The cremation service will be Monday, February 1st at 9:30am at the crematorium at Wiltwyck Cemetery, 145 Pine Grove Avenue in Kingston, NY. Get directions.
The funeral service will be at Zen Mountain Monastery on Sunday, February 21st at 1:30pm.
Read moreOn Wednesday January 13th, a dozen monastery residents and local sangha joined several hundred state-wide protesters in Albany, NY to urge New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, state senators and legislators to stay focused on renewable energy and to discontinue reliance on coal, oil, nuclear and “fracked” natural gas. Rally participants traveled to Albany from the downstate metro area as well as from the Western Tier, Finger Lakes and Hudson Valley regions.
Read morepost by Es Taylor
The Monastery halls were rife with excitement, children’s laughter, and the delicious smell of gravy on the morning of Saturday, December 19th for our annual Dana Dinner. This 27-year tradition was started as the Monastery’s offering to the community and includes a meal, gifts, and live entertainment open to all who are able to come.
Read moreOn Sunday, December 6th, Shea Ikusei Settimi received novice ordination at the Monastery from Shugen Sensei. A full zendo of sangha, friends and family came to share the day and support Ikusei in this next step on her path.
Read morepost by Suzanne Taikyo Gilman, MRO; photos by David McNamara, MRO
The zendo at the monastery was overflowing on Sunday, November 22nd, when the sangha celebrated the Shuso Hossen ceremony with chief disciple Richard Ryoha Dunworth, MRO, marking the culmination of three months of intensive ango study and training.
Read moreOn 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:
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