September Sesshin (7-Day Meditation Retreat)
Three Treasures Sangha typically holds two, seven-day sesshin each year. Non-Residential Sesshin with Lee Shields, In Person and Zoom, September 7-14. 2024 These retreats are rigorous and quite demanding, consisting of about 10 hours of zazen (sitting meditation) per day. They are silent except for the teacher’s daily teisho (dharma talk), and for dokusan (practice-related interview with the teacher). Online and part time attendance are welcome. See the Sesshin page for more information.
Read MoreTalk for July by Madelon Bolling (July 14, 2024)
Changqing addressed the monks, saying, “If I truly expound the vehicle of our school, then I should simply close the door to the Dharma hall. Therefore I’ll just say that in the inexhaustible Dharma there are no persons.” 1 PSC As we continue to see one another in zenkai, or at Zoom sitting practice on weekday mornings, gardening once a month on a Saturday, one thing becomes clearer and clearer. No matter our current age and condition, we are all getting older. And here and there, one by one, without exception, we will all die. As much as we may wish otherwise, our bodies and those...
Read MoreLotus Flowers and Lotus Leaves – A Talk by Leland Shields (July 13, 2024)
A monk asked Chih Men, “How is it when the lotus flower has not yet emerged from the water?” Chih Men said, “A Lotus flower.” The monk said, “What about after it has emerged from the water?” Men said, “Lotus leaves.” (Translation) Thomas Cleary, Blue Cliff Record, p. 139. The story of an unnamed monk asking two questions of Chi Men comes to us from ancient China in the concise language that was the style of Zen then and now. This exchange is not so foreign or far away, though. It is ours this weekend as we wonder what it is we’re doing here, at...
Read MoreZen Talks from the 2024 Spring Sesshin
Relinquish Yourself, a talk be Lee Shields Not Wind, Not Flag, a talk be Lee Shields Wanderring Among the Poor, a talk be Lee Shields Voice of the Bird, a talk by Madelon Bolling The Zazen of the Mahayana, a talk be Lee Shields Blinded by Gold Dust, a talk be Lee Shields
Read MoreBlinded by Gold Dust – A Talk by Leland Shields (April 5, 2024)
One day the Counselor Wang visited…Master [Lin-chi]. When he met the Master in front of the Monk’s Hall, he asked: “do the monks of this monastery read the sutras?” “No, they don’t read sutras,” said the Master. “Then do they learn meditation?” asked the Counselor. “No, they don’t learn meditation,” answered the Master. “If they neither read sutras nor learn meditation, what in the world are they doing?” asked the Counselor. “All I do is make them become buddhas and patriarchs,” said the Master. The Counselor said: “Though gold dust is valuable, in the eyes it causes cataract [can blind...
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