Dear Sangha,
Looking toward this Fall 2019 Ango, I feel the excitement and trepidation of a child starting a new school year, eager to learn, and fearful that I will fall short. I gain courage knowing we will be learning together as a sangha, and walking with the green teeming mountain into yellow, orange and brown, before going quiet.
When Shugen Roshi asked me to serve as Chief Disciple, I felt intimidated and humbled taking on this role. Like starting other service positions, I sense it will be awkward, challenging, and with the help of sangha, deeply rewarding. Hojin Sensei once said, as she was training a group of us to be servers, “this is a place where we learn to fail gracefully.” The graceful part, for me, is what we create together as we each do our best to practice sincerely, and hold our own shortcomings and those of others lightly.
May we study and embody each facet of the Noble Eightfold Path during this ango in order to transform our own suffering and the suffering around us. With Right Intention, let us clarify our aspirations for the ango, and strive ardently to be of benefit in this troubled world. We manifest Right Effort by showing up for each other in the wee hours of the day whether at home or in the zendo, and make this difficult and rewarding practice possible by doing it together and leading others by our own example. May we sip from the honey cup of our peaceful dwelling over the next 90 days, creating a Buddha-verse of kindness and clarity.
Love,
Katie Yosha Scott-Childress, began practicing with the MRO in 2005, became a student of Daido Roshi in 2007, and received the precepts in 2014. Living near Mt. Tremper, she has been able to participate in the life of the Monastery in different ways over the years, first bringing her two children to the Zen Kids program, and currently serving as a NBPS practice adviser. She works as a public library director, and has a creative urge that sometimes takes form in cooking or making clay pots.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, 4/04/2019
The second Fusatsu talk of the Spring Ango on Dogen’s fascicle “Refrain from Unwholesome Action.”
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic
Zen Center of New York City, 3/31/2019
Gokan takes up Dogen’s opening lines of the Ango fascicle, “Refrain from Unwholesome Action,” and asks what is refrain from? Gokan suggests we cultivate reverence.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, 3/29/2019
Even in our ignorance of the impact we have on others, karma is created. Hogen Sensei explores how we can use dharma practice to investigate what it is to “just refrain from,” both wholesome and unwholesome activity, as Dogen describes in the fascicle being studied during this Ango.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, 3/14/2019
This Fusatsu talk invites us to reflect deeply on Dōgen’s teaching from the Spring Ango study fascicle: “Refrain from unwholesome action. Do wholesome action. Purify your own mind. This is the teaching of all buddhas.” Shugen Roshi explores how all actions (positive, negative, and neutral) are unborn, undefiled, and are reality manifest in various ways. Study of our thoughts, words, and actions with an undivided heart offers insight to understanding intentions, desires, and karma. Refraining from unwholesome action is how is “the power of practice immediately actualized” which Dōgen describes.
Prabu Gikon Vasan, Senior Lay Practitioner
Zen Center of New York City, 11/18/2018
Gikon uses the teachings of early Theravada nuns, in particular the experience of Kisa Gautami, to examine the meaning of true freedom, and relates their struggles our modern day experiences of meeting barriers and attachments.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 05/22/2022
What is true compassion and how do we develop it? If Buddhist teachings say a compassionate heart is our birthright, what must we do to reveal it? With Leonard Cohen’s song Sisters of Mercy as a muse, Hogen Sensei explores the nature of compassion, its relationship to wisdom and loving-kindness, and the vital role our own suffering plays.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 05/15/2022
From the Book of Serenity, Case 18 – Zhaozhou’s Dog
If buddha nature is ineffable, if it has no characteristics, then how do we turn towards it? We want to direct our attention towards it so we can examine it and realize it. But it doesn’t exist. It doesn’t have a form. So how do we study that which is our true self, our true nature? Shugen Roshi takes up these questions using the well known koan “Does a dog have buddha nature?”
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 05/08/2022
From Master Wu-men’s Gateless Gate, Case 35 – Ch’ien and Her Soul Are Separated
How do we remain undivided amidst the divisive forces within and around us? And where can we truly go to seek wholeness in our lives? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the experience of division and wholeness, and how Zen practice brings us closer to the heart of the matter.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 05/08/2022
How do we practice fearlessness in the midst of fear? In this talk, Hojin Sensei invokes the dragon – a being that is often referenced in the Zen tradition as an embodiment of our enlightened nature. It is through turning around and facing the dragon with direct, kind awareness, she says, that we develop our capacity for fearlessness.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 05/01/2022
This Dharma Encounter with Hojin Sensei took place at the conclusion of the Apple Blossom Sesshin. What are our reasons for coming to the Dharma? Is our practice helping to answer those questions? And how do we know that our practice is working? Hojin Sensei takes these questions up with Ango participants in a lively discussion.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 04/30/2022
From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 87 – Medicine and Disease Subdue Each Other
Why do certain afflictions arise for us? Are we simply victims of our karma, of causes and conditions? Or might our hardships be helping us cultivate something that we need? In this talk, Shugen Roshi illuminates how it is through our suffering that we find our path to liberation and that our teachers are often closer than we think.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday Evening 04/29/2022
Dharma Talk during the Apple Blossom Sesshin 2022 Fusatsu Ceremony
Not Creating Evil, Practicing Good, and Actualizing Good For Others — these are The Three Pure Bodhisattva Precepts. But what does it mean to truly take up these vows in our own lives? In this talk, Hojin Sensei explores the meaning of each precept and how they can guide us in our practice.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 04/28/2022
The Buddha pointed to our desires as the origin of our suffering. But how do we understand desire? Does having wants guarantee us pain? In this talk, Hogen Sensei discusses the nature of desire and investigates the difference between having attachments and liking certain things. How can we determine if we are bound by desire? And how do we hold the things in life we do like?
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 04/27/2022
Why are we drawn to a retreat where silence is practiced? And why did the Buddha refer to this practice as “Noble Silence”? In this talk, Hojin Sensei opens the April Apple Blossom Sesshin by inquiring into the first sesshin precaution–to maintain inner and outer silence–and explores what silence and stillness have to offer us.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 04/24/2022
Why are the Bodhisattva Vows so important in Buddhist Practice? Where do they come from and why are they these particular four–to save all sentient beings, to put an end to desires, to master the dharma, and to attain the Buddha Way? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the meaning of each vow and illustrates what they can teach us about our true nature.
