Category: zen
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Desire
Talk by Chris What is the source of desire? How are we to act on our feelings of desire – how we want ourselves or others to behave? Chris shared a story about a neighbor who, many years ago, hosted a loud party. They informed Chris the day of the event that they would be…
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Shujinko 主人公 : True Self
In zen teaching, shujinko means “true self.” So how can we find our “true self”? 無想 Muso: Don’t think anything, get rid of all thoughts 無念 Munen: Let go of desires, don’t get distracted by the stimulus from the outside world 無住 Muju: Let go of your attachment to material things What remains is the “true self.” Zazen…
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Two Approaches to Happiness
Talk by Lakshmi There are, we could say, two basic approaches to manifesting a happier, more fulfilled life. The first and most familiar to us is to try to maximize the quality of our day-to-day experiences and circumstances as best we can. However, one of the inherent challenges of trying to engineer or control our…
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Be with the desire
We had a discussion on desire led by Chris. Have you watched the groundhog day movie? You wake up and
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Your mind and how you are with this world is the answer…
Aaron shared a podcast by Questlove & Will Smith. Will Smith talked about why he wrote a book about his life. Here is the link to the podcast. Aaron played a clip roughly 20:32 – 24:55 of the podcast. The garden is blooming. Here is the photo Chris took yesterday.
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wa kei sei jaku 和敬清寂
This sign used to hang outside of our gate to the zendo. “Wa, Kei, Sei, Jaku,” famous Sado (tea ceremony ) word describing four essential elements of Sado. 和(Wa) Harmony 敬(Kei) Respect 清(Sei) Purity 寂(Jaku) Tranquility So why this word for tea ceremony relates to zen? It is believed that Eisai, who established the Rinzai…
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wabi-sabi 侘び寂び
Jia found this pottery in the clearance section because of imperfections. He loves this piece. We talked about wabi-sabi. In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi is a world view centered on accepting transience and imperfection.
Hakone Zendo 