DRZC planting itself on a brownfield

Dear friends and relations,
Dharma Rain, our temple in Portland, has been struggling for a few years with the restrictions of limited space and a growing number of people who want to be involved. We have expanded to include many diverse and fulfilling programs. Finally we are looking at a solution. We just closed on a 14 acre piece of property that was a landfill over 30 years ago. Here is a link to the site plan for a small portion of the property, a cohousing community that we are currently calling the householder's refuge. The temple proper will have a sodo, hondo, residents hall, office building and school. householder refuge I know a good many of you are burned out on institutions, and so this is not your cup of tea. I wanted to share it anyway because the vision is so beautiful. We have been building community in the Portland area for 30 years now. I am excited to be moving forward into this grand vision that puts householder, children, monastics, and retirees all on the same piece of land, with gardens, orchards, a pond and wildlife, with the Dharma as its physical and spiritual center.
in Gassho
Gyokuko

Hi Gyokuko! Nice to see your name again.

Thank you for sharing this. I love the inclusive aspect of your plan and wish the Dharma Rain Zen Center all the best success. I hope you will post updates as time goes on, and we'll visit your website too, to see what's new.

Very best,

Lise

That is a great plan,good for you

:-) How lovely, Gyokuko! All the best with your endeavour. (-:

It looks good, Gyokuko. Good luck!

Best wishes to all the community!

Hi Gyokuko,

I just wanted to let you know how happy I am that you were able to acquire this piece of property and go forward with your plans for the Householder's Refuge. Best to you and all at DRZC.

Gyokuko - sounds wonderful, it makes feel quite nostalgic for the good days in the ZMS and the founding of Shasta and Throssel, before it all went awry. Good luck and best wishes.

Wonderful news, Gyokuko!

I have greatly enjoyed following the developments over the past several months. Best wishes to you, Kyogen, Dharma Rain, your Sangha--and our wider collective Sangha!!!

Good luck! Some people have been hoping for something like this for years.

I didn't see the link in Gyokuko's post, so I'm trying again here:

http://www.dharma-rain.org/?p=about_siskiyou

She thanks you for your wonderful words of encouragement.

With palms joined,

Kyogen

Oops. Now I see it. The new link more information, however.

Kyogen

As a distant but supporting member of DRZC I should say I haven't participated in the community discernment or decision making around this project. On the one hand, I wish it well and success to all those who will participate. On the other hand, I have misgivings about the move towards a project of this nature that involves physical segregation of the DRZC members from the larger community in the inclusion of residential facilities and homes reserved for Buddhists and DRZC members. The strength and health of cities and towns in my view is pluralism, and any segregation by religion does not seem like a healthy move, either for the religious community or the surrounding secular community, creating an inevitable insularity in the religious community. I can only imagine that this discussion has been held internally, but perhaps it is a good discussion for this forum to engage in.

The cohousing section is open to anyone who shares the values of the cohousing group, which will be incorporated as a LLC, but be connected to and work in close cooperation with the temple. We are negotiating with the city to create a pathway through the grounds that will be open to the public and connect two areas that are now separated by various obstacles. Other parts of the grounds will be open to the neighborhood as well, including a dog run facility that may be developed beyond that use some years in the future, and a playground area for children. The zendo will be open for anyone to attend, just as our current zendo is, except during retreats.

I should add that the neighbors are, so far at least, ecstatic about our moving in there. The only other serious option was a big box Walmart, which raised many hackles. Neighbors came by to help on our work day, and others asked us to be sure to let them know ahead of time when the next will be so they can come too. We are very active in the neighborhood associations and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. This has been a very different experience for us. I'm sure there will be issues down the road, but we'll meet them as best we can.

In gassho,

Kyogen

Thanks, Kyogen, for the response. These are welcome aspects to this project. I wonder about the psychology of fostering a group identity as Buddhist community. It is good that non-Buddhists are welcome to participate in the residential component. But it is still a visible Buddhist community and must foster some sense of "us" vs. "others." Perhaps it will work out fine, I just have a concern about sectarian based communities and the group psychology dynamics they may foster. Sectarian tribalism has deep roots in history, psychology, and culture with destructive effects. Perhaps the whole concept of spiritual/religious communities simply reinforces those tendencies. Maybe I am wrong but I think it is good to have this discussion.

I think it's possible to have a strong identity and core values, and also be open to and engaged with others who are very different. That's been our experience engaging with the conservative Evangelicals. A group of them came to the Wednesday class this week, meeting a group of Korean nuns who were visiting us. Interesting evening. I think sometimes, in the effort to emphasize "common ground," people lose clarity no longer stand for much.

Kyogen

Thanks for the response, Kyogen. I certainly support what you have done at DRZC in your outreach and I support your focus on engagement with "otherness." For myself I don't find my deepest identity in religious or group identification. Participation in a spiritual practice is not about sectarian identity for me. For example, in my view there is a vast difference in **being** a "buddhist" as opposed to being a person who happens to have a spiritual practice that has commonality with some branch or other of buddhist tradition, likewise for all the other tribal "isms" in the world. I believe when we make religion the source of our tribal group or personal identity, it masks what truth we may experience, rather than reveals it. There are buddhists who chant for new cars, buddhists who wage war on persons or groups identified with other religions or ethnic groups in the name of religion.. and so on. When you say your identity is "buddhist" it tells me nothing about your deepest truth, (the content on this forum is ample evidence of that) likewise Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jew... As I am able to experience your humanity and personhood as it reveals in how you live your life, the choices you make, how you behave, and how you practice the life of the spirit, it reveals a more authentic truth while not creating a division based on sectarian group identity.

That said, I am open to the experiment unfolding with DRZC, and wish it well.

[Admin note: Several posts were moved in order to keep the original thread on topic. Please see the new thread called "Religious Identity and "Isms" under the category "In Theory and Practice".]

Bill says: "There are buddhists who chant for new cars, buddhists who wage war on persons or groups identified with other religions or ethnic groups in the name of religion.. and so on." Just look at what is going in in Myanmar today. Buddhists are saying they are the authentic people and the Muslims should get out. Violence is perpetrated by the Buddhists.