by SJZC Administrator | Jan 25, 2026
From Sogen: The Buddha said to his attendant Ananda, “Good friendship, good companionship, and good camaraderie are actually the whole of the spiritual life.” Sangha and Dharma are not separate. Our community of spiritual friends, our sangha, supports and inspires us...
by SJZC Administrator | Jan 18, 2026
From Sogen: We all have personalities, and at the same time we are all part of the whole world. In our practice, on and off the cushion, we come to know our habitual thoughts, opinions, desires, feelings, and practice setting them aside. Setting them aside so we can...
by SJZC Administrator | Jan 11, 2026
From Sogen: You are supported in your practice. By Buddhas and ancestors, their vows, chants, sutras, songs. By roles sangha mates have taken up, housekeeping, groundskeeping, greeting, altar keeping, time keeping, chant leading. By precepts you have received, to do...
by SJZC Administrator | Jan 4, 2026
From Sogen: It’s a new year, a new day, a new moment, a new breath. During the first Sunday service of 2026, we practiced Fusatsu, the beautiful full-moon ceremony of atonement and renewal of precept vows. Recalling with regret harmful actions we may have done and...
by SJZC Administrator | Dec 15, 2025
From Mushin: How do the arts enter your everyday life? As mirrors for experience and meaning-making, they shed a bright light on the human-made world. They trigger us into physical sensations, emotions, streams of thought associations, memories, dreams etc. There’s...
by SJZC Administrator | Dec 8, 2025
From Mushin: The whole world in the ten directions is One Bright Pearl, the title of the essay by Dogen Zenji that we worked with at the Rohatsu sesshin just finished. We come away from it with a keener awareness of how this one bright pearl, each moment, is shaped by...
