2019-Winter-ZCS-Medi

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Seeking Inner Peace? Meditation Opportunities at Zen Center of Syracuse Deep Presence Class • Five Tuesdays, January 15 to February 19, 2019, 6 to 7:30 p.m. (no class on January 29) How often are we really present for what is happening in any one moment? Distractibility interferes with our ability to listen, to focus, to respond, and to feel fully alive. This course in the cultivation of attention without tension is offered regularly at the Zen Center and is taught by our Abbot, Shinge Roshi, Roko Sherry Chayat. Five evening classes include meditation instruction and practice, group discussion, and light refreshments. Fee: $125, Students: $85. Conscious Stress Reduction Class • Eight Wednesdays, January 23 to March 13, 6 to 8 p.m. Learn to develop resilience in the face of the demands and traumas of everyday life through meditation and mindfulness training, yoga and stretching and body awareness. The training helps with daily stress of many types; from high blood pressure, chronic pain and interpersonal conflict to major life-changing situations. The course is led by Dr. William Cross, a marriage and family therapist. Fee: $200. Please register by contacting the instructor by phone at (315) 474-3762 or email at [email protected]. Introduction to Meditation Mini-Retreat • Sunday afternoon, February 24, 1:30 to 5 p.m. What could be better than an afternoon of nurturing in an oasis of calm? This half-day retreat, led by Zen Center Dharma Teacher Jika Lauren Melnikow, will include meditation instruction, silent sitting and walking meditation, group discussion and refreshments. Fee: $30. To learn more and to register, visit www.zencenterofsyracuse.org All events held at Zen Center of Syracuse 266 W. Seneca Turnpike, Syracuse, NY 13207 (315)492-9773 .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

SNOW LION PUBLI C'ltl Olss JANET BUDD 946 NOTTINGHAM DR
M 17 BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID ITHACA, NY 14851 Permit No. 746 SNOW LION PUBLI C'lTl OLsS JANET BUDD 946 NOTTINGHAM DR REDLANDS CA SNOW LION ORDER FROM OUR NEW TOLL FREE NUMBER NEWSLETTER & CATALOG 1-800-950-0313 SPRING 1992 SNOW LION PUBLICATIONS PO BOX 6483, ITHACA, NY 14851, (607)-273-8506 ISSN 1059-3691 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2 Nyingma Transmission The Statement of His Holiness How 'The Cyclone' Came to the West the Dalai Lama on the Occasion by Mardie Junkins of the 33rd Anniversary of Once there lived a family in the practice were woven into their he danced on the rocks in an ex- village of Joephu, in the Palrong lives. If one of the children hap- plosion of radiant energy. Not sur- the Tibetan National Uprising valley of the Dhoshul region in pened to wake in the night, the prisingly, Tsa Sum Lingpa is Eastern Tibet. There was a father, father's continuous chanting could especially revered in the Dhoshul mother, two sisters, and two be heard. region of Tibet. As we commemorate today the brothers. Like many Tibetan fam- The valley was a magical place The oldest of the brothers was 33rd anniversary of the March ilies they were very devout. The fa- with a high mountain no one had nicknamed "The Cyclone" for his 10th Uprising in 1959,1 am more ther taught his children and the yet climbed and a high lake with enormous energy. He would run optimistic than ever before about children of the village the Bud- milky white water and yellow crys- up a nearby mountain to explore the future of Tibet.
