by SJZC Administrator | Oct 19, 2025
From Mushin: The stillness of the afternoon just now, the silence that is filtering through the stream of sunlight, just freely offered. What else is freely offered at this very moment? We have to stop to notice. It’s not so much that we have to live a different life,...
by SJZC Administrator | Oct 14, 2025
From Mushin Sejiki is an important ceremony in the Soto Zen school where we comfort and feed the ancestral spirits and hungry, restless ghosts. Every autumn we enact this ceremony of offerings to the ancestors, to our parents, relatives, community and other...
by SJZC Administrator | Oct 6, 2025
From Sogen: Dogen Zenji wrote in Genjokoan, which we sometimes chant: “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self; to study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things.” Or as that last line appears in our chant book: “To...
by SJZC Administrator | Oct 1, 2025
From Sogen The Song of Loving Kindness is sung during each weekday morning service: May you dwell in the heart, may you be free from suffering, may you be healed, may you be at peace. The Pali word for Loving Kindness is Metta, as in Metta Sutra, which is chanted in...
by SJZC Administrator | Sep 21, 2025
Dogen Zenji wrote in Genjokoan, which we sometimes chant: “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self; to study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things.” Or as that last line appears in our chant book:“To forget the...
by SJZC Administrator | Sep 15, 2025
From Sogen: Curiosity is a skillful attitude in Zen practice. Cultivating curiosity, inquiry, investigation, questioning, wondering, asking, exploring in your practice leads to new insights, new perspectives, new understanding, and new questions. A useful practice...
