To Respect All

“Ho’omaika’i - To Respect All”

— Henry Allen Auwae

Respect is a basic human need. Like water, air, and food, humans cannot thrive without respect. Respect is also a key component of Aloha. To respect all means respect yourself, respect others, respect the plants, the earth, and the ancestors. I think it also means respect difficult situations that arise for you.   

When I was on vacation in the little town of Mayville, WI, I went to a coffee shop the last Sunday we were there. The place was crowded and noisy. I put my order in for a couple of breakfast sandwiches and saw there were five other tabs before mine. 

I waited about 40 – 45 minutes growing impatient and irate. The café had thinned out by then and there were just a few people left. I talked with the young woman making coffee. “What happened to my order? I’ve been waiting for at least 45 minutes.” I said, my mood sullen.   

The young woman was very apologetic, she checked the orders and said it must have gotten lost. I’ve checked and we’re making your sandwiches right now.” She also gave me a little card saying, “I’d like to offer you a free drink the next time you’re in.”   

“I won’t be in again,” I said rather curtly. “I don’t live here. So I’ll take the drink now.” 

“Oh yes,” she said again very apologetically. I ordered a matcha latte which she made quickly. The warm green almond milk helped me feel a bit better. The young man making the sandwiches came out with one, but it was not for me. 

At that point, I felt my need for respect was not being met and I stepped up to counter and told the young woman that I would like to cancel my order. She said yes and apologized again. I left calm on the exterior but seething on the interior.   

To respect all is a tall order. In that moment and for an hour or so later, did I respect that young man making breakfast sandwiches? No, I did not. During the week of vacation, I didn’t practice meditation at all. Perhaps if I had I would have been more equanimous. 

I practiced walking after that. Just walking, one foot in front of the other. I walked all over the park and the river. I let go of any thoughts that arose and just appreciated the blue sky, the park with Canadian geese sunning themselves, and the slow muddy green river. Hardly anyone was out that Sunday morning. I didn't negate my anger. And I didn't focus on it. After a time, I noticed it had lessened. 

There’s a wonderful hula that we learned from Kuana Torres Kahele called Kukaniloko which is about the birthing stones located on the island of Oahu. Kukaniloko means to anchor the cry within. For me, that means taking responsibility for your feelings that come up and not blaming others. It also means pausing, not doing or saying anything right away, especially continuing to feed the story. Thoughts will arise about the experience, notice them, suspend judgment, and let them go.  

In Zen we practice getting close to things that are uncomfortable. That’s where wisdom resides. The small ego-self that thinks it’s the center of the universe can rule your life. We always want to protect it by judging, blaming, and criticizing others but seeing things exactly as they are is the deepest wisdom. If any speck of judgment remains we can’t see clearly and we suffer. 

Respect difficult feelings and difficult people. It’s part of the process of wholeness.  

Malama pono (Take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Roshi

P.S. Dharma Talks at our Sunday Morning Zen: Roshi Robert Joshin Althouse "Know Your Own Mind" https://youtu.be/cqmKJZYCzyQ and Roshi June Tanoue's "Contemplations on the Platform Sutra" https://youtu.be/nYD4apqATXI

No Success Without Preparation

“‘A’ohe ‘ulu e loa’a i ka pokole o ka lou.
No breadfruit can be reached when the picking stick is too short.
There is no success without preparation.”

— Mary Kawena Pukui, 'Olelo No'eau #213 Hawaiian Proverbs & Poëtical Sayings

Ho'omakaukau - To Be Prepared.

To be prepared is an expectation I have for my serious hula students. For Hula, it can mean practicing your hula so you come to class prepared to show your mastery of the dance: knowing the steps and hand motions, translating Hawaiian into English, and understanding the meaning behind the movements. Then, telling the story with feeling is possible.   

It takes repetition, again and again, for your body to learn the motions. Like riding a bicycle, once your body learns it, it embeds in muscle memory and one can dance more from the heart than the head.     

In life, there are many ways to prepare.  For example, how do you work with fear in troubled times? Fear is pervasive in our American culture. Last weekend in Chicago, 75 people were shot, 14 fatally, in weekend gun violence. Working with fear is important. Fear can sharpen our senses, or it can distort reality. I have been studying my fears for a long time. One way that I notice fear arises for me is when someone criticizes me.  It especially hits me if I have a poor self-image and I’m unconsciously depending upon someone else’s approval to prop up my self-image.  

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel has written a profound book called Opening to Darkness. For me, it’s a guide to working with fear, shame, and grief. Fear can arise of the dark, the unknown, and conflict. Zenju said in a wonderful talk at our Sunday Morning Zen recently, that you can look at fear as the mud that a lotus grows out of. We focus on being the lotus in the light and we’re happy when the mud is low and dry. When it gets high and thick, we just want to get out of it.   

Can we see that the mud – the messiness of our life - is offering us rich lessons? Is it possible to hang out in the mud, stop wishing you were somewhere else, and just be? She says this isn’t a request to stay with what feels bad.  It’s an invitation to see into darkness and transform negative feelings about our dark experiences and see the true nature of darkness – its harshness and its sweetness. 

Ho’omakaukau. I think one can prepare for uncomfortable times with a regular practice of meditation – in whatever form you choose - to help stabilize and ground you. The practice of zazen can help you notice when you’re ruminating and let go of those thoughts, desires, and judgments. Zazen simultaneously opens you to not knowing and boundlessness. In Zen, we say we sit because we are already enlightened, not to get enlightened. True wisdom lives within each of us as it is a part of the whole universe.   

The practice of letting go of thoughts may give us a glimpse of how we filter everything through the desires of our ego (me, mine, myself). The small sticky self, based on fear, only wants to protect itself. It’s a deeply engrained habit. Physical and mental safety are important. And is it also possible to see when our thoughts get in the way of the reality that all life is an interdependent whole and there is no separate self? 

Breathe, smile, be kind to yourself and others. That’s Ho’omakaukau, a good practice of preparation.       

Malama pono (Take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Roshi

P.S. Here is Osho Zenju Earthlyn Manuel's wonderful teisho on Opening to Darkness https://youtu.be/a6RDB-l1o-w.

Hearing What Can't Be Heard

“One hour of compassionate deep listening
can bring about transformation and healing.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

La’au lapa’au is Hawaiian healing with spirituality and medicinal plants.  La’au Lapa’au practitioners were the doctors in old Hawaii.   Papa Henry Auwae, a master la’au lapa’au practitioner and teacher who lived on Hawaii Island, always said that healing is 80% spiritual and 20% the plants.   

La’au lapa’au has five expectations. In English they are: to listen, to be prepared, to respect all, to sacrifice, and to be patient.  There is no order, the intention is to practice them all and I find if you really practice one, you are practicing the others.

For me a spiritual life is very much the life of a good person with a good heart.  They are pono which means right with themselves and their god. Pono also means loving yourself as well as loving and serving others.  And that is practice! The five expectations help one to be pono and balanced.  

Deep healing is heart opening and arises from this practice although it may be subtle. How can you tell when your heart opens? 

For me, hula is very spiritual, and I ask my serious hula students to practice these five expectations in their lives.  Ho’olohe – to listen was the first of five expectations that Papa Henry had of his la’au lapa’au students. 

We practice Ho’olohe when we practice meditation.  To listen deeply internally or externally, we quiet down.  Talking ceases.  We pause, maybe for a long time.  That’s meditation for me - stopping activity and sitting quietly – essentially doing nothing.  

When I meditate, I open to listening. I notice my busy mind full of thoughts one after the other.  Some are very loud.  Then I practice letting go.  I notice if I’m ruminating.  Then I let go and in zazen – I come back to breath.  This is a process that I keep doing repeatedly on the cushion or chair.  I still my body, I listen, and let go.    

