All Beings Zen Sangha

Blog

  • Thursday Evening October 1, 2020 Practice 7pm

    Join the sangha tonight for one period of zazen followed by the Shuso Entering Ceremony and closing with our monthly pass the feather sangha check-in opportunity.  Join us by using this link
    —————–
    Order of Service
    Welcome by the Kokyo
    30 Minute zazen
    Explanation by the Ino of the Shuso Entering Ceremony
    Heart Sutra in Japanese
    Shuso Entering Ceremony
    Pass the Feather Sangha Sharing
     ——————–
    (Heart Sutra in Japanese can be found on this web site under the  “Frequently Used Chants” tab.

    Maka Hanya Haramita Shin Gyo

    KAN JI ZAI BO SATSU GYO JIN HAN NYA

    HA RA MI TA JI SHO KEN GO ON KAI

    KU DO IS SAI KU YAKU SHA RI SHI

    SHIKI FU I KU KU FU I SHIKI SHIKI 

    SOKU ZE KU KU SOKU ZE SHIKI JU SO

    GYO SHIKI YAKU BU NYO ZE SHA RI

    SHI ZE SHO HO KU SO FU SHO FU

    METSU FU KU FU JO FU ZO FU GEN

    ZE KO KU CHU MU SHIKI MU JU SO

    GYO SHIKI MU GEN NI BI ZE SHIN

    NI MU SHIKI SHO KO MI SOKU HO MU

    GEN KAI NAI SHI MU I SHIKI KAI MU

    MU MYO YAKU MU MU MYO JIN NAI 

    SHI MU RO SHI YAKU MU RO SHI JIN

    MU KU SHU METSU DO MU CHI YAKU 

    MU TOKU I MU SHO TOK KO BO DAI

    SAT TA E HAN NYA HA RA MI TA

    KO SHIN MU KE GE MU KE GE KO

    MU U KU FU ON RI IS SAI TEN DO

    MU SO KU GYO NE HAN SAN ZE SHO

    BUTSU E HAN NYA HA RA MI TA

    KO TOKU A NOKU TA RA SAM MYAKU

    SAM BO DAI KO CHI HAN NYA HA

    RA MI TA ZE DAI JIN SHU ZE DAI

    MYO SHU ZE MU JO SHU ZE MU TO 

    DO SHU NO JO IS SAI KU SHIN JITSU

    FU KO KO SETSU HAN NYA HA RA 

    MI TA SHU SOKU SETSU SHU WATSU

    GYA TE GYA TE HA RA GYA TE

    HARA SO GYA TE BO DHI SOWA KA 

    HAN NYA SHIN GYO

     

  • Announcing the Fall Ango – 2020 Practice Period for All Beings Zen Sangha

    “JUST ENOUGH”

    Friends,

    Today, we begin our annual Fall Ango (安居, “peaceful dwelling”).  This 90-day practice period offers us the chance to engage deeply with zazen and our four great vows, moving through the world with compassion and beginner’s mind.  Our theme for this year’s Fall Ango will be “Just Enough.”  I think this is an apt expression of the Buddha’s teaching of the Middle Way–not getting swept away by greed, not giving in to aversion.  Not too much, not too little.  Just enough.  It’s also a good way to think of the attitude we bring to our practice and to everyday life. When we sit, just to sit is enough.  When we work, just to work is enough.  While we live, just to live is enough.

    I look forward to exploring this theme with you all, especially in these difficult times.  One important way we can practice “just enough” is through our relationship to food–especially these days, when many of us are spending most of our time and preparing and eating most of our meals at home.  So this year, we will be scheduling Zoom cooking classes to learn how to make some traditional zendo dishes, oryoki demonstrations, and talks on sustainability and limiting food waste.  We will also be reading and hosting dharma study on Shohaku Okumura’s Living By Vow, an excellent book about the meaning of our most common chants–including the meal chant!   We hope these events focused around the kitchen and hearth will help you feel connected to the sangha while we wait for the right time to return to the zendo.

