The All Beings Zen Sangha welcomes and affirms all who come here to seek the Way, and who will work toward respectful acceptance of others across our many differences, harmonizing the one and the many. May all beings be happy!
Tuesday: Dharma Tea at Two pm for May 31, 2022 . Use this link to join.
Inryū Sensei will talk about the fourth Ox Herding Picture. The Zen (Chan) Ox Herding School originated in China. The lessons were designed as a series of short poems and accompanying drawings to describe the stages of a practitioner’s progress toward enlightenment, and their return to society to enact wisdom and compassion. We begin with five minutes of silent tea drinking. Please have a piece of paper and a writing implement in hand as Inryū Sensei will offer a guided reflection/meditation and ask the participants to write and draw on paper as part of the tea.
Catching the Ox by Max Gimblett
Use this link to join. If asked for a password use 003827
Tuesday: Dharma Tea at Two pm for May 17, 2022 . Use this link to join.
Inryū Sensei will talk about the third Ox Herding Picture. The Zen (Chan) Ox Herding School originated in China. The lessons were designed as a series of short poems and accompanying drawings to describe the stages of a practitioner’s progress toward enlightenment, and their return to society to enact wisdom and compassion. We begin with five minutes of silent tea drinking. Please have a piece of paper and a writing implement in hand as Inryū Sensei will offer a guided reflection/meditation and ask the participants to write and draw on paper as part of the tea.
Glimpse of the Ox by Max Gimblatt
Use this link to join. If asked for a password use 003827
Tuesday Dharma Tea at Two pm for May 10, 2022. Use this link to join. 2-2:45 pm Eastern.
Inryū Sensei will offering teaching on the second of the 10 Oxherding drawings on May 10, 2022. The Zen (Chan) Ox Herding School originated in China. The lessons were designed as a series of short poems and accompanying drawings to describe the stages of a practitioner’s progress toward enlightenment, and their return to society to enact wisdom and compassion.
brush painting by Max Gimblatt
Use this link to join. If asked use this password 003827
Tuesday Dharma Tea at Two pm for May 3, 2022. Use this link to join. 2-2:45 pm Eastern.
Inryū Sensei will offering teaching on the first of the 10 Oxherding drawings on May 3, 2022. The Zen (Chan) Ox Herding School originated in China. The lessons were designed as a series of short poems and accompanying drawings to describe the stages of a practitioner’s progress toward enlightenment, and their return to society to enact wisdom and compassion.
brush painting by Max Gimblatt
Use this link to join. If asked use this password 003827
Dear DC Metro All Beings Zen Sangha, One of our members as been accepted to and is participating in the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center Work Practice Period. She requests support from the sangha to find a temporary home for her beloved feline. See below. Inryū Sensei
Hello dear sangha,I am currently in need of a volunteer to care for a sweet black cat named Ginny, for a duration of 3 months to one year and possibly longer. She is extremely affectionate! Ginny enjoys curling up on warm laps and hearts, purring, and being vocal.There have not been any incidents of scratching furniture or other materials including skin. She will be 10 in November and has been with me for almost all of those years.If you are interested in meeting and potentially fostering Ginny, please contact Beth McClain (bethcmcclain@gmail.com), who is currently acting as cat grandmother while i am a summer student in Tassajara Zen Center. Kitty is currently living in northern virginia. I miss her very much and hope someone from All Beings will be able to give her all the love and attention that i cannot offer right now. Beth and i will be happy to support with transportation and other logistics. Yours in community,grace mcclain — grace mcclain, MPH, they/she 703.431.4854
Tuesday Dharma Tea at Two pm for March 22, 2022. Use this link to join. 2-2:45 pm Eastern.
Dharma Tea at 2pm with Seido David Sarpal on April 12, 2022 – focusing on the “no mow May movement.
At today’s tea Seido will discuss dandelions and the efforts to redeem and appreciate this important pollinator food. He has created a wonderful slide show to make his case for rethinking how we as a culture treat dandelions.
First 5 minutes are spent in silent tea drinking.
