Zenkai By Zoom: Three-Day Zen Retreat with Jack Duffy (July 10-12, 2020)
We will have an intensive retreat with Jack, Madelon, and Lee July 10-12, 2020. The detailed schedule is below. Here is an overall summary of the 3 days: SCHEDULE Specifics to be included soon. Friday — 6:45pm-9:45pm Saturday — 8:15am-12:30pm 2:30-5:00 & 7:00-9:30pm Sunday — 8:15am-12:30pm & 2:30-5 pm The intensive weekend Zoom retreat will begin Friday at 6:45 PM with gathering for a short introduction to the form with Zoom, and zazen at 7:00 PM. The full schedule is included at the bottom of this page. For a zoom link, email: There is no better time for focused practice than this!...
Read MoreEncouragement for Windblown Plum Home-Based Intensive — a talk by Leland Shields, April 5, 2020
The phrase, “never apart from this very place” takes on new relevance as we are in lockdown for Covid-19, each practicing in our own homes, our own quiet rooms. This week is a chance to truly bring practice home, to the place before we were born, and to the home in which we sleep, cook, clean, and many of us now work. This bizarre practice, assisted by the technology that has existed for only moments within the span of the Buddha-Dharma, is not a backup or compromise. It is the only practice. It is sesshin, without need to parse definitions of the word, “sesshin,” affording us the benefit of...
Read MoreStaying Home–What’s the Point? — a talk by Madelon Bolling (April 6, 2020)
This talk was given during Windblown Plum. In these strange and confusing days when we have to isolate ourselves to stay healthy and alive, many have lost a sense of fitting in, of belonging. We cannot visit friends and neighbors in person, cannot experience the usual give-and-take with others the way we always have. Amid our loneliness, the question arises: so who am I? Why am I here? I’m no good to anybody just knocking around the house this way. “Staying safe”– what’s the point? This week I was charmed into reading Dogen’s chapter on The Four Virtues of a Bodhisattva. Nishijima and...
Read MoreZenkai (May 10, 2020) with Leland Shields
TTS will hold the May 10, 2020 Zenkai remotely (by Zoom). If you are able, please join all or part of this opportunity for intensive practice with others. The format similar to Windblown Plum intensive, but with this schedule: 8:15 Samu – cleaning your space or home8:45 Gathering on Zoom 9:00 5 Remembrances, Zazen, Kinhin 10:00 Talk by Lee 10: 40 (approx.) Zazen, Kinhin 11:15 Interviews available 12:00 Mics and video on. Break to get food 12:10 Informal Zoom lunch together with mics and video on 12:45 Clean up, be in seat by 12:55 (just like regular zenkai) 1:00 ...
Read MoreLike There Is No Tomorrow, A Talk By Madelon Bolling (February 9, 2020)
Case 32, Shaseki-shu [Collection of Stone and Sand]: A lord asked Takuan Soho, a Zen teacher, to suggest how he might pass the time. He felt his days very long attending his office and sitting stiffly to receive the homage of others. Takuan wrote eight Chinese characters and gave them to the man: Not twice this day Inch time foot gem. The translator explains: This day will not come again. Each minute is worth a priceless gem. PSC Not twice this day. It’s a new year—a good year to experience seeing clearly, you might say, 20/20. Last year brought the death of one of my siblings, a serious...
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