You Followers of the Way
from here and there, try coming to me without depending on anything.
Rinzai (Lin Chi)
AZC will be closed
Thursday Nov. 25th
and
Friday Nov 26th.
Happy Thanksgiving! We will be closed Thursday and Friday so you can enjoy your family and some kind of feast, be it carnivorous, vegetarian, vegan , low carb., or gluten free. Just try not to over eat and enjoy the festivities. Jordan and I will be at Rohatsu at the Bodhi we will be closed Thursday and Friday the schedule will be the same. David N. and David D. will be helping out. Drop on by and give them some company.
Art and Rochelle have returned from Spain safe and sound with lots of pictures. It is great having them back.
Patrick will be holding an officer training class on the 29th. It doesn't matter if you wish to become an officer or not it will be informative and help you understand our procedures and practice better.
I reposted "The Post Election Blues" because I was told the font color made it hard to read.
December we will have all the usual Movie Night, Day Sit and Full Moon Sit.
Oh yeah almost forgot November attendance has been sporadic and November Donations have been low.
Oh well maybe things will pick up in April when Seiju returns in April.
The Post Election Blues
There is a simple, inverse relationship in times of turmoil between silence and stress.
If we are caught, in any of the ways, in the events and emotions around us, then we are unaware of the silence within us.
Conversely, if we are awake to the silence within, we will not be buffeted by the events around us.
However, this is of little solace if our “commitment,” jiriki in Japanese, is weak. As anyone who has trained in sports, arts, etc., knows success in any skill is not a simple mental decision. Skill takes practice.
But, what to do now?
Work the inverse relationship between silence and stress. Focus on silence to diminish stress.
Breathe silence. Inhale silence, exhale silence, inhale through silence, exhale as silence. Mix and match to your conceptual minds content.
Make time to hear, feel, experience, realize…silence.
Seiju
DEEPENING YOUR PRACTICE
Making relationship with everything around you while serving as an officer
Why do we use so many different percussion instruments during zazen? Do they all have a purpose? Or do they have a dual purpose? Your service to the Sangha is a great gift. Join in on a conversation and practice that will help us all to deepen our personal practice and that gift.
November 29, 2016
A one night mini-session
General discussion
Some very short readings
Hands on practice
Schedule
5:30 pm – thirty minutes of Zazen
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm Shoji
The Han
Serving tea Jikijitsu
Inkin
Posture
The desire to break the silence with constant human noise is, I believe, precisely an avoidance of the sacred terror of that divine encounter
Basho
Buddhist Movie Night Friday December 2nd 6:00pm featuring
AZC is funded entirely by the donations of our sangha members
and the support of those who strive, as we do,
to help others see their worlds a bit more clearly.
We welcome your support.
Gassho.
ARTICLES
Buddhist teachers respond to news of Trump's presidential win by Rod Mead Sperry