“It’s only the ego that wants to surrender the ego; the real meaning of surrender does not involve anything external. It means to surrender to your true nature.”

-Enza Vita

Practice Meetings

Friday Apr 3, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Book of Serenity #35
“Rakuho’s Obeisance”

Rakuho came to Kassan and without bowing stood facing him. Kassan said, “A chicken dwells in the phoenix nest. It’s not of the same class. Go away.”

Rakuho said, “I have come from far away, hearing much about you. Please, Master, I beg you to guide me.”

Kassan said, “Before my eyes there is no you, and here there is no old monk.”

Rakuho shouted, “Kaatz!”

Kassan said, “Stop it, stop it. Don’t be so careless and hasty. Clouds and the moon are the same; valleys and mountains are different from each other. It is not difficult to cut off the tongues of the people under heaven. But how can you make a tongueless person speak?”

Rakuho said nothing. Kassan hit him. With this, Rakuho started to obey Kassan.

“In the midst of darkness, he alone sees the dawn; in the midst of the soundless, he alone hears harmony.”

-Zhuangzi

Practice Meetings

Friday Mar 27, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Book of Serenity #98
“Most Intimate”

A monk asked Tôzan, “Among the three bodies of Buddha, what body does not degenerate into numbers?”

Tôzan said, “I am always most intimate with it.”

“May you listen to the voice within the beat even when you are tired. When you feel yourself breaking down, may you break open instead. May every experience in life be a door that opens your heart, expands your understanding, and leads you to freedom. If you are weary, may you be aroused by passion and purpose. If you are blameful and bitter, may you be sweetened by hope and humor.

If you are frightened, may you be emboldened by a big consciousness far wiser than your fear. If you are lonely, may you find love, may you find friendship. If you are lost, may you understand that we are all lost, and still we are guided—by Strange Angels and Sleeping Giants, by our better and kinder natures, by the vibrant voice within the beat. May you follow that voice, for This is the way—the hero’s journey, the life worth living, the reason we are here.”

-Elizabeth Lesser

Practice Meetings

Friday Mar 20, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Book of Serenity #94
“Tozan is Unwell”

Tôzan was unwell. A monk asked, “Your Reverence is unwell. Is there anyone who does not become ill?”

Tôzan said, “There is.”

The monk said, “Does the one who does not get ill take care of Your Reverence?”

Tôzan said, “The old monk is properly taking care of that one.”

The monk said, “How about when your Reverence takes care of that one?”

Tôzan said, “Then the old monk does not see that there is illness.”

“If you are involved with the intensity of crescendo situations, with the intensity of tragedy, you might begin to see the humor of these situations as well. As in music, when we hear the crescendo building, suddenly if the music stops, we begin to hear the silence as part of the music.”

-Chogyam Trungpa

Practice Meetings

Friday Mar 13, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Book of Serenity #89
“Place of No Grass”

Tôzan instructed the assembly and said, “At the beginning of autumn and the end of summer, you, brothers, are departing east and west. But you should go directly to the place of no grass over ten thousand miles.”

And again he said, “How will you go to the place of no grass over ten thousand miles?”

Sekisô said, “When you go out of the gate, there is grass!”

Taiyô said, “I would say: Even if you don’t go out of the gate, grass is abundant everywhere.'”

“Once again, we are reminded that awakening, or enlightenment is not the property of Buddhism, any more than Truth is the property of Christianity. Neither the Buddha nor the Christ belongs exclusively to the communities that were founded in their names. They belong to all people of goodwill, all who are attentive to the secret which lives in the depths of their breath and their consciousness.”

-Jean-Yves Lloup

Practice Meetings

Friday Mar 6, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Book of Serenity #56
“The White Rabbit”

When Uncle Misshi and Tôzan were walking together, they saw a white rabbit run by in front of them.

Misshi said, “How swift!” Tôzan said, “In what way?”

Misshi said, “It is just like a person in white clothes being venerated as a prime minister.”

Tôzan said, “You are such an elderly and respectable man, and still you say something like that?”

Misshi said, “Then how about you?”

Tôzan said, “A noble of an ancient house is temporarily fallen into poverty.”