One Day Zen Retreat with Zen Priest Daichi Zenni at Water Moon Dojo

One Day Zen Retreat (Kosesshin) with Zen Priest Daichi Zenni.

Monday May 28 (Memorial Day) Water Moon Dojo, 4232 6th Ave NW. Seattle. 10 am – 9 pm.

10 am orientation, zazen, 12 noon lunch, 2 pm zazen, 4 pm light supper, break, 5:30 sanzen instruction (sanzen is one on one teacher instruction) and zazen, 6:30 sanzen with Daichi Zenni, 8:15 tea and chanting.

Register: contact@watermoondojo.us tel: (731) 599-2837

Finding Our Essence of Mind- Harada Roshi commentary on Platform Sutra in Tricycle Magazine

Harada Roshi is the featured Dharma Talk of Tricycle Magazine Spring 2018. The following teaching is a commentary by the contemporary Japanese teacher Shodo Harada on the fourth chapter of the Platform Sutra in Tricycle Magazine. From his new book Not One Single Thing: A Commentary on the Platform Sutra, by Shodo Harada © 2018. Reprinted with permission of Wisdom Publications (wisdompubs.org).

Not One Single Thing Book available here

Article here: https://tricycle.org/magazine/finding-essence-mind/

Finding Our Essence of Mind

When we stop holding on to our thoughts, we observe each experience just as it is, freeing ourselves to address only what’s necessary.

By Shodo Harada Roshi

The following teaching is a commentary by the contemporary Japanese teacher Shodo Harada on the fourth chapter of the Platform Sutra. One of the most popular and influential texts of the Chinese Chan Buddhist tradition, the sutra is attributed to Fahai, a disciple of the Sixth Patriarch of Chan, Huineng (638–713 CE). Its ten chapters relate the patriarch’s talks.

One day, when addressing those gathered to hear him teach, the Sixth Patriarch focused on the nature of meditation and wisdom, explaining, “Meditation is the essence of wisdom, and wisdom is the function of meditation.”

Meditation and wisdom are not two separate things, as is stated clearly in the first two verses of the Dhammapada, a canonical collection of sayings attributed to the historical Buddha:

We are what we think, having become what we thought.
Like the wheel that follows the cart-pulling ox,
sorrow follows an evil thought.
We are what we think, having become what we thought.
Like the shadow that never leaves one,
happiness follows a pure thought.

This is the essence of zazen, or meditation. Some people have many thoughts, and some have few. What we think about and hold on to affects what we perceive. When we hold on neither to thought nor to anything at all within, we perceive correctly with all our senses. Yet zazen and wisdom are not two separate things; we don’t do zazen and then become able to function wisely. Both our sitting and our actions are clarified when we let go of obstructive thinking.list of buddhist terms

Wisdom comes forth only from clear, quiet mind. To hold on to nothing and not leave behind any remnant of thought is the mysterious nature of wisdom and the samadhiof meditation. Then everything we do is that samadhi, that Mu—eating, sleeping, standing, walking. But if we become attached to that practice, we again become trapped in our thoughts about it. Instead, leave no remnant of any thought behind, all day long! Even if you can do it in the zendo [meditation hall], if you are not able to keep it alive in your daily life, that is not true zazen. Zazen is not the form of sitting, but the practice of continually cutting away every extraneous mind moment. We cut as we see, as we hear, as we taste, as we smell, as we think, as we feel, and because we do this we are no longer pulled around by all that we see and hear and smell and taste and feel. But this does not mean that we don’t respond to things—we respond more sharply than ever, and more appropriately. If we are all falling asleep, feeling vague and fuzzy, we are not doing zazen correctly. It is a question of whether we are truly cutting and doing the practice thoroughly.

Here the Sixth Patriarch is talking about the actual essence of the continuing, clear mind moments of shikantaza. Many claim to be doing a shikantaza practice, but this is an advanced practice that is difficult to do correctly. In shikantaza practice our mind, exactly as it is, is the Buddha. This is not just a technique; it is an actual realization of this state of mind. Following a technique is not the point. If what we realize in the zendo is useless outside the zendo, we will be unable to guide others. This is not about causing a physical change in the brain either. We have to use our brain fully, but without being moved around by things in any way whatsoever.

Although we talk about sudden awakening or gradual awakening, there is only one path. Even though everyone hears the same dharma [teaching], some realize it quickly and some take longer. This doesn’t mean that there are different dharmas, only that those who walk the path have different characteristics. The Sixth Patriarch was one who awakened suddenly, on merely hearing the words “abiding nowhere, awakened mind arises.” In that instant all his burdens fell away. But there are not many like this.

Nonetheless, if we continue to be diligent, the more we realize, the deeper we go—until abiding nowhere, awakened mind arises. Just hearing these words, the Sixth Patriarch understood. We may hear and understand as well, yet in our daily lives still be subject to our habitual ways. And so we do zazen to cut all of this habitualization away. If we don’t cut, we end up carrying more and more burdens around. We have to use our koan or our susokkanpractice as a sharp sword for cutting away everything! If we don’t actualize this, then we will have only an intellectual understanding of the words “abiding nowhere, awakened mind arises” and not be able to help others to awaken either.

Whether it takes 20 years to be realized or one instant, the awakened essence is the same for everyone. Even though this is what the Sixth Patriarch taught his students, his school in southern China became known as the Sudden Enlightenment School, while the teachings of Jinshu Joza (Chinese, Shenxiu) in northern China were called the Gradual Enlightenment School. This dichotomy reflects the poems the two wrote at the request of the Fifth Patriarch. Jinshu Joza’s poem says,

Our body is the bodhi tree,
And our mind a mirror bright.
Carefully we wipe them hour by hour,
And let no dust alight.

In response, the Sixth Patriarch wrote:

There is no bodhi tree,
Nor stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is void,
Where can the dust alight?

We are always thinking and confused, so Jinshu Joza said we should continually sweep our mind clean, but the Sixth Patriarch responded by saying that even thinking there is such a thing as a body and a mind is already extra—there is nothing from the origin, so why should we worry about dust alighting on it? These names sudden and gradual describe ability or perseverance, but in our buddhanature there are no differentiations such as earlier or later, first or last, sudden or gradual—that mind will not open completely if we hold to any such ideas!

The Sixth Patriarch’s unique way of putting this is:

This teaching of ours has first taken nonthought as its central doctrine, the formless as its essence, and nonabiding as its fundamental. The formless is to transcend characteristics within the context of characteristics. Nonthought is to be without thought in the context of thoughts. Nonabiding is to consider in one’s fundamental nature that all worldly things are empty.

No one else has expressed the deep awakening of the Buddha and all of the patriarchs as well. We may believe otherpeople are good or bad, sick or healthy, but as long as we are concerned with our form or the form of others, we will be pulled around by our beliefs. In our true nature there are no such distinctions. This is Zen’s fundamental point. In our essence of mind, mountains are simply mountains, flowers are flowers, and the sound of the wind is the sound of the wind. We hear, we see, and we leave each thing as we hear or see it, adding nothing at all to it. Everything but that is just dualistic thinking. Changing with every single moment, our mind manifests our clear nature. This is “abiding nowhere, awakened mind arises.” In this way the Sixth Patriarch taught us.

Portrait of Shodo Harada Roshi
Photo by Roland Schmid

We have a physical body, but our body is only a robe, and we will eventually have to take this robe off. Our body is not just moving around aimlessly, manipulating its arms and legs. Something is moving through it, something is wearing this body like a robe. Everyone takes the robe for what they are, but our true essence is not restricted by the design or form of this robe. In the words of Master Hakuin in his Song of Zazen: “Realizing the form of no form as form, whether going or returning we cannot be any place else. Realizing the thought of no thought as thought,platform sutra historywhether singing or dancing we are the voice of the dharma.”

