WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD
Meeting ID: 853 1700 6003
Passcode: 492232
Saturday, January 27–Saturday, February 24
Join Us On Site & Online for Zazen Daily
Join us for Winter Ango! Download and fill out the Commitment Form below and send a scanned copy of your intentions to office@smzc.org. Six zazen periods are open daily to the public. Drop-ins are welcome. Come and join us in practice this month. Please help us sustain our programming by donating to the Winter Practice Period.
Shuso (Head Student)
Shinei (神英) Alison Brown
Shinei began her zen practice in 1997, taking Jukai in 1998. She became a disciple of Abbot Kyogen Carlson in 2001, maintaining a close teacher-disciple relationship with him until his death in 2014. After moving to Eugene, Oregon in 2017, Shinei began practicing with Abbot Ejo McMullen, becoming his formal disciple in 2020 and then taking Koji ordination in 2023. She was given the dharma name Shinei which means “Sacred Flower.” Zen practice, zazen and the creative arts have been essential to her life. Her quest originally motivated and sustained through difficult early experiences and the integration of her painting and writing with formal zen practice.
Winter Ango Theme
Ocean Mudra
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When the knot has eyes and shows itself as wisdom, the karmic knot or the complexes disentangle, and it does disentangle, disengaging itself from outworn ways, metamorphosing, revealing its undivided face. The Ocean Mudra sometimes referred to as the Ocean Seal is the samadhi of the Buddha who while sitting beneath the bodhi tree ‘saw’ the complex and complete teaching of the Avatamsaka/Hua Yen.
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—Koji Shin'ei Alison
The Avatamsaka Sutra and The Hua Yen School
“All dharmas are birthless and cannot be extinguished, one who understands this sees the Tathagata.”
Avatamsaka
—Eulogies of the Suyama Heaven,
Eulogies of Mount Sumeru
The cosmos perceived as a wondrous jewel, a nexus of interdependent causes and conditions. Colorful, imaginative, and challenging, the Avatamsaka is considered the crown of Buddhist sutras, one of the earliest Buddhist literatures to enter China. The Hua Yen School evolved in the seventh century, drawing insight from the Avatamsaka. The Hua Yen was highly influential in Zen practice forming the basis of two main sutras we chant in the mornings, Precious Mirror Samadhi and the Harmony of Difference and Sameness. It is the key to deepening your understanding of compassion and interconnection in your meditation, daily life, and practice.
Date
Time (PST)
Ango Events (registration required to attend)
Saturday, January 27
10:30am – 12:00 noon
Saturday, February 3
7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Saturday, February 10
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Sunday, February 11–
Sunday, February 18
7:30 pm –
4:00 pm
Saturday, February 17
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
10:30 am – 12:00 noon
Saturday, February 24
DOWNLOAD CHANTS
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Morning Service (Tue, Thur & Sat in English)
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Morning Service (Mon, Wed, Fri & Sun in Japanese)
- Sandokai
- Gojushichi Butsu (Fifty-Seven Buddhas)
- Daihishin Dharani
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Evening​ (Mon–Sat)
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Fukanzazengi (Universal Promotion of the Principles of Zazen)
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