November writing retreat
Our next gathering of Writing As A Wisdom Project will be on Saturday, November 11, from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm in Greenfield.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few. —Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
Space will be limited so please register soon if you would like to attend. To register, please leave a comment here, or email Catherine at neighborhoodzen@gmail.com.
Combining meditation in the Zen tradition with the practice of imaginative writing, Writing As A Wisdom Project invites intimate and creative study of the mind. Engaging playfully with language, we write together from prompts and read aloud, listen, and respond to one another’s words. Our writings and responses are explorations, and our conversations are based in imaginative insight rather than craft or critique. The day is appropriate for participants at any level of literary or meditation experience. Meditation guidance will be offered as needed.
Please bring paper and pens, even if you are accustomed to composing on a keyboard. Please arrive by 9:15 to get settled, so that we can begin promptly at 9:30. We will share lunch and everyone is encouraged to bring something (vegetarian) to share with others. We will close the day with a final period of sitting meditation, followed by tea and treats.
A contribution of $20 is suggested. Any donation is welcome but not required.
For further details or to register, please leave a comment here, or email Catherine at neighborhoodzen@gmail.com.
from Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
We just think with our whole mind, and see things as they are without any effort. Just to see, and to be ready to see things with our whole mind, is zazen pratice. If we are prepared for thinking, there is no need to make an effort to think. This is called mindfulness. Mindfulness is, at the same time, wisdom. By wisdom we do not mean some particular faculty or philosophy. It is the readiness of the mind that is wisdom. So wisdom could be various philosophies and teachings, and various kinds of research and studies. But we should not become attached to some particular wisdom, such as that which was taught by Buddha. Wisdom is not something to learn. Wisdom is something which will come out of your mindfulness. So the point is to be ready for observing things, and to be ready for thinking. This is called emptiness of your mind. Emptiness is nothing but the practice of zazen.
Catherine Gammon is a fiction writer and Soto Zen priest, ordained in 2005 by Tenshin Reb Anderson Roshi in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. Before beginning residential Zen training at San Francisco Zen Center’s Tassajara and Green Gulch Farm, Catherine served on the MFA faculty of the University of Pittsburgh.
Catherine’s new collection, The Gunman and the Carnival, is forthcoming from Baobab Press in 2024. Her current novel The Martyrs, The Lovers is available now on Bookshop, as well as at White Whale Bookstore and Riverstone Squirrel Hill. Catherine’s previous novels are China Blue (2021), Sorrow (2013), and Isabel Out of the Rain (1991), and her shorter fiction has appeared in literary journals for many years, and in a collection of stories from the 1970s, Beauty and the Beast (2012).
After serving as Shuso (head student) at Green Dragon Temple/Green Gulch Farm in 2010, Catherine led retreats and gave teachings in Zen and writing in the U.K., in Brooklyn, in Pittsburgh, in Massachusetts, and at SFZC’s Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. She lives again in Pittsburgh, where in 2017 she started Neighborhood Zen.