As we go to the zendo or to do our work, we have to see how our mind actually functions. And so we carry our koan or our susokkan while working, sitting, eating, with no sense of doing any of these activities. With Mu as a sharp sword, while we eat, work, and sit, we are not moved around by the doing of that activity—a full, taut state of mind pours through us, manifesting as the activity. Not fuzzy and foggy but sharp and taut, we become the zendo. As we do in kinhin [walking meditation], we become the floor, with our whole body. With our whole being we work, we eat meals, and in this way we become that place of nonabiding. Not absorbed by objects when in contact with objects, we become one with whatever we do, becoming ever more transparent.

In our daily lives we are always carrying around self-conscious awareness. Being so familiar with that state of mind, we think it is normal and have to work at cutting it away. The more varieties of contact we have with the outside, the more we have to cut away. In this way Jinshu Joza’s lines “Our body is the bodhi tree, and our mind a mirror bright,” have relevance. And the Sixth Patriarch’s lines, “There is no bodhi tree, nor stand of a mirror bright,” tell us we cannot just conceptualize in that way and feel we have truly understood. We have to do it with our whole body; our practice has to be done with everything we are. As long as you are stuck in your head, your buddhanature will not be revealed. When you realize the actuality of each movement and can let go of all that differentiation, your breath naturally aligns. You come to know this place of “Realizing the form of no form as form, whether going or returning we cannot be any place else.” This is what the Sixth Patriarch is teaching.

In what way do we realize and awaken to the Buddha’s mind?  Everything in nature has a physical body, yet a rock doesn’t call itself a rock or a flower call itself a flower. Only humans are stuck on how they are or should be. The healthiest way of being is to have no need to explain our being, but for it  to manifest naturally. We get stuck because we feel a need to explain. We express many forms, but do we say when we are working, “Now I am working”? We don’t need such an explanation. While having a body, we must not get caught on the fact that we have a body. This is the essence of zazen: in everything to become what we are doing completely and totally. We live completely, and then we die completely. We don’t set our lives aside because of a fear of death; instead, we live wholeheartedly with every bit of our being. A dead person doesn’t say, “Now I am dead.” 

Photo of Shodo Harada Roshi in a formal interview room
Shodo Harada Roshi in his sanzen [formal interview] room at Sogen-ji 1995 | Photo by Roland Schmid

Nonthought does not mean not to think; it means not to be carried away by any particular idea. We are humans, so of course we think; that’s what humans do. It has even been said that humans are legs that think. The purpose of Zen is not to become people who don’t think, but to think only what we we need to; not to be lost in unnecessary thoughts, but to see what is most necessary right now. If we cook rice, we have to think about how much to cook and how to do it the best way. If we are chopping wood, we have to think about the best way to chop, or if we grow vegetables, we have to think about the best way to cultivate them. But people are always thinking instead about how they look to others. When it is cold, put on clothes; when you are hungry, just eat. No extra decorations need to be added to these actions. When you are sick, become sick completely. When meeting a crisis, instead of grumbling and saying, “Why did this have to happen to me?” just become that crisis completely, without separating from it and complaining. Don’t think about extra things, but live totally embracing just what comes to you, not carrying thoughts about the past or wondering what’s going to happen in the future. If you only think what is necessary, you won’t be carrying the past around, thinking, “I should have done that,” “Oh, if I’d only done it this way.” We miss the present when we carry around these kinds of thoughts. Live this moment fully in the most appropriate way! sixth patriarch background

Nonabiding or nonattachment is the characteristic of our essence of mind. With nonattachment we have no time to get caught on things; we are always flowing. When we stop flowing, our mind becomes foul like stagnant water or fixed like water frozen into ice. If we are distracted by extraneous thinking while doing zazen, it is not dangerous. But if we are driving a car and get lost in our extraneous thoughts, it is dangerous. The nonabiding mind of zazen is not just for being in the zendo. Whether we are sitting, moving, working, silent, or speaking, all of it is zazen. The cultivation of flowing mind is zazen. Then we can become the flower, become the moon, become the stars—absorbed into them, we become everything we encounter completely and totally. That is our correct state of mind.

From Not One Single Thing: A Commentary on the Platform Sutra, by Shodo Harada © 2018. Reprinted with permission of Wisdom Publications (wisdompubs.org).

May 13 Calligraphy Demo and Dharma Talk with Harada Roshi, Whidbey

Taigen Shodo Harada Roshi will give a talk and demo

Free admission

on Whidbey Island Washington at Bayview Hall

5642 Bayview Road, Langley WA 98260

May 13 2018 2 pm,

Calligraphies, scrolls, and books will be for sale. Dairin Zenji will be present with mounted calligraphies for sale. Elia, Margaux and Tehan will come from Bay Area to help make this a wonderful show!

Contact (360) 331-4142 for more info.

Chisan at Water Moon Dojo March 29

March 29

4231 6th Ave NW, Seattle

5:30 ~ 8:30 pm

(5:30 open sitting; 6-7 pm talk on

sanzen and what is sesshin; 7 pm Q & A;

period of zazen; ending with tea)

WATERMOON.INFO@GMAIL.COM

https://www.facebook.com/OneDropSeattleCityZendo/

 

March Monastery Messages

TAHOMA-SAN SOGENJI ZEN MONASTERY

TAHOMA MONASTERY MESSAGES

For information about visiting or special events at
Tahoma Zen Monastery,
please contact the Monastery at
360.331.4142
email:   tahoma@whidbey.com
Website:
https://www.tahomazenmonastery.com


March 10-16
Whitman College Students
will be here for their 19th annual visit

Please come and experience this enthusiastic group of young college students who sit Zazen at Whitman College in Eastern Washington.  Since Doyu began visiting the college in 1999, students from Whitman College have spent their spring break experiencing a monastic retreat.  Many Tahoma and Sogenji practitioners have come from Whitman!  We offer them a week of monastic experience with meditation instruction, readings of Roshi’s commentary on ancient texts, along with  exercises and chi practices.  Seiwa, Genso, Karusia, Jiyu, and Sokei will be overseeing this event and we would love your support and participation!  If you want to help with cooking, samu, cleaning, or wish to offer flowers or just be with this great group of students, please do come and join in!
March 10-16. Overlapping with Spring Gardening Retreat: 


SPRING GARDENING RETREAT:
March 11 – March 21, 2018

Enzu, 園頭, The monastery vegetable garden, or the gardener.
A retreat this Spring. All invited. Part time participation welcome!

The March Enzu Retreat is scheduled from the 11th. to the 21st., with people coming and going as their schedule allows.

The daily schedule will be the same as kosesshin with choka and zazen before breakfast, samu in the morning, time for study, and qigong in the afternoon, and zazen in the evening. Samu will focus on preparing the vegetable garden; planting and pruning in the orchard; pruning and caring for other trees we’ve planted on the grounds; and planting new trees in the woods. There is work for all levels of skill and experience and lots to learn and contribute. Help will be needed cooking as well as outdoors. More details on the retreat are, here.  There is no fee for this retreat, however donations are greatly appreciated.  
www.tahomazenmonastery.com/sesshin/sesshin-application

This retreat is the first retreat in our 77 Trees birthday present to Roshi. There is more information on 77 Trees here.  If you can’t join us and would like to contribute to the project, the donation page is here


KOSESSHIN with Daichi Roshi: March 23 – March 28, 2018
Kokuho is Friday evening, March 23. Kosesshin, led by Daichi Roshi, concludes the evening of Wednesday, March 28. Open for part time attendance.  Daily sanzen. 

www.tahomazenmonastery.com/sesshin/sesshin-application

Daichi Roshi will lead an event at Water Moon Dojo in Seattle on the evening of March 29.

Schedules, guidelines for conduct, and directions to the monastery can be found here,  
www.tahomazenmonastery.com/sesshin-guidelines/

Staying at Tahoma for the period between sesshins is possible. The expectation is to follow the sitting and work schedule. 


 

Japanese scroll mounting for Harada Roshi’s calligraphy now available,

please contact Dairin (Rin-San) at dairinlarrick@gmail.com for details.

Dairin Zenji will be here May 13 for the Shodo Harada Calligraphy Show on Whidbey Island. We will be offering several mounted scrolls for sale. 

