Blue Cliff Monastery

We enjoyed the beautiful colors of autumn at the Minnewaska State Park. "Autumn is a second spring, when every leaf is a flower." Albert Camus

Please enjoy this poetry, music, video tour of Blue Cliff Monastery through the seasons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5il6X-bHO1M

Last night was Mid Autumn Festival at Blue Cliff, mooncakes and lanterns and a bonfire.

Last night we had a beautiful Mid Autumn Festival, walking with our brightly lit lanterns, eating moon cakes and sitting by the fire.

We are tasting some of the food we'll be making on our upcoming online retreat. So we know the recipes are delicious. Here is a link for more information. https://www.bluecliffmonastery.org//mindful-cooking-retrea

Knowing that winter is coming soon, we are cherishing the autumn breezes and the warm sun with a 6 am hike up to the Ridge this morning.

It's time to stop. It's time to breathe. It's time to take care of myself. How can I heal a wounded heart, if I only see the dark? https://www.youtube.com/watch

We celebrated the Rose Ceremony last Sunday. We come together to remember our parents and wake up our awareness of love, gratitude and happiness. At BCM, the day we have the Rose Ceremony, everyone has a red rose pinned on them which represents the continuation of our ancestors. Our parents, our teachers, our ancestors, they are all in us. And when we look we see ourselves in them. Everyone receives a red rose to remember we are a continuation. Our mothers, our ancestors, are... still alive in us. Sr. True Abiding and Br. Strength sing A Rose for Your Pocket in Vietnamese. A Rose for Your Pocket, An English Translation Here is a rose for my little sister, Here is a rose for my brother, And here is a rose for anyone Who still have their mothers So their hearts can be filled with wonders. And if one day, your gentle mother is gone: Like a flower without the sun, Like a child without laughter, Like your life has, forever, stalled, And the starry sky has gone. Mothers, they are the gentle stream, They are songs in a fairy’s dream, The cool shadow at high noon, The eyes of the stars and moon, And the guiding light in the hopeless dark. Mothers, they are the sweetest sugar canes, They are the ripest Areca nuts and bananas, and The crickets’ songs in the night, The hard-boiled land’s warm sunshine. Then one evening, you come home And look at your mother, lovingly, tenderly. You say, Mom, do you know it? What, dear? your mother says. Do you know that I love you? I love you so much. A rose has just been put on my brother’s pocket. And a rose has just been put on my little sister’s pocket. Hence, I beg you my brothers, my sisters Let’s celebrate with me, together. The-My, Pham. (1966) https://tasteofsmallthings.com//a-rose-for-your-pocket-a-/

On the seventh full moon of the lunar calendar, we celebrate our ancestors. We offered the Hungry Ghost Ceremony on Saturday, Aug 29, Mua Vu Lan, chanting and offering food to those ancestors who may be suffering and praying for them to be liberated. This was followed on Sunday with our Rose Ceremony, a time to express our gratefulness and appreciation towards our parents and ancestors.

Our tech team is happily preparing for the upcoming online cooking retreat at BCM

The summer is coming to an end. The crickets and katydids are singing their songs very loudly as we sleep. If we know how to look at the wonders of life with the eye of meditation, we will see that the Buddha has never stopped giving dharma talks on no birth, no death, inter being, impermanence and a lot more. (You can add to this list of dharma talks.)

2 Weeks Until the Earth Holder Community ONLINE FALL RETREAT REGISTRATION IS OPEN and SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE... https://academy.earthholder.org/ See more

Register soon to reserve a place in our first online retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery. We will be connecting to ourselves, and to the Earth, and learning about Vietnamese cuisine with the sisters of Blue Cliff. We know many friends miss the sangha here, and the simple food we serve when an in person retreat is available. This will be a good opportunity for Blue Cliff to be reconnecting with friends online after all these months of isolation. For more information and for registration, please use this link, https://www.bluecliffmonastery.org//mindful-cooking-retrea