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!
Daishin McCabe Dharma Talk on the Daoist Roots of Zen – Thursday May 5th, 2016
Daishin Eric McCabe is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest.
He teaches Buddhist philosophy, meditation, yoga, and calligraphy to people of all walks of life and spiritual paths. Daishin undertook a 15 year mentorship with Abbess Dai-En Bennage of Mount E
quity Zendo, located in rural central Pennsylvania. During this time he trained at various Soto Zen Monasteries in Japan, France, California, and Nebraska.
All Beings will continue with our reading group! This has been a fun way for folks to get together and talk about the practice in an informal environment, and with tea and cookies!
For Sunday, May 29th, we’re reading How the Swans Came to the Lake, by Rick Fields. It’s an overview of how Buddhism has mingled with ‘western’ cultures and specifically the US. Pretty engaging read, I can assure you, and it should provide ample material for discussion. For the 29th, we’ll focus on the first half of the book, roughly.
We’ll meet at the All Beings Zendo space at 8 am. Contact Inryu for more info if you need it.
Here are some helpful links. Libraries and local bookstores are encouraged, but there’s always used copies on Amazon too.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24955175
Hope to see you there! These are both pleasantly serious and engaging and very non-stuffy.
Sam
John Flanagan
April 4 at 1:17pm
In Zen, we say “When we eat in peace, we create the conditions for peace.” All of this starts in the kitchen, under the direction of the Tenzo. On Sunday, I had the great opportunity to watch the chefs of All Beings Zen, under the direction of Inryu Bobbi Ponce-Barger, create oryoki lunch for the Sanga during a one-day workshop at Woodburn Hill Farm. Watching Buddhists prepare food is an experience unlike any other (and eating the food is, too!)
Hi Everyone – Dairyu Michael Wenger would love to have us do this book for book club. He’s been studying it lately and will be giving a talk on it when he comes back to DC in April.
It seems the best way to procure a copy is via Amazon.
Thanks everyone! This should be a fun one!
Sam
Sutra copying is considered a merit in Buddhism. Other meritorious practices included the memorization and recitation of sutras. The effort of sutra copying is considered an expression of piety, and recognized as a devotional practice, since it comprises worship, literature, and calligraphy. Since early in history, it was also not uncommon for people to sponsor monks and nuns to recite or copy sutras, thus indirectly cultivating merit in one’s ancestors, family, and self by transference.
The practice of sutra copying originated in China. Sutra copying was imported to Korea in the third century.[During the Nara period (710-794) in Japan, the practice of sutra copying became very popular in society. —from Wikipedia
Sangha member Gilligan has generously donated Heart Sutra tracing papers from Korea for us.
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Wonderful Gathering of the All Beings Zen Sangha for our first Meditation Retreat of 2016 at Woodburn Hill Farm.
Rev. Inryu was the visiting teacher for the Empty Hand Zen Center in New Rochelle NY from Jan 10-12th, 2016, while their guiding teacher Rev. Konin Cardenas was in San Francisco for her transmission ceremony.
Our resident priest Rev. Inryu officiated for a recent outdoor wedding in Arlington VA. We set up a simple Altar on a small table.
As part of the ceremony those in attendance were asked to close their eyes and take a moment to bring full attention to the current moment. Feeling their bodies, the air around them, the sounds in the environment and to observe their breathing. We then shared a moment of silence to settle into the beauty the moment and place.
The couple vowed to take refuge in Awakening, Truth and Community.
The vowed to support and cherish life, to live generously with an open heart, to remain faithful in relationship, to communicate honestly and simply, to treat all beings and each other with dignity and respect, to work for the benefit of others, to be humble, to not hand on to grudges or angered and to awaken to their connection to all life.
Rev. Inryu has been the official celebrant for weddings in Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and Washington DC. She is a registered officiant with the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The photos above are from Phyllis Petronello Photography
Taking the All Beings Zen Practice into the Mountains of Virginia last Wednesday. A group of us spent 4 1/2 hours on the BlueRidge Mountain and Appalachian Mountain trails: sitting two periods of zazen, sharing a quiet period of hiking and enjoying discussions about Dharma and practice throughout the remaining hike and on the drive to and from our homes.