[Show full text]
Shinge Roshi VISION
FROM: http://www.zenstudies.org/abbot.html 11/20/10 Shinge Roshi: Biography and Vision After receiving a degree in Creative Writing from Vassar College in 1965 and studying painting at the New York Studio School, Roko Sherry Chayat began practice at the Zen Studies Society’s West Side apartment. She spent a year painting in the South of France, returning to find the New York Zendo newly established at 223 East 67th Street. Becoming an integral part of what is often referred to as the Dai Bosatsu Mandala, she was present at New York Zendo Shobo-ji when the decision was made to purchase the property in the Catskills, and served as co-director of the first residential community at Dai Bosatsu Zendo from 1974 to 1976. Moving to Syracuse, she became the spiritual director of the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji, which had been founded in 1972. In 1991, Shinge Roshi was ordained by Eido Roshi at Dai Bosatsu Zendo. He installed her as abbot of Hoen-ji in 1996, after the zendo moved from her attic to its current home on six acres along Onondaga Creek in Syracuse’s historic Valley district. In 1998, she received inka shomei, Dharma Transmission, from Eido Roshi. In 2008 he performed the shitsugo or “room naming” ceremony at Hoen-ji, recognizing her as a roshi and giving her the name Shinge, meaning “heart-mind flowering.” In addition to her work as a Zen teacher, Shinge Roshi is an award-winning writer. She compiled and edited Eloquent Silence: Nyogen Senzaki’s Gateless Gate and Other Previously Unpublished Teachings and Letters; Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa, with Eido Roshi and Kazuaki Tanahashi; and Subtle Sound: The Zen Teachings of Maurine Stuart.
[Show full text]
January 5, 2011 Shinge Roko Sherry Chayat Abbot Zen Center Of
DaiAn January 5, 2011 Shinge Roko Sherry Chayat Abbot Zen Center of Syracuse Syracuse, New York Dear Shinge Roshi: I am writing at last in response to an email I received from you a while back asking for the support of the Zen Center of Syracuse sangha as you take on an additional role as Abbot of Dai Bosatsu Zendo. As you can see, it has taken me a long while to gather my thoughts and find words to express them to you. Early last Spring I discovered the details of Eido Shimano’s long history of remorseless anti-social behavior, including the sexual exploitation of his female students over a period of several decades. I also learned that you and many of your colleagues had been aware of his conduct and dangerous propensities for many years. You nevertheless continued as his student and sent your students to study with him at Dai Bosatsu Zendo. Being a survivor myself, this information affected me profoundly. I wish that this information could have been in some way been shared with me when I joined ZCS and became your student, rather than having to be hit with it out of nowhere. My immediate reaction combined all of what one might expect from a survivor: Shock, anger, fear, shame and profound sadness. It made me ill. As an attorney who has spent almost thirty years serving abused and powerless people, my reaction was outrage. I sensed immediately that I could not continue to sit at ZCS. I wrote to you, the Board and some close sangha members with a vague description of what I was experiencing.
[Show full text]
A Question of Membership (C)
A Question of Membership (C) Today, Shinge Roko Sherry Chayat Roshi remembers little about the meetings with Rabbi Sheldon Ezring to discuss her family’s membership at Temple Concord. When Rabbi Ezring told her that they could not become members, but were welcome at services, she was “shocked.1” At some point in their conversations, she recalled, the word “apostate” was used. She added, “To tell you the truth, I was so upset, I don’t remember what he said. All I know is we were rejected.” Chayat Roshi explained, “…I guess I didn’t know enough about Judaism to think that there would be such resistance on the part of a Reform movement, because I knew a lot of mixed marriages at that temple. And I felt, well… it would be the perfect place for us because we’re bringing each of us in a way a mixed marriage, Buddhism and Judaism, and so they’ll understand. But of course I was wrong.” “A Strong Spiritual Craving” Chayat Roshi explained that even as a young child, she had “a strong spiritual craving.” Her early years were spent living with her mother and grandmother in a predominantly Jewish area of Brooklyn. Her grandmother was observant and kept Kosher, but her mother “had no use for religion whatsoever.” At age four, she and her mother, together with a new stepfather, left Brooklyn; ultimately, they settled in a town in New Jersey where they were the only Jewish family. When she was in second grade, her best friend told her: “My mother said you can’t be Jewish because you don’t have horns.” She recalled, “We were the only Jewish family, and … we weren’t that Jewish.” They did not celebrate the Jewish holidays; indeed, each year, her family put up a Christmas tree.
