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Thanks so much for the new thread, and the excellent OP, Paramemetic! I'll root around a bit and see if I can suggest some Soto zen links.
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Feb 16, 2020 21:00
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Yorkshire Pudding posted:I'm in the Kansas City area, and there's a few around here I've looked at (but haven't visited). One other possibility if you happen to have an interest in Zen is Treeleaf, an online sangha run by Jundo Cohen, another student of Nishijima (Brad Warner’s teacher). I haven’t personally tried that approach, since I’m lucky enough to have a nearby sangha, but Jundo seems to have a good head on his shoulders, and they have a very traditional (albeit remote) jukai program. https://www.treeleaf.org/
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Feb 23, 2020 16:08
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Yorkshire Pudding posted:New question: I have really inflexible hips and knees, so even sitting basic cross-legged for me is hard. I basically have to be sitting against a wall or something, which tells me my posture isn’t good. Two suggestions: First, be gentle with yourself and use whatever posture for sitting is comfortable for the length of sit involved. Use a chair if you have to. Note that even after you’ve been sitting for a while, you might still need adjustments. I’ve been sitting for years, but if I don’t sit in just the right way when using a zafu, my feet will fall sound asleep. Second (and forgive me for saying this in the Buddhism thread), try some yoga. What will really make longer sitting comfortable is hip flexibility, and the type of back strength yoga develops can also be very helpful. The traditions are very different from most strains of Buddhism, so just think of it as exercise (most classes are this way in any event)and ignore the spiritual elements, or at least be aware the perspective diverges significantly.
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Feb 23, 2020 16:20
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NikkolasKing posted:How important is getting a proper teacher in your opinion? This was a big discussion over on he Dharma Wheel forums back when I found it and posted on it for a while. Some think it's essential that you go and get personal instructions. I mentioned Treeleaf up above, and SFZC also has online offerings. Both worth checking out if zen is of interest. There are also excellent podcasts such as the one from ADZG. There aren’t any easy answers on whether to practice alone. It’s easy to get off track if you’re not working with a teacher or group that can serve as a second pair of eyes on your practice. You can lose steam, or if you wind up with a strong practice it can be hard to stay grounded. And you can mistake the first station, as it were, for the final destination. In addition to which the source material is extensive and often difficult to interpret and harmonize. But on the other hand both teachers and groups can involve very harmful dynamics. Groups have a way of having tighter rules than society at large and demanding conformity, and teachers can lose their bearings and become abusive or manipulative. Overall I’d say practice on your own if that’s where you are, but check in from time to time with a teacher or sangha. My personal rule of thumb is always to regard both groups and teachers as guilty until proven innocent, but having said that there are, for example, many fine teachers at SFZC.
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Feb 26, 2020 05:54
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I would like to know more about these Burning Iron Balls
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Feb 29, 2020 17:08
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For sutras, hard to pick just one, but I think if I did, it would be the Heart Sutra, in its simplicity and radical message. If we were casting the net a bit more broadly, possibly Genjokoan. Though this may be a slightly tougher question for Zen, which is often said to be a special transmission outside the scriptures (despite including and producing a huge corpus of written work). In our corner of westernized Soto, there isn’t mantra practice of the kind you may be thinking of, such as a personal mantra used during meditation as a point of focus. There can, however, be group chanting (depending on the zen center and occasion), which can include chanted mantras.
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Mar 2, 2020 14:33
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Cuervo Jonestown posted:Just completed a six-week long practice period and folks, it's good. If it’s not too much trouble, I’d love to hear about your impressions of the ango / temple. Sanshinji has them, and in theory I could go for portions of that, but the length and number of their sits is, frankly, a bit terrifying. e:There’s a great commentary on / summary of Hua Yen by Cook, but I’m guessing you already have that. Red Dad Redemption fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Mar 3, 2020 |
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Mar 3, 2020 05:14
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Paramemetic posted:The Mahayana goes hard after Sariputra in a lot of Mahayana sutras, usually having Vimalakirti dunk on him over and over while representing him as a big dummy. This is generally done to score points for the Mahayana while representing the Hinayana as bad, dumb, unable to understand profound doctrines, etc. He’s also the star of the parable of the burning house, a wonderful vignette where the three vehicles are handwaived away as upaya.
