On Saturday, May 13, visiting guest teacher, Pamela Weiss, will present a daylong retreat in honor of mothers throughout time. We will explore the story of the Buddha’s step-mother, Pajapati, and the ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna. Through meditation, dharma talks and interactive inquiry, we will reveal ways to balance receptivity and activity, and discover how to become skillful with these different dimensions of power in our practice, relationships and life. All are welcome.
We think of the historical Buddha as a spiritual leader, a calm and meditative figure who valued peace. What we don’t often hear is how he transformed his society by challenging the norms that were in India at the time. Pamela Weiss, a Buddhist teacher trained in both the Zen and Insight lineages will offer an evening of meditation, stories, and reflection of the Buddha as a social revolutionary. A great introduction to Buddhist practice.
Join Karen DeCotis and the Bozeman Zen Group this Saturday, April 29, at 9AM. In this half-day retreat we will work with the 7 Factors of Awakening – specifically Energy and Joy! Join us for sitting and walking meditation, dharma talk, and tea/snacks. Great way to get some retreat practice and still have your weekend.
Due to the snow and extreme driving conditions, the Bozeman Zen Group has moved the half-day sit for tomorrow, March 26 to online only. Please use the regular BDC Zoom link to participate from 9 AM – 1 PM.
From Karen: Let’s sit together in our homes and bring forth the dharma. You may arrange yourself so that you can practice with your whole life. It’s great if you can keep your camera on, but you don’t need to face forward toward the camera. Do your best to sit each scheduled period fully, AND take breaks as you need either in between or for a full period (meaning, try not to move or decide to stop meditating in the middle of a period).
Half-Day Schedule:
9:00 Welcome, robe chant + zazen
9:30 kinhin
9:40 zazen
10:10 Break/stretch and have tea
10:25 Dharma talk
Open lecture chant
Bodhisatttva vows at end
10:50 zazen
11:20 kinhin or stretch
11:30 zazen
12:00 break
12:15 zazen
12:45 Gather, questions, reflections
12:55 Recite the Metta Sutta and dedicate merit
1:00 End
Please contact info@bozemanzengroup.org for questions or copies of the chants.
This Dharma thought offered by Karen DeCotis of the Bozeman Zen Group.
As I write and you read this, we are still in the midst of Covid, severe partisan politics, the aftermath of mass shootings, the war in Ukraine past the one-year mark, and a most devastating earthquake in Syria and Turkey. Difficult indeed to imagine the loss of life, of home, livelihood, security and comfort. And let us not be helpless in the face of tragedy.
May we suffuse love over the entire world, above, below, all around without limit, so let us cultivate an infinite good will toward the whole world.
So encourages the Metta Sutta. Offer the merit of your good practice. May we apply our practice diligently; may we also remember that the catastrophic suffering outlined above does not diminish the good efforts we must make to confront our own lives, our families and workplaces, our joys and difficulties – to cultivate self-compassion, energetic discipline and never turn away from our own suffering.
On Sunday, March 26, join the Bozeman Zen Group and Karen DeCotis for a half-day sit with periods of sitting and walking meditation. The theme is “Making Practice Your Whole Life.” Appropriate for beginners who wish to try a retreat practice opportunity as well as for experienced practitioners to deepen their practice.
Please register by Thursday, March 23.
The Bozeman Zen Group resumes formal practice in person on Sundays from 5-6:30 PM beginning March 12. These sessions will be an opportunity to practice in the Soto Zen style with our forms and practices. All welcome; no prior experience needed. More information about the Bozeman Zen Group can be found here .
A Dharma Thought offered by Steve Allison-Bunnell
Another family medical emergency, another hospital in another city. Last week in Billings, where my wife was successfully treated for a subdural hematoma, I found myself almost strangely calm. Being surrounded with support from health care professionals, family, friends, and adequate insurance took away so many sources of worry. But I also had permission to tell the world, “Sorry, I’m not available to do all the everyday things right now.” With this Practice came the gift to experience that time waiting in that space apart as a form of retreat, as Thay says, “nowhere to go, nothing to do.” It was, perhaps in an odd way, comforting. Where do you find unexpected places of quiet in the midst of stress and uncertainty? Can you find others?
On Sunday, March 26, join the Bozeman Zen Group for a half-day sit with periods of sitting and walking meditation. Appropriate for beginners who wish to try a retreat practice opportunity as well as for experienced practitioners to deepen their practice.
Please register by Thursday, March 23.
This Dharma Thought is brought to you by Karen DeCotis of the Bozeman Zen Group, currently studying the book Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong by Norman Fischer.
From Norman:
If we could unhook ourselves for a moment from the blaming and the whining and the self-pitying and could look instead at the actual basis of what is in fact going on, what would we see? We would see time passing. We would see things changing. We would see life arising and passing away, coming from nowhere and going nowhere. Moment by moment, time slips away and things transform.
So we really can do less, not more in order to align with life and allow most things to take care of themselves. Especially in practice – what Suzuki Roshi called “effortless effort,” we can ease up on the “shoulds,” and relax as we endeavor to wake up, moment by moment. How is it….now?
