How Easy Should This Life Be?

Michael McCord: If a person follows a spiritual path, should they expect things to get easier each year?  Should I have any expectations at all?  If life doesn't get that much easier, why follow a spiritual path?

We'll explore this in relation to the modern work life, home life and personal goal setting.  

Most folks identify with the thought:  "life doesn't come with a manual on how to make this all work, when will I figure out how to live?"


Letting Go

Mei Elliott: When difficulty arises, it's common to lean on the time-honored advice to practice letting go. Yet the capacity to let go often seems to be out of our control and proves to be more challenging than we'd like. How can we learn to release our difficulties gracefully and in what ways can the Dharma support us with this? In this session, we'll be exploring the relationship between letting go and liberation, as well as practices for learning the art of release.

Four Noble Truths

Kodo Conlin: Let's start the new year with a return to the root of Buddhist teaching. We'll reflect together on the Four Noble Truths, the first teaching the Buddha gave after his Awakening. Perhaps all of the Dharma can be understood by way of its frame, and its applications to our day-to-day are too many to count.

I Vow to Refrain from Intoxicants

Michael McCord: This Buddhist precept can lead to infinite discussion on what we get intoxicated by (substances, behaviors, etc) and can be easy to misunderstand as a black and white list of do's and don'ts.  In this talk and discussion, we'll explore the nuances of practicing with this precept in the modern world and what it means to be intoxicated, what the impacts can be and what are some solutions found in the Buddhist practice to keep from getting ensnared by things that might overwhelm us.


Self-Receiving & Employing Samadhi

Anshi Zachary Smith: We’ll explore Dogen’s “Self-Receiving and Employing Samadhi”, which is an excerpt from a longer and much more pointed manifesto, his “Bendowa”, and which captures a number of key points about the nature and function of the Self and how it relates to practice.

Preparing the Mind to Realize Emptiness

Following on Mei's talk on Form & Emptiness, the topic will be Preparing the Mind to Realize Emptiness. As an ancient Zen adept put it, "The clear circle of brightness is what exists from the very beginning". Put another way, there is an aspect of our experience here and now that is unhindered and luminous. But how do we come to see this? And how do we live it? We will talk about some of the ways the Zen ancestors encourage us to prepare the mind to realize emptiness.

Form & Emptiness

Mei Elliott: Form & Emptiness are a foundational teachings in Soto Zen, and yet many find the subject perplexing and mysterious. My hope is to present the topic in a way that is both accessible and useful in your own practice. During the talk I'll include teachings on not-self, Nagarjuna's "two-truths," and the relationship between emptiness and freedom from suffering.

Rumination

Michael McCord: Do you have thoughts that plague you? Do you get emotionally sidetracked by situations in the past or the future that seem to give you no peace?

Tonight, we will explore the principal causes of these disturbing thoughts and body sensations and how the context of Zen practice addresses these directly. We'll look at practical steps as well as an overall context of how to hold our bother, where to put our mind, and what acceptance has to do with this.