On Friday, June 21 at 7 PM, we will celebrate the longest day of the year with poetry, candles and a meditative sound bath featuring Jessie Solon playing bowls, bells, gong, chimes and monochord. No registration necessary. Donations gratefully accepted. Any funds collected will be split between equally between the BDC and the guest artist.
This class on Taoism, Ch’an and The Tang Dynasty Poets is led by Michael G. Smith, PhD of the Bozeman Zen Group and will be held over two Wednesdays in June: June 19 and 26. The workshop will explore Tang Dynasty history and life, and the influence on its poets; important Taoist and Buddhist teachings relevant to Tang poets; and the challenge of translating poems written in a homophonous language into English. There will be time in each session for participants to craft poems modeled by the Tang poets, if desired. Register here.
Considered the golden age of China, the Chinese Tang Dynasty was a flowering periodically interrupted by uprisings, invasions, starvation and mass migration. Inspired by Nature and educated within the tenets of Taoism and Buddhism the Tang poets responded with plain-spoken poems of hardships and the natural world that resonate today. In this series we will discuss several poets, including Li Po, Du Fu and Cold Mountain, with respect to their historical context and respond with our poems written during the workshop and elsewhere.
Suggested Reading List – before class, if you can.
Awakened Cosmos|The Mind of Classical Chinese Poetry by David Hinton;
China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty, by Mark Edward Lewis;
China Root: Taoism, Ch’an, and Original Zen, by David Hinton;
Finding Them Gone: Visiting China’s Poets of the Past, by Red Pine;
In the Same Light:200 Tang Poems for Our Century, translations by Wong May;
The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai, by Li Bai and Ha Jin;
The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, by Cold Mountain and Red Pine;
The Silk Dragon: Translations from the Chinese, by Arthur Sze.
This weekend retreat on Welcoming Challenges in Difficult Times occurs June 7-9 and is led by Anam Thubten Rinpoche.
With all the countless blessings of our lives, many of us in the world are finding numerous challenges. Some of them have to do with what is happening in our personal lives and others are have to do with the larger situation, including political instability, cultural change, and the climate crisis. For many, anxiety is on the rise. Yet, there is a way that we can welcome all these challenges and grow from them by discovering wisdom and equilibrium within. In this retreat, Anam Thubten will offer Buddhist wisdom and meditation guidance on meeting these challenges with open hearts and minds. There will be a public talk on Friday, June 7, open to all. More info on the talk and the retreat here.
Dharmata Foundation is happy to invite you to participate in this weekend retreat. Through the essential wisdom of Buddhism and his personal experience on the spiritual path, Anam Thubten brings alive the timeless teachings of the Buddhist tradition and invites everyone to participate.
The retreat will be held at the Triple Tree Owner Center on Triple Tree Rd, Bozeman, on Saturday June 8 and Sunday June 9 from 10-5 each day. To honor the sacred container of this retreat, everyone is asked to attend the entire retreat, concluding Sunday at 5 pm. We expect this retreat to fill to capacity.
Please register early. Sliding scale options and some scholarships available.
Participants are asked to commit to attending the entire retreat.
Join the Bozeman Zen Group on Sunday, May 26 at 5 PM for a celebration of Buddha’s Birth, Enlightenment and Parinirvana (his passing). This celebration is globally known as Wesak or Vesak. The Bozeman Zen Group traditionally decorates an arbor with flowers and enjoys birthday cake dedicated to the Buddha. Everyone is welcome to join for this fun evening of fellowship. If you are able, please bring a bouquet or two of flowers and some greenery. We will decorate a flower arbor, offer sweet tea, flowers, intentions and end with a chant.
According to Wikipedia:
Although Buddhist festivals have centuries-old tradition, the first conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists held in Sri Lanka in 1950 formalized the decision to celebrate Vesak as the Buddha’s birthday across multiple Buddhist countries. The resolution that was adopted at the World Conference reads as follows:
That this Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, while recording its appreciation of the gracious act of His Majesty, the Maharaja of Nepal in making the full-moon day of Vesak a Public Holiday in Nepal, earnestly requests the Heads of Governments of all countries in which large or small number of Buddhists are to be found, to take steps to make the full-moon day in the month of May a Public Holiday in honour of the Buddha, who is universally acclaimed as one of the greatest benefactors of Humanity.[20]
On Vesak Day, Buddhists all over the world commemorate events of significance to Buddhists of all traditions: The birth, enlightenment and the passing away of Buddha Gautama. As Buddhism spread from India it was assimilated into many foreign cultures, and consequently Vesak is celebrated in many different ways all over the world. In India, Vaishakh Purnima day is also known as Buddha Jayanti day and has been traditionally accepted as Buddha’s birth day.
In 2000, the United Nations (UN) resolved to internationally observe the day of Vesak at its headquarters and offices.[21]
Our May SoundGate features Annika Sophia Grace (vocals), Marius George (percussion) and Jessie Solon (bowls, gong, monochord) offering a soundbath of mantras of compassion. Join us this Friday, May 10 at 7 PM.
