The "Walled Garden"
Where you can dwell peacefully in the monsoon.....
“We need to learn what it means to ‘settle naturally into our lives.’” - Zen Master “Homeless Kodo” Sawaki
Dear Friends,
Earlier this week I shared some information about of my Zen Community’s Ango Fall Practice period offerings.
The season starts tomorrow with an all-day retreat outside Boulder. We’ve got a nice group signed up for the retreat, about 30 total, most in-person, some online.
The programs will go into December, and all but one are available online. (That’s the Dancing Zen retreat on October 12, which I will lead with my wife Aria Myoku.)
If you are called to explore Zen practice, or get support for your existing practice, you can join as an Ango Member at any point over the next few weeks.
The spirit of this “peaceful dwelling” period is something you can bring forth regardless of where you are and what travails you are currently facing. It is the spirit of “settling naturally into your life” as Zen Master “Homeless Kodo” Sawaki said.
Indeed, the Ango tradition dates to the times of monsoon season in India, when the community could not travel and so hunkered down, living life, studying and practicing the dharma together. I imagine these times were very joyous for the early sanghas.
They settled naturally into their lives.
In my dharma talk this week, I shared my feeling that you should think of Ango as a "walled garden". It is a protected space for you to cultivate what is most meaningful for you together with brothers and sisters who share your aspirations. It is a nourishing and fulfilling heart-space that offers protection from inhospitable conditions.
Today we can take refuge from the "monsoon" of modern life and settle naturally into our lives.
(And with election season upon us, things are going to get chaotic.)
Appreciating Your Life
Our theme for this year's Ango is Appreciate Your Life as the Awakened Life. My first teacher Maezumi Roshi said:
No one can live your life except you. No one can live my life except me. We do not see that our life right here, right now, is nirvana. Our practice is to close the gap between what we think our life is and our actual life as the subtle mind of nirvana. Or more to the point, how can we realize that there is really no gap to begin with? Appreciate the world of just this! There is nothing extra.
Zen is all about closing this gap.
The three-month period of practice, study and sangha is intended to help you learn what it means to:
Deepen your quality of life through the presence practices of Zen: awaken sensory experience, become an engaged participant in nature and cosmos, access the inherent joy of being alive.
Develop insight into your unique life path: in the midst of your unique karmic conditions, what commitments call to you? What are your vows?
Cultivate positive qualities: by practicing the perfections of the Bodhisattva, we co-create a generative field for wisdom and compassion to grow. What we appreciate appreciates!
You can appreciate your life with solo practices, but it is more joyful and all-pervading when we practice together. This is the power of sangha.
Ango Programs
This year, our Ango programs include:
An expanded schedule of daily online group meditations.
One-on-one interview with teachers.
Weekly dharma talks.
Five retreats, including the one-day Enter Here Retreat for beginners on November 2, and the new Dancing Zen Retreat on October 12.
Precept Class Series (led by Gyodo Sensei, Shoun O'Keeffe and Gakyo Schaewe).
Zen Life Path Series (led by Gyodo Sensei).
Full access to the 12-module Zen Foundations Course (a $180 value).
Opportunities for service.
Our programs are fully hybrid. Many programs are available in-person (in Boulder). ALL ANGO PROGRAMS WILL BE OFFERED ONLINE.
Image by Jürgen from Pixabay