Tuesday Dharma Tea at Two pm for March 22, 2022. Use this link to join. 2-2:45 pm Eastern.
Tuesday Dharma Tea at Two pm for April 5, 2022. Use this link to join. 2-2:45 pm Eastern.
Image by Inryū Sensei near the Railway Station in Orange Virginia April 2022
During the month of April our teas will focus on Zen Practice and our Earth Environment. April is also National Poetry Month. Abiding Teacher Inryū Sensei will lead the tea offering today and will show a video of Mary Oliver reading her poem “Wild Geese”. Inryū Sensei will lead us in exploring some of the themes in the recent interview which Krista Tippet had with Drew Lanham which you can find using this link.
Inryū Sensei offered a talk on March 31st on the topic of “Interbeing with the Environment” in which she references the above interview with Drew Lanham, teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh and a poem by Thomas Merton. You can view/listen to this Dharma Talk with this link.
The first five minutes of the tea are silent allowing us to enjoy tea drinking and be together in silence before conversation begins.
Use this link to join. If asked use this password 784873
Tonight we will have a short service following by one period of Zazen and a Dharma Talk by ABZS Abiding and resident teacher, Rev. Inryū Poncé-Barger, Sensei on the topic of “Waking up to our interbeing with the Earth”. Following the talk we will conclude with chanting the refuges.
Here is the link to join us via the cloud zendo at 7PM for the All Beings Zen Sangha evening program.
If you are asked for a password please use this 169513
Please put your zoom in gallery mode, and keep your video link on while muting your mic until the end of the service – Feel welcome to face away from your device camera while keeping your presence visible in the frame for others in attendance to see and know you are there. Please refrain from moving your device around while others are sitting zazen with you.
Order of Service
Greeting by the Kokyo
Enmei Jukko Kannon Gyo
Heart Sutra in English
All Buddhas Chant
25 Minute Zazen Period
Four Great Vows
Dharma Talk by Inryū Sensei
Pass the feather
Refuges in Pali
THE FOUR GREAT VOWS
Beings are numberless; I vow to save them.
Delusions are inexhaustible; I vow to end them.
Dharma Gates are boundless; I vow to enter them.
Buddha’s way is unsurpassable; I vow to become it.
Enmei Jukko Kannon Gyo
KAN ZEON
NA MU BUTSU
YO BUTSU U IN
YO BUTSU U EN
BUP PO SO EN
JO RAKU GA JO
CHO NEN KANZEON
BO NEN KANZEON
NEN NEN JU SHIN KI
NEN NEN FU RI SHIN
Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva,
when deeply practicing prajña paramita,⨀
clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty
and thus relieved all suffering.
Shariputra,
form does not differ from emptiness,
emptiness does not differ from form.
Form itself is emptiness,
emptiness itself form.
Sensations, perceptions, formations,
and consciousness are also like this.
Shariputra,
all dharmas are marked by emptiness;
they neither arise nor cease,
are neither defiled nor pure,
neither increase nor decrease.
Therefore, given emptiness, there is
no form, no sensation, no perception,
no formation no consciousness;
no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue,
no body, no mind;
no sight, no sound, no smell, no taste,
no touch, no object of mind;
no realm of sight… no realm of mind consciousness
There is neither ignorance nor extinction of ignorance…
neither old age and death,
nor extinction of old age and death;
no suffering, no cause, no cessation, no path;
no knowledge and no attainment.
With nothing to attain,
a bodhisattva relies on prajña paramita,⨀
and thus the mind is without hindrance.
Without hindrance, there is no fear.
Far beyond all inverted views, one realizes nirvana.
All buddhas of past, present, and future
rely on prajña paramita ⨀ and thereby attain
unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment.
Therefore, know the prajña paramita ⨀ as
the great miraculous mantra,
the great bright mantra,
the supreme mantra,
the incomparable mantra,
which removes all suffering
and is true, not false.
Therefore we proclaim the prajña paramita ⨀mantra,,
brush painting by Max Gimblatt