This helps my brain, my mental health.  I calm down.  When my body is still, my mind can also be still and vice versa because mind and body are one.   

If I sit long enough, a deep focus and stillness can arise.  In Zen we call that samadhi.  And then 'ike - insight - can arise.  One can hear what can't be heard. How am I treating myself? How am I treating others?   

Ho’olohe.  I love listening to birds when I’m sitting early in the morning or anytime of day.  And yet, a lot of the time, I don’t even hear them singing as I’m so distracted by my thoughts...and so, I return to the practice of ho’olohe - being present to what is. Listening, again and again.   

Meditating regularly. Hearing what can’t be heard.     

Malama pono (Take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Roshi

P.S. Here are my recent talks given during our March silent meditation retreat: Ziyong's Earth https://youtu.be/jL60xtQO9sY and Instructions to the Cook https://youtu.be/rOWzi8kDHwE

The Darkness of Ignorance is Inseparable From Nirvana

“The darkness of ignorance is inseparable from Nirvana.”

— Dogen

My husband has had a new hip for a little over two weeks. The surgery was a huge trauma to his body and it’s very slowly healing. There’s still pain but he’s managing with meds and careful walking with a walker.    

Surgery day was intense. I thought that I was pretty calm but mentally that wasn’t the case. That evening, I put Caesar salad dressing onto my lentil stew for dinner and stood waiting in an elevator that didn’t move because I didn’t press the destination floor. I can’t imagine how much more scrambled I’d be without my meditation practice.   

Caregivers are unsung heroes. One can’t help but see the deep connection between beloved patient and caregiver. While the patient aches over the affected area, the caregiver aches in ways that can’t always be so easily seen. For me that took the form of frozen or sore muscles from tension and fatigue.  

And I noticed, with fatigue, that I was less patient and a bit grouchy when teaching my regular classes. I tried hard to keep up with my everyday tasks with a normal demeanor, but what's normal in situations like that? 

Our Zen community was remarkable during this time. Sangha members brought us delicious meals that nourished us. I didn’t have to think about cooking which was good because it was a busy time for me as well. I taught four master Hula classes on different days at Wheeling High School to some 120 students (freshmen through seniors) on top of my regular teaching schedule.   

Located in the northern suburbs of Chicago, Wheeling is 60% Latinos. The high school atmosphere there was calm and peaceful. While it was worrisome to watch someone in pain at home, it was a joy to bring authentic hula to students who wanted to learn. Mostly teen girls, their youthful bodies swayed to beautiful Hawaiian music, and they learned quickly to be the sun, the moon, the mountain and the ocean.     

It was interesting to see the me that was worried, mentally scrambled, and grouchy and the me that was in her element teaching hula. Both one and the same.  

Happy May Day is Lei Day Everyone!

Malama pono (Take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Roshi

P.S. Here are my recent talks given during our March silent meditation retreat: Ziyong's Earth https://youtu.be/jL60xtQO9sY and Instructions to the Cook https://youtu.be/rOWzi8kDHwE

Clear Answers Are Difficult To Come By

“As a Sansei, I longed for specific answers to my questions about how the internment affected my mother and father.  What I found is that clear answers are difficult to come by… I went to Heart Mountain to tear down some walls.  Now I gently embrace them.”

— Sharon Yamato

I flew to my oldest female cousin’s funeral in Los Angeles this past week.  Kayko Kawabe Ishii was 82 years old when she died.  

Kayko’s parents were my second set of parents when I went to college at the University of Redlands.  They were my home away from home and I’d spend holidays and vacations with them.  Their ho’okipa/hospitality was always welcoming and generous.  I remember Kayko as a teenager.  She wore black turtleneck and tights, slept late, and always had a smile on her face.  Since I didn’t make it to Aunty and Uncle’s funeral, I thought, I must go to Kayko’s. 

The funeral was held at Fukui Mortuary – one of two Japanese owned mortuaries in the heart of Los Angeles near Little Tokyo.  The weather was clear, cool, and sunny for the funeral.  It was good to see family: cousins, their partners and children at the funeral on Tuesday.  

I also got to spend time with two of my brothers - Carl and Paul - who flew in from Hawaii Island.  It’s always fun when they’re around.  Most people were dressed in aloha attire per Kayko’s request – so the gathering was a Hawaiian style celebration of her life.  I'm sure she loved it!

On Wednesday my brothers, cousin BJ, and I went to Little Tokyo to visit the Japanese American National Museum. They have an amazing exhibit of the Japanese American World War II incarceration.  We saw a special display called Ireichō.  

It has become a sacred book of names – the first comprehensive listing of over 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated in US Army, Department of Justice, Wartime Civil Control Administration, and War Relocation Authority camps.  Appointments to see names are made at least a month ahead so I wasn’t able to see the names of my relatives in the book.  But just knowing they were there and recognized was comforting.   

Embedded into the very materiality of the Ireichō are special ceramic pieces made from soil collected from seventy-five former incarceration sites in almost every region of the United States.  Tiny jars holding the soil are attached to wooden plaques with the name of the camp.  I especially noted the camps at Kilauea, Honouliuli and Sand Island in Hawaii.  My maternal grandfather, Joichi Tahara, was prisoner at all three.  He was innocent and died 9 months into his incarceration. 

Heart Mountain, Wyoming was where fifteen of my paternal relatives were imprisoned.  One of the fifteen, Kayko was sent there when she was 4 years old.  She remembers the great Wyoming sky and mountain and wondered why there were men on the other side of the fence with guns pointed at her.  

It’s hard to know what kind of impact that had on her.  But joy and celebration were key in her life.  She became a cheerleader in high school, and social worker in L.A. County.  She married the love of her life, raised three children, and then went on to get her master’s and PhD in psychology treating trauma in the Japanese American community.  

There was no military necessity for this mass incarceration.  It was because of racism and greed.  I dream of the day when we can all gently put down our weapons and walls – whether they be guns or personal armor – and open to our own and each other’s unique differences and sameness.  We are all humans in different stages of waking up to our lives.    Can we practice letting go of outdated thoughts and opinions to be with what is? Gentleness arises from this and helps us embrace all that is.

Malama pono (Take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Roshi

P.S. Here are my recent talks given during our silent meditation retreat: Ziyong's Earth https://youtu.be/jL60xtQO9sY and Instructions to the Cook https://youtu.be/rOWzi8kDHwE

P.P.S. Click here for April newsletter which features inteview with Warren Furutani and his new book ac-ti-vist https://conta.cc/3ZMEMYv

Continue to be Steadfast in Your Love for the Land

“E ho‘omalu i ke kupa‘a no ka ‘aina.  
Continue to be steadfast in your love for the land. ”

— Joseph Nawahi

I’m back in Oak Park/Chicago after 20 days on the island of Hawaii.  Well, my body is back. A group of us, hula people, went to Hawaii, the birthplace of Hula, to open to aina/land as teacher. Opening is letting go of our opinions, judgements, the small-selves that can narrow and wreak havoc in our lives.   

When I close my eyes during meditation, instantly I am on Hawaii Island, sitting as I did there most mornings to experience Hawaiian sunrise.   

Cardinals are the first to start singing in the early morning in Puako.  Mynah birds start their chatter and doves coo as the sun rises.  Dozens of white cattle egrets fly together – sometimes struggling against powerful winds - to see what fish they can catch over the frothy kai/sea light with white caps.     

