Author: TetsuGen KeiDo

the upcoming Saturday – is the annual observance of  Mahapajapati‘s life. A great opportunity to celebrate women, the mothers of all, with focus on Buddhism through the first female nun. Near International Women’s day and so the timing is a close companion.

Also March is Womens’ history month in the USA.

Mahapajapati Gotami, the first woman to be ordained from the Buddha and to join the Sangha. She was the Buddha’s maternal aunt and adopted mother after her sister, Queen Maya (Mahāmāyā), the Buddha’s birth mother, died.

Join us for zazen (seated meditation) at 9:30am, with the Dharma talk to follow at 10:30. We offer in-person distanced attendance, and we also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. There’s an earlier sitting at 6:30am, in addition to the later one at 9:30am (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize). A period of zazen is typically 40 minutes, and it’s ok to adjust your sitting posture as needed. The Dharma talk includes time for questions and answers, occasionally followed by a particular ceremony such as the celebration of Buddha’s Birthday. We enjoy tea and cookies together afterwards. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering 

And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.

As a reminder any week you do not see a speaker announced it is our Abbot, Rev. Myo Lahey.

Steven Tierney (Kai Po Koshin) is a Dharma transmitted teacher in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. Steven practices with: Meditation in Recovery, Great Spirit, SFLGBTQA, and Dragons Leap Sanghas in addition to the Harford Street Zen Center. Steven believes that we can find wisdom, compassion and awakening wherever good people come together for practice, healing, service and joy. Tierney is a psychotherapist in private practice and Professor Emeritus in Counseling Psychology at CIIS.

We hope you can join us!

Join us for zazen (seated meditation) at 9:30am, with the Dharma talk to follow at 10:30. We offer in-person distanced attendance, and we also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. There’s an earlier sitting at 6:30am, in addition to the later one at 9:30am (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize). A period of zazen is typically 40 minutes, and it’s ok to adjust your sitting posture as needed. The Dharma talk includes time for questions and answers, occasionally followed by a particular ceremony such as the celebration of Buddha’s Birthday. We enjoy tea and cookies together afterwards. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering 

And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.

As a reminder any week you do not see a speaker announced it is our Abbot, Rev. Myo Lahey.

Please rejoin or join for first time with us again to deepen our practice and study of the way with weekly Thursday Study hour at 7:30pm to 8:30pm PT (19:30-20:30PT) where we dive into the “source” (as far as we can go back in written history) texts and Sutras to learn from our ancestors of Soto Zen lineage back as close as we can to the Buddha, and gain deeper insight and learnings from the adepts of history.

If you would like to join us via Zoom please email: info@HSZC.org to be emailed the log in details. They are different than the Study Hours of past.

Specifically we will pick up where we were when we last met with Dogen Zenji’s: Sho Bo Gen Zo #77 – Koku (“space/emptiness”).

We would like to take a moment or several moments this month to reflect on and remember the very difficult past the black community of the Unites States has worked through and sadly is still having to work through to be fully equal citizens in this country with roots of involuntarily and violently being brough to this country.

We also wish to celebrate the past and ongoing progress. With Love and Support from Issan-ji temple.

And finally we would encourage all to take time to get to know more about our black brother and sisters in humanity past, present and direction for the future.

Here is one of many good places to start.

Steven Tierney (Kai Po Koshin) is a Dharma transmitted teacher in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. Steven practices with: Meditation in Recovery, Great Spirit, SFLGBTQA, and Dragons Leap Sanghas in addition to the Harford Street Zen Center. Steven believes that we can find wisdom, compassion and awakening wherever good people come together for practice, healing, service and joy. Tierney is a psychotherapist in private practice and Professor Emeritus in Counseling Psychology at CIIS.

We hope you can join us!

Join us for zazen (seated meditation) at 9:30am, with the Dharma talk to follow at 10:30. We offer in-person distanced attendance, and we also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. There’s an earlier sitting at 6:30am, in addition to the later one at 9:30am (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize). A period of zazen is typically 40 minutes, and it’s ok to adjust your sitting posture as needed. The Dharma talk includes time for questions and answers, occasionally followed by a particular ceremony such as the celebration of Buddha’s Birthday. We enjoy tea and cookies together afterwards. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering 

And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.

As a reminder any week you do not see a speaker announced it is our Abbot, Rev. Myo Lahey.

Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師; 26 January 1200 – 22 September 1253),^[1][2] also known as Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄), Eihei Dōgen (永平道元), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (高祖承陽大師), or Busshō Dentō Kokushi (仏性伝東国師), was a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.

Originally ordained as a monk in the Tendai School in Kyoto, he was ultimately dissatisfied with its teaching and traveled to China to seek out what he believed to be a more authentic Buddhism. He remained there for four years, finally training under Tiantong Rujing, an eminent teacher of the Caodong (Soto in Japan) lineage of Chinese Chan (“Zen” in Japan). Upon his return to Japan, he began promoting the practice of zazen (sitting meditation) through literary works such as Fukanzazengi and Bendōwa… more info here…

Join us for zazen (seated meditation) at 9:30am, with the Dharma talk to follow at 10:30. We offer in-person distanced attendance, and we also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. There’s an earlier sitting at 6:30am, in addition to the later one at 9:30am (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize). A period of zazen is typically 40 minutes, and it’s ok to adjust your sitting posture as needed. The Dharma talk includes time for questions and answers, occasionally followed by a particular ceremony such as the celebration of Buddha’s Birthday. We enjoy tea and cookies together afterwards. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering 

And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.

As a reminder any week you do not see a speaker announced it is our Abbot, Rev. Myo Lahey.

In Atlanta, GA is the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. Seeing actual journal notes and letters written in MLK’s own quite beautiful penmanship and seeing this recent history presented in a very touching way is a very emotional and beautiful opportunity.

 – South Wall. “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Washington National Cathedral, March 31, 1968.  Wishing you a wonderful Martin Luther King Jr. day in  honor of the still in progress dream and work towards equality.   https://www.civilandhumanrights.org/