NEW EVENT COMING UP WITH DIANA SALTOON AT BRIGHTWAY ZEN CENTER, BEAVERTON, OR

Guest Talk: Diana Keishin Saltoon-Briggs

June 9 @ 11:15 am - 12:15 pm

Guest Talk at BWZ

Join us for a talk on June 9th with Diana Keishin Saltoon-Briggs where she’ll be discussing Zen, Japanese Tea Ceremony, her book Wife, Just Let Go: Zen, Alzheimer’s, and Love, and more.

Diana’s Bio:

Diana Saltoon has traveled extensively, studied yoga, and in the 1970s developed a program that dealt with modern stress. Her interest in Zen led to a study of Chado, The Way of Tea, as a Zen art and received a certificate of Chamei from the Urasenke School in Kyoto, Japan. Diana became a teacher at the Portland Wakai Tea Association in Oregon before moving with her husband, Robert Briggs, to New York in 2011. They returned to Portland, Oregon, in 2014. A member of Zen communities in Oregon and New York, Diana continues to give presentations, classes and workshops on the Zen Art of Tea. She is the author of Tea and Ceremony: Experiencing Tranquility (2004), The Common Book of Consciousness (1990), and Four Hands: Green Gulch Poems (1987).

Below is a bit more about the upcoming talk in June:

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EXPLORING THE JOURNEY OF A CAREGIVER – OPENING TO LOVE, STRENGTH, AND ACCEPTANCE

“To love what is” – is easy to say – however it means placing a great faith in love. Whether we’re caregivers or anyone facing emotions of grief, anger, hurt or sadness, abuse or depression, ultimately it’s love that soothes the aching heart. Even Einstein – admitted about the universal force of love.

In Zen, we don’t talk much about love perhaps because love is a given – like air and light –

We know that besides air, food and shelter, we need relationships – from birth to death – life evolves in relationships with each other and nature – showing us the truth of non–separation and the natural love that arises with this experience

We think of Alzheimer’s has a devastating disease. I’ve experienced it as so as a caregiver for my husband who passed away from Alzheimer’s.

But something happened when I joined Robert on his Alzheimer’s path, feeling as he felt.

When memory is lost

The discovery of an immense heart emerges

Thus Alzheimer’s brought my husband and I an essential gift – placing a great faith in love

Love that transcends conditions and measure

Love beyond the individual self

The journey of a caregiver also brings grief. But I learned that grief is an expression of profound love within that is never exhausted.

Exploring grief and all its related emotions, I’ve learned that when held with compassion, I’m able to release them into the spaciousness of peace and love.

Another gift of Alzheimer’s besides placing a great faith in love – is that Robert brought an instant connection to the Now – and to the true experience of our lives together.

https://brightwayzen.org/event/guest-talk-diana-keishin-saltoon-briggs/

MOVING TO MAUI (2)

Two weeks in my new place in Maui and simply loving it. Have met new friends and have received all kinds of help from ones I’ve known a long while and any problem seems to disappear with the breeze that enters in, lifts and takes it away. 

The ocean calls and invitations are open to any and all adventures. In the wake of exploration, may I continue to find ways to share my love of tea and Zen in Hawaii. I’m also learning beautiful Hawaiian phrases that express the aloha spirit beginning with learning that the word “aloha” means more than hello and goodbye but has a deeper and wider meaning that encompasses the cultural spirit of the people. One of their phrases that I particularly like is: "Mohala I ka wai ka maka o ka pua – which means “unfolded by the water are the faces of the flowers” – I like to think that each of us is a flower –unfolding in the waters of life ...

Hawaiian Golden Trumpet

Hawaiian Orchid (Housewarming gift)

MOVING TO MAUI

moving, transitioning

the ultimate test -

letting go

It’s now official – I’ve moved to Kahului, Maui, as some of you may already know. It happened rather suddenly in late February when the apartment complex I was waitlisted on called about a vacancy. The place is smaller than the apartment I had in Portland which of course calls for more “letting go.” One thing about moving – it challenges us to be flexible and creative no matter the size or flavor of the place, where we can design an atmosphere that is welcoming and peaceful. The training of Wa/Kei/Sei/Jaku (harmony, respect, purity and tranquility) – principles of Chado, relate to everyday life and guide in this move. So “lohi , lohi,” or slowly, slowly, in regards to the countless errands of settling in. Slowing down to enjoy the sunshine, the warmth, the breezes, the beauty of sea and mountain, not to mention the wondrous scent of the blossoms at about every turn that greet me in this lovely little oasis in the middle of Kahului.

Of course this gift of Hawaii could never have happened without the help of many friends who made it possible - for the packing, shipping, moving furniture out of my Portland place, donations, etc., the list is endless and all I can say is that my heart is filled with gratitude for your help and for the greater gift of knowing you and having you in my life. I can only promise that your aloha will be doubly returned should you visit the island and come and see me.

Below are photos from the airplane on my way to Kahului Airport, Maui.

 

At a beach in Wailea
 

NEW ARTICLE ON WIFE, JUST LET GO

Portland, Oregon's Northwest50Plus Magazine featured an article on Wife, Just Let Go on their link: 

https://www.northwest50plus.com/news/portland/wife-just-let-go-a-husband-and-wife-s-difficult/article_ae100640-1e65-11e9-8a6c-83a9267d1811.html

Many thanks to Maggie White for her review and to Michelle Te, Editor of the Magazine. 

GRIEF RITES FOUNDATION, PORTLAND, OREGON

For those who are experiencing sadness, loss, depression, and a feeling of helplessness, I would like to share news of an event of readings that occurs in Portland, Oregon, the 1st Monday of each month. Each of these events is hosted by Grief Rites with the courtesy of Post 134 at NE Alberta, in Portland, Oregon, and each event is unique and transforming. Melissa Lynne, founder of Grief Rites with the assistance of Mari Gonzalez, has created a safe and welcoming space for all those suffering from grief, giving them a way to express themselves however they will in an essay, a poem, or music. Whether experienced or inexperienced reading and sharing words, all are given this opportunity to open up their hearts and begin to heal.

The moving essays of each reader never fails to touch those present forming a deep connection with one another. It doesn’t matter who or what triggers their grief. What's always present at Grief Rites is the profound love that comes from each heart and the sincere words shared poetic in their expressions.

My experience of grief, as sad as its name applies, has now become a way to turn to joy – something I thought I’d never know again – as I shift attention from the hurting heart to the other I’m hurting for. I've found that a daily ritual of gratitude and blessings to my departed one helps in this turn. Sending positive wishes of ease, joy, peace, clarity, abundance and love, uplifts my grieving heart and reaffirms abiding love.

This kind of loving and compassionate ritual never fails to heal. I wish this may hold true for everyone and, as the New Year unfolds with each season, may it bring you ease of heart and wondrous blessings.

TED TALK ON ALZHEIMER'S

Below is a link to a talk that really needs no introduction
I wish every single medical professional, pharmaceutical business, and especially our Government officials that wield the power to appropriate funds for research,  may watch this. Please share and share again this important video that awareness may grow along with an insistence by all of us that more should be done in research and care to address this debilitating and terminal disease of Alzheimer’s  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkIg-SxPzTA