Mama humpback whales with their calves like to frolic in the early mornings and late afternoons.  I see their spouts, then their backs and if I’m lucky I get a wave from a fin or a tail.  Or if I'm really lucky I'll see half a whale's body sticking up over the water and then a huge splash as she submerges on her side.  

Yesterday's early morning sky turned pink, orange and then gold.  Knowing it was my last morning, I greedily breathed in the ocean air, white plumeria filled trees, beach-land with great keawe (mesquite) forest, incredibly beautiful clouds, and numerous birds singing and chirping away.  

The sea was flat and calm.  A heavy mist descended from big white cumulus clouds over Kohala Mountain, enveloping the mountain ridges and slopes green from constant moisture.  The mist felt like my mood, sad to be leaving this beautiful place.  

Our group was there to learn from the ʻāina/land - the spirit of aloha it is and the aloha it naturally generates.  We have so many experiences to process: from the monsoon rains in Keaukaha that cleansed us along with Waiolena Pond, to the quiet fiery movement of magma in Halemaumau Crater - Pele’s home.

I can still hear the gentle strumming of Keoki Apokolani Carter as he serenaded us with song. We sat and listened in Kawaihae's healing breeze.  Let’s Kiss the Sky, written by Yvonne (his wife), is a fitting tribute and offering for the beauty of the great firmament above us that is us.  Keoki sang and we danced on the concrete sidewalk that overlooked keawe, sand, and ocean on that cool, cloudy afternoon.  

Aloha means a deep love and compassion that just is.  You feel it on the ʻāina/land. Aloha and the ʻāina are deeply intertwined with Hula, like a magnificent lei. Can we be aloha when we dance? Can we be aloha in our daily lives?  How do we malama/take care of the ʻāina? How do you care for yourselves? What does it mean to love?

Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (Thank you and take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Roshi

P.S. Here’s a link to Kumu June’s recent talk on Hawaiian Epistemology and Zen.

P.P.S. Here’s a link to the March Newsletter.

Sing Gratitude Songs to the earth

“...We are born to befriend rain,
to recognize the personality of wind,
to thrill to the magic of stone,
to wonder at the power of oceans,
to marvel at the aroma of plants and
to find cousins in ants, owls and moon faces.   
 
Why not exist to sing gratitude songs to the earth
because of the gratitude she inspires...
why not flame the love of life within the natural world... 
Why not be educated by beauty... ”

— Manulani Meyer

My happy place is the Hawaiian beach along the grand Pacific Ocean. Whether the waves are crashing on the shore or gently lapping, it is a place where I feel I can truly breathe.  My pores open and soak up the salt sea spray and the negatively-charged ion space revivifies me.

The whole environment feels so much a part of me and I a part of it.  I feel the cool, wet shifting sand beneath my bare feet.  The sand massages and pumices away my callouses and cracks.  The cool-cold water invigorates my body’s immune system.  It’s the source of all my wellness. 

The cooing of the doves in the thick keawe – mesquite trees – caresses my eardrums.  The warm humidity and trade winds – gentle breezes – rustle through the palm trees – tall, stately and graceful.  Memories of childhood are still there waiting for my return, though my body is not as energetic and supple as it used to be. 

I am happy there – at peace – enjoying just being as I sit at the old, wooden picnic tables underneath clear blue skies remembering when we’d sit there – my parents and I - enjoying nature and each other.  It’s a different pace than the one at home or at work.  Being at the beach meant slowing down, savoring life.  Swimming, going for a walk, playing cards, lying on a beach towel and feeling the soft sand under my back, the hot sun on my front.   

The healing sea water can cleanse you of any jumbled energy that really doesn’t belong to you – if you sit and lounge in it for at least 20 minutes it just takes confusion away.  You come out of the water transformed. Or maybe you come out as who you really are without all the unnecessary clothing and armor you’ve put on.  You can get closer to your heart of hearts. 

Can any other place help me get to my happy place?  Yes.  I recognize it during my silent meditation retreats where I can start understanding what I’m holding on to, honor it, and then gently let go.  Then I can be at a place of ease of being, okay and satisfied with who I am, and able to serve others. 

The sun at the beach works magic with the sea.   A relaxed body-mind at ease with life as it is.  Able to look at difficulties that arise like a puzzle.  Curious, not sure how it all fits together, gently persistent, until it all comes together.   

Our basic human nature is compassion.   It is part of the earth and all the elements.  Can we honor this compassion with gratitude and generosity no matter what?  Can we say YES to life and truly dance from our hearts? 

Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Roshi

P.S. Here's a talk I gave in early December at Sunday Morning Zen entitled, "Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World" https://youtu.be/Dx6qXIztSE8

Happy New Year - May You Walk in Beauty!!!

“In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty again...”

— Navajo Prayer

Joshin and I spent the last few weeks of 2022 in the beautiful deserts of California. We saw huge mountain ranges and open space filled here and there by Joshua trees, ocotillos, many kinds of chollas, and a lot of creosote bushes.   

Big black ravens, cactus wrens, finches, sparrows, hawks and acorn woodpeckers (lower elevation) were a delight to see.  A black-tailed jackrabbit was relaxed yet alert walking about sharing the day with us.

Yucca Valley and Borrego Springs are both international dark sky communities that promote responsible lighting and dark sky stewardship.  I was thrilled to be able to see the night sky from our bedroom and outside!

In Yucca Valley, we saw a bit of the Geminid meteor shower – some ten to fifteen shooting stars in the early morning just before dawn.  At the Anza- Borrego Desert State Park, I learned how to read a sky map and saw planets and stars for the first time in a long time.  Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, Polaris and the Small Dipper, bits of the Milky Way, the Pleiades, Pegasus, Deneb, Vega, Altair and more!

We arrived home several days ago and today is New Year’s Eve – a time to clean and cook for the New Year!  Julie Kase and I are making a Japanese lunch for tomorrow’s Sunday Morning Zen. On the menu are my mother’s recipe for nishime – root vegetable stew - and sekihan – rice with azuki beans.  

This is what I used to make for our family's big New Year’s Day potluck in my parents’ Kukaiau home. I remember those days well. A neighbor, Mr. Kato, would always bring an onaga - big red snapper - he had caught.  It would be steamed with ginger, green onions, special sauces and wrapped in ti leaf.  Dad would make rolls and rolls of sushi.  Ma would make the namasu – pickled cucumbers – and ho’io (fern shoot, tomato and onion) salad.  

My middle brother Robert would bring his home-smoked meat – wild pig – and raw opihi he had gathered marinated in shoyu, garlic and a little hot chili peppers.  My oldest and youngest brothers and their families would laden the table with Korean-fried chicken, spareribs, sweet potatoes, macaroni salad, green and red jello, and blueberry cream cheese pie.

It was a beautiful feast of food and warm aloha of family that set the stage for a good New Year.  So I look forward to seeing you tomorrow and in the coming year. May this new year be a beautiful one for all of us!

Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Roshi

P.S. Click here to see January newsletter. https://conta.cc/3CjPBbp

P.P.S. Here's a talk I gave in early December at Sunday Morning Zen entitled, "Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World" https://youtu.be/Dx6qXIztSE8

Patience to Win My Freedom

“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, 
but to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,

but for the heart to conquer it.

Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved, 
but for the patience to win my freedom.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

It's momentous to have Mauna Loa erupting again on Hawaii Island and a joyful thing that there is no one in her path to be hurt. Tutu Pele is spectacularly alive and well and we respect and honor her!

My father used to say, “Health is wealth”.  As I age, I find that health is also joy.  My body thrives with a balance of movement, good food, and a good outlook on life.  It’s easy for me to skip these things when I get busy.  If I slip up on any part of this triad, I notice that I’m grumpy or foggy and my body is tense and out of sorts.

