Lay Ordination of Michael Locher
Mike Locher received the Buddhist Precepts from Rev. Phoebe in a private ceremony on June 20. We first met Mike in a parking lot in Ventura when he came forward and asked if we were monks. Some years went by after that first meeting and then, following the temple’s move from Ozena Valley to Santa Paula, one day he turned up at the new temple, thereafter joining us for morning meditation and service once a week. Mike has two small children and works for Ventura County Mental Health, so coming to the temple before work was the only way he could join in. Earlier this year he informed us that he was moving to Florida, and wanted to take the Precepts, but as it happened, he moved first and then, on a West Coast visit, he came to morning meditation every day for a week. At the end of the week on Friday, we held the ceremony. We offer our congratulations and very best wishes to Michael in his life and his Buddhist practice, and hope we will see him on occasions when he is in the area. He and his family have settled in Orlando, Florida.
News
Over the summer we have had a steady supply of vegetables from our garden, making for nutritious meals on a daily basis. This year the tomatoes, eggplant, kale, basil, beans and green onions have been plentiful, and our fig tree is starting to bear a fair bit of fruit. We have a persimmon crop on the way. As usual, the flowers have also been lovely; lots of cannas, coreopsis daisies, succulents, gladiolas, geraniums and clematis to name a few. A pride of Madeira and a heavenly bamboo, planted in the spring, have taken well in the front garden. Special thanks to Katharine Ogden for her frequent visits to help out in the garden.
Our longtime friend Karen Hillman was able to temple-sit for the monks during July, making it possible for us to make a camping trip up into Oregon and back, which was most enjoyable. We traveled as far as Eugene, Oregon, where we were able to stay at the Eugene Buddhist Priory with Rev. Hugh while Rev. Seikai visited his mother, his brother and his family. Rev. Phoebe also spent time with Rev. Oriana, the former prior who still lives in Eugene. The weather was fair apart from one encounter with thunderstorms in the Northern Sierra Nevada, which we dodged. Our gratitude to Karen, who loves our two dogs and makes it possible for us to get away for a few weeks in the summer.
Summer break ended in mid-August. Since then we have had many guests in the temple, particularly for Sunday meetings. Rev. Seikai was invited to meet with the Insight Meditation of Ventura group on August 18, at which about 30 attended and were enthusiastic about the meeting.
A Reflection by Rev. Seikai
When I moved to Pine Mountain Buddhist Temple in 2000, driving over with Rev. Jisho to meet with the Morro Bay group was one of the first things I did; at that time the group was meeting in the Morro Bay library in a children’s reading room. Meetings were usually well attended with fifteen or more people coming regularly. On occasion we held day retreats in the city of San Luis Obispo. Rev. Phoebe made several trips to the Central Coast with people driving her over and back; when Rev. Leon Kackman moved to Pine Mountain Temple in 2005, he would also meet with the group, alternating with me. At some point the County of San Luis Obispo took over the library, changed things around and asked us to find a new place to meet, which turned out to be a partitioned gymnasium at a civic building in Morro Bay. Not the best of places, we decided to keep looking, and Judy Walters found a small wedding chapel behind the Coalesce Book Store downtown; the group has stuck with that location ever since.
I look back with gratitude to the people who hosted me overnight in their homes following evening meetings—the drive back to the temple the next morning was about 125 miles. At various times I stayed over with Mary and Jerry Williver, George Kastner, Sarah Foland, Beth and Steve Kaminaka, and most often, Tom and Judy Walters. So many people were very generous with their time, hospitality, donations and efforts on my behalf and to keep the group going as long as it did. At the end of 2016 I had to reevaluate my capacity to keep making the trip to the coast and decided I couldn’t continue. A core group of members have continued to meet in the wedding chapel for the past nine years, testament to their commitment to the practice and to each other.
Central Coast Meditation Group: Beginnings and Endings
By Tom and Judy Walters
The Central Coast Meditation Group, which has been sitting together for nearly four decades has, by mutual agreement, recently ended. This group originated after Religious Studies Professor Judy Saltzman invited the late Rev. Jisho Perry (of the former Santa Barbara Buddhist Priory) to give a talk on Zen Buddhism at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the mid-1980s. Besides a chance encounter I had had years earlier with a wandering teacher named Peace Pilgrim, I had yet to meet someone who resonated with my intuitive sense of what a spiritual life might look like. This event with Rev. Jisho was my first time encountering a Buddhist Monk and made a deep impression, one that surpassed the intellectual curiosity from reading various books on Zen and Eastern philosophy.
That day, Reverend Jisho was assisted by a former junior monk named Vicki “Teishin” Howdyshell. Teishin lived nearby in Los Osos and, like Reverend Jisho, had also trained at Shasta Abbey but later moved on to lay life. After an inspiring day of meditation and Dharma talks, Teishin quietly asked if anyone was interested in sitting locally. This was the beginning.
