Gathering

June is a busy month on my calendar; one of those times when it is good to remember to take each thing as it comes. Last week I was in Oregon for the Gen X teachers’ gathering; I have attended these in the past, but this time I was on the planning committee. The planners (bar one who had a last minute hitch and couldn’t make it) plus our indispensible admin assistant arrived on Tuesday. It had been a glorious morning in San Francisco, so it was a bit of a wrench to leave that and land in chilly rainy weather in Portland, and endure more showers on the drive up to Great Vow.

It was good to have that set-up time though, and thankfully the warm weather – a diminishing heat dome – followed us up north. Since it was my third time visiting the monastery, things felt nice and familiar to me. I enjoyed greeting the attendees as they arrived on Wednesday, as well as interacting with the residents, and whatever anxieties I had had in the build up about making sure things happened according to our plan melted away as we knew that things would just unfold anyway.

Nevertheless, the first full day was exhausting: I was in charge of the opening presentation, and the planning committee kept checking in during the breaks to ensure the rest of the day was well set up. There was a very intense session at the end of the afternoon about inclusivity, which could have been continued had we not been right up against dinner, and there was some feedback for the planners about things feeling unresolved and what people wanted to do about it.

We were also inventing a ceremony for the evening: it was the new moon and we asked people from different lineage traditions to contribute appropriate chants. I ended up being the lead inkin, and walked several people through the choreography before we actually did it. It was pretty smooth and quite moving, with chants in Tibetan, Korean and Pali, as well as teachers expressing, out loud or silently, their own vows, followed by a ring of the bell. Call me biased, but I felt many of the zen attendees were the most energetic with their expression.

The upshot of all of this was that I felt exhausted the next day, and found it hard to take in a lot of the information that was expressed. This was where I was grateful we had planned a nature break in the afternoon, so I took myself off to the network of trails, then lay on a bench under the bright green canopy of trees for some time, which all helped.

I was able to participate a little more fully on the last full day – though I feel I missed out on quite a chunk with the organising responsibilities, and of course we wrapped it up with skits and music, featuring the renowned Great Vow marimba band.

We flew back on Sunday – I had some zen company for my flight, which was nice, and then I had to turn around and start planning to pack and move, which will happen this weekend and Monday morning. Next week I will think about the dharma talk I am giving on the morning of the 22nd, and when that’s done, I will plan further for the Green Gulch retreat (I did get some quiet moments at Great Vow to assemble a few thoughts).