August 15 2008:  Having just returned from a visit to Throssel Hole Buddhist
Abbey, I feel rested and more relaxed. The Abbey is beautiful and the West Allen valley looking lush and green - thirty new people attended the week- end introductory retreat which went very well. I encourage anyone who has not yet visited the Abbey to do so. This is by far the best way to experience the breadth and depth of our Soto Zen practice, and to deepen one's own training. The Abbey publishes a yearly schedule of retreats and festivals; please clink on the link on our home page for more details.

Feb 6 2008:  I have been told that without a broadband connection, opening our website takes a long-time (maybe as much as a minute!)  I'm sorry about this, but I also feel that the Dharma Cloud Trust website is not simply a source of information (useful though that is). I had quite a struggle with my fine webmaster in getting the spiritual side of the website right. He teaches web design which explains the high quality of the site. To illustrate the importance of the spiritual content, let me give one example - the starting page itself: The picture of the full moon and the two geese contains some useful teaching. To me, it shows a disciple followed by his own disciple together drawing closer and closer to the True Master - 'one calls and one replies' - the gong being struck three times reminds us of the importance of meditation in all our activities (even waiting for a website to open!). I hope this helps a little. If anyone visiting the site wishes to offer some thoughts on improving it, please get in touch (by email is best, although a message board should appear soon) - watch this space.