Precepts Study
As of early June 2009, we are studying the Buddhist Precepts. Angie gives a talk on them each Tuesday evening after zazen, followed by comments and questions/answers with the sangha.
Here are the materials.
And here are the talks.
As of early June 2009, we are studying the Buddhist Precepts. Angie gives a talk on them each Tuesday evening after zazen, followed by comments and questions/answers with the sangha.
Here are the materials.
And here are the talks.
Floating Zendo is please to announce our yearly sesshin (meditation retreat).
Angie Boissevain, our Teacher, will lead the retreat.
Sesshin will be held from August 7-14, 2009 at Jikoji Zen Center, in Los Gatos, California.
Please go to our sesshin page for sign-up details and ongoing information about this year’s retreat.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Begining July 8, 2008, Floating Zendo in San Jose, CA will study Dogen Zenji’s Zuimonki on Tuesday evenings.
Zuimonki is a collection of dharma talks to lay and monk practitioners given by Dogen Zenji, recorded by his disciple Ejo.
We will use a few translations:
If you can not attend our Tuesday evening zazen/study, we hope you will listen to recordings of these meetings.
Wikipedia now has an entry for our teacher Angie!
Take a look… you may learn something that you didn’t know about our teacher!
(P.S. There is also a permanent link to the Wikipedia entry on the Blog Roll.)
As of late November 2007, we have begun our study of Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.
We hope you will join us for regular zazen and our study of this wonderful book, led by our teacher Angie.
We have begun the study of Kobun Chino roshi’s Aspects of Sitting. We began this study in mid-August 2007, and will review a chapter each Tuesday evening after zazen in San Jose.
The text addresses guidelines for zazen, which are especially relevant, as we are about to hold our annual sesshin. Kobun was Angie’s teacher.
Angie handed out paper copies of Aspects for local use in San Jose.
There is an almost identical online copy available at Jikoji, if you’d like to study along with us (remotely). Angie’s Tuesday evening talks on Aspects will be available as well.
On Tuesday, May 15, 2007, guest speaker Michael Newhall from Jikoji cited a poem from memory that many sangha members enjoyed. The following is the poem in full:
Chungnan
Middle-aged now, following the Way.
Settled at evening near the Chungnan slopes.
Delight, and I wander off by myself
Searching for what I need to see alone.
I climb up to the roots of the streams,
Sit and watch the White Clouds pass,
Meet the old man of the woods,
Talk and laugh, forget to go home.
… Wang Wei (699-759 AD)
[We are beginning study of A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, written by Santideva. We begin with Chapter 1 on May 1, 2007, as part of our regular Tuesday evening schedule in San Jose. Please join us.]
A GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE
(concerning development of an enlightened mind)
Translations in print:
Online Translations:
Commentaries:
Beginning In late January 2007, Floating Zendo will study the 10 Ox Herding Pictures of Kaku-an Shi-en (Ch) / Kuo-an Shih-yuan (Ch):
Book, online:
Books, offline:
Online:
I recently read some lectures by Pat Phelan about Dogen’s Fukanzazengi, where she indicates that Dogen wrote three zazen “users manuals”, that are available in English from Stanford’s Soto Text Translation Project:
The translators’ notes and supplemental notes are especially helpful to understand the historical Zen background/context of Dogen’s references.
I hope you too find these excellent Dogen writings an encouragement in your practice.
… Dan