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Mar 12, 2020 02:17
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KiteAuraan posted:Odd question for right now, given the situation, but are there any Arizona Buddhist Goons who have experience with any Sangha on the west side of Phoenix? My practice is general Mahayana with strong Chán and Madhyamika influence for an idea of where I am at. No experience with this one, and the location may be inconvenient, but if Soto is of interest there’s an affiliate of San Francisco Zen Center in Paradise Valley. The link below seems to have their correct phone number but note the web link is wrong: https://branchingstreams.sfzc.org/affiliates/directory-of-affiliates/ Also if Soto is of interest, I’d suggest you check out the Soto Zen FB group page: there’s a stickied post with online sanghas; SFZCs link for online is there (it’s also at their website), among many others. Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, an excellent center in Chicago, is not in the thread but does have an online offering, details of which are at their site.
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Apr 5, 2020 14:35
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Keret posted:This is excellently timed, as I wanted to drop in and mention something we are working on at ADZG! A few of us have started a committee that is going through our archive of podcasts and working with Taigen to share a few each week while the pandemic is going on. I thought I would crowdsource this a little bit and include the remote Sangha as well — if anyone here has listened to our podcasts and has any from the archive that they really liked or that spoke to them, please suggest them to me and we can add them to our ongoing list. Feel free to PM me or post, whichever works best. I want back through the old episodes on Castro the other day but the challenge for me is that all of the episodes are great. Taigen is such a remarkable Dogem scholar and teacher. Separately, and for whatever it’s worth, I’ll mention that I’ve been shooting myself with the second arrow a hell of a lot lately. These are tough times and I hope all of you are safe and well.
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Apr 6, 2020 22:49
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Lotus is NOT about knee flexibility and if you have any strain at all there just wait. Lots of other postures are fine. What lotus is about is rotational flexibility and flexibility in the inner thigh. The seated postures in the ashtanga primary series are great for this IF you take it slow and only do what you comfortably can. It can take a hell of a long time and that’s ok. Don’t force it.
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Apr 7, 2020 03:03
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Rodney The Yam II posted:Resources I used to practice with Melanie Fawer years ago. She’s amazing, and her shala was very old school: Mysore every morning, complete with the traditional adjustments. I only wish there were as good a shala near where I’m living now; the closest these days is just a tad too far to make it practical to go. Anyway, I’d throw in David Swenson’s Primary Series video and also The Practice Manual. They should still be on Amazon, but also both can be found here: https://www.ashtanga.net/ He goes through the primary series with dazzling ease, but also constantly reminds students to take it easy, and at least in the book, but I think also in the video, offers a number of modifications so that anyone can do the postures. * * * Back to lotus, while baddha padmasana has been part of my mostly daily practice until very recently, I personally prefer to use a version of half lotus for long sits. I call it half assed lotus, and it’s a sort of weird cross between the Burmese position and half lotus. I just mention it because it comes down to preference and practice and there’s not really just one grail pose, even if a person can get into them all. (Though I will say that back when I was doing a lot of pranayamas / kriyas / yoga meditation, I did find lotus preferable.) Red Dad Redemption fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Apr 7, 2020 |
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Apr 7, 2020 19:51
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Nessus posted:I am curious if anyone here has any good resources or favorite recipes for vegetarian cooking. I am thinking perhaps I ought to take the plunge, or at the very least turn meat into an accent rather than a centerpiece. I'm asking y'all instead of just googling it because I am curious about the curated experience and you folks may have come at it with at least some thought to Buddhist practice. Some of this will come down to personal preference, but we’ve used this one for years and love it: https://www.amazon.com/000-Vegetarian-Recipes-Carol-Gelles/dp/0025429655 Madhur Jeffrey’s Indian cookbooks aren’t solely vegetarian, but have great recipes for vegetable dishes. We also have a very good middle eastern cookbook that I’ll link if I can find it. Lots of great recipes there as well, though as with the Jaffrey books there are also meat based recipes.
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Jun 6, 2020 19:16
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Hey Paramemetic, while we wait to see what is going to happen here on SA, any thoughts on a Plan B? Potential offsites or discords we could migrate this thread to? Also, have you been in touch with Renee et al?
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Jun 25, 2020 19:36
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WombatCyborg posted:Planning to attend a virtual workshop with the Rochester Zen Center on Saturday. Excited and nervous, this is something I've wanted to do for a while now but as a lifelong atheist have been hesitant to follow through with. I'm a little ashamed to admit it started with an LSD trip, where I had an experience that's hard to put into words, but made me believe in the cycle of rebirth and suffering in the buddhist sense. Not saying that's what I'm aiming to experience again, more like I was able to see through the window for a moment. I've had, a lot of issues in my life, mentally and emotionally, and I'm hoping this offers a sustainable path to find a better way to go about existence, a more peaceful way. I'll be sure to check back in after with how it went. I haven’t had a chance to get to RZC in person, but I’ve listed to their podcast for a few years now, and Roshi Kjolhