On Sunday, November 15th, Shugen Sensei officiated a Precepts Ceremony—Jukai—for five MRO students at Zen Mountain Monastery. The zendo was filled to capacity with sangha, family, friends, plus a sizable contingent of students from the New York City sangha.
After 15 years of dedicated prowling, purring, sunning himself and serving the Monastery sangha in numerous ways, Moss passed away on November 10th, surrounded by those who loved him. A service was held with recognition of all benevolent creatures of the earth, expressing gratitude for Moss’s life. A resting place was made near the garden and the woods where he loved to roam.
Read moreOctober 22nd-25th marked the second annual Wild Grasses Sesshin at the Monastery—a meditation intensive for women led by Hojin Osho. By Friday evening, eighty women sat together in the zendo, in long, curving rows. Amid preparations on Thursday morning, Hojin Osho envisioned a zendo set-up that dispensed with the usual straight rows in favor of a more spacious layout.
by JL Aronson, MRO
“Happy 35th Anniversary Dragons and Elephants,” proclaimed a bright red and white painted banner hanging over the Monastery’s dining hall, a salute to the noblest creatures of the land, sea and air. October 9-11 brought nearly 150 sangha members (dragons and elephants alike) together for a weekend of reflection, celebration, dreaming and practice.
Read morepost by Theresa Braine
“Wild Grasses. We are all wild grasses.”
With these words, Hojin Osho opened the second all-woman Zazenkai at Fire Lotus Temple, the Zen Center of New York City. Nearly 30 of us gathered, sitting in a circle, the room divided into four quarters for daisan purposes. The poetry of Otagaki Rengetsu, “Field of Wild Grasses,” set the scene and the tone:
Read moreOn Sunday, August 2nd, at the conclusion of our Interdependence Sesshin, Bear Gokan Bonebakker received shukke tokudo, or full monastic ordination, from Shugen Sensei in a moving ceremony attended by a zendo full of family and sangha. During the ceremony, Gokan received the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts and the five monastic life vows of simplicity, service, stability, selflessness and to accomplish the Buddha’s Way. Shugen Sensei also gave Gokan a monk’s bowl and kesa, and the ordination name Jisan, or “Loving the Mountain.”
Read moreby Cameron Kito Broadhurst, MRO
Every year, our flock of New Zealand Zen practitioners leaves their home and local sangha practice to travel to Nelson for our national Zen workshops, social events and winter sesshin. At the same time, Shugen Sensei steps into the stomach of the iron bird and flies across the vast Pacific to the smaller but beautiful land of Aotearoa (Maori term for New Zealand), where his visit and the Zen training that surrounds it is much anticipated by us all.
Read moreby Roni Nyuko Schnadow, MRO
On June 10, 2015 we began the four-day “Being the Bowl” retreat, led by Hojin Osho and assisted by Katie Yosha Scott-Childress. After being on the waiting list last year, I signed up early and was lucky enough to get to experience clay with nine other participants who had traveled from as far as Montana, Kansas and Canada to experience this art practice retreat.
Read moreBy Dennis Daiken Ferrill, MRO
On May 30th at Fire Lotus Temple, just a week after the end of our spring Ango, we celebrated a day of Fushin Samu, or Sangha Work Day. Traditionally, fushin samu refers to the ordinary work of communal labor. It was fitting that the day came at the end of three months in which we focused every day on Sangha and how to be within it, because this was a real demonstration of the seamless participation of our whole sangha family for the benefit of everyone.
Read moreby Jeffrey Gyokudo Roberts, MRO
Amidst birdsong and blue sky, our 2015 Spring Ango Intensive training period came to its end on Sunday, May 24th, and the sangha returned to harbor from the journey we set out on together during the snowy days of March.
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