Here are Dairin’s two latest scrolls, made with Roshi’s vintage calligraphies from the vaults.

Clear Water Has No Obstructions


Everyday Mind, That is the Path

Available for Purchase from Dairin (write him above). Money will benefit Tahoma.

 


May Osesshin dates will be confirmed soon.
Tentatively, Kokuho is May 5, Osesshin is May 6-12, with a Harada Roshi Calligraphy Show at Bayview Hall on Whidbey May 13. Details about the rest of May to follow. 


Many many people have contributed so many unseen and seen efforts with love over the years to make Tahoma shine.  And now we look forward to the next phase of growth with the 10,000 year view. In this period where were are between resident head monks, and Tahoma is entering a new phase, Chisan and Roshi have both stated that rather than rely on one head monk, a model which has not always been successful at Tahoma, that instead collaboration is needed, and they both said that the flavor of Tahoma is one of cooperation and collaboration. In that spirit Chisan says that all people who have received Jukai, whether you have asked for it or Roshi has offered, Jukai people with lay ordination are in a relationship to this place of training, and should give back as much as they receive, by taking responsibility that this place function and thrive. If you have skills in any area please step forward to take initiative and keep Tahoma functioning. Chisan and Roshi are in Japan and need to sangha to step forward, as many already do. If you have skills in accounting, office organization, carpentry, maintenance, electrical, forestry, cooking, retail and promotional outreach knowledge, skill at social media, please offer your expertise! Consider making time between sesshin to dive into the work that needs doing so the monastery is able to be used for retreats. 


TAHOMA DAILY ZAZEN MEDITATION SCHEDULE
Sutra chanting 5:00 a.m. – 5:40 a.m.
Morning Zazen Meditation 5:40 a.m. – 7:00 a.m.
Evening Zazen Meditation 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Join us for sutra chanting and zazen (seated meditation) in the mornings and zazen in the evenings. Chairs and kneeling benches are available as needed.
Zazen periods last twenty-five minutes at a time with a short break between periods. Kinhin (walking meditation) follows fifty minutes of zazen.  Please be seated in the Zendo ten minutes before zazen begins.  If you arrive after a period has started, please wait in the entrance area until the period ends before coming into the Zendo.

Monastery residents follow the schedule outlined above; however, non-residents are welcome to drop in anytime for one or more periods without previous announcement.
No Zazen schedule Mondays.


ZAZENKAI
Every Sunday, sitting from 8:00 a.m. until 9:00 a.m.
Followed by tea 9:00 a.m. until about 9:45 a.m.

Join us for Sunday Zazenkai every Sunday of the month.  Zazenkai includes sutra chanting, zazen meditation, and a short exercise period. Afterwards, tea and sweets are served, and there is an opportunity for questions, discussion, and conversation.
Beginners to Zen are always welcome.


THANK YOU

All people who have received Jukai especially and everyone else are asked to do your utmost to support Tahoma at this time. There are many many ways to help. Offering time and services is much appreciated in this time with no permanent resident Head Monk. Thank you to all who are continually contributing effort, time, resources, care and goodwill to Tahoma-san Zen Monastery.  We are very grateful for your gifts of substance and service. May we always live in a way that makes us worthy to receive your offerings. 

Tahoma Zen Monastery
6499 Wahl Road
Freeland, WA 98249
e-mail:   tahoma@whidbey.com
telephone:  360.331.4142

DONATIONS AND PLEDGES:
Tahoma Monastery exists entirely on donations; there are no fees for participating in activities or meditation.  Donations may be made in cash at Tahoma, online: https://www.tahomazenmonastery.com
      or checks to:
One Drop Zendo Association 
(abbreviated as ODZA)  
6499 Wahl Rd Freeland WA 98236
 ONE DROP SEATTLE WATER MOON DOJO:
4231 6th Ave. NW., Seattle, WA, 98107.
It is the dark green house across from Hale’s Ales on Leary Way. Parking is available on the street, or across Leary Way by the Fred Meyers.*

Water Moon Zazen Sitting Meditation
Monday nights from 7 – 8:30 pm, Tuesday mornings from  6:30 – 8:30 am, Thursday mornings from 6:30 – 7:30 am, and Saturday morning from 7:30 – 8:30 a.m.