    And as we do every year, we will be scheduling Way Seeking Mind talks for sangha members to tell their stories and discuss their practice.  Our Shuso, the head student for the practice period, will be Shōryū Chris Leader.  The Shuso and his Benji (Shuso’s assistant) will be arranging the Way Seeking Mind talks as well as scheduling for Sangha members to enjoy tea with the Shuso.  Please contact the Benji, Alex Langlinais, at alexlanglinais@gmail.com to schedule your WSM talk or for sharing tea with the Shuso.

    Our Practice Period Leader, Inryū Sensei will be available for Dokusan (one to one discussions) with individuals throughout the Ango.  Please contact Inryū directly at inryu@allbeingszen.com to make an appointment.  

    You are welcomed and encouraged to join us for any and all of the events listed below!  Please stay tuned for email updates to the 2020 Fall Ango schedule, as well as updates to the All Beings Zen Sangha website (www.allbeingszen.org).

    FALL ANGO 2020 SCHEDULE

    Weekly Schedule

    Monday Wednesday, Friday: Morning Zazen at 6:30 AM EST (+ Way-Seeking Mind Talks)

    Thursday: Evening Service at 7:00 PM EST

    • Tea with the Shuso by appointment on dates TBA

    Fall Ango Events

    Thursday, September 24: Thursday Evening Service — Fall Ango Begins!

    Saturday, September 26: Outdoor Jukai at Woodburn Hill Farm

    Thursday, October 1: Shuso Entering Ceremony via Zoom

    Saturday, October 10: Half-Day Zazenkai

    Sunday, October 18: Full-Day Event at Woodburn Hill Farm

    Saturday, November 7: Full-Day Zazenkai

    Monday, November 30 – Sunday, December 6: Rohatsu Sesshin

    Tuesday, December 8: Rohatsu*

    Thursday, December 19: Shuso Hossen

    Dates TBD: 

    • Cooking Classes 
    • Dharma Study, Living By Vow by Shohaku Okumura
    • Movie Night 
    • Oryoki Presentation(s)
    • Talk(s) on No Waste/Conservation by Susan Cho
    • Talk(s) on Sitting with Pain, Hospice, Death and Dying
    • Talk(s) on Home Altars and Home Liturgy

    – By the ABZS Benji Alex Langlinais

    Photo by Vero Balderas-Iglesias

  • Book Discussion of David Chadwick’s “Crooked Cucumber”; The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki

    September 19th, 2020  – 12noon.  Bring your lunch, or a cup of tea to enjoy while we discuss the Biography of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.  David Chadwick the author of the book will be our All Beings Zen Sangha special guest.  

        Dharma Study Group reading  and discussion the  “Crooked Cucumber”.   Join us in the cloud zendo by using this link.

  • Outdoor Jukai on July 18, 2020

    Inryū Sensei offering the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts to Naomi Knoble (Kōryū Bendōwa Bright Dragon, Make Clear, Way, Harmonius) in our first All Beings Zen Sangha “outdoor” formal ceremony.   Gratitude to our hosts; Becky and Evan allowing us to use the fields below their Greenbridge Pottery.  It was a lovely evening and delightful to be encircled by Evan’s  planting of the three sisters (corn, beans and squash) and cheerful sunflowers.  Given the ongoing concerns about Covid-19 there were very limited invitees and everyone wore masks and kept physical distance.

     

  • ABZS June 5th, 2020 Joining the Black Lives Matter March to 1600 Penn Ave NW

  • Workshop on Saturday June 6th, 2020 10:30am

    To join the workshop at 10:30 use this link.

    June 6th – “Sexuality in the time of Covid-19” a workshop taught by  Rev. Daigan Gather of Den of Vow Temple in San Francisco, CA 10:30am- noon.

