Unless otherwise noted, events are held at Windhorse Hill Retreat Center, 595B River Road, Deerfield, MA.
FEE-BASED EVENTS
ONE-DAY RETREATS
Last Saturday of every month: January 25, February 29, and March 28, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm, led by Roshi Eve Marko
Meditation, talk, and private study. Please bring a sack lunch. Coffee, tea and snacks available.
Fee: $25 member, $35 non-members. Dana will be asked on behalf of the teacher. Please register for retreats: dantikapm@gmail.com or 413-588-8053
SPRING RETREAT
Thursday - Saturday, April 16 - 19
Led by Roshi Eve Myonen Marko
HOUSEHOLDER KOANS: PORTALS TO OUR INNATE WISDOM
Series of three 2-hour workshops on Thursday evenings at the home of Roshi Eve
1/30, 2/27, 4/2
6:30-8:30 pm
Fee for series: $45.
“Koans demand that we forge into ways of seeing and responding that have nothing to do with analysis, or even reflections, and
everything to do with … a radical acceptance of life as it is…. A life situation becomes a koan when it has jolted you out of your
usual linear way of thinking,... when you no longer think about the situation but instead close the gap between the subject and
the object, between yourself and what you are facing.”
From the Introduction, The Book of Householder Koans: Waking Up In the Land
of Attachments by Wendy Egyoku Nakao and Eve Myonen Marko
Most of us continue to think of practice as something we do seated on a cushion. At the same time, it’s often the situations that challenge and aggravate, grating at our nerves often for years, that become portals to our own innate wisdom. Maintaining an open, spacious mind, we plunge into the very aspect of life (the people, the feelings, the situation) that is most taxing and provoking. We don’t figure anything out, we don’t come up with an answer; with great patience we feel our way, bear witness, befriend.
Don’t be surprised if tenderness emerges, or if your life song suddenly cracks open and soars. It doesn’t have to be big, it can be small. Either way, something unclogs and becomes workable. We will reflect on and write our koans, examine what makes certain stories or situations koans, and create our own commentaries.
Fee: $45 for series (but no one will be excluded for lack of funds).
Please pre-register with Danika: 413-549-9336; or, dantikapm@gmail.com
_________________________________________________________________________
FREE EVENTS, NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED (donation appreciated):
INTENSIVE: DOGEN IN WINTER
During this winter intensive, we will study Dogen, and specifically his fascicle, Uji, or Being-Time. Uji, is one of the more enigmatic and penetrating fascicles in Dogen’s Shobogenzo. While the fascicle is ostensibly about time, Dogen actually addresses some of the most basic points of daily and moment-by-moment Zen practice. He illustrates how the minute we begin to investigate time, we are actually entering the dharma gate of actualizing our own Buddha Nature.
We’ll review our usual sense of sequential time vs. simultaneous time, how being-time encompasses practice, enlightenment, and actualization altogether, and the continuous practice of all beings. We will look at “dharma positions” and how the particular intersects with the whole at every moment.
When we penetrate Dogen, we can’t help but be moved by the vast panorama he opens before our eyes and how infinity flows through us at every moment, whether we realize this or not.
For this reason, an intensive commitment to zazen while studying Dogen is important. Dogen is constantly pulling down our mental frontiers, putting a mirror up to our mind and showing us how stuck we are inside its constructs. The point isn’t to parse out his enigmatic-sounding text but rather maintain an open, unbounded mind in which to hold his teachings. Please join the winter intensive on Tuesday evening, January 14, by making a commitment to more regular and extended sitting practice for the duration of the intensive.
Text for the Winter Intensive: Being-Time: A Practitioner’s Guide to Dogen’s Shobogenzo Uji by Shinshu Roberts
BEGINNERS MIND
Saturday, March 14, 8:30 am-10:00 am
Meditation will begin with basic instruction, followed by a reading of Eihei Dogen’s Fukanzazengiand discussion/Q&A of meditation practice and daily life. Led by Roshi Eve.
GATE OF SWEET NECTAR
Green River Zen Center usually chants the Gate of Sweet Nectar, the Zen Peacemakers’ liturgy feeding all the hungry ghosts, each month on Saturdays at 9:30 am following meditation. The Gate will be chanted on January 18, February 15, and March 21.
COUNCIL PRACTICE
Green River Zen Center does a monthly council practice on the last Tuesday of every month. It will take place this winter on Tuesdays, January 28, February 25, and March 31. Council is a circle practice of listening and speaking from the heart. Its foundation is consonant with the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers: Not-knowing, bearing witness, and loving action.
RENEWAL OF VOWS CEREMONY
A ceremony renewing our vows to the Precepts will take place on or close to the full moon on Tuesdays, January 21 and March 24. All are invited to participate.
FEE-BASED EVENTS
ONE-DAY RETREATS
Last Saturday of every month: January 25, February 29, and March 28, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm, led by Roshi Eve Marko
Meditation, talk, and private study. Please bring a sack lunch. Coffee, tea and snacks available.