For several years, Teishin, myself, and a few others, would sit in her tiny apartment on Wednesday evenings. Later, we relocated to a room in a Montessori school where “Miss Vicki”, as she was known, ran the early childhood program in a rented house a few blocks away. We would make trips down to the Santa Barbara Buddhist Priory for weekend retreats and later up to Shasta Abbey for longer retreats.
As time went on, it seemed wise to invite the resident monks to lead us for a day-long retreats for the wider community. Over the next several years, Reverend Phoebe, Rev. Seikai, Rev. Leon (now Prior of the Portland Buddhist Priory) and other visiting monks generously made the trip to join our group meetings and retreats on a regular basis. Many group members from years past and present have fond memories of these visits and benefitted greatly from their diverse teaching methods and accumulated wisdom.
The presence of Zen Teachers naturally increased the interest and participation in our group locally and we started meeting at the public library and the local community center. Interested people would come and go, which is the nature of groups in general. The Santa Barbara Buddhist priory became Pine Mountain Buddhist Temple in rural Ventura County in the early 2000’s; Rev. Phoebe became the Abbess, and Rev. Seikai moved down from Shasta Abbey, while Rev. Jisho returned to the monastery.
The group seemed to peak in interest about 15 years ago, and try as we might, it was difficult to attract younger people. Our group eventually moved to a serene, non-denominational chapel located behind the Coalesce Bookstore in Morro Bay where we were welcomed by the owner and staff. Eventually, it became more difficult for the monks to make the long trip to lead our group once a month—and none of us were getting younger! Some of our members traveled to the Temple for Sunday meditation and ceremonies and retreats throughout the years. Along the way, we were fortunate to have a dedicated core of partitioners locally, and the sitting together had become a helpful refuge.
Our group became smaller but extremely dedicated to sitting once a month together in the quiet of the bookstore chapel. Earlier this year our group founder and mentor died suddenly after a routine surgery. Teishin had dedicated her adult life to Buddhist practice and was able to be a compass for our members and a long-time good friend for so many of us. As Rev. Phoebe mentioned recently, groups in general have a natural beginning and a natural end. This was helpful to hear r at a time where we were feeling some loss and bittersweet feelings.
We have such heartfelt memories and gratitude for the years of training and comfort that came with our Sangha. We are all still spiritual friends and will be as long as we have our health. The value of sitting with a group can be profound. It was always a privilege to have a time and space to just drop everything—and sit!
We are deeply grateful for the guidance and wisdom of Rev. Phoebe and Rev. Seikai. Thank you for the hard work and dedication that created Pine Mountain Buddhist Temple, which is now thriving in the lovely town of Santa Paula. We want to thank the most recent core of group members who kept the flame alive for the last few years, Donald, Roxana, Sarah, Judy Saltzman and the late Teishin.
News for Apr-May-Jun 2025
January brought the worst natural disaster in the history of this region in the form of wildfires that swept into the Los Angeles area communities of Pacific Palisades and Pasadena. None of our temple members were burned out, but Katharine Ogden did have to evacuate her home in Pacific Palisades; her neighborhood was an island in an otherwise completely burned-out area of the city. At the temple we experienced only one day of smoke during the Hughes Fire, which was burning to the east of us near Santa Clarita. While the fire was exploding, the east wind carried smoke down the Santa Clara River Valley. Rain finally arrived in February and has continued into March, nothing like the past two years, but enough to put an end to the high fire danger.
Rev. Seikai was invited to host an evening meeting of the meditation group at our local Unitarian Universalist Church in Santa Paula. That first meeting was in January, and Rev. Seikai agreed to visit once a month on the first Wednesday and so has led the group twice more since then. The church is a fine, old building, but is now in need of a full-time minister since our neighbor and friend Maddie Sifantus retired from that position last year.
The first meeting of the temple’s expanded Board of Directors was held on March 9. The board now includes the two monks plus five members: Day Yeager, Jack Collings, Beth Kaminaka, Ezra Herman and Beatrice de Oca. We are very happy to have these fine people help deal with the worldly business of the temple, as they all bring many years of experience of sitting on boards and related work, and thus are a great asset to the temple. Dee Press, who for many years was the corporation secretary, has stepped down from that and replaced by Beth, who has also for many years been helping out with keeping the minutes of members’ meetings. Our grateful thanks to Dee for all she has done for the temple for so many years, and to our new board members for stepping up.
As spring has arrived for 2025, our gardens have come into bloom with a lavish display—and scent—of jasmine flowers. The two jasmines were planted three years ago and by now have spread well beyond their original spots. We have also had numerous beautiful calla lilies and fortnight lilies in recent weeks, huge red trumpet flowers, daffodils, various succulent flowers, and nasturtiums. Once again, our orange tree has yielded heavily, sweet Valencia oranges which make wonderful juice. There is still a venerable old kale plant which is now starting its fourth season—evidently a perennial.
Pine Mountain Buddhist Temple. 