Contact: https://www.tahomazenmonastery.com/category/watermoon/

February 2018 Newsletter ‘Monastery Messages’

TAHOMA-SAN SOGENJI ZEN MONASTERY

TAHOMA MONASTERY MESSAGES

For information about visiting or special events at
Tahoma Zen Monastery,
please contact the Monastery at
360.331.4142
email:   tahoma@whidbey.com
Website:
https://www.tahomazenmonastery.com


OSESSHIN with Harada Roshi : February 12 – February 19, 2018

TEISHO (free Zen Lecture by Harada Roshi) will be open to the public for seven days February 13-19 in the afternoon. Generally it’s 1:00 – 2:30 pm (occasionally Roshi changes the time). Please come 10 minutes early to the Zendo at 6499 Wahl Road, Freeland, WA. Parking available. Translation into English by Daichi Roshi.


GET INVOLVED! GET MOVING! Two upcoming Sesshin Preparation Work Days:
Saturday February 3 and February 10 are prep days at Tahoma to prepare for  the two Roshis (Harada and Daichi) arrival Feb 11. You can come for any amount of time between 9 am and 4 pm. We will provide lunch.  Drops ins welcome. A variety of indoor and outdoor jobs for various abilities are awaiting you. Please don’t shy away if you think you need to be super fit to help. WE NEED YOU TO SPRUCE UP THE PLACE! February 10 Gensho will be here as well as others arriving from sesshin.
-Sokei and Bruce 


February Osesshin Guidelines

IF YOU ARE ATTENDING FEB OSESSHIN, even as a repeater, please read. We recommend people to bring:

– Earplugs are useful if you’re sleeping indoors

– Warm sleeping bag with pad – plan on worse-case of a power failure

– Dark color simple cap – may be needed when processing from zendo to dining hall to reduce infections

– Dark slippers for zendo only – optional, you may want them for kinihin if the outside deck is cold; only for zendo use

We are making great efforts to reduced the rate of infectious illness through contamination during retreat. Please plan to drink water and wash hands often. Bring vitamin C and zinc. We will try our best with limited resources to have warm areas for sleeping. Please close doors and windows! Be very aware of touching your hands to your face and then touching public spaces without washing. Sneeze into your shoulder or elbow sleeves, not your hands or into space. Do not bring a communicable illness to Tahoma! Excuse yourself if you know you are sick and come to the next retreat. 


NEEDED: Sarei (sweet or savory treats) for Evening Tea in the Zendo are requested. We are 50 people.

The kitchen will not be providing Happy Town (communal tea area) snacks. Coffee, hot tea, and water will be provided. Attendees are welcome to bring SNACKS to share and the kitchen will assist in storing them. 


SPRING GARDENING RETREAT:
March 12 – March 21, 2018

Enzu, 園頭, The monastery vegetable garden, or the gardener. A retreat this Spring. All invited. 

The March Enzu (Gardening) Retreat, is from the 11th. to the 21st., with people coming and going as their schedule allows.

The daily schedule will be the same as kosesshin with choka and zazen before breakfast, samu in the morning, time for study, and qigong in the afternoon and zazen in the evening. Samu will focus on preparing the vegetable garden; planting and pruning in the orchard; pruning and caring for other trees we’ve planted on the grounds; and planting new trees in the woods. There is work for all levels of skill and experience and lots to learn and contribute. Help will be needed cooking as well as outdoors. More details on the retreat are here.  There is no fee for this retreat.  Donations are greatly appreciated.  
www.tahomazenmonastery.com/sesshin/sesshin-application

This retreat is the first retreat in our 77 Trees birthday present to Roshi. There is more information on 77 Trees here.  If you can’t join us and would like to contribute to the project, the donation page is here.