[Show full text]
DK Program 9 17 11
THE ZEN CENTER OF SYRACUSE HOEN-JI SHINGE ROSHI, ROKO SHERRY CHAYAT, ABBOT 266 West Seneca Turnpike Syracuse, New York 13207 (315) 492-9773 www.zencenterofsyracuse.org Welcome to the Dharma Kids (DK) program at the Zen Center of Syracuse, Hoen-ji. This program is designed teach children (ages 5 and up) about Buddhist practice and how to live life according to the teachings of the Buddha. What to expect and how to prepare before coming to a DK session: Please enter the main house from the back door entrance. It is easier for us to manage one door than two. All doors need to be locked during our program, and will be locked by 10:10 am each session. You are welcome to arrive early, from 9:50-10am, but if you arrive late we will not be able to let you in. The program begins promptly at 10 am. This is a family style program that allows parents/caregivers to participate or not. If you would like to be in the room with us but not be involved, please sit outside the circle. If you would like to be part of the program, please join us the circle for doing prostrations, meditation and walking meditation (*kinhin) with us. Also, feel free to participate in discussions, share personal stories and answer questions. The children learn from adults and LOVE to hear stories about our lives, mistakes we have made and lessons we have learned. If you have a skill or talent that you would like to share with the group (i.e, music, poetry, art, yoga, ecology, etc.) please let me know and I will incorporate that into a class.
[Show full text]
Here to Learn to Be Bodhisattvas, with No Desire for Other Ranks at All.” (Eloquent Silence, “The Ten Stages of Consciousness,” P
the zen studies society Dear Students of the Way, Several of you have inquired about Jukai, receiving the Buddhist precepts. I am now accepting applications. The deadline is December 31, 2019. Jukai will be held on the last day of Nyogen Senzaki Sesshin at Dai Bosatsu Zendo May 2-7. All Jukai candidates must attend the first group meeting, which will be held at Martin Luther King Jr. Sesshin, New York Zendo Shobo-ji, January 17-19, and at Winter Sesshin, Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji, January 23-26. It is recommended that you also attend HoOn Holy Days Sesshin at Dai Bosatsu Zendo, April 4-11, and/or Spring Sesshin at Zen Center of Syracuse, April 23-26. You are required to attend all of Nyogen Senzaki Sesshin. Participating in Jukai is devoting oneself to the Three Treasures: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. In every-day life, this means committing to the relationship with one’s Teacher, Temple, and Community. While living by the Precepts begins with Jukai, the real significance is manifesting this relationship throughout the rest of your life. How do you do this? Through consistent Zen practice at home and at NYZ or ZCS, including Sunday mornings; frequent sesshin participation; reading and study of Dharma texts, including memorization of sutras and dharanis chanted in morning service; and volunteer work. If you wish to join this upcoming Jukai group, you may do so by submitting a letter of request c/o Togan, [email protected]. He will follow up with an informational packet, including a list of recommended readings.
[Show full text]
Welcoming the Bitterness
From the Abbot Welcoming the Bitterness In Case 40 of The Iron Flute, a monk goes to see Master Seppo and asks, “When the old creek of Zen dries up and there is not a drop of water left, what can I see there?” Seppo answers, “The water is bottomless, and you cannot see it.” The monk asks, “How can one drink that water?” Seppo replies, “One cannot use one’s mouth to do so.” This monk is imagining what it would be to enter fully into MU-shin, no-mind. Maybe he’s a little afraid of what might happen when there’s no trace of Zen; no trace of self. What happens when distracting notions about practice, about life, disappear? Of course like most of us, he’s using his mind to speculate about no-mind. When zazen is so deep that even zazen is gone, let alone all thoughts, concerns, worries, concepts, inner doubts about one’s ability to practice, when it’s just MU—what then? The monk wants to know how it will be. What will I understand? When everything’s all gone, what will I see? It’s rather funny when it’s put that way! The dried up creek, the withered tree—he knows the metaphors. They don’t sound very appealing, do they! Where’s the life force, the juice, you might ask. There’s a koan about a woman who has supported a monk in a hut for 20 years, bringing him food, taking care of all his simple needs. One day, she decides to check him out, see if his practice has matured.