Mindfulness meditation helps me maintain this balance. The Dalai Lama, in The Book of Joy, says there are two types of happiness.  The first is the enjoyment of pleasure through the senses. Happiness here is limited and brief.  

True joyfulness, according to the Dalai Lama, is experiencing happiness at a deeper level through the mind, such as through love, compassion and generosity.  He continues, “When you are joyful and happy at the mental level, physical pain doesn’t matter much.  But if there is no joy or happiness at the mental level, too much worrying, too much fear, then even physical discomforts and pleasure will not soothe your mental discomfort.”

So how do I care for my mind?  I love the four sesshins - silent meditation retreats - that our Zen Life & Meditation Center holds each season of the year.  It’s a time when I can practice with others and take a big pause. I slow way down and truly rest my mind by practicing mindfulness.  Which seems like a paradox.  But the slowing down and doing one thing at a time is actually necessary for mind training.   

My mind likes busy.  Sometimes, it doesn’t know how to stop and can become like a prison.  Sesshins are a chance for me to change the pattern.  I sit on a chair and pay attention to my body.  At times, I consciously breathe deeply and fill my body with oxygen.  Other times I just sit with nothing in mind and watch many thoughts come and go.  My practice is letting go of thoughts.  Again, again, and again.  This is the antidote: one-pointed attention and ho’omanawanui – practicing patience helps me be patient.  Busy mind is needed to help me practice patience and win freedom.

Joy naturally bubbles up at some point midway through the 7-day sesshin.  Deep and abiding joy that is unmistakably here. I find myself whistling softly as I clean or cook.  I believe joy is here for everyone.  My body, mind and heart know that joy, that aloha, is everywhere throughout the universe.  

All Blessings for the Holiday Season!  

Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Sensei

P.S. Here's the November talk that Karleen Manchanda gave at Sunday Morning Zen entitled, "Embodied Awareness" https://youtu.be/KvxtEp5EPZA

Maintain Joy

““Maintain Joy””

— Norman Fischer , Training in Compassion Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong

November is Native American Heritage Month and I think of our Native American ancestors who walked and loved this beautiful land.  They knew this land sustained them and they treated it with respect.  They must have admired and appreciated this beautiful time of year in Illinois with oak trees turning brilliant red, and elms and maples turning a warm gold.  

I think of the great underground interconnection of tree roots reaching out and touching each other – a vast family that on the surface looks individual and separate – but underground it truly is one whole organism.  Thus, what happens to one is felt by all.  It is like the story of Indra’s great net of jewels that span the universe into infinity.  Each jewel at each vertex reflects all the other jewels, a metaphor that teaches great interconnection, and interdependence.  

How do we see this interconnection and interdependence?  How is it related to maintaining joy in every moment?  The Polish people say that a broken heart is a whole heart.  Wholeness includes sorrow and joy separately and at the same time.  How can both exist together in this vast fathomless web of life?  How can they not?

One of the slogans I love is “Maintain joy.”  It’s taken from Norman Fischer’s book, Training in Compassion – Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong.  Joy is often seen as balance in this context. Equanimous. Can I appreciate everything that arises in my life?  Not so thrown when winds of agitation, anger, and fear arise.   A joyful mind is actually happy to meet whatever happens and work with it skillfully.  

We choose how we see the world.  We can’t know everything.  What may seem a hardship could actually be a blessing and vice versa.  So it’s good to lighten up and have a sense of humor about the whole thing.  That’s compassion in action.  It doesn’t mean shirking responsibility.  It’s about balance.  Not too tight, not too loose.  

Halau i Ka Pono is the name of our hula school.  Halau means a place of many breaths. Pono has a multitude of meanings among which are goodness, uprightness, morality, well-being, welfare, and benefit.  Halau i Ka Pono means place where many breaths cultivate the goodness.  Goodness here means compassion, balance and joy.  It’s a practice, and that means learning and joy never ends. 

Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Sensei

P.S. Here's the October talk I gave at Sunday Morning Zen entitled, Indra's Net https://youtu.be/_gsOPzMRecw

Amazing Grace How Sweet The Sound

“Amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saves a wretch like me

I was once lost and now I’m found

Was blind but now I see.”

According to Judaism, the Days of Awe are upon us.  The Days of Awe are ten days that prepare observants for the Jewish New Year on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year. It will be the year 5783.   Yom Kippur is not just about fasting.  Making atonement is key during these days.  Atonement is to make right.  For me it also means at-one-ment - seeing that we are part of a greater whole and that what we do makes a difference.

Days of Awe means not only to let go of grudges and hurts, but to reach out to someone you may have hurt and make amends.  It means to make things right - what we call ho’oponopono in Hawaiian culture.  

A regular practice of meditation, of looking deeply within, helps us to first see what we are doing: the opinions we keep, the actions we take.  One can get comfortable in habits that are not helpful.  The practice also helps us cultivate courage to let go of a pattern of behavior that doesn’t work.  

You can feel that everything is against you, that you are facing an immovable mountain in the person you are at odds with.  It is at that very moment you can choose to remain stuck in that opinion or find true courage to let it go.

I think that all of us are born with an innate kindness, love, respect and joy that no one can take away.  It’s hard to see with all the distractions around us.  I see it when I practice meditation regularly.  If there is even any self that you are trying to defend, you are breaking the vows and precepts of a bodhisattva.  A bodhisattva is an awakened being who has vowed to save all beings from suffering, transform delusions, and see reality as it is.

It takes courage to let your opinions or thoughts go and make amends.  Atonement is about humility and seeing reality as it is.  It is valor because you must wrestle with that small self that has grown so Big. Grace follows from letting go - liberation from a very small view of self into the great interconnections and interdependence of Wholeness.  

Happy Yom Kippur!

Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Sensei

When Your Heart Calls, You Must Answer - 2022 Native American Bearing Witness Retreat - Part 3

“When your heart calls, you must answer.”

One is called to bear witness and not turn away from tragedy or great misfortune at Zen Peacemaker Bearing Witness Retreats. When your heart calls, you must answer for you are opening to your humanity and your interrelationship with all that is.

In the early afternoon of day 3 of our 5-day Native American Bearing Witness retreat, we drove into a small trading post parking lot just outside Matxo Thipila or Devil’s Tower National Monument.  Called Devil’s Tower by Americans, it was the first designated national monument in the U.S. It is a sacred site for over 20 Plains Indian tribes. 

We sat on wooden benches under the trading post’s awning to eat our sack lunches.  Matxo Thipila (Bear Lodge Butte), also known as Gray Horn Butte, loomed in the distance.  After lunch we caravanned following Manny and Renee Iron Hawk’s vehicle. We drove slowly through the ranger’s gate.  

There was something mysterious and powerful about Matxo Thipila.  I could not take my eyes off it throughout the drive. The open land was dotted with pines.  Just past a prairie dog community, we turned in and stopped at Belle Fourche Park.  Few humans were there besides us.  

The land around Matxo Thipila felt clean to me.  For two days, we sat at the foot of Matxo Thipila and listened to stories from the elders. I liked sitting on the ground - scruffy grass with hard dirt showing through.  A few ants and other insects meandered about.  

One afternoon we took part in a Buffalo Ceremony lead by Ivan Looking Horse. The buffalo ceremony shows us how to live in community and especially how to protect the vulnerable from danger.   Ivan Looking Horse told us Lakota learned much from the buffalo, and that Crazy Horse learned war strategy from the buffalo.  A lot of his strategy is still taught at West Point! 

It is one thing to hear about the ceremony and totally another thing to be in the ceremony.  It was a very powerful experience – but I will save that story for another time.

