The Great Vows Project -A Talk by Larry Keil (June 12, 2016)
I wanted to share with you a project I have been working on for the past couple of months. This project is a rewording of the Great Vows for All. This came about when I was reading the Diamond Sangha newsletter and noticed that some of the teachers were looking at a rewording of the four great vows. I was not particularly taken with some of what they came up with, so wondered what words I might use if I rewrote the vows. This became an engaging task for me–trying to be as faithful as possible to the meaning of the original Chinese characters and yet using words more familiar and with...
Read MoreMahaprajapati and the Philosophers’ Stone, a talk given by Madelon Bolling (May 8, 2016)
To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. (Dogen: Genjo Koan, Aitken and Tanahashi trans.) Mahaprajapati and the Philosopher’s Stone The first of the women ancestors honored in our dedication chant is Mahaprajapati Gautami, foster mother of Shakyamuni Buddha and founder of the women’s order. In a sense she’s ancestral mother of all who sit and practice here. Today I’ll tell a little of her story—and though the Philosophers’ Stone seems like something belonging more to...
Read MoreA Climate of Change: 3 Week Study Retreat with Eileen Kiera and Jack Duffy (June 4 – 25)
During the 2016, 3-week study retreat, we will immerse ourselves in writings from Asia, Europe and North America which express and illuminate the natural configuration of reality. Held by a spacious and disciplined schedule of sitting, walking, working and eating, we will circumambulate the stupa of “a climate of change”. Individually and as a group, we step into a new and closer relationship with that which is before us. Our Teachers, Eileen Kiera & Jack Duffy co-founded Mountain Lamp Community. Together they bring together the Diamond Sangha and Plum Village traditions. They are...
Read MoreSeven-Day Zen Retreat (Sesshin) with Jack Duffy (April 16th-April 23, 2016)
Three Treasures Sangha holds two, seven-day meditation retreats (Sesshins) each year at Mountain Lamp, a rural practice center near Bellingham, Washington. See our Sesshin page for more information.
Read MoreHurt, Anger, Forgiveness and Acceptance in Zen — A Talk Given By Leland Shields — April 10, 2016
The National Teacher’s Stone Lion Case 152, Dogen’s 300 Koans Nanyang arrived at the front of the palace with Emperor Suzong. Nanyang pointed at a figure of a stone lion and said to the emperor, “Your Majesty, this lion is extraordinary. Please say a turning word.” Emperor Su said, “I cannot say anything. Will you please say something?” Nanyang said, “It is my fault.” Later Danyuan Yingzhen asked Nanyang, “Did the emperor understand it?” Nanyang said, “Let’s put aside whether the emperor understood it. How do you understand it?” (Translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi and John Daido Loori) This is...
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