[Show full text]
A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change
The Time to Act is Now A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change May 14, 2015 Today we live in a time of great crisis, confronted by the gravest challenge that humanity has ever faced: the ecological consequences of our own collective karma. The scientific consensus is overwhelming: human activity is triggering environmental breakdown on a planetary scale. Global warming, in particular, is happening much faster than previously predicted, most obviously at the North Pole. For hundreds of thousands of years, the Arctic Ocean has been covered by an area of sea-ice as large as Australia—but now this is melting rapidly. In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast that the Arctic might be free of summer sea ice by 2100. It is now apparent that this could occur within a decade or two. Greenland’s vast ice-sheet is also melting more quickly than expected. The rise in sea-level this century will be at least one meter—enough to flood many coastal cities and vital rice- growing areas such as the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Glaciers all over the world are receding quickly. If current economic policies continue, the glaciers of the Tibetan Plateau, source of the great rivers that provide water for billions of people in Asia, are likely to disappear by mid-century. Severe drought and crop failures are already affecting Australia and Northern China. Major reports—from the IPCC, United Nations, European Union, and International Union for Conservation of Nature—agree that, without a collective change of direction, dwindling supplies of water, food and other resources could create famine conditions, resource battles, and mass migration by mid- century—perhaps by 2030, according to the U.K.’s chief scientific advisor.
[Show full text]
Plum Mountain News Vol
P L U M M O U N T A I N N E W S Volume 15.1 Spring 2008 Dear!members!and!friends, larger property that will accommodate a jects to be completed before the Dharma residential practice. Transmission ceremony on May 21st. The irises are in full bloom, the Zen gar- Choko (Mary Cabaniss-Ballard) was our den is brimming in growth, and our Daigan (Bob Timmer) was our Shika Dai Tenzo (Chief Cook) for sesshin and at Sangha (Dharma Community) is ready to (Host/Manager) for Spring Sesshin, and, her first time at bat for this post, she did a pop. So many important events have in addition to organizing our Samu (work great job. Daikan (John Green) kept the taken place since our winter issue of Plum meditation) practice, he oversaw the pro- pace as our Jikijitsu (timekeeper). Zenmu Mountain News, it (Rev. Brenda Nightin- is difficult to con- gale) and Zenka (Sally ceive how much we Metcalf) were the Jisha have learned and (tea servers) who kept grown. This issue us well supplied with is coming out late, tea, coffee, samu as there has been lit- snacks and gluten free tle time to compile treats. Zenshin (Chris what we are doing, Jeffries) could only at- with each new event tend sesshin part time, closely following so the Densu (chant the last. leader) duties were shared by Seimu (Tina Grant) and Myodo On March 9th, after (Matthew Perez). mini-sesshin (half- Myodo and Seimu also day Zen retreat), we alternated as Inji had our first (Abbot assistant); this “Visioning Session” gave them both a little to explore Chobo- more exposure to the Ji’s future and kinds of duties that growth possibilities.
