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Thursday Evening October 1, 2020 Practice 7pm

Join the sangha tonight for one period of zazen followed by the Shuso Entering Ceremony and closing with our monthly pass the feather sangha check-in opportunity.  Join us by using this link
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Order of Service
Welcome by the Kokyo
30 Minute zazen
Explanation by the Ino of the Shuso Entering Ceremony
Heart Sutra in Japanese
Shuso Entering Ceremony
Pass the Feather Sangha Sharing
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(Heart Sutra in Japanese can be found on this web site under the  “Frequently Used Chants” tab.

Maka Hanya Haramita Shin Gyo

KAN JI ZAI BO SATSU GYO JIN HAN NYA

HA RA MI TA JI SHO KEN GO ON KAI

KU DO IS SAI KU YAKU SHA RI SHI

SHIKI FU I KU KU FU I SHIKI SHIKI 

SOKU ZE KU KU SOKU ZE SHIKI JU SO

GYO SHIKI YAKU BU NYO ZE SHA RI

SHI ZE SHO HO KU SO FU SHO FU

METSU FU KU FU JO FU ZO FU GEN

ZE KO KU CHU MU SHIKI MU JU SO

GYO SHIKI MU GEN NI BI ZE SHIN

NI MU SHIKI SHO KO MI SOKU HO MU

GEN KAI NAI SHI MU I SHIKI KAI MU

MU MYO YAKU MU MU MYO JIN NAI 

SHI MU RO SHI YAKU MU RO SHI JIN

MU KU SHU METSU DO MU CHI YAKU 

MU TOKU I MU SHO TOK KO BO DAI

SAT TA E HAN NYA HA RA MI TA

KO SHIN MU KE GE MU KE GE KO

MU U KU FU ON RI IS SAI TEN DO

MU SO KU GYO NE HAN SAN ZE SHO

BUTSU E HAN NYA HA RA MI TA

KO TOKU A NOKU TA RA SAM MYAKU

SAM BO DAI KO CHI HAN NYA HA

RA MI TA ZE DAI JIN SHU ZE DAI

MYO SHU ZE MU JO SHU ZE MU TO 

DO SHU NO JO IS SAI KU SHIN JITSU

FU KO KO SETSU HAN NYA HA RA 

MI TA SHU SOKU SETSU SHU WATSU

GYA TE GYA TE HA RA GYA TE

HARA SO GYA TE BO DHI SOWA KA 

HAN NYA SHIN GYO

 
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Announcing the Fall Ango – 2020 Practice Period for All Beings Zen Sangha

“JUST ENOUGH”

Friends,

Today, we begin our annual Fall Ango (安居, “peaceful dwelling”).  This 90-day practice period offers us the chance to engage deeply with zazen and our four great vows, moving through the world with compassion and beginner’s mind.  Our theme for this year’s Fall Ango will be “Just Enough.”  I think this is an apt expression of the Buddha’s teaching of the Middle Way–not getting swept away by greed, not giving in to aversion.  Not too much, not too little.  Just enough.  It’s also a good way to think of the attitude we bring to our practice and to everyday life. When we sit, just to sit is enough.  When we work, just to work is enough.  While we live, just to live is enough.

I look forward to exploring this theme with you all, especially in these difficult times.  One important way we can practice “just enough” is through our relationship to food–especially these days, when many of us are spending most of our time and preparing and eating most of our meals at home.  So this year, we will be scheduling Zoom cooking classes to learn how to make some traditional zendo dishes, oryoki demonstrations, and talks on sustainability and limiting food waste.  We will also be reading and hosting dharma study on Shohaku Okumura’s Living By Vow, an excellent book about the meaning of our most common chants–including the meal chant!   We hope these events focused around the kitchen and hearth will help you feel connected to the sangha while we wait for the right time to return to the zendo.

And as we do every year, we will be scheduling Way Seeking Mind talks for sangha members to tell their stories and discuss their practice.  Our Shuso, the head student for the practice period, will be Shōryū Chris Leader.  The Shuso and his Benji (Shuso’s assistant) will be arranging the Way Seeking Mind talks as well as scheduling for Sangha members to enjoy tea with the Shuso.  Please contact the Benji, Alex Langlinais, at alexlanglinais@gmail.com to schedule your WSM talk or for sharing tea with the Shuso.

Our Practice Period Leader, Inryū Sensei will be available for Dokusan (one to one discussions) with individuals throughout the Ango.  Please contact Inryū directly at inryu@allbeingszen.org to make an appointment.  

You are welcomed and encouraged to join us for any and all of the events listed below!  Please stay tuned for email updates to the 2020 Fall Ango schedule, as well as updates to the All Beings Zen Sangha website (www.allbeingszen.org).

FALL ANGO 2020 SCHEDULE

Weekly Schedule

Monday Wednesday, Friday: Morning Zazen at 6:30 AM EST (+ Way-Seeking Mind Talks)

Thursday: Evening Service at 7:00 PM EST

  • Tea with the Shuso by appointment on dates TBA

Fall Ango Events

Thursday, September 24: Thursday Evening Service — Fall Ango Begins!