Fee: $25 member, $35 non-members. Dana will be asked on behalf of the teacher. Please register for retreats: dantikapm@gmail.com or 413-588-8053
SPRING RETREAT
Thursday - Saturday, April 16 - 19
Led by Roshi Eve Myonen Marko
HOUSEHOLDER KOANS: PORTALS TO OUR INNATE WISDOM
Series of three 2-hour workshops on Thursday evenings at the home of Roshi Eve
1/30, 2/27, 4/2
6:30-8:30 pm
Fee for series: $45.
“Koans demand that we forge into ways of seeing and responding that have nothing to do with analysis, or even reflections, and
everything to do with … a radical acceptance of life as it is…. A life situation becomes a koan when it has jolted you out of your
usual linear way of thinking,... when you no longer think about the situation but instead close the gap between the subject and
the object, between yourself and what you are facing.”
From the Introduction, The Book of Householder Koans: Waking Up In the Land
of Attachments by Wendy Egyoku Nakao and Eve Myonen Marko
Most of us continue to think of practice as something we do seated on a cushion. At the same time, it’s often the situations that challenge and aggravate, grating at our nerves often for years, that become portals to our own innate wisdom. Maintaining an open, spacious mind, we plunge into the very aspect of life (the people, the feelings, the situation) that is most taxing and provoking. We don’t figure anything out, we don’t come up with an answer; with great patience we feel our way, bear witness, befriend.
Don’t be surprised if tenderness emerges, or if your life song suddenly cracks open and soars. It doesn’t have to be big, it can be small. Either way, something unclogs and becomes workable. We will reflect on and write our koans, examine what makes certain stories or situations koans, and create our own commentaries.
Fee: $45 for series (but no one will be excluded for lack of funds).
Please pre-register with Danika: 413-549-9336; or, dantikapm@gmail.com
_________________________________________________________________________
FREE EVENTS, NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED (donation appreciated):
INTENSIVE: DOGEN IN WINTER
During this winter intensive, we will study Dogen, and specifically his fascicle, Uji, or Being-Time. Uji, is one of the more enigmatic and penetrating fascicles in Dogen’s Shobogenzo. While the fascicle is ostensibly about time, Dogen actually addresses some of the most basic points of daily and moment-by-moment Zen practice. He illustrates how the minute we begin to investigate time, we are actually entering the dharma gate of actualizing our own Buddha Nature.
We’ll review our usual sense of sequential time vs. simultaneous time, how being-time encompasses practice, enlightenment, and actualization altogether, and the continuous practice of all beings. We will look at “dharma positions” and how the particular intersects with the whole at every moment.
When we penetrate Dogen, we can’t help but be moved by the vast panorama he opens before our eyes and how infinity flows through us at every moment, whether we realize this or not.
For this reason, an intensive commitment to zazen while studying Dogen is important. Dogen is constantly pulling down our mental frontiers, putting a mirror up to our mind and showing us how stuck we are inside its constructs. The point isn’t to parse out his enigmatic-sounding text but rather maintain an open, unbounded mind in which to hold his teachings. Please join the winter intensive on Tuesday evening, January 14, by making a commitment to more regular and extended sitting practice for the duration of the intensive.
Text for the Winter Intensive: Being-Time: A Practitioner’s Guide to Dogen’s Shobogenzo Uji by Shinshu Roberts
BEGINNERS MIND
Saturday, March 14, 8:30 am-10:00 am
Meditation will begin with basic instruction, followed by a reading of Eihei Dogen’s Fukanzazengiand discussion/Q&A of meditation practice and daily life. Led by Roshi Eve.
GATE OF SWEET NECTAR
Green River Zen Center usually chants the Gate of Sweet Nectar, the Zen Peacemakers’ liturgy feeding all the hungry ghosts, each month on Saturdays at 9:30 am following meditation. The Gate will be chanted on January 18, February 15, and March 21.
COUNCIL PRACTICE
Green River Zen Center does a monthly council practice on the last Tuesday of every month. It will take place this winter on Tuesdays, January 28, February 25, and March 31. Council is a circle practice of listening and speaking from the heart. Its foundation is consonant with the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers: Not-knowing, bearing witness, and loving action.
RENEWAL OF VOWS CEREMONY
A ceremony renewing our vows to the Precepts will take place on or close to the full moon on Tuesdays, January 21 and March 24. All are invited to participate.
MEMBERSHIP IN GREEN RIVER ZEN CENTER
Do you consider yourself part of the sangha? If so, please consider becoming a member and making monthly financial commitments to help support basic operations at the Zendo. You can also do service in lieu of some of the membership fee.
As a member, you will receive reductions in retreat prices. Most important, you will be supporting the flowering of the sangha’s practice.
For more information, please see Membership Program, or contact: Dantika Petriana Monize at dantikapm@gmail.com
Do you consider yourself part of the sangha? If so, please consider becoming a member and making monthly financial commitments to help support basic operations at the Zendo. You can also do service in lieu of some of the membership fee.
As a member, you will receive reductions in retreat prices. Most important, you will be supporting the flowering of the sangha’s practice.
For more information, please see Membership Program, or contact: Dantika Petriana Monize at dantikapm@gmail.com