This program will probably be moved online, please check back in May.
Our monthly Zen Alive! Sunday program has moved to our Online Zendo along with daily practice online. See the Red Cedar homepage for connection info. Need the "door code" to access our Zoom Room? Just email shudochris@redcedarzen.org before 9 am on Sunday.
This Month's Dharma talk by Reverend Kanshin Allison Tait, Resident Priest of Seattle Soto Zen. She will speak about a text which is chanted every day at San Francisco Zen Center, Tassajara and Green Gulch: Dogen-zenji's "Self-receiving and Employing Samadhi." It is an introduction to to the practice of seated meditation. "Self-receiving and Employing Samadhi" is a translation of Dogen's term "jijuyu zanmai," which Kosho Uchiyama explains as "the samadhi of self receiving life and turning around to put it to work, to make it function." According to Dogen Zenji's successor Keizan Jokin "If you wish to clarify the great matter, there is nothing better than Self-receiving-and-using Samadhi. Self-receiving-and-using Samadhi is nothing but zazen."
We always ask questions. What is real and what is delusion? Living an examined life can be a pain in the neck. And then, there is the point where Zen practice, life in community, and our everyday lives meet. Life encountered directly! Before we have time to slap the good or bad label on it, we see it all: beautiful sunrises, bad service, political news, global warming, our fast-paced digital life, love, time with friends, sickness and aging and death ... all happening at the same time.
The world of dew
is the world of dew.
And yet, and yet—
—Kobayashi Issa (1763 - 1828)
Issa said it so well in this haiku: The world of dew is the world of dew. And yet, and yet—
We will explore this intersection of this life, this world on the first Sunday of each month* (exceptions, see below), local and guest Zen Buddhist teachers will explore how the famous Zen texts we chant are meant as tools that support our practice in what some people call “real life.”
There is no unreal life - as long as you live it, it cannot be anything but real for you. And, as we said in the beginning: "Living an examined life in some ways is a pain in the neck." We may think everything should be different from how it is, and at other times we believe everything should stay forever exactly like this! And yet, and yet ... it changes. Always.
Please come to help us explore this theme through the practices of zazen (sitting meditation), kinhin (walking meditation), Dharma talks, and warm and inclusive conversation over a cup of tea.
Join us at Red Cedar Dharma Hall, 1021 N. Forest, from 10 am to Noon on the first Sunday of each month in 2020*. The first time you come we recommend the Orientation at 9:30 am.
Please REGISTER to join our email list and let use know you'll be there. There is no charge for this event but donations are welcome and if you appreciate Red Cedar Zen we'd be delighted if you became a member.
*Note: no first Sunday program in March or December due to 4-day Zen retreats concluding on those Sundays. There will be opportunities to attend Saturday Dharma Talks at 10:30am on those months.*
Download the poster for display if you have a spot for it - thank you!