Saturday, September 26: Outdoor Jukai at Woodburn Hill Farm

Thursday, October 1: Shuso Entering Ceremony via Zoom

Saturday, October 10: Half-Day Zazenkai

Sunday, October 18: Full-Day Event at Woodburn Hill Farm

Saturday, November 7: Full-Day Zazenkai

Monday, November 30 – Sunday, December 6: Rohatsu Sesshin

Tuesday, December 8: Rohatsu*

Thursday, December 19: Shuso Hossen

Dates TBD: 

  • Cooking Classes 
  • Dharma Study, Living By Vow by Shohaku Okumura
  • Movie Night 
  • Oryoki Presentation(s)
  • Talk(s) on No Waste/Conservation by Susan Cho
  • Talk(s) on Sitting with Pain, Hospice, Death and Dying
  • Talk(s) on Home Altars and Home Liturgy

– By the ABZS Benji Alex Langlinais

Photo by Vero Balderas-Iglesias

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Book Discussion of David Chadwick’s “Crooked Cucumber”; The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki

September 19th, 2020  – 12noon.  Bring your lunch, or a cup of tea to enjoy while we discuss the Biography of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.  David Chadwick the author of the book will be our All Beings Zen Sangha special guest.  

    Dharma Study Group reading  and discussion the  “Crooked Cucumber”.   Join us in the cloud zendo by using this link.

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Outdoor Jukai on July 18, 2020

Inryū Sensei offering the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts to Naomi Knoble (Kōryū Bendōwa Bright Dragon, Make Clear, Way, Harmonius) in our first All Beings Zen Sangha “outdoor” formal ceremony.   Gratitude to our hosts; Becky and Evan allowing us to use the fields below their Greenbridge Pottery.  It was a lovely evening and delightful to be encircled by Evan’s  planting of the three sisters (corn, beans and squash) and cheerful sunflowers.  Given the ongoing concerns about Covid-19 there were very limited invitees and everyone wore masks and kept physical distance.

 

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Workshop on Saturday June 6th, 2020 10:30am

To join the workshop at 10:30 use this link.

June 6th – “Sexuality in the time of Covid-19” a workshop taught by  Rev. Daigan Gather of Den of Vow Temple in San Francisco, CA 10:30am- noon.

Rev. Daigan Gaither began Buddhist practice in 1995 in the Vipassana (Insight) tradition, and then began to study Zen in 2003 with Ryushin Paul Haller Roshi. He received Lay Ordination in 2006 where he was given the name Daigan or “Great Vow”, and received Priest Ordination in July 2011. Daigan speaks internationally on a variety of topics particularly around gender, sexuality, social justice and their intersections with the Dharma.  You can find out more via his podcast at patreon.com/stumpthemonk (free versions are available) or at his website queerdharma.net He identifies as a disabled, queer, white, cis male and uses he/him pronouns.

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Becoming a Friend of All Beings Zen Sangha this Spring 2020

In this turbulent moment, All Beings Zen Sangha seeks to create a place of refuge and open hearted practice for all who need it. During the shift from physical gathering to meeting in our cloud zendo, we have been deeply heartened by the presence of so many at our virtual services.  It is inspiring to witness our Sangha coming together to nurture our collective practice while also expressing the vow to save all beings by remaining physically apart.
 
Generosity is the practice of wholehearted giving and is the first paramita, a quality of mind of a Bodhisattva. To sustain our efforts, both now and beyond this crisis, we ask that you consider becoming a Friend of All Beings Zen Sangha through a monthly donation. Contributions provide a humble stipend for our guiding teacher, support our practice spaces at the urban zendo and at Woodburn Hill Farm,  and cover other operational expenses. A regular contribution is particularly valuable because it provides a broad base of dependable support for the Sangha by increasing our financial resilience and enabling us to plan for future expenses with a clear picture of our projected revenues. Please find details for how to contribute below this email, which include the ability to donate electronically via Venmo or PayPal, and know that any amount is deeply appreciated.
 
As the Dharma is a precious gift entrusted to us by countless generations of practitioners, it is always offered at ABZS freely to everyone without exception for the benefit of all beings. We ask that you donate only if you feel comfortable doing so at this time, and place your circumstances first when deciding whether to contribute.
 
If you have not yet had the opportunity to join us for our services, you are always welcome. Our Sangha’s events page contains our service schedule and details on how to participate via Zoom. If time allows, we hope you will join us.
 
Yours in the Dharma.  
 
Rev. Inryu Bobbi Ponce-Barger, Sensei,
& the All Beings Zen Sangha Board of Directors
 
Please find All Beings Zen Sangha Donation Page information here:   https://allbeingszen.org/contact/
 
Please direct questions regarding being a donor to:  Zenho Eric Jonas treasurer@allbeingszen.org
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FLASH EVENT – Friday night movie with ABZS starting at 7pm ET

Join us in our cloud Zendoplex tonight for our first Covid-19 ABZS movie night.    Apropos of the “shelter in place” we will enjoy reviewing “Groundhog Day” .

You can view the film on your own (many of us have a DVD or on many streaming services) or with us starting at 7pm by clicking here.  The film lasts one hour and forty-one minutes.  At approximately 8:45 pm  we’ll have a cloud  conversation about the film and the buddhist themes that are present here.

We’ll also view the 2019 advertisement used during the Super Bowl in which the groundhog makes an appearance again.  Bring your popcorn!