Zenkai (December 10, 2017) with Madelon Bolling and Lee Shields
Beginners who are interested in Zen and experienced Zen students are welcome. Schedule 8:15am Work period 9:00am Opening, Five Remembrances, Zazen 9:35am Zazen 10:00am Dharma talk 11:00am Zazen 12:00pm Informal lunch (Soup will be provided. Please bring food to share.) 1:00pm Sutras 1:30pm Zazen, Interviews 2:50pm Closing, Great Vows
Read MoreTalks by Lee and Madelon during the In-City Retreat, July 7-9, 2017
Observing: A Midsummer Retreat – A talk by Madelon Bolling, (July 9, 2017) To be clear and tranquil about the end of “me” I need to be clear and tranquil about what “me” is, and in general there is a lot of confusion on this point. We often hear teachers say, “you are not what you think you are.” But then what? The mind says, “Oh yeah, yeah—all beings without exception have Buddha nature, I’ve heard. Whatever that means—it’s sort of beyond what I can get.” And it pulls attention back into cloud-identified dreaming. Read full talk. Going to Abandoned Grassy Places –...
Read MoreObserving: A Midsummer Retreat – A talk by Madelon Bolling, (July 9, 2017)
The predecessor of this midsummer retreat was called “Ancient Bones.” They say it was discontinued because fewer and fewer people could attend at all. Even with allowances for our limitations, it had become too arduous for those with ancient bones. I bought pre-paid cremation services for my dad a couple weekends ago and we scattered my brother-in-law’s ashes on the Fourth of July. We’re all of us facing death from the instant we are born. We can’t face away from it since it is part of life itself. Death is seen as an end, the ending of everything. No more fun and no more...
Read MoreGoing to Abandoned Grassy Places – Introduction to long walking meditation (July 8, 2017)
The purpose of going to abandoned grassy places and doing zazen is to search for our self-nature. Now, at such a moment, where is your self-nature? This is the outdoor dojo. Unlike the indoor dojo: NO BELLS NO STRICT TIMING we rise and settle like geese – each alert to the others NO LOOKING INWARD INSTEAD, we walk in continuous attention to the moving intersection of time and space: where PAST meets FUTURE INSIDE meets OUTSIDE . . . at the constantly moving intersection of NOWHERE (now-here) Staying with clear heart and open mind in the openness of this intersection, we practice...
Read MorePurify – Already Pure, A Talk by Leland Shields (July 8, 2017)
In Red Pine’s translation of the Platform Sutra, it begins with these words of Hui neng and then those of a narrator within the text: “Good friends, purify your minds by reciting the teaching of Mahaprajnaparamita.” Then the Master stopped speaking, while he purified his own mind. (Red Pine, The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teachings of Hui-neng, 2006, p. 73) This can be a simple introduction, including a moment of Zazen meditation, or chanting one of the Prajnaparamita Sutras silently or out loud. The Prajnaparamita sutras are the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra. Red Pine believed it...
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.
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