With respect,
Good Morning Everyone,
Along with our spring winds and warmer temperatures comes our Hanamatsuri Sesshin. It is during this time that we, in our Order, honor the Buddha’s birth. Siddhartha was a prince, born into the Sakya clan in India some 2600 years ago. When he heard the suffering of the world he suffered. He left his palace and his family, cut off his hair, and began to walk the path of a bodhisattva. We are very fortunate to have his model as a teacher. He lived an upright life, a life of serene reflection meditation, a life of peace.
Our lives today are not much different from the Buddha’s life. As human beings we all want and need common things. We each feel the poverty of our lives, be it money, time, or relationships. Pressed this way and that, we experience stress and anxiety, anger and sadness, and even joy and sometimes happiness. But all of these are fleeting, just as our lives are short: the candle burns.
What the Buddha taught was a way to live in the eternal now. And to live in this now without suffering. We cannot learn this teaching through our intellect. We learn it through studying ourselves. It is this study we call Zazen and Sesshin is its complete practice.
We will practice sesshin from Wednesday, April 4, through Sunday, April 8, beginning each day at 8:00 AM, closing each day at 5:00 PM. Please consider putting this period in your calendar so that you might join us.
Lastly, we continue our study of Master Dogen's Genjokoan this evening at 7:00 PM following our evening service.
Yours,
Good Morning Everyone,
Along with our spring winds and warmer temperatures comes our Hanamatsuri Sesshin. It is during this time that we, in our Order, honor the Buddha’s birth. Siddhartha was a prince, born into the Sakya clan in India some 2600 years ago. When he heard the suffering of the world he suffered. He left his palace and his family, cut off his hair, and began to walk the path of a bodhisattva. We are very fortunate to have his model as a teacher. He lived an upright life, a life of serene reflection meditation, a life of peace.
Our lives today are not much different from the Buddha’s life. As human beings we all want and need common things. We each feel the poverty of our lives, be it money, time, or relationships. Pressed this way and that, we experience stress and anxiety, anger and sadness, and even joy and sometimes happiness. But all of these are fleeting, just as our lives are short: the candle burns.
What the Buddha taught was a way to live in the eternal now. And to live in this now without suffering. We cannot learn this teaching through our intellect. We learn it through studying ourselves. It is this study we call Zazen and Sesshin is its complete practice.
We will practice sesshin from Wednesday, April 4, through Sunday, April 8, beginning each day at 8:00 AM, closing each day at 5:00 PM. Please consider putting this period in your calendar so that you might join us.
Lastly, we continue our study of Master Dogen's Genjokoan this evening at 7:00 PM following our evening service.
Yours,
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