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 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,,
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 Kōryū Naomi Knoble on March 29, 2022 – focusing on the Women Zen Ancestors.
In today’s tea Koryū will discuss women ancestors and the role of lineage in Soto Zen. We’ll discuss lineage as a statement of Zen’s identity (relative to other forms of Buddhism), emphasis on the value of spiritual relationships between teachers and students, and also a declaration of power and authority, which in Zen’s history has indicated political authority as well as authority to teach. Who gets to be included in the patriarchal lineage chart, which originated with early Zen (Chan) practitioners in China, has changed over time as Zen has evolved and moved into different countries/cultures. In Japan, although women were the first to ordain as Buddhist monastics, cultural perceptions of women eventually shifted to overtly exclude women practitioners. There were many important women ancestors in India, China, and Japan, and we’ll briefly get acquainted with the legacy of three of them. Our tea discussion will explore how the history of lineage charts and misogyny impacts our present-day experience of Soto Zen and our relationship to women ancestors.
Saturday March 26, 2022 2pm . Zen and Recovery class
Rev. KoShin Steven Tierney, Sensei will visit ABZS to offer a class on “Zen and Recovery”. Use this link to join. If asked for a password use 364285
Steven Tierney, Kai Po Koshin, began Buddhist practice in 1994. He first received the precepts from Thich Nhat Hahn at Plum Village in 1997. He was ordained in 2013 and received Dharma Transmission in November 2021 in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi, founder of the SF Zen Center. Dr. Tierney is a psychotherapist in private practice and a Professor Emeritus of Counseling Psychology at CIIS (the CA Institute of Integral Studies). He is a Certified Addiction Specialist and has been named a Diplomate in Clinical Mental Health by the American Mental Health Counselors Association.
Tuesday Dharma Tea at Two pm for March 8, 2022. Use this link to join. 2-2:45 pm Eastern.
Cristina Leifson – offers a tea talk titled “Billie Holiday is My Teacher.” Focusing on the artistry and life of Billie Holiday in honor of both the recent Black History Month and the current Women’s History Month. Cristina will offer some historical background and play Billie Holiday’s song “My Man” to illuminate the percept “I take up the way of not speaking falsely The first 5 minutes we share silence while drinking tea together. Use this link to join. 2-2:45 pm Eastern.
Saturday March 12, 2022 2pm Eastern Please use this link to join. If asked for a password use 410456
Rev. Norman Fischer, Roshi will visit ABZS to talk about his new book ‘When You Greet Me I Bow; Notes and Reflections of a life in Zen”. Please use this link to join. Zoketsu Norman Fischer is a poet, essayist, and Soto Zen Buddhist priest in the Suzuki Roshi lineage family. He was a resident priest at the San Francisco Zen Center for many years, and served as Co-Abbot from 1995-2000, when he founded the Everyday Zen Foundation. His latest poetry collections are The Museum of Capitalism (2021) and Selected Poems 1980-2013 (2022); his latest Buddhist title is When You Greet Me I Bow: Notes and Reflections from a Life in Zen. He lives on the Northern California coast with his wife Kathie, also a Zen Buddhist priest.
Please use this link to join. If asked for a password use 410456
*ABZS does keep an attendance of participation in sangha events* this is done for the welfare of it’s members and for guidance in future programing
**Donations are appreciated as ABZS will be providing Rev. Fischer with an honorarium for joining us**
Tuesday Dharma Tea at Two pm for March 8, 2022. Use this link to join. 2-2:45 pm Eastern.
Mural in Cambridge Maryland
Inryū Sensei will present some art and information about Harriet Tubman in honor of both the recent Black History Month and the current Women’s History Month. The first 5 minutes we share silence to drink tea together.
The European Buddhist Union is deeply concerned and saddened by the war in Ukraine. We hope that hostilities will end soon and a peaceful solution to the crisis will be found; war has a destructive effect on all of us. Especially in this century, it is the task of all of us to become one big human family on this planet, supporting and respecting each other. Diplomatic dialogue, wisdom and compassion must take precedence over weapons and aggression.
The European Buddhist Union appeals to all its members and supporters to organize a special meditation and prayer session Friday at 3PM EST to promote a sense of peace, togetherness and awareness — each and everyone can meditate for themselves at this time, we will all be connected through practice.
A shared moment of practice is very important in the face of the current crisis, to alleviate the suffering in ourselves and others, and so that wars like the one against Ukraine do not happen. This beautiful world should not be stained with blood, but adorned with the flower of love, which is the real and better task of human beings.
— The European Buddhist Union, March 1, 2022.
Join the Chapel Hill Zen Center Zoom Zendo at 3PM following our ongoing, Friday afternoon zazen at 1PM.
Tuesday Dharma Tea at Two pm for March 1, 2022. Use this link to join. If asked use this password 784873
Inryū Sensei will show photographs and talk about her recent trip to Dragons Leap Temple to assist with a Priest Ordination 2-2:45 pm Eastern. The first 5 minutes we share silence to drink tea together.
Photo by Barbara Wenger
Use this link to join. If asked use this password 784873