No registration necessary. Donations gratefully accepted. Any funds collected will be split between equally between the BDC and the guest artists.
Our SoundGate program offers an opportunity to meditate using sound as a source of concentration. Experience how the union of breath and sound can anchor you in the present moment. No prior experience or registration necessary.
The Buddha instructed his students to bring awareness and sensory clarity to each of the six sense “gates” of experience. Just as we can anchor in breathing, we can anchor in body sensations, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling or mindfully track the activity of the thinking mind.
These SoundGate Meditations offer a sound-scape of sensory experience to be your object of meditation, allowing you to linger in the experience of hearing (and take a break from other sense gates perhaps). A variety of sounds will be offered, bells and bowls, chanting, music, recordings of the natural world and soundscapes of our common humanity. While most are designed to be pleasant and carry beneficial intention, some will be neutral or varied in content.
You may simply relax and bathe in harmonious sound, or more intentionally bring elements of Insight practice to your meditation.
Kathie Fischer returns to Bozeman with this weekend retreat on the Therigatha– Teachings of the First Buddhist Women. Hosted by the Bozeman Zen Group, the retreat will take place May 3-5. This retreat will take place in person and via Zoom.
During the weekend, Kathie Fischer will help us discover the lives and teachings of early Elder Buddhist nuns through their stories, poems, and histories. These poignant tales of courage, tragedy and commitment can inspire us in our lives even 2500 years later.
With a mixture of zazen, stories, poems and dialogue we will enjoy the weekend with Kathie, our good friend and teacher.
Sokaku Ryotan Kathie Fischer began practicing Zen in 1971 with Sojun Mel Weitsman at the Berkeley Zen Center. She was ordained a Zen priest at San Francisco Zen Center in 1980 by Zentatsu Richard Baker, and continued residential practice at Zen Center for 15 more years. Kathie also studied and practiced with Maurine Stuart MyoOn Roshi.
She received Dharma transmission from Sojun Weitsman in 2011 while in the midst of her 28-year career as a school teacher in Mill Valley. Since retiring from teaching science to adolescents she has turned her attention to studying and teaching Dharma.
The class series: Intro to Meditation, will be led by Karen DeCotis over the course of three Wednesdays beginning April 24.
In the Buddhist tradition there are several meditation styles that can aid us in developing the qualities of peacefulness and wisdom. This series will teach meditation styles from the Insight, Zen and Tibetan traditions. Meditation can help to calm the mind, open the heart, and awaken wisdom. It is a means to study ourselves by contacting our inner life. When we know ourselves well, we are better able to relate to others in the world with integrity and confidence. Join us for any or all of this series. Register here.
Karen DeCotis is a Zen student and teacher who received priest ordination in the Soto Lineage in 2016 and Dharma transmission in 2019. She has taught the Bozeman Zen Group for almost 20 years and practiced at the Berkeley Zen Center and San Francisco Zen Center beginning in 1986. Devoted to service and engaged learning, Karen brings knowledge of and experience with the Buddhist traditions along with a clear-eyed view of human life, suffering and transformation. She is known for her humor and warmth, bringing her intelligence, wit and humility to every teaching opportunity.
All contributions will be split evenly between the Dharma Center and the teacher. Thank you for your support, which sustains the center and enables us to offer the teachings as freely as possible.
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!
Enjoy Tibetan Bowls with Brian Sparks for our second SoundGate meditation of the month on Friday, April 19 at 7 PM.
Brian received his spiritual teaching from several masters in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. His teachers blessed his bowl work by giving him the specific “Prayer of Aspiration” and granted him many Buddhist empowerments. He has toured with notable Tibetan musicians, actors, and at the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas in Arlee.
He offers his practice of playing Tibetan bowls in service of healing, compassion and awakening.
No registration necessary. Donations gratefully accepted. Any funds collected will be split evenly between the BDC and the guest artist.
Learn more about upcoming SoundGate offerings here.
If you play an instrument or are practiced in singing/chanting as a form of meditation and might like to offer a program, please let us know. We welcome collaborators. Please email programs@BozemanDharmaCenter.org to be in touch. Thank you.
Sounds are a wonderful object to practice the key elements of a meditation practice. We can be aware of how they arise, change, flow and pass; aware of whether they are pleasant, neutral or unpleasant; and watch whether the mind creates commentary or judgements about them. In this way, we hone the skills of practice which can be brought to any and all sense gates in turn.
Ultimately we begin to notice that sounds, like all passing experience, have the “Three Characteristics” of all phenomena: they are Impermanent, Impersonal and Incapable of providing lasting satisfaction. This leads to the development of Insight and a wise relationship to our experience.
We often take our thoughts and internal sensations personally – they seem to be by us, or about us, and the mind often reacts with wondering what to do about them. Sounds are far less likely to be taken personally, though we may have a judgement that “this shouldn’t be happening” or strategize how to fix some of them. Many people find it relatively easy to cultivate a dispassionate equanimity with sound, which can then carry over to the other senses. Thoughts, for example can be experienced as simply internal sounds. These SoundGate meditations, while (mostly) lovely and soothing, can also be used to develop your range of meditation experience.
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.