On the last morning a small group of us decided to meditate at a beautiful white marble sculpture called Circle of Sacred Smoke created by Japanese artist Junkyu Muto.  It was quiet at 7 am.  The sun had risen, and tall cottonwoods were casting shadows through the cool, fresh air.  The sky was a clear blue.   Magpies occasionally flew by from the cottonwoods.  

Lots of open space nourished us as did a plethora of green and brown grasses, wild white sage, and yellow-green euphorbia.  Nearby a prairie dog community sat in their own meditation over their homes, holes that lead to an underground network.   Everything was just sitting - at one with the great Matxo Thipila.  

In the late morning, we drove a couple of miles past Belle Fourche Park to Devil’s Tower National Monument Park.  This park was crowded - teeming with tourists – with frenetic human energy.   But when I looked up at Mato Tipila - that gigantic mass of igneous rock - something solid, ancient, and true was present.   

In the early afternoon, the elders took us to their ceremonial grounds away from the national park. We were the only people present.  It was wide open space with gentle rolling hills around the hallowed Gray Horn Butte.  This was their place of ceremonies, the place for vision quests, sweat lodges, and the offering of prayers.  

It was hot.  We walked quietly through tall golden grass to sit under trees in a circle.  Some sat on folding chairs, others on the ground.  Mindfully, in silence, we made four prayer flags.  We wrapped tobacco in one corner of each colored cloth: black, white, red and yellow.  Then we tied all 4 bundles together as one.  In prayer, we stood up and walked to a tree that called to us.  We tied our prayer flags onto a branch.  I prayed for healing of friends and family who were ill or suffering. I prayed for harmony, for peace.

We returned to Belle Fourche Park for our final circle.  People shared from the heart and listened while others took their turn.  We each experienced so much that it will take time to integrate and digest.  I wanted to offer a hula but kept wondering if it would be all right to do so there at that place.  My heart said yes, but my head didn't know.  

When it came to my turn in the circle, I mentioned that I wanted to dance a hula, but I would need a few extra minutes. I shared my anxiety about not knowing if it would be appropriate.  

After the circle was complete, retreat coordinator, Genro Gauntt, said that it would be good to end with a Native Hawaiian hula followed by a farewell shaking of hands.  Slowly I stood up, a bit stiff from sitting on the ground for so long. Thankfully my body was able to sing, dance, and chant.  It was my gift to Matxo Thipila and everyone there. 

The song I offered was Make Strong by Hawane Rios. When I first heard it about a decade ago, the song moved me so much that I choreographed a hula to it.  In both English and Hawaiian, it is about courage and love during difficult times. It is about listening deeply to the ancestors and to all that is around and within you.  

We have a proverb, ‘A’a I ka hula, waiho ka hilahila I ka hale’ which means when one wants to dance the hula, bashfulness should be left at home.  It is good advice to listen to your heart.  

Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Sensei

P.S. Here's a talk I gave recently about the 3 Tenets of a Zen Peacemaker and the Native American Bearing Witness Retreat.https://youtu.be/aOPiSmWMUNg

P.P.S. Link to Bearing Witness Slide Show https://youtu.be/klfdKPfYfAY with music: Meditation by Nawang Khechog with Carlos Nakai and Make Strong by Hawane Rios.

---

Renee Iron Hawk

Renee Iron Hawk was born in Los Angeles CA in the 1960’s.  She and her husband Manny Iron Hawk were Lakota elders who helped coordinate the Zen Peacemakers' Native American Bearing Witness Retreat in July. They shared their lives culture, and sacred places.  Renee is sensitive, warm, intelligent, down to earth, and humble.  She is a woman of many talents helping her people. I'm happy to introduce you to Renee Iron Hawk. 

My mother was Carrie Jewett Fasthorse and my father was Frederick Fasthorse. They have taken their spiritual journey. May they Rest In Peace. I have an older brother named Paul Fasthorse and I had a younger sister Michelle DeMarrias. She took her spirit journey in 2015. May she Rest In Peace.

I presently live out in the country with my husband Manny. We have eight children altogether. And the last younger two, have been out of the house for 6 and 4 years now, both going to college. So, we are empty nesters. We are adjusting to that…but this past summer, we kept grandchildren off & on.

I have an undergrad degree with a major in Human Services, a minor in Psychology and an emphasis in Chemical Dependency.  Since my graduation in 1990, I’ve returned to my home reservation to work helping our oyate (nation) in the fields of alcohol & drug prevention education, mental health case management & home-based therapy, Adult Prevalence research involving Fetal Alcohol Spectrum & victim services assistance with my tribe. I have conducted a research project on teen alcohol use & safety issues, as well as a project in community health.

Presently, my Hasani (other half) and I are about one year into establishing our own business; Three Rainbows Consulting, Inc. We have a few projects that we are presently working on and with other organizations. One is a continuing project to provide equine therapy through traditional Lakhota horsemanship for youth. The other project is working with our Thiospaye descendants of Chief Spotted Elk to have personal items of the massacre site returned to us. And of course our liaison work with our hunka (adopted) relatives, the Zen Peacemakers, Inc.

What are the most important elements of your culture that you’d like to share?

I believe that one of the most important elements of our culture is WoLakota. Simply put it is harmony & balance in our everyday life as being related to every living thing in our universe. I truly believe that this element begins with living with true regard and respect for others and our environment.

What did you find meaningful in the Zen Peacemaker bearing witness retreat?

The ability of people to bear witness to tragedy without looking away. Truly a humbling act that reminds me of our Lakota value of humility.

Special Native American Bearing Witness Retreat Issue

“When I deeply contemplate the transient nature of human life, I realize that, from beginning to end, life is impermanent like an illusion….how fleeting is a lifetime.
”

— White Ashes from Rennyo’s Letters translated by Hisao Inagaki et al 

Leilani Hino and June Tanoue

One of my practices is bearing witness – not turning away and it’s not easy. Even bearing witness or deeply listening to my own feelings is hard. But hard doesn’t mean impossible. It’s an important practice and I do the best I can.

Recently I attended a traditional Buddhist memorial service on zoom held at Honokaa Hongwanji near my hometown for Leilani Hino. Rev. Yamagishi, the minister, chanted the sutras while families and friends offered incense. 

They all sang a Japanese acapella song that was heartfelt and beautiful. Toward the end of the minister’s reciting of White Ashes, a gentle rain started up here in Oak Park, raindrops rapping at my window pane ever so lightly.  

Leilani was no ordinary person. Her son Moki, who serves as an Episcopal priest in Wailuku, Maui, gave a beautiful eulogy about her. I didn’t know that she piloted a Cessna airplane, parachuted out of planes, and loved riding dirt bikes at full speed sailing over obstacles.  

What I did know of Leilani was that she was a real person, down to earth, a good sense of humor and full of generous aloha. Seven years ago, four of us went to her home in Ahualoa to pick flowers and ferns from her garden to make leis for my kumu’s 30th anniversary performance of his Halau Hula Ka No’eau. She was happy to see me; meet my hula students; and share her wild, bountiful garden. 

Lately, I’ve been being gentle with myself, resting when I need to rest, and going a little slower since returning home from the 2022 Native American Bearing Witness Retreat organized by Zen Peacemakers. 

The genocide experienced by Native Americans started long ago. I learned the history of it when I met Steven Newcomb, a Shawnee/Lenape scholar, seven years ago at the first Native American Bearing Witness Retreat. He did thirty years of research and uncovered the Roman Catholic Papal Bull on the Doctrine of Discovery, which he calls the Doctrine of Domination. 

