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!
Yuko Okumura is an accomplished okesa and rakusu sewing teacher, lifelong Soto Zen lay practitioner, and devoted lover of strawberries. A native of Japan, Yuko attended her first zazen retreat at age 16 and graduated from Komazawa University where she studied Buddhism. Yuko has served in the role of tenzo at temples in Japan (Zenjoji, Shorinji) and the US (Sanshinji). Her love of strawberries has led to the creation of La Fraise Do’r clothing and is discussed in a short documentary ‘Strawberries Will Save The World’ by her daughter, film director Yoko Okumura. Yuko lives with her husband of 40 years, Shohaku Okumura, in Bloomington, Indiana, where they founded Sanshin Zen Community/Sanshinji in 2003.
In case it’s tricky to hyperlink the “Strawberries will save the world”, the link is here:
Tuesday March 14th, 2023 – 2PM Dharma Tea led by Esho Beth Milligan on the ” 18th century Japanese artist Ito Jakuchu and his Colorful Realm of Living Beings, a set of 30 nature paintings plus a Buddha Triptych” (these were exhibited at The National Gallery in DC in the spring of 2012). Use this link to join. If asked for a password use 629543
Join us via Zoom at 7pm for evening service and zazen. Use this link to join. If asked for a password use 794038
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.
ABZS keeps an attendance of participation at sangha events. This is done for the welfare of our members and for guidance in future programing.
Click below to see the order of service and chants.
Saturday March 4th, 2023 – Full Day Zazenkai at Urban Zendo (lunch provided). Guest Speaker Barbara Wenger will join us for 2pm tea and discussion about her experience as Tenzo at SFZC. In person and online. Use this link to join. If asked for a password use 027306
All Beings Zen Sangha Zen Meditation Retreat Schedule 9am-4:30pm
9:00am Practice Period Leader does the Jundo (opening of the zendo for practicer)
Tonight we will have a short service followed by two periods of Zazen with an interval of Kinhin (5 minutes of slow walking in between). We will have our monthly pass the feather sharing and conclude by chanting the refuges in Pali. Please feel welcome to stay on zoom if you are able to share greetings with the sangha. .
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 794038
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
25 Minute Zazen Period
5 minutes of Kinhin (slow walking)
25 Minute Zazen Period
Four Great Vows
Refuges in Pali
Brief Check in and announcements
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,
the mantra that says:
“Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha.”
All Buddhas
All Buddhas, ten directions, Three times
All Honored Ones, Bodhisattvas-Mahasattvas
Wisdom beyond wisdom
Maha Prajna Paramita
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.
Tuesday: Dharma Tea at 2:00 pm /2:00pm-2:45pm: Led by Shōryū Chris Leader. Shōryū will speak on the topic “Physical activity as meditation. Online only in our cloud zendo. Use this link to join. If asked for a password use 629543.
Saturday February 25th, 2023 – 2 PM Dharma book discussion “Dogen’s Instructions to the Cook”
Cloud Zendo only. To Join use this link. If asked for a password use 043968
Instructions for the Cook (Tenzo kyôkun) . Don’t have the book? No problem you can find a pdf of the main text by clicking here or here.
By the monk Dôgen
of the Kannon Dôri Kôshô Hôrin Zen Monastery Cf. Nothing is Hidden: Essays on Zen Master Dogen’s Instructions for the CookTr. Griffith Foulk, Edited by Jisho Warner, Shohaku Okumura, John McRae and Taigen Dan Leighton. Weatherhill Inc., 2001
Tonight we will have a short service that includes chanting the Heart Sutra in Chinese. Following by one period of Zazen and a Dharma Talk by our Abiding Teacher Inryū Sensei.. Will we close with chanting the refuges. You are welcome to stay online following the chanting of the refuges to share greetings with the sangha.
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 794038
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 Chinese
All Buddhas Chant
25 Minute Zazen Period
5 minutes of Kinhin (slow walking)
Dharma Talk
Four Great Vows
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.
Saturday February 18th, 2023 – 2PM Guest Speaker Rev. Gesshin Claire Greenwood on being Tenzo at Zen Niso-do Temple, Nagoya.
Gesshin Greenwood is a Soto Zen priest living in Oakland, California. She trained in Japan at Toshoji and Aichi Senmon Nisodo, and is the author of Bow First, Ask Questions Later, and Just Enough: Vegan Recipes from Japan’s Buddhist Temples. Currently, she lives a happily mostly lay person life with her spouse and two dogs, working as an administrator at the Institute of Buddhist Studies as well as a psychotherapist in private practice. Use this link to join. If asked for a password use 495944
Rev. Greewood is the author of three books: Bow First, Ask Questions Later: Ordination, Love and Monastic Zen in Japan and Just Enough; Vegan Recipes and Stories from Japan’s Buddhist Temples
Praise for “Just Enough”
“With rigor, honesty, hilarity and joy, Gesshin shows us how to grapple with the great matter of life and death–as well as with lesser matters, like capitalism, sexism, religious dogma, sex, love, fashion and Kyoto nightclubs. The result is an inspiring book that I couldn’t put down, even when I’d finished reading it.” Ruth Ozeki
“A witty, wise, engaging story about a young woman’s experience of Zen practice in Japan.” Grace Schireson