KOSESSHIN with Daichi Roshi: March 23 – March 28, 2018
Kokuho is Friday evening, March 23. Kosesshin, led by Daichi Roshi, concludes the evening of Wednesday, March 28. Open for part time attendance. Daily sanzen. 

www.tahomazenmonastery.com/sesshin/sesshin-application

Daichi Roshi will lead an event at Water Moon Dojo in Seattle on the evening of March 29.

Schedules, guidelines for conduct, and directions to the monastery can be found here,  
www.tahomazenmonastery.com/sesshin-guidelines/

Staying at Tahoma for the period between sesshins is possible. The expectation is to follow the sitting and work schedule. 


 

Japanese scroll mounting for Harada Roshi’s calligraphy now available,

please contact Dairin at dairinlarrick@gmail.com for details.

Here are Dairin’s two latest scrolls, made with Roshi’s vintage calligraphies from the vaults.

Clear Water Has No Obstructions


Everyday Mind, That is the Path

Available for Purchase from Dairin (write him above). Money will benefit Tahoma.

 


TAHOMA DAILY ZAZEN MEDITATION SCHEDULE
Sutra chanting 5:00 a.m. – 5:40 a.m.
Morning Zazen Meditation 5:40 a.m. – 7:00 a.m.
Evening Zazen Meditation 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Join us for sutra chanting and zazen (seated meditation) in the mornings and zazen in the evenings. Chairs and kneeling benches are available as needed.
Zazen periods last twenty-five minutes at a time with a short break between periods. Kinhin (walking meditation) follows fifty minutes of zazen.  Please be seated in the Zendo ten minutes before zazen begins.  If you arrive after a period has started, please wait in the entrance area until the period ends before coming into the Zendo.

Monastery residents follow the schedule outlined above; however, non-residents are welcome to drop in anytime for one or more periods without previous announcement.
No Zazen schedule Mondays.


ZAZENKAI
Every Sunday, sitting from 8:00 a.m. until 9:00 a.m.
Followed by tea 9:00 a.m. until about 9:45 a.m.

Join us for Sunday Zazenkai every Sunday of the month.  Zazenkai includes sutra chanting, zazen meditation, and a short exercise period. Afterwards, tea and sweets are served, and there is an opportunity for questions, discussion, and conversation.
Beginners to Zen are always welcom

e


After taking care of Tahoma, Dairyo Koji is now branching out to live in Bellingham, to work on Chinese translations, play the electric gutiar, and open a small zen dojo there. We wish him all the best and are very appreciative for what he gave since arriving May of 2016.


THANK YOU

Thank you to all who are continually contributing effort, time, resources, care and goodwill to Tahoma-san Zen Monastery.  We are very grateful for your gifts of substance and service. May we always live in a way that makes us worthy to receive your offerings. 

Tahoma Zen Monastery
6499 Wahl Road
Freeland, WA 98249
e-mail:   tahoma@whidbey.com
telephone:  360.331.4142

DONATIONS AND PLEDGES:
Tahoma Monastery exists entirely on donations; there are no fees for participating in activities or meditation.  Donations may be made in cash at Tahoma, online:
https://www.tahomazenmonastery.com
or checks to:
One Drop Zendo Association
(abbreviated as ODZA)
and sent to 6499 Wahl Rd Freeland WA 98236
ONE DROP SEATTLE WATER MOON DOJO:
4231 6th Ave. NW., Seattle, WA, 98107.
It is the dark green house across from Hale’s Ales on Leary Way. Parking is available on the street, or across Leary Way by the Fred Meyers.*

Water Moon Zazen Sitting Meditation
Monday nights from 7 – 8:30 pm, Tuesday mornings from  6:30 – 8:30 am, Thursday mornings from 6:30 – 7:30 am, and Saturday morning from 7:30 – 8:30 a.m.