Papal bulls were edicts issued by the Catholic Church in the 15th century to empower Portugal and Spain to colonize, plunder and enslave non-Christian West Africa and the Americas. Other colonial powers soon followed suit, and the doctrine became the basis for slavery and European claims over Indigenous land and people. Thus began the genocide of Native Americans.  

It was difficult to listen and bear witness to Manny Iron Hawk tell of the massacre of his relatives and people at Wounded Knee. Generational trauma of violence runs deep. We can see the effects of that genocide and loss of culture at Pine Ridge: high addiction rates of alcohol and meth; physical and sexual abuse; and suicides. Violet Catches said they never had such things when their culture was strong and intact.  

I cannot imagine what it’s like to lose families and friends in a massacre, something that happened to Native Americans when European Christians came to settle this land. I do know I miss my friend and family members who died natural deaths. What about family members of those who died violently during the massacre or in mass shootings that are becoming commonplace in America? 

How do we live with pain and suffering? How do we turn loss around?  Can we bear witness to it? Life is short. Ho’olohe - listen deeply. If you can really listen, know that it is love manifesting.

Malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Sensei/Kumu Hula

P.S. Your donations all month will go to the Zen Peacemakers for future Native American Bearing Witness Retreats. Please give through the Donate Button below.

P.P.S. Here's the Sunday Morning Zen talk about the Bearing Witness Retreat that four of us gave on 7/31/22. https://youtu.be/FfX1x86wH5k

P.P.P.S. Enjoy my Bearing Witness Slide Show with music: Meditation by Nawang Khechog with Carlos Nakai and Make Strong by Hawane Rios.https://youtu.be/klfdKPfYfAY

Wendell Yellow Bull and Ben Powers 

2022 Zen Peacemakers Native American Bearing Witness Retreat, Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota

At breakfast one morning during the retreat, my husband and I were sitting with Joe and Ben Powers. At twelve, Ben was the youngest at the retreat and happy to be there with his father Joe. 

Wendell joined us, sat down, and quietly gave Ben a little present.

“What is it?” Ben asked as he opened the small buckskin pouch and took out a piece of deer antler. Wendell took the antler, put it to his mouth and blew a loud sharp sound that pierced the restaurant! It was a whistle and sounded like an eagle’s cry. Everyone looked up from their breakfasts with wide eyes. Wendell smiled and gave it back to Ben. Ben was touched and amazed that it was for him.  

In an earlier meeting with Ben, Wendell shared his dream that President Biden would visit the Lakota Nation and be presented with the canupa during a sacred pipe ceremony. Ben followed up after the retreat sending a letter to President Biden inviting him to the Lakota Nation for the ceremony. 

Wendell Yellow Bull told us this about his life:

My name is Wendell W Yellow Bull, member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe and lived for fifty seven winters on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation located in the south-west part of the state of South Dakota. I served in the United States Marine Corp for four winters. I have been alive for sixty-one winters.  

My family lived on my Grandmother’s land allotment, for generations. My grandmother Nancy Red Cloud/Horn Cloud's allotment is part of The Red Cloud Community. Her father is Chief Charles Red Cloud, son of Chief Jack Red Cloud. Chief Jack Red Cloud is the eldest son of the historical Chief Red Cloud.  

My grandfather William Horn Cloud, is the son of Joseph Horn Cloud and Millie Beautiful Bald Eagle. William Horn Cloud was a Lakota singer who recorded his songs with the record label “Canyon Records.” His father Joseph Horn Cloud was a Wounded Knee Massacre survivor. He erected a stone headstone for those who were killed at this killing field. It has stood as a symbol since 1917.

My mother was an LPN nurse who worked for the United States Indian Health Services for 38 years. She was a single parent who raised five children. My father Wendell Albert was a police officer who died from suicide.

After my enlistment was up in the United States Marines, I too have served in Tribal Law Enforcement Program for Ten Winters. I also served in Emergency Medical Service as an EMT for seven years. I’m presently working on development of a structural Fire Department on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

June Tanoue: What does it mean to be a cannupa yuha wicasa - a sacred Pipe Keeper?

Wendell Yellow Bull: The sacred Cannupa known as the 1868 Treaty Pipe is a symbol of the peace agreement between two sovereign nations. The symbol of the 1868 Treaty Pipe has more meaning. It is tied into our belief system that when used as a spiritual bond and when broken by one of the parties there will be serious spiritual retribution. 

Red Cloud upheld his agreement and didn’t participate in any battles. To this day, that spiritual bond is in place from generation to generation. As a sacred object, the Cannupa has been passed from one generation to the next; second generation Chief Jack Red Cloud; third generation Chief Charles Red Cloud; fourth generation Nancy Red Cloud/Horn Cloud; fifth generation Millie Horn Cloud; sixth generation Wendell W Yellow Bull. It is a commitment for life.  

Live with prayer, to conduct oneself to seek knowledge, to live a good life, be kind, don’t become materialistic, do your best to help. Keep your mind healthy – no usage of any mind-altering substances. Learn to come to terms with your own emotions. But for the most; every human being does follow this daily. So it is nothing new. Because it is an ICON (a person or thing regarded or as worthy of veneration) for the Oglalas, one must be aware of oneself daily. 

Abraxas by Robert Joshin Althouse althouseart.com

The Point is to See Life as the Practice Field

“The point is to see life as the practice field. 
Every aspect of our life has to become practice.”

— Bernie Glassman

In July, my husband and I drove from Chicago through the beautiful states of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming marveling at the wide open space, clouds, cornfields, rolling prairies, Black Hills, and buttes. As we drove, we prepared for the Native American Bearing Witness Retreat, the 7th annual event with Lakota elders organized by the Zen Peacemakers International. 

We met Native American elders Manny and Renee Iron Hawk, Violet Catches, and Wendall Yellow Bull and nearly 30 participants from around the country and Great Britain. We sat together in beautiful natural surroundings on sacred land: Spearfish Canyon with chipmunks and birds, Matxo Paha (Bear Butte in South Dakota), and Matxo Thipila (Bear Lodge Butte or Devil’s Tower in Wyoming) with prairie dogs and magpies.

We listened and learned about the Lakota sacred way of life: Wolakota and Tiospaye. Wolakota means wholeness of life, harmony, peace and balance with everything and everyone. Tiospaye means extended family or kinship.  

We were honored to visit, with them, two of their most sacred sites: Bear Butte and Bear Butte Lodge. We learned how to make prayer flags with black, white, red, and yellow cloth. We tied tobacco in one corner of each cloth praying all the while. We held prayers in our heart for sick family and friends, for people suffering, for the earth as we tied the flags onto limbs of trees.  

Manny Iron Hawk, a fluent Lakota speaker and storyteller, told stories of Iktomi, their trickster, bringing welcome laughter to us. Manny goes to elementary schools and tells the children stories of their culture. He also told gut-wrenching stories of his grandparents who were survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.  

Manny’s wife Renee Iron Hawk, a social worker, said, “Trauma is passed down generations and becomes part of our DNA. But we can work with it because we are strong. We are survivors.” 

Wendall Yellow Bull, former reservation police chief, told us that the Pine Ridge Reservation where he lives, has a population of 40,000 people with 80% unemployment. “It’s a prime market for illicit behavior.”

Bernie Glassman started these retreats after asking himself these questions on his 55th birthday in 1994, “How to bring Zen into our life? But Zen is Life. What is there to bring? And into what? The point is to see life as the practice field. Every aspect of our life has to become practice. What forms can we create in modern society that will be conducive to seeing the oneness of life? What are the forms that will make it easier to experience the interconnectedness?”

