by SJZC Administrator | Mar 27, 2018
Dear Sangha (Community), As I prepare to take refuge in the buddha, the dharma, and the sangha next month in the Jukai (or 16 bodhisattva precepts) ceremony and make my commitments as a buddhist publicly to you, I have been studying the meaning of the precepts and...
by SJZC Administrator | Dec 5, 2016
by Mary Leigh Burke When people asked the Buddha about metaphysical issues (is there a God? Is the soul reborn?) he replied with some variation of: “I don’t speculate on these things. I teach only suffering and the end of suffering.” So some people...
by SJZC Administrator | Aug 28, 2016
One of my most deeply rooted, and least helpful, habits was berating myself when I thought I had said or done something “wrong.” At one point I stumbled across a loving-kindness meditation in Ezra Bayda’s Beyond Happiness (see below.) I began...
by SJZC Administrator | Jul 7, 2016
Reminding Me A vulture circles. Clouds play chase, then bumper cars. Bees hunting nectar, intensely. A hot sun dismissed by a wistful wind. Sparks dance while flames laugh, Reminding me – Who stopped time today. – Rich...
by SJZC Administrator | Dec 7, 2015
Sangha Member Post: Most of the time I live as though life is a problem…like there are issues I need to solve. Of course the alternative, and the focus of Zen, is that life is a gift…and being fully in the present allows us to experience the joy of that...
by SJZC Administrator | Sep 3, 2015
Sangha Member Post: Being present has seen many stages in my practice. There was the early awareness stage when I first became aware of all the mental noise. It was quite shocking. The next stage was dominated by a sense of being trapped in a thick layer of cotton. I...