    Rev. Daigan Gaither began Buddhist practice in 1995 in the Vipassana (Insight) tradition, and then began to study Zen in 2003 with Ryushin Paul Haller Roshi. He received Lay Ordination in 2006 where he was given the name Daigan or “Great Vow”, and received Priest Ordination in July 2011. Daigan speaks internationally on a variety of topics particularly around gender, sexuality, social justice and their intersections with the Dharma.  You can find out more via his podcast at patreon.com/stumpthemonk (free versions are available) or at his website queerdharma.net He identifies as a disabled, queer, white, cis male and uses he/him pronouns.

  • Flash Event – Movie Night May 29th, 2020 7pm

    May  29th, 2020 –  Film Night  – “It’s Such a Beautiful Day”. 7pm.

    Join us in our  Cloud Zendoplex here .  if you are asked for a password please try this  030411.

    For a good review of the movie go here .

  • Becoming a Friend of All Beings Zen Sangha this Spring 2020

    In this turbulent moment, All Beings Zen Sangha seeks to create a place of refuge and open hearted practice for all who need it. During the shift from physical gathering to meeting in our cloud zendo, we have been deeply heartened by the presence of so many at our virtual services.  It is inspiring to witness our Sangha coming together to nurture our collective practice while also expressing the vow to save all beings by remaining physically apart.
     
    Generosity is the practice of wholehearted giving and is the first paramita, a quality of mind of a Bodhisattva. To sustain our efforts, both now and beyond this crisis, we ask that you consider becoming a Friend of All Beings Zen Sangha through a monthly donation. Contributions provide a humble stipend for our guiding teacher, support our practice spaces at the urban zendo and at Woodburn Hill Farm,  and cover other operational expenses. A regular contribution is particularly valuable because it provides a broad base of dependable support for the Sangha by increasing our financial resilience and enabling us to plan for future expenses with a clear picture of our projected revenues. Please find details for how to contribute below this email, which include the ability to donate electronically via Venmo or PayPal, and know that any amount is deeply appreciated.
     
    As the Dharma is a precious gift entrusted to us by countless generations of practitioners, it is always offered at ABZS freely to everyone without exception for the benefit of all beings. We ask that you donate only if you feel comfortable doing so at this time, and place your circumstances first when deciding whether to contribute.
     
    If you have not yet had the opportunity to join us for our services, you are always welcome. Our Sangha’s events page contains our service schedule and details on how to participate via Zoom. If time allows, we hope you will join us.
     
    Yours in the Dharma.  
     
    Rev. Inryu Bobbi Ponce-Barger, Sensei,
    & the All Beings Zen Sangha Board of Directors
     
    Please find All Beings Zen Sangha Donation Page information here:   https://www.allbeingszen.com/contact/
     
    Please direct questions regarding being a donor to:  Zenho Eric Jonas treasurer@allbeingszen.com

  • FLASH EVENT – Friday night movie with ABZS starting at 7pm ET

    Join us in our cloud Zendoplex tonight for our first Covid-19 ABZS movie night.    Apropos of the “shelter in place” we will enjoy reviewing “Groundhog Day” .

    You can view the film on your own (many of us have a DVD or on many streaming services) or with us starting at 7pm by clicking here.  The film lasts one hour and forty-one minutes.  At approximately 8:45 pm  we’ll have a cloud  conversation about the film and the buddhist themes that are present here.

    We’ll also view the 2019 advertisement used during the Super Bowl in which the groundhog makes an appearance again.  Bring your popcorn!

  • Platform Sutra Dharma Study on Saturday May 16th at 10am.

    Dharma Study Group discussion focusing on the first half of  “The Platform Sutra”.  Please feel welcome to read any translation.  Two favorites are the one done by Red Pine in 2006 or the one done by McRae (PDF version here).  You can also listen to the McRae translation here.  Additional translations can be found here.  10am-11:30am.

    Suggested donation $5-$10