Native American history, like Native Hawaiian history, is a shadow for America and for all of us. These bearing witness retreats are ways to open, look at shadows, see interconnections, and to heal. It’s a long journey that's well worth the effort. There's still so much to share. I'll be writing more about the retreat and giving another talk in the future. 

A heartfelt thank you to all who contributed to our participation in the Bearing Witness Retreat! It's not too late to contribute if you haven't yet with the Donate button below. Any donations collected this month will go to the Zen Peacemakers for future Native American Bearing Witness Retreats.

Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Sensei

P.S. Here's the link to the Sunday Morning Zen talk about the Bearing Witness Retreat that four of us gave. https://youtu.be/FfX1x86wH5k

P.P.S. Link to Bearing Witness Slide Show https://youtu.be/klfdKPfYfAY

Wild Geese Revealing the Whole of Heaven

There are times when I find it most necessary to have no schedule, commune with nature, and do whatever it is I feel like doing. That time renews and refreshes me. It reminds me of the whole of heaven, the whole of life.

June is the month I take that break. Rest from a busy year! Last week, we drove to East Peoria and rested on the banks of the Illinois River in an airbnb with a porch that faced tall huge cottonwoods and the river.  

The Illinois, that maps also call the Upper Peoria Lake, moves very slowly. It’s home to flocks of geese and white pelicans. I saw the pelicans one morning flying near the other shore in a line over the river. Exciting! The cottonwoods are also home to many birds. We saw a dazzling red-headed woodpecker and a red-bellied woodpecker with white markings on its black wings, two dark hummingbirds, blackbirds, and starlings. A couple of killdeers and their babies lived nearby. We even saw the resident muskrat, a dark furry mammal that looks like a cross between a beaver and a rodent.  

Sitting on the back porch in silence watching, listening, and feeling was profound.  There was generally a breeze and even a stiff wind on the hottest days making sitting outside quite bearable. The river’s different faces ranged from calm blue and glassy in bright sunshine to dark gray with small white caps in a fierce thunder and lightning storm.  

I am spoiled being from Hawaii and very particular regarding where I go swimming. But my husband loved being in the river and could easily be in it for an hour. One hot day, I dipped in for maybe 10 minutes. The water was warm from the roasty 90 degree weather. I liked the warmth but I can’t say that I was relaxed floating in the murky greenness. It was waist deep shallow and the river’s floor was smooth and soft the way a fine chocolate pudding feels but filled with sharp rocks and clams and who knows what else that poked at my feet.  

I could easily imagine monsters lurking there if I let my mind go. It wasn’t comfortable and after 10 minutes it was time to leave the murkiness. I paddled my way back then stepped gingerly to shore. Relieved! The next day I saw a gaggle of geese happily bathing and grooming themselves where I had entered and left the lake. Despite my unease with murkiness, it felt good to be one of the many beings that shared this river if even for 10 minutes.

My husband and I didn’t stay completely off the grid. We watched the Congressional hearings on the January 6th riots. I felt good being an American watching testimony from many of the witnesses like Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers. And then later in the week, the Supreme Court struck down Roe vs Wade declaring a woman’s constitutional right to abortion, upheld for nearly 50 years, no longer exists. This was an opportunity to practice patience! Abortion is never an easy decision to make for a woman. Yet it is her body and she has every right to make the decision!

We continue now with a road trip to South Dakota where we will go on the Zen Peacemakers’ Native American Bearing Witness Retreat. We’re taking our time. We’re reading up on the history that Native Americans have lived in the different towns we drive through along the way. It’s mostly a sad history of Euro-Americans taking these beautiful lands and pushing Native Americans out. It’s good to be aware of this history. I don’t know how it will impact the future, but I know it will for me.

We’ve raised half of our $3,500 goal for the retreat so would love your contribution if you can afford it! Click on this link for info on the bearing witness retreat. Any amount appreciated! https://conta.cc/3y3tPXF

Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Sensei

“Wild geese pass
Revealing
The whole of heaven”

— Takaha Shugyo

Stir the Darkness Around You and Bring Forth the Light

“Stir the darkness around you;
and bring forth the light - e ala e!”

— Excerpt from Brandy Nalani McDougall’s poem, ‘ekolu The Salt-Wind - Ka Makani Pa’akai

It’s a comfortable 81 degrees F under the shade of our spreading plum tree. Bright pink single petal peonies with cheery yellow anthers have popped underneath our small tart cherry tree. Deep purple clematis with cream colored anthers are starting to climb the trellis on the sides of the walls. My favorite month has begun!  

What a treat it is to sit outside…strong breezes are dancing through the great trees in the distance. The wind energizes everything. And there are casualties. Many oblong baby green plums litter the ground; they couldn’t hang on in the bustling wind. Ahhh, another summer without luscious fruit to eat from our own tree.

Large flat stones line the ground with moss (and weed) filled crevices in between. If I look at the crevice, I feel the weeds magnetizing my attention. “Pull me,” they say, “pull me.” I listen to their call and imagine that it’s the back of a giant tortoise that I’m cleaning. There are also tiny plants that also fill the crevices - like the tiny green leaf creeping thyme that smells minty when you gently crush it between your fingers.

The birds that gather around the garden mesmerize me. Two black starlings sit on the telephone wire high above the parking pad just outside the garden. They utter an occasional squawk when they fly to change positions. Brown sparrows chirp hidden in the dense green leaves of the plum tree.  

I look up at the cloudy sky and see a few swallows soaring and twittering as they catch bugs. Swallows are the dive bombers of the bird world. They are so fast! The subtlest change of their wings create flight patterns that glide and frolic through the air.

Handsome robin redbreast has flown onto one of the raised beds, looking for worms. He pecks through the dark watered soil in hopes of finding a juicy one. He finds no worms but definitely unearths goodies for his meal.  

It’s these little moments that make me happy. They fortify me as I practice not knowing and bear witness to darkness swirling. When I deeply practice not knowing and bearing witness, light always comes forth. I’m grateful to be alive in my 72nd year on the planet and able to keep practicing Hula and Zen. They nourish me as does our backyard garden.  

What is it that you find nourishing? 

Malama pono (take good care of body, mind and hea),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Sensei

May Day is Lei Day... Garlands of Flowers Everywhere

“May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii, garlands of flowers everywhere.
All of the colors in the rainbow, maidens with blossoms in their hair.  
Flowers that mean we should be happy, throwing aside a load of care.
Oh, May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii, Lei Day is happy days out here.”

— Ruth and Leonard “Red” Hawk, 1929

Brilliant magenta and pink magnolias, perky yellow daffodils and the plum tree in our back yard has burst into white blossoms filling my heart with joy!!! May is always an exciting time when flowers start appearing again in the Oak Park neighborhood as it means spring is here after our winter snows! Happy May Day, Everyone!  

I have fond memories of May Day growing up in Hawaii. It is when Hawaii celebrates flowers with Hula. Every year at Paauilo Elementary and Intermediate School, all the classes would spend months preparing a dance for our May Day celebration. The public was invited and many parents attended to see their children perform. Everyone wore leis, colorful aloha shirts, and dresses. Moms and aunties wore billowy muumuus with bright flowery patterns. 

Most of the classes danced a hula, but in Mrs. Nishiyama’s 3rd grade, there was always a maypole dance. Multi-colored ribbons were strung from the top of a pole. Each student held a ribbon. When the music started, boys went one way and girls went the other taking turns lifting their ribbon for a student to go under and then over. 

The ribbons fluttered in the gentle breezes. We’d weave the pole down to about half way and then turn around and unweave it. We had to practice many times to get it right. When we did, I loved seeing how dancing together, we created a gorgeous multi-colored woven pole and then unwove it returning to long fluttering ribbons.

