After a year’s postponement due to COVID-19 precautions, Head Trainee Jody Kujaku Glienke presided over Shuso Hossen in July 2021 at the culmination of Summer Ango. Local sangha members were joined online by those at a distance as she presented a dharma talk and lively defense of her koan.
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Baby Blessing
Little Rufus Delacruz charmed the sangha with his pure presence when parents Julie Honmei Snider and Angelo Delacruz brought him to the center for a baby blessing by Nyogen Roshi. Before the ceremony concluded, Rufus was given a miniature mala (and had stolen the hearts of everyone).
Maezumi’s 3 Admonitions
Wisdom teachings are fascinating things. They may not appear to be special. They are never complicated. They can sound so ordinary that we don’t even hear them or grant them consideration. But like seeds, they burrow into us and one day surface in full bloom. Only then are we ready to appreciate them. Here are Maezumi’s Three Admonitions, which you’re not likely to find elsewhere…
Learn Zen Meditation and Practice with a Group Online in English or Spanish
During this challenging time of uncertainty and social isolation, the benefits of Zen meditation are vividly apparent. We have discovered that the strength and energy that come from practicing with a group are as palpable during virtual meditation sessions as they are “in real life.” The Hazy Moon is pleased to offer several opportunities for virtual practice via Zoom, in English and Spanish…
How to Meditate
Learn the basics of Zen meditation in less than five minutes. Clear, step-by-step meditation instruction, as practiced at the Hazy Moon.
Stay
I once heard Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron talk about the instructions she gave to people who came to retreats while dealing with trauma. She gave them the mantra, “Stay.” Whatever is going on, stay with it. Thoughts might be crazy — let them fly but stay with the moment. Want to get up and run — don’t, just stay. Stay within the body; stay within your field of hearing. Just stay. After a while, the individual would invariably settle.
Chanting Services
Services introduce the aspect of ritual into our practice. Specifically, a “service” consists of a chant, performed in front of the altar, to transmit the energy, intention and benefit of our practice into the world we inhabit. In one way, rituals are an external expression of our inner state. At the same time, we strengthen and reinforce our inner state by the external chant. The service brings together what we think of as “inside” and “outside” into a unified whole.
Mind Answers
A review of The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality by Robert Lanza, MD, and Matej Pavsic with Bob Berman.
The Basic Teaching
In a powerful and wide-ranging talk, Nyogen Roshi touches on quantum physics and the delusion of understanding; how to listen to a talk; the importance of knowing how to die well; and how his last dokusan with Maezumi Roshi, his teacher, illuminates an exchange between Obaku and Rinzai…
This Very Point
Those of us who practice are lucky when we encounter difficult times. Before that, we coast along in a comfort zone, thinking that bad stuff will be taken care of and the good guys will win and everyone is going to live happily ever after…
The Manifest Koan
The manifest koan is you, what is apparent and appearing, depending solely on right now. Nothing else. If you’re still caught in the comparing mind, the judgmental mind, you won’t see it. If you’re trapped in seeing objects as separate from you, you are far from it. But I think everybody here is starting to sense it…
In Love With the World
A review of In Love With the World: A Monk’s Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche with Helen Tworkov.
Nyogen Roshi strongly recommended this book to me because the author writes in detail about what he does with his mind when faced with fear…
