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Practicing and experiencing Soto Zen in Southwest Florida
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Sarasota Zen Group
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Today's thought

"As your desire is, so is your will.
"As your will is, so is your deed.
"As your deed is, so is your destiny."
--Brihadaranyaka, in the Upanishads

As He Lay Dying

A Zen monk named Ichhi labored his whole life in the kitchen of the great monastery at Lake Hakkone. He deemed himself a failed monk because he had been assigned the koan of "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" since his earliest days in the congregation and had never been able to solve it. It was now 55 years of failure, and he was nearing the end of his lifetime.

But as he lay dying he suddenly realized that he was cradling a great peace in his soul. Gone was the striving for enlightenment, gone was the stridency of his loins, and gone was the haunting koan -- for he had found the stillness of no longer striving in this exquisite silence alone in the attic in the soft dark at the end of his life.

It was only then, when there remained no more questions nor need for answers (or even the need for breathing) that Ichhi heard at last the whooshing silence of one hand clapping.

Our Sunday Evening Zen Sessions

We have started small Zen sessions on Sunday nights at 7 pm in the manner of our regular sessions at the Unitarian Church. These new sessions are done online using the app called Zoom. If you've used Zoom before you won't need any introduction. If. you're new to Zoom you can find instructions on this page.

If you would like to join us the instructions are at the end of this email.

In these short sessions we greet our Sunday night meditators, we discuss what moves us these days, we do a small reading, we do a (short) meditation and, if Don can remember the words to his evening gatha, we'll finish up with that.

To participate, send us an email at zen@uusarasota.org providing your name and email address. We'll email you the meeting number and the password.
--Don DeMaio

Mindfulness and the Pandemic

Of course, our lives have changed dramatically--and maybe permanently--in the past 5 or 6 months. Things we once loved are changing and may no longer have that element that we so loved. People we loved may have passed away, or have been permanently affected by loved one of theirs who passed away.

The life we once lived is no longer the same; it may never come back.

But some things have not changed, will never change. One of those is mindfulness. Mindfulness is a tool that is always available to us, free and easy. If ever there was a technique tailor-made to help us cope with a global pandemic it is mindfulness. You need no preparation, no special equipment, there is no cost, it takes so little time. And yet ... and yet ... you could change the world, or change your world.

As we try to navigate our anxiety about the coronavirus, remember the illustration that was taught to us by the great monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, that he learned during the exodus from Vietnam in the 1960s. “When the crowded Vietnamese refugee boats met with storms or pirates, if everyone panicked all would be lost. But if even one person on the boat remained calm and centered, it was enough. It showed the way for everyone to survive.”

You can be that one person.
--Don DeMaio

And finally ...

May the blessings of these practices awaken your own inner wisdom and inspire your compassion.  .... And through the blessing of your heart may the world find peace.

The Sarasota Zen Group meets every Sunday night at 7 pm for Zen and zazen (meditation). We start with readings and discussion, then transition into zazen and chanting.

Come find the rest and inner peace that keeps us all in balance.

Our zendo is in the James Reeb Room on the campus of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, 3975 Fruitville Road, Sarasota (map here). Contact us at  zen@uusarasota.org or, if you wish to remain anonymous, you can use the Contact form on our website.

Sarasota Zen Group
Email: zen@uusarasota.org

Our mailing address is:
3975 Fruitville Road
Sarasota, FL 34232

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Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota · 3975 Fruitville Road · Sarasota, FL 34232 · USA

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