by SJZC Administrator | Feb 10, 2024
Every weekday morning after our morning zazen the small group of us have tea around the kitchen table at the Zen center. The guiding teacher (usually Soten) offers a prompt for discussion. This past Monday I offered the prompt, “If you were to substitute another...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Feb 3, 2024
In zazen on the cushion (bench or chair) we look deeply, carefully, minutely into each breath, each sensation, each thought, or impulse…and come to appreciate how ephemeral this “each” is. Beyond zazen on the cushion, the instants unfold in a stream of nowness...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Jan 27, 2024
It used to get so dark you couldn’t see your own hand in front of your face. It still does. Do you ever go out into the forest at night, where the canopy is so thick it filters out even the starlight? Or have you been out in the ocean when silence stretched your ears...
by SJZC Administrator | Jan 20, 2024
From Shinei… How do you meet your life? This life right now? Are you meeting it as a task to be accomplished? A problem to fix? As an opponent to brace yourself against? Right now, you have a choice. Take a deep breath, relax the body and drop all notions of...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Jan 13, 2024
Zen practice is a way of life. Does this life have some destination? If we answer this question using the mind of opposites, then the destination is death. Life and death. But surely this life is way more complex than this, as is death. So let’s set that approach...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Dec 30, 2023
On Sunday we are marking the New Year with zazen and by ringing the bell 108 times. Each of us takes a turn ringing the bell and being reminded of how we contribute our practice to the sangha jewel. The number 108 indicates the “defilements” which we can all get...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Dec 16, 2023
Poem from Rohatsu Sesshin A seed is planted, a wheat stalk grows. A farmer takes her scythe to harvest. A grain is milled into a fine flour. A baker turns the flour to bread. A man buys the bread and slices it. This is the one universe of time. And with each slice, A...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Dec 9, 2023
Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. Have you heard this before? In Zen we are always saying that no one else can awaken to our life for us. We don’t need to be anyone else. We cannot be anyone else. There is no need to be anyone else. The Buddha extended the...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Dec 2, 2023
While some of us are sitting sesshin this coming week, whenever you think of us, please stop for a moment and take a mindful breath, or several. Look around and appreciate the blessings that you are receiving this very moment. And reflect on what you are offering this...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Nov 25, 2023
Monday is a full moon. This day is set aside traditionally for the Fusatsu ceremony, where we contemplate our basic life intention. We’ll be celebrating this on Sunday. We look at what ways we continue to be led by our habits of mind and activities that are...
