Evening Practice for December 23, 2021 7pm EST

Join All Beings Zen Sangha for Zazen practice and a Dharma Talk offered by our abiding teacher Rev. Inryū Poncé-Barger on the topic of “Seeing what is in front of us as sacred”. Use this link to sign in. If asked for a password use 641260

Photograph by Shōryū Christopher Leader

Order of Service

Welcome from the Kokyo

Chanting of the “Song of the Grass Hut”

Dedication

30 minutes of Zazen

Inryū Sensei’s Dharma Talk

Chanting of the Refuges in Pali

Soanka: Song of the Grass Hut

I’ve built a grass hut where there’s nothing of value.

After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap.

When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared.

Now it’s been lived in —covered by weeds.

The person in the hut lives here calmly,

Not stuck to inside, outside, or in-between.

Places worldly people live, he doesn’t live.

Realms worldly people love, she doesn’t love.

Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.

In ten feet square, an old man illumines forms and their nature.

A Mahayana bodhisattva trusts without doubt.

Will this hut perish or not?

Perishable or not, the original master is present,

Not dwelling south or north, east or west.

Firmly based on steadiness, it can’t be surpassed.

A shining window below the green pines—

Jade palaces or vermilion towers can’t compare with it.

Just sitting with head covered all things are at rest.

Thus, this mountain monk doesn’t understand at all.

Living here she no longer works to get free.

Who would proudly arrange seats, trying to entice guests?

Turn around the light to shine within, then just return.

The vast inconceivable source can’t be faced or turned away from.

Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instructions,

Bind grasses to build a hut, and don’t give up.

Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely.

Open your hands and walk, innocent.

Thousands of words, myriad interpretations,

Are only to free you from obstructions.

If you want to know the undying person in the hut,

Don’t separate from this skin bag here and now.

Shitou Xiqian (Sekito Kisen 700-790)

Refuges in Pali (Call and Response)

Accapella, inflections as follows:

➞Buddham Saranam Ga➚cha➘mi➞iii

BUDDHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI

DHAMMAM SARANAM GACCHAMI

SANGHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI

DUTIYAMPI BUDDHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI

DUTIYAMPI DHAMMAM SARANAM GACCHAMI

DUTIYAMPI SANGHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI

TATIYAMPI BUDDHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI

TATIYAMPI DHAMMAM SARANAM GACCHAMI

TATIYAMPI SANGHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI