Dear Sangha and Friends,

It’s no secret that for the past year The Clear Water Sangha has been going through a time of dharma soul-searching; one that seems to be bringing forth a significantly greater commitment by a number of members, and with that, a range of new programs. Of course, it’s great to see all this happening!

To add to this upswing, Ken and I have agreed that now would be a good time to have Jeff George begin to assume some additional leadership and teaching roles. We both have considerable confidence in him, and feel he’s at a point in his own training where he has much to offer. So to start this all off, on Sunday, June 18th, Jeff will be giving a short dharma talk, probably titled something like “Intuition, Practice and the Unconscious Self,” and afterwards, for the first time, he’ll be offering daisan.

Adding a second person who can give daisan is a big step, though perhaps something that’s also somewhat overdue. Given Jeff’s professional background, and his many years of practice, he’s clearly in a position to offer additional depth and breadth to the training at the Center as a whole. So just to be clear, people should feel free to go to daisan with both Ken and Jeff, as well as dokusan with me. And in case there’s any question, Jeff will feel free to check in with Ken or with me in terms of teaching/training issues that might arise in daisan (unless he’s asked not to share something), and within that established context, full confidentiality will be maintained. (As we’re using the term here, confidentiality applies to any “personal” matters that may arise, but does not apply to relevant supervisory or safety issues.)

And as a further addition to the schedule, Jamie Friedrich is scheduled to be coming down from Windhorse over the weekend of July 14th to give a dharma talk, and to review chanting and other matters with the sangha.

So the upcoming schedule looks like this:

Sunday, June 18th – Jeff George will be giving a dharma talk and offering daisan;
July 15th and 16th – Jamie will be giving a dharma talk and reviewing a number of training issues;
July 29th and 30th – I’ll be coming down for a series of weekend programs.

Of course, more details to follow.

With gassho,

Lawson