The BDC Community Meeting is your chance to learn more about how the BDC operates, what the staff does, where the money goes, and give input for our future direction! This meeting is so important that we hold it twice! Once on Sunday, April 21 from 4-5:30 PM and again on Monday, April 22 from 7-8:30 PM. You can attend in person or via Zoom. Both meetings will have the same content.
This half-day Koan Salon on Saturday, April 20 with Michael Smith and Karen DeCotis is a restful, inclusive way to practice with koans. Koan is a Japanese term that refers to a legal public case. In Zen, koans are designed to give us pause, to enter deeply our own case. We will spend the morning sitting several short periods of zazen, each with a phrase, a story, a poem. There will be walking meditation, and time after each “koan” to consider together. All are welcome. No previous experience with koans is necessary. Sliding scale of $25-$50; scholarships available. Space is limited. Please register in advance for the half-da Koan Salon by clicking here.
The Bozeman Zen Group provides half-day practice retreats regularly on Zoom and in-person to offer a time to stabilize and deepen our zazen practice, hear the teaching and engage with Zen forms. If you are new to retreat practice, and wish to learn more about how to participate, contact us at bznzen@gmail.com.
We are open to all who are interested in Zen and those curious about basic Buddhist practice.
We are currently affiliated with Branching Streams, an organization of sanghas in the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi and the San Francisco Zen Center. Several of our members work with Zen teachers of other lineages. We are one of the resident sanghas at the Bozeman Dharma Center. All are welcome!
The April 5th SoundGate program features a frequency vibration soundscape created by Jessie Solon. Enter a timeless space of listening as Jessie facilitates deep states of relaxation through the intentional use of overtone rich, sound healing instruments including crystal and Himalayan singing bowls, a symphonic gong, bells & chimes, wave, and monochord. The layering of these frequency vibration elements will offer a unique sound experience that will encourage a tangible shift in perceptual awareness, as well as an increased sense of nourishment and well-being. No registration necessary! Donations welcome; any funds collected will be split equally between the BDC and the facilitator.
We’re excited to have Dr. Marilia Librandi host a writing meditation workshop for our Mindful Creativity series on April 14. Marilia excels at creating a space to create freely, to experiment with forms and content, to discover our spontaneous mind, to let our inner critic speak but not to stop us, to express ourselves effortlessly and to surprise ourselves with the energy of our listening words.
It’s a workshop inspired by the encounter between Allen Ginsberg and Trungpa Rinpoche, carried on by Natalie Goldberg’s writing practice, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel’s spiritual writings and Brazilian Clarice Lispector’s “writing by ear.”
Marília Librandi has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. She taught Brazilian Literature and Culture at Stanford University and at Princeton University. She is the author of Writing by Ear (Univ.of Toronto Press, 2018) and co-editor of Transpoetic Exchange (Bucknell Press, 2020). Learn more on her website: https://mywritinglab.org/
Here’s what past participants have said about Marilia’s workshops:
“Marilla’s writing lab spurs my daily creativity in ways I never expected. I’m delighted to have more clarity about my intentions, with fresh ideas on how to live and work. Most of all, the rich exchange of sharing spontaneous writing is a treasure. Kind listening and warm encouragement ‘ go a long way to make writing both joyful and rewarding.” -Margaret Kachadurian
“I really appreciate how Marilia makes the Writing Lab a group experience where it feels safe to write from a place of freedom and vulnerability. She offers inspiring prompts for our writing and maintains a structure that supports good conversation and writing time. I thoroughly enjoy my time at the Writing Lab!” -Travis Burdick
Registration fees will be split between the BDC and the facilitator. No need to bring extra dana.
This Dependent Origination class, designed for meditators with some experience, will be offered over five weeks in the weekly Bozeman Insight Community‘s Thursday meetings on a drop-in basis beginning April 4. We welcome anyone who’d like to explore the nuances of these intricate teachings of the Buddha’s.
There’s an essential paradox at the heart of Buddhist practice: We must get exquisitely intimate with the moment-to-moment mind-body experience of the (small, relative) self in order to transcend it. The boat to ‘the far shore’ is built of our messy, frustrating stuff of life on this shore. The way beyond our reactivity, our back pain, our nagging inner commentary is to equanimously and compassionately embrace it. This is Alan Watts’ “backwards law” and the meaning of Dogen’s Genjo Koan.
This class will begin with the teachings on the Five Aggregates and build up to an understanding of the chain of Dependent Origination – the Buddha’s map for what’s going on in human experience, how we get caught and why we suffer. We will explore the practices that intimately “study the self” and how those lead to “forgetting the self.” The chain becomes a liberative cycle of expanding wisdom and freedom.
Each week there will be a suggested home practice to deepen our experiential knowledge of the concepts. The series is designed to be sequential but anyone is welcome to attend sporadically or singly as their schedule and interests allow.
April 4: The Five Aggregates and the Importance of Vedana (feeling tone)
April 11: Perception, Mis-perception, Mental Formations and the mind’s reactivity
April 18: Further links in the chain: how we get hooked and how we can unhook
April 25: The Chain of Dependent Origination and how it illustrates the Four Noble Truths
May 2: The Liberative chain spiraling toward wisdom, insight, compassion and freedom
Drop in to one, some or all five sessions of the series. No prior registration is necessary.
Zoom connection will be available as per usual on our Thursday evenings.
This course is offered on a dana basis, meaning it is our gift to you, freely offered. We gratefully accept support and gratitude to pay the bills and keep the sangha going. (For those that want it: the suggestion donation would be $5-15 per session)
This April 6 workshop on the “Two Truths” is hosted by Bozeman Insight Community and led by Suzanne Colón. Suzanne will help us explore the paradox of human life that is classically known as “The Two Truths.” We’ll share Buddhist teachings and practices that enhance life in terms of both:
The goal of Buddhist practice is to give us the capacity to dance with freedom and grace in both realms, which brings the greatest joy: ease-ful abiding. Register here.
Wondering what a Dharma Center is or what the difference is between the groups that meet here? Get your questions answered, tour our space, and receive basic mediation instruction on the first Tuesday of every month. All welcome!
Pamela Weiss joins the Bozeman Insight Community on Thursday, March 21 for an evening on Zen master Dogen’s teaching: the Genjo Koan. Dogen writes “To study Buddhism is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.” What does this mean for our everyday lives? Everyone welcome to join for this discussion on the path to liberation. No registration necessary.
Celebrate the spring equinox with members of MindSpace on Tuesday, March 19. We will gather for an evening of meditation and celebrating the turning of the winter into spring. All welcome! No registration necessary!
Designed for meditators with some experience, this class, taught by Suzanne Colón, will begin with the teachings on the Five Aggregates and build up to an understanding of the chain of Dependent Origination – the Buddha’s map for what’s going on in human experience, how we get caught and why we suffer. The series is designed to be sequential but anyone is welcome to attend sporadically or singly as their schedule and interests allow. No registration necessary.
