of- life-care (CEOLC) clinician training program, the Nepal Nomad Medical Clinic, and the Prajna Mt Forest Refuge. From May 2013-August 2014 she studied Early Buddhist (Pali Canon) teachings through Bodhi College Committed Dharma Practitioner Program based in Devon, England. In 2015 she served as the workshop coordinator for Sakyadhita’s international conference in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Prior to her arrival at BLMZC, Peg was cooking regularly in Crestone, CO for Dharma Ocean retreats, sitting with Eon Zen in Boulder, CO and sharing Brahmavihara teachings as part of Willow Farm Contemplative Center’s Cause to Pause CEOLC volunteer training program. Peg has two children, Caite who lives in Boulder, and Justin and his wife Ellen and their children Jude and Mose, who live in Ashland, OR.

Johny Daishin Widell has been connected to Upaya for about three years. In March of this year, he received jukai from Roshi Joan Halifax and currently studies formally with Joshin’s Dharma brother, Sensei Genzan Quennell. In 2007, after many years of practicing law in Seattle, Daishin took a big step back from his busy commercial litigation practice and moved to Santa Fe to write songs and start what he calls a “Zen-inspired Americana band,” the Broomdust Caravan. He has two children – Phoebe who lives in San Francisco, and Hunter who lives in Hokkaido, Japan with his wife Shino. Daishin is an awesome musician – and for sure, we’ll get him playing some of his Zen-inspired folk music for us in the red barn at Bread Loaf Mountain Monastery very soon.

Other residents will be joining us soon – Kyodo, Joe, and our first family, Laura, Willie, and daughter Felicity. Please come to Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community on Thursday, June 21st, when all of our residents will be here. We’ll have a community supper as a way to welcome them.

If you or someone you know is interested in residency at Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community, please don’t hesitate to be in touch with me at joshin@breadloafmountainzen.org

Some of our needs are small and some are larger. Your giving will help us continue to open our doors wider and to fully live into the name of our temple, “No Barriers.”

• Replacement of the water system pressure tanks in the basement. They are rusted out. We need this urgently. The total cost is $4,000. This is one of those gifts that is critically important but not very showy.
• Six simple twin bed frames for residents. A wonderful business owner in Rutland is giving us a great discount. $780
• Bedding including twin sheets, pillows, and comforters. $300
• Fifty simple durable white dishes, bowls and cups. $500
• Recoup the the cost of wallpaper removal, painting, and lighting fixtures $4,000
• A large van to help people who cannot drive or don’t have cars come to the Zen Center for mindfulness practice, stress reduction, and community- and skills-building activities. $25,000
• Renovation of the red barn. We want to create meditation and meeting space for workshops, and a commercial kitchen and workspace for job skills training. Roughly $75,000 for contracted work and supplies
  • Donated architectural design services
  • Skilled helping hands to do much of the work ourselves