[Show full text]
Buddhist Statement on Racial Justice May 14, 2015
Buddhist Statement on Racial Justice May 14, 2015 “If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you recognize that your liberation and mine are bound up together, we can walk together.” – Lila Watson As Buddhist teachers and leaders we are distressed and deeply saddened by the killings of unarmed African-Americans by police—most recently brought to light with Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, Eric Garner in Staten Island, NY, Walter Scott in North Charleston, SC, Freddie Gray of Baltimore MD and too many others--and the frequent failure of the courts to bring justice to these cases. Most grievous is that these tragic events are not isolated incidents. They are part of a systemic injustice in the United States that is rooted in centuries of slavery and segregation, and manifested in continued economic and social exclusion, inferior education, mass incarceration and ongoing violence against African- Americans. The Buddhist teachings are grounded in a clear recognition of suffering, an ethical commitment to non-harming and an understanding of interdependence: We can’t separate our personal healing and transformation from that of our larger society. The historic and continued suffering of people of color in this country—of African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and others—is our collective suffering. The harm caused daily is our collective responsibility. Once we see this suffering, our freedom unfolds as we respond with a wise and compassionate heart. Right now, we believe there is an immediacy and urgency in focusing our attentions and efforts on the pervasive and ongoing violence done to people of color in our country.
[Show full text]
Buddhism and Peace Theory: Exploring a Buddhist Inner Peace Juichiro Tanabe
International Journal of Peace Studies, Volume 21, Number 2, Fall 2016 Buddhism and Peace Theory: Exploring a Buddhist Inner Peace Juichiro Tanabe Abstract The main aim of Buddhism is to examine how human mind becomes a root cause of suffering and how it can be addressed. This paper explores how this analysis of the human mind develops inner peace. The analysis proposes inner peace as a non-dualistic peace based on the practice of multiple functions of mind– contemplative mind, a deep cognitive transformation framed by an interdependent, interpenetrating understanding of reality, and compassionate mind – in a synergistic way. Put different, inner peace means an awakening to an ultimate inseparability between our own well-being and happiness and that of others, which inspires us to make an effort to gratify the basic needs of all and promote our freedom and justice and that of others equally. Introduction This paper examines a Buddhist inner peace. Peace is a broad and elusive concept. Peace is a subjective or intersubjective concept as different individual actors or groups of individuals define it in distinctive ways (Richmond, 2008: 5). There is no ontologically pre-determined peace; rather, it is a contested concept with no single fixed meaning (Richmond, 2008: 5). However, one of the problems with contemporary peace research is that the dimension of inner peace has been underdeveloped in peace theory (Brantmeier, 2007: 121). Vaughan argues that the study of the human mind as a social science is “still in its infancy,” (2000: 151) and her critique applies to peace research: despite its diversity and progress through self-critique, contemporary peace theory is still mainly socially-, structurally- or institutionally-oriented1, and the study of internal dynamics of peace needs further development.
[Show full text]
From the Abbot
From the Abbot The Three Jewels I spent the first week of September on Wolfe Island, Ontario, as I do each year, sitting at the edge of the lake amid the sounds of wind and waves, Great Lakes freighters making their way from Montreal to points west, calls of geese gathering for their long journey south. Each phenomenon in its own way perfect, each exactly in accord with circumstances. After a spring and summer of intense Dharma activity, the solitude in which to appreciate this was downright blissful. Like the small flocks of geese that join together to form great arrows of momentum, we are returning to vigorous daily practice at our temples, guided on our journey by the Three-fold Refuge, the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Buddham saranam gacchami: We take refuge in Buddha. Dhammam saranam gacchami: We take refuge in Dharma. Sangham saranam gacchami: We take refuge in Sangha. This Three-fold Refuge means we are vowing to awaken to who we truly are; to be intimate with the teachings of each moment; and to nurture and uphold our shared commitment on this endless path. Our Three-fold Refuge takes place at three interrelated temples, which are indeed three jewels: Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji and New York Zendo Shobo-ji, both under the governance of the Zen Studies Society; and the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji, which has its own governing body. We observe the same forms, chant the same sutras, cultivate the same attentiveness, and are inspired by the same ancestors. Increasingly, the flowing nature of the Dharma has brought a healthy and mutually invigorating exchange: practitioners based geographically at one temple sit sesshin and participate in programs at the others.
[Show full text]