In news, student talks, interviews and personal reflections, members of the Hazy Moon Sangha share the ways practice has transformed every aspect of their lives—at work, at home, in relationships, and in handling the change, pain, loss, and fear that all of us face at times. The consistent message from any serious Zen student is that practice works.
Shuso Hossen 2021
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.
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).
Jody Kujaku Glienke Head Trainee Statement Summer Ango 2021
In gratitude to William Nyogen Yeo Roshi for allowing me to have the opportunity to work with him as Head Trainee this Ango period. Thank you to Shelly Mushoku Cao for all of the planning and organization that she continually provides to our Sangha. And finally, thank you to the Hazy Moon Sangha for their friendship and support.
May I cause no harm to sentient beings. May I honor the Dharma appropriately.
Answers for an Authentic Life
A review of Zen: The Authentic Gate by Koun Yamada Roshi
An old friend passed away this morning. I wasn’t aware he had suffered a stroke two weeks earlier, so I was shocked to hear that he was gone. A silent pause seems to follow news like this, then my mind fills with questions…
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…
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.
Mind Answers
A review of The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality by Robert Lanza, MD, and Matej Pavsic with Bob Berman.
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…
The Top 10 Reasons I Appreciate the Zen Buddhist Training Program
NUMBER 10: It’s so time-consuming. For a lot of people this is an obstacle to establishing a practice. We have so many conflicting commitments: partner, family, career, interests. I too used to have lots of people and ideas and projects competing for my attention – I was quite frenetic and scattered. But one day a big […]
The Overstory
“I read a book that changed my life,” says Claudia Hosso Politi. The Overstory–a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about inter-connection between human beings and the natural world, especially trees–sparks wonder and a new passion for nature in Hosso…
Happy Brain
A Review of Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body by Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson.
If you are a practitioner of Buddha Dharma for whom the pillar of great faith is unshakeable, I predict you will have no interest in this book. It is not really a book about the Way, as Zen refers to itself. An alternate title might be “This Is Your Brain On Meditation.”
A Physicist Encounters Naked Awareness
A review of The End of Suffering: Fearless Living in Troubled Times by Russell Targ
For a number of years at the Hazy Moon, Nyogen Roshi has been talking about science. Specifically how a number of scientists from different disciplines increasingly are hitting upon a track that parallels the insights of classical meditative or spiritual practices…