Contact: https://www.tahomazenmonastery.com/category/watermoon/

Upcoming Spring Sesshin

www.tahomazenmonastery.com/sesshin/sesshin-application

 The cost of kosesshin is $50/day. APPLY HERE:
www.tahomazenmonastery.com/sesshin/sesshin-application 
May 2018 :
May 5 Kokuho, May 6-12, 7 days Samu Sesshin
May 13 Calligraphy Show Bayview Hall Whidbey Island
May 14-19 Kosesshin w Harada Roshi
May 21-26 Sesshin w Daichi Zenni
May 28 day Sesshin w Daichi Zenni at Water Moon Dojo
Payment can be by paypal, or please send checks to:
Rozan Lenny Gerson
2552 NE 46th Ave
Portland, OR 97213
(occasionally payments may be made in person upon arrival)
Schedules, guidelines for conduct, and directions to the monastery can be found here,
www.tahomazenmonastery.com/sesshin-guidelines/Attending
Temple housing is limited and we appreciate your flexibility.  Any help with set up before or clean up following sesshin is greatly appreciated.
Rozan Lenny Gerson
lenogerson@gmail.com
MONASTERY ADDRESS
Tahoma One Drop Zen Monastery
6499 Wahl Road
Freeland, WA 98249
Email:   tahoma@whidbey.com
Phone:  360.331.4142

Wisdom Lecure with Victor Sogen Hori Nov 10 & 12

Wisdom Lecure with Victor Sogen Hori

Victor Sōgen Hori is a Canadian-born scholar of Asian religion, culture, and Buddhist philosophy, a retired professor from the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University. Sōgen Hori graduated from Stanford University with a PhD degree in philosophy before ordaining as a Rinzai monk in 1976 at Daitoku-ji in Kyoto (Rinzai headquarters in Japan). He spent the following 13 years in Zen training. In 1990 Sogen returned to his home country of Canada and began his work in academia. In 1993 he joined the staff at the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University. Sōgen was a member of the McGill Centre for East Asian Research and the McGill Centre for Medicine Ethics and Law. He was on the Advisory Council of Enpuku-ji Montreal and presently serves on the ODZA board of directors. He is author, editor or translator of several books:

Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Kōan Practice (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2003)
Ten Oxherding Pictures: Lectures by Yamada Mumon Roshi (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2002)
Wild Geese: Buddhism in Canada (with John Harding and Alex Soucy, McGill-Queens, 2010)
Flowers on the Rocks: Global & Local Buddhisms in Canada (with John Harding and Alex Soucy, McGill-Queens, 2014)
Teaching Buddhism in the West: From the Wheel to the Web (with Richard Hayes and Mark Shields, Curzon 2002)
The Kyoto School: Neglected Themes and Hidden Variations (with Melissa Curley, Nanzan 2002).

Victor Sogen Hori will speak
Sunday, November 12th  ~  1:00 – 2:30 p.m
at Tahoma Zen Monastery, 6499 Wahl Road, Freeland.

Cost is $10 at the door, cash or check.
There will be books for sale. This will be the last Wisdom Lecture of 2017 series.

Dairyo
Tahoma One Drop Zen Monastery
(360) 331-4142

February ‘18 sesshin dates

The February 2018 dates are as follows

Nov 29 Announcements will be sent out including link to application on this site

Dec 29 Applications will be due (around this time)

February 12: Kokuho
February 13 -19: Osesshin

Their are no kosesshin scheduled  for February.

The Roshi and Chisan depart for Mexico immediately following Osesshin.

Zen Lecture by Harada Roshi Sept 10 2017 Bayview Hall

Zen Lecture by Harada Roshi

Rinzai Zen Master Shōdō HARADA Rōshi

Founding Abbot of
Tahoma Zen Monastery

Will Give a Public Talk on: “Zen In Our Time”

Sunday, September 10th  ~  2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Bayview Community Hall
5642 Bayview Rd, Langley, WA 98260

Please plan to stay afterwards to greet Roshi in a special event.

(It’s a surprise!)

 In 1989 Harada Roshi began coming to the Seattle area to give
talks and Zen retreats to all interested students.

Cost for the event: $ 10 at the door.
One Drop Zendo Association

WISDOM LECTURE SERIES: 2017 www.tahomazenmonastery.org

Tahoma Zen Monastery
5642 Bayview Rd.