There was also great pageantry. We had a May Day court with two ninth graders chosen to be king and queen, representing the royalty that once ruled the islands before annexation. The king wore a beautiful red cape, the queen wore a white dress with Victorian collar and sleeves. She always danced a beautiful, dignified hula. 

Students represented princesses of the eight major islands wearing their official colors and flowers.

• Hawaii Island - red and lehua

• Maui - pink and lokelani

• Molokai - green and kukui nut flower

• Oahu - yellow and ilima

• Kaho’olawe - gray and hinahina

• Lanai - orange and kaunaoa

• Kauai - purple and mokihana

• Ni’ihau - white and pupu shell

We’d cheer everyone and then we’d rise and solemnly sing Hawaii Pono’i, the national anthem of Hawaii composed by King David Kalakaua in 1876 honoring King Kamehameha I who brought all the islands together as one in 1810.  

There was a lei and flower arrangement contest set up on tables in the library. I’d marvel at the gorgeous varieties of lei and flowers displayed.  

Flowers remind us of the impermanence of life - beautiful just for a few days and then they are gone - year in and year out. What generosity they bestow when they bloom - the generosity of the universe. I am deeply grateful.  

Come join us for our first ‘May Day Is Lei Day Celebration’ with hula, fragrant leis, and potluck for those who come in person!  May 1st, 3 - 4:30 pm CST. It will be hybrid - so all long distance friends and family can join the fun too! $10 donation benefits the Halau.

Malama pono (take good care of body, mind and spirit),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Sensei

The Gate of Emancipation is Open

“The self and the things of the world are just as they are. 
The gate of emancipation is open.”

— Dogen Zenji

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Last week, we carelessly left the front door unlocked and a stranger walked into our center and home at 3:28 am Wednesday. A thin black man wearing a mustard colored shirt and a surgical mask that dipped below his nose was photographed by our front door security camera.

My husband and I were fast asleep. He walked to the back of the zendo and took the blue and cream satin altarcloth I made and a small black speaker sitting on the cabinets. He came upstairs and entered my study which is kitty-corner from our bedroom. He took my iPhone, wallet, and laptop.

On his way out he looked in the hall closet and found my backpack to put his newly acquired things in. He dropped the altar cloth hurrying back downstairs to empty out the donation box of some $8 in small bills and change. He left the building at 3:37 am wearing my bright polka-dot backpack on his back.

When I woke, I noticed a few odd things: like my desk being slightly pulled away from the wall, no iphone anywhere, and the altarcloth upstairs on the dining room table. My husband, who awakens first, found the cloth on the floor in front of the hall closet and put it on the table. After morning meditation, four hours after our stranger left, our executive director told us that someone had been in our building. Ahh, a break-in. It all started to make sense. 

We went into action. Through the Find My iPhone application on my desktop computer and working in concert with the Oak Park police, we were able to “get our man” a couple of miles away. His photograph, the polka dot backpack, and pinging the iPhone when the police were close to him helped find him and recover all of my belongings.

He’s awaiting trial and my things are still at the police station. 

A couple of people have asked if I feel traumatized knowing an intruder was so close. I thought about it. Initially I felt uneasy that someone had been so close. But soon after, I felt fine. There’s a calmness at our Zen Center and Halau that happens when people meditate regularly in a space. Did that have any effect on him? I wonder.

We all have the choice to do something or not. To take something or not. Our second Buddhist precept says, “I take up the way of taking only what is freely given and giving freely all that I can.” This same man came in once before and asked me for money to buy food. I could have given him some dollars but I did not.  

The gate of emancipation is open. Let’s walk through. 

Malama pono (take good care of body, mind and spirit),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Sensei

P.S. Listen to a talk I gave recently on Sunday Morning Zen on "Buddhas in Training - The Way of the Bodhisattva" (enlightened being) https://youtu.be/1H0_0jRYdac.

Everything is the Breath

Everything is the breath. Breathe.  

Without it, we die. With it we live, think, love, connect, dance. This breath is not extravagant but very precious. 

Gentle February sunlight streams through my window onto my desk. Four magenta orchids enliven the atmosphere. They sit on my desk’s southern sunny edge. A small, triangular, white Alabama quartz crystal; an oval subtly-speckled, moss green labradorite; and a golden Tibetan singing bowl are close by. Photographs of people I love - my parents, Papa Henry, my husband, and my kumu - anchor the southwestern corner of my desk.

A stack of files used to sit right in front of the flower pot. That made it hard to see the orchids or the photographs. All I saw were files and work. I decided about a week ago to move the files. Now I’m surprised and nourished by my vivid orchids and family of photographs.  

So much energy gets released when I clear out things. Clutter seems to be life-energy in stasis. No movement. No dance. No presence. Could having a cluttered mind make it hard to be present? How do you remove mind clutter?

A paragraph in Zenju Earthlyn Manuel’s new book, The Shamanic Bones of Zen caught my eye.

"Zazen is a prolonged ritual of seeing and listening…. Za means sitting and zen means meditation…. To take one’s seat in Zazen is to sit upon the earth. It is to connect to the source of our life which is the breath passed on by the ancestors."

I had never thought of sitting meditation as a prolonged ritual of seeing and listening. But it is! Zazen is practicing to see what your mind is doing and listening to what your heart and body are feeling. It’s bringing attention to thoughts and letting them go. Always clearing and coming back to re-focus on breath. Again, again, and again.  

Breath passed on by the ancestors speaks of our deep interconnection to the past, present, and future. Can we awaken to energy that suffuses the world, the universe, our bodies? Find out. Become intimate with your breath.

Everything is the breath. Breathe.

Malama pono (take good care of body, mind and spirit),

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Sensei

P.S. Listen to a talk I gave recently on Sunday Morning Zen on "Buddhas in Training - The Way of the Bodhisattva" (enlightened being) https://youtu.be/1H0_0jRYdac.

Happy Lunar New Year of the Tiger!

Happy Lunar New Year of the Water Tiger!!!

Chinese mythology says that the tiger is the king of all their animals. As a zodiac sign Tiger symbolizes power, courage, confidence, leadership and strength. It’s a year that will bring new changes and encourage people to overcome all challenges and difficulties. I was born in the year of the Tiger.

Last week I had an interesting dream. I dreamed that I saw two oceans coming together. This meeting formed a straight line from the shore back to the horizon. This was a powerful event. I thought I should go up to a corner of a ledge of a building to see from a higher vantage point. The words “continental divide” came to mind which I thought was curious because of this coming together of two great oceans. They were eye-to-eye so to speak, not merging into one ocean, and yet they were one.

I walked up to the high ledge and as I got closer to the corner, I felt a strong altered state arising in me. The energy felt too strong. I was afraid that I would lose balance and fall into the ocean. So I backed off.  

When I awoke I gently chastised myself saying, “why didn’t you go to the ledge and see/experience that power? It’s only a dream!”  

Thich Nhat Hanh writes in his book, Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm:

“We have a great, habitual fear inside ourselves. We’re afraid of many things — of our own death, of losing our loved ones, of change, of being alone. The practice of mindfulness helps us to touch nonfear. It’s only here and now that we can experience total relief, total happiness… 

…In the practice of Buddhism, we see that all mental formations — including compassion, love, fear, sorrow, and despair — are organic in nature. We don’t need to be afraid of any of them, because transformation is always possible.”

What could be a better practice than transforming fear into love? This practice takes courage, diligence and patience - all aspects of a meditation and hula practice - perfect for the Year of the Tiger!

May your lives be joyous, healthy, and blessed!!!

June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue

Kumu Hula, Sensei