Buddhist Council minutes 2010-06-11 (correction)
A Jesse Jiryu Davis
immigrant and Western Buddhists eating apart during lunch at the last
Forum; in fact she said we'd all been together that day, but we were
discussing the divide between the immigrant and Western sanghas in
general.
======================================================
We met at the Interdependence Project on Bowery in Manhattan.
Attending: Judy Chen of Sadharma Cakra Buddhist Association & VP of
Buddhist Council, Jolie Gorchov of Insight Meditation, Mark de Solla
Price of Buddhist Explorers & Village Zendo, Patrick Groneman of
Interdependence Project, Joren Wagner of Still Mind Zendo, Chris
Raines & Susan Limongello of Middle Way Meditation Center & Middle Way
Peace Order, Michelle Dunson & Bhante Wimalajothi of Staten Island
Vihara, Myoji Sunim & Eun Hee Kim & Sookyoung Lee & Matt Egan & Nick
Gershberg of Jogei Zen Temple & Chogye Sa. President Sung Hae Sunim
absent due to illness; we wish him well.
Jiryu Davis (of Village Zendo, and correspondence secretary of
Buddhist Council) taking notes.
Last meeting's minutes approved with corrections: I'd omitted that
Jolie Gorchov is a member of the MNYC committee, and I misspelled Eun
Hee Kim's name.
This is our final meeting until September -- we're taking July & September off.
== MNYC ==
The committee (Jolie Gorchov, Mark de Solla Price, Judy Chen, Nick
Gershberg, Doyeon Park, Michelle Dunson, Joren Wagner, Chris Raines)
met at Cold Spring a month ago. Susan Limongello desires to get
involved & has come downstate to join our meeting. MNYC will be held
at Judson again. Aware of meeting's lack of funds, committee's
considering giving benefits for organizations that pay dues, like info
in the MNYC program. Last year we were squeezed for time because we
held MNYC on a Sunday after the Judson's Sunday services, but this
year's MNYC will be a Saturday and less constrained. The event may be
roughly 12-5pm or longer -- we'll go more than 5 hours if necessary to
accommodate all speakers. The committee has emailed the potential MCs
and most prestigious teachers inviting them to participate, but no
response so far. Enkyo Roshi's not available to MC this year.
The committee collects speaker suggestions from the group.
MNYC will run out of money after this year, or possibly before. We
could use BC funds to supplement the MNYC fund, but sanghas don't pay
their BC dues regularly; we don't often remind them and we don't have
a clear policy of when membership fees are due. The committee
considers sending sanghas a letter encouraging them to pay their BC
dues and offering them a table at MNYC as a benefit of being a paid-up
member. We discuss whether membership is paid according to fiscal
year (ending July) or calendar year (ending December). We think it's
calendar-year but the system is very loose & vague. The committee
will continue thinking about these issues.
In addition to sending out a later soon offering MNYC tables to
sanghas who pay their dues, Michelle Dunson suggests *also* sending
out a letter encouraging sanghas to join BC and pay membership dues
right *after* MNYC when the excitement of the event is still present.
The next MNYC meeting will be July 1, 6pm at Mark de Solla Price's
apartment. All are invited, please RSVP to ma...@markandvinny.com
== Buddhist Forum ==
Judy relates the history of the Forum: it began as a meeting of sangha
leaders to discuss issues, but starting two years ago we opened it to
all Buddhists, and attendance jumped. Last year we had a format
produced mainly by Seicho, which began with keynote speakers, followed
by an Open Spaces-style series of meetings in which people proposed
topics, and broke into small groups to discuss the topics that
interested them.
After the last Forum many expressed interest in doing another one
sooner than next year. Joren Wagner suggests forming a Forum
committee that does *not* include the same people as the MNYC
committee to avoid overtaxing the same volunteers, and Jiryu suggests
that those who are interested in attending another Forum soon should
be the ones to produce it.
Judy Seicho Fleischman has written some suggested Forum topics:
*) Form and Emptiness in Practice: Integrating Religious and Secular
Expression in Multi-cultural sangha
*) Distinction between Buddhist and buddhist practice?
*) Role of root religious culture, (for example westerners in
judeo-christian traditions, and Thich Nhat Hahn's framing of nirvana
as "Kingdom of God")
*) Immigrant communities: monastic/lay relationship and practices (Who
meditates, who offers dana, devotional practice, etc.)
*) Role of "socially-engaged" practice (E.g., soka gokkai, order of
interbeing, zen peacemaker order, buddhist peace fellowship)
*) Secularly-framed applications:
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (Jon Kabbat Zinn)
Attuned Breath Centering (Seicho's method of clinical
contemplative practice)
George Pitagorsky's techniques for project management
(business applications etc.?)
Mindful Recovery (integrates with cognitive behavioral
psychotherapy)
Tea ceremony (like Fang Tea's tastings)
Joren suggests diversity as a topic -- she heard a lot of discussion
about the divide between immigrant and Western Buddhists at the last
Forum, and she'd like a Forum that addresses this divide and other
divides. Mark suggests activism / engaged Buddhism as a topic. Jiryu
says that "What is engaged Buddhism?" was the topic two years ago, but
we can find a variation on the theme. Jolie suggests "The Future of
American Buddhism", Nick cites the Stephen Bachelor book "Buddhism
Without Beliefs" related to the topic, but disputes that all Buddhists
in America are practicing American Buddhism. Joren says a similar
question is, "What is Buddhism?" and Chris suggests "Making Buddhism
Relevant Today." We discussed the implications of these titles. Mark
suggests "Modern Buddhism, Ancient Traditions." Joren says Bachelor's
idea of "Cultural Awakening" is very important. Patrick says that the
improved speed of communication has an impact on the rapid formation
of new schools of Buddhism, and that the mutual influences of Asian
and Western Buddhists on each other's development is like a door that
swings both ways. Joren suggests the title, "The Swinging Door".
Venue: Brooklyn Zen Center was an excellent space but it was
under-attended, probably because it's hard for most people to get to.
Still, we like having events in boroughs other than Manhattan. We'd
just need to more energetically encourage people to come.
Interdependence Project's space is also a good possibility -- their
current space is a little bigger than Still Mind Zendo where we had
the Forum two years ago, although it's not as large as Brooklyn Zen
Center. Patrick says they've fit up to 80 people. Plus, The ID
Project is nice example of an approach to modern Buddhism, which may
be the topic of the Forum.
Previous Forums have been in the last week in March. Judy will
contact those who were interested in having another Forum sooner than
March, and encourage them to form a committee. If you would like to
join the committee or can suggest someone who should join, email Judy
sisc...@yahoo.com
== Treasurer's Report ==
From January to June 2010 we've gone from $1930 in BC funds to $2005,
collected $430 in membership fees, $109 in Forum donations, spent
$233, paid a $250 membership fee to NYDIS. The MNYC fund is $1040.
We could use some membership payments to fund MNYC; Mark will write
the letter encouraging sanghas to renew their membership, and also a
letter to sanghas who've never joined.
== Women Spiritual Leaders' Summit ==
Doyeon Park says that Won Buddhism Center on Oct 13th will host a
1-day conference on "Women Spritiual leaders' summit for restoring the
dignity of women". If you'd like to participate or can suggest a
speaker, contact Doyeon at thiswill...@gmail.com. The event
includes people of all faiths and feminists of all spiritual
traditions, however, it is *only* for women.
== Next Meeting ==
Our next meeting will be in early September, date and location TBD.