Beginning March 2012, Floating Zendo will study the Sansui-kyo (”Mountains and Rivers”) chapter of Dogen’s Shobogenzo, Kazuaki Tanahashi, translator. The Tanahashi translation is available in the collected Treasury of the True Dharma Eye and also in Moon in a Dewdrop.
After we finish the “Mountains and Rivers” chapter, we will look into The Book of Serenity, Soto Zen koans translated by Thomas Cleary.
Floating Zendo sewing sesshin at Jikoji Zen Center
Oct 23 – 27 2011
with Jane Macdonald and Carolyn Dille
Sunday 4 PM – Thursday noon
Suggested donation is $50/day (which includes lodging, 3 meals a day and dana for our tenzo). Day rate of $60 (includes two meals).
We will alternate between zazen and sewing, with two sitting periods at the beginning and end of our day. In the middle of our day we will have two blocks of time to sew. The sesshin schedule is here. All are welcome, whether to sew an okesa, rakusu, sutra cloth, or any other project you might have, or simply to come and sit zazen. Bring your sewing materials and cloth; if you need a sewing kit, please let Jane or Carolyn know at registration.
Please register to confirm your attendance: (Read on …)
The daily schedule for the sesshin August 19-26, 2011, is now available: link (pdf). Everyone is invited to meditate with us. If you will be joining us for a meal, please contact the Shika or, beginning Friday, call Jikoji at 408-741-9562 to let us know so that we can prepare enough food.
Also, the Floating Zendo Sesshin Guidebook (pdf) is now online. The Guidebook details the rules and ceremonies observed during our sesshin. In addition, the Guidebook specifies the responsibilities of the formal roles, like Ino or Soku.
We return to Jikoji Zen Center on Skyline Blvd., Los Gatos for our 9th Annual Sesshin. This rural retreat center was established in 1983 by Kobun Chino Otogawa and a group of his students. Our teacher, Angie Boissevain, Zuiko Enji, is one of these founding students. Situated in a wooded area, surrounded by Open Space Preserve, Jikoji offers a quiet, rustic environment for meditation practice. Current residents and Sangha members of the Center nourish the Zen heritage, and Kobun’s legacy animates the site. Improvements in recent years add to the comfort, accessibility, and beauty of the Center.
Angie will sit with us all week and offer a Dharma talk after tea each afternoon. Dokusan will be offered in the morning, Monday through Thursday. Breakfast and Lunch will be Oryoki form. Sets of bowls are available for your use. A daily schedule for the Sesshin will be e-mailed mid August.
Our Sesshin is open to all (Read on …)
As of June 2010, Floating Zendo in San Jose, CA is studying the Uji (”Time-Being”) chapter of Dogen’s Shobogenzo. We are using the English translation in Enlightenment Unfolds (ed. Kaz Tanahashi). A popular, similar, but not identical, earlier translation by Kaz is available online. Our teacher’s talks on Uji are given as part of our weekly meetings, where Angie welcomes people’s questions on the text. We hope you can join us, or listen in from near or far.
Starting Tuesday, January 12, we will be studying Hsin-hsin Ming: Verses on the Faith-Mind by Seng-ts’an, Third Patriarch. The book that Angie will use as her reference in the upcoming talks is Trust in Mind: The Rebellion of Chinese Zen
by Mu Soeng & Jan Chozen Bays. This book includes the ancient poem and commentary; it is not required or needed for our Tuesday evenings. There are about 20 or so verses to this poem and it is in many anthologies, as well as on-line.
The translation by Richard B. Clarke can be found at this link: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/fm/fm.htm.
Beginning in early October 2009, Floating Zendo has begun to study the Heart Sutra. We have studied the Sutra before, and we come back to this essential periodically. “The” Sutra is chanted at each of Floating Zendo’s zazen sessions as a core element of the service. The Sutra’s emphasis on emptiness and prajna paramita are core to our Soto and Mahayana practice.
We encourage you to join the study by attending Tuesday evenings in San Jose, CA, or by listening to the audio recordings of Angie’s talks.
[Practice period for 2009 is now over. We leave this posting available for your use, as it refers to useful documents relevant for ongoing practice.]
In preparation for Floating Zendo’s sesshin in August 2009, we began a practice period in early July, that will end with the start of sesshin. “Ango” is often a time of more intense (zazen) practice, a greater role in the zendo, studying a sutra/Buddhist material, etc. To guide the greater sanga in joining in practice period, please see document 1 and document 2 for some background and suggestions for this practice opportunity.
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.
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.
