Service
Engaged Compassion:
Buddhism is based on the inevitability of human suffering and founded in the efforts to alleviate it. The Mahayana Buddhist movement, of which Zen is part, is dedicated to universal salvation, achieving salvation, healing and liberation for oneself and for all creation. Our Zen Vows express these aspirations that we may be Bodhisattvas, Zen practitioners working on ourselves and in the world to become dynamic energy fields of benefaction.
Ancient Oaks and The Zen Garland Order are committed to publicly offering practices and places for practice that responsibly guide people toward salvation, healing, and liberation. Inside our community work across the Zen Garland Order, we hold space for the difficulties and suffering that arise for individuals, families, groups, and communities. Our holistic approach to practice means we engage all aspects of life in generative spaces that encourage expression, revelations of the interconnectedness of life, and reveal the inherent humanity of our shared existence.
We are mission committed to make special efforts to engage with marginalized, disadvantaged, disabled and poor individuals and communities. We are inspired by the words of Kobo Daishi, “The measure of a person’s enlightenment is how they treat ‘others’.” In this spirit, our practitioners are engaged in different local social service projects in the city of Savannah and beyond.
Creations are numberless – I vow to free them.
Delusions are inexhaustible – I vow to transform them.
Reality is boundless – I vow to perceive it.
The enlightened way is unsurpassable – I vow to embody it.
Service as a way of being
The 8th Core Practice of the Zen Garland Order is to embody “Service as a way of being.” This means living with care and empathic connection every moment, treating everything as our very selves. The spirit of this is “no separation,” such deep immersion in our living that there is no server, no one served, and no service – just authentic, natural action. Of course, this is aspirational and the ground of why and how we practice being.
The MISS Foundation Selah Carefarm
We are directly participating in the work of Dr. Joanne Kyouji Cacciatore, a Priest and Dharma Holder in the Zen Garland Order and founder of the MISS foundation and the Selah Care Farm, which provide Bereavement Care & Counseling and a sanctuary and community for families who have suffered the traumatic loss of a close loved one.
Roshi Genmitsu is working for the MISS Foundation Selah Carefarm as their Family Services Coordinator.
Local Engagement
Faith in Action
In 2023 the City of Savannah launched its first Savannah Community Memory Project (SCMP) Residency Project, “Faith in Action: Perspectives on Savannah’s Interfaith Community,”. The city website describes the project as follows: “Over time, the Savannah community has seen impactful efforts that have brought together Savannahians of different religions, races, classes, and ethnicities. These actions take shape in formal and informal ways, both individually and collectively, across houses of worship, groups of citizens, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations. The Faith in Action residency project recorded the oral testimonies of Savannah’s inter-faith community with a wide diaspora of community leaders, historians, and citizens from different walks of faith and experience.”
Roshi Genki was invited to represent our Zen Buddhist community and Dana Felty Bynum participated as a Savannah community member in this project.
https://www.interfaithsavannah.org/
The Gretchen Greene School of Dance
When Gretchen Greene (now Gretchen Dodd) completed her run as a Radio City Music Hall Rockette in New York City, she returned to her hometown of Savannah and promptly opened her first studio: The Gretchen Greene School of Dance. The doors have been open ever since. She is now joined by her two grown children, Trina and Travis who are proud to help Gretchen achieve her dream: sharing the joy of dance.
Travis Bukai Dodd is a member of the Ancient Oaks community and a student of Roshi Genki.
Tidewater Waldorf Homeschool
Emily Yushin Parr, a priest with the Ancient Oaks community and a student of Roshi Genmitsu has created the Tidewater Waldorf Homeschool in Savannah. Tidewater Waldorf is a cooperative learning environment that supports families that have chosen home education. Our hybrid homeschool education model offers Waldorf classes three days a week while also allowing for the natural rhythm of home life to flourish in family homes. We emphasize the importance of protecting our children’s childhood and allowing them to flourish through their imagination and play. Our program includes aspects of a traditional Waldorf Education while also educating families on how to incorporate these practices in their own home and lives.
Your Place To Be
Your Place To Be was founded and created by Chantel Morton, an Ancient Oaks member and student of Roshi Genmitsu.
Today, many families are living at a distance from one another, making it difficult to provide eyes, ears, and hands to help when help would be beneficial.
‘Your Place To Be’ offers ongoing support and a holistic, client-centered approach to caring for older adults or others facing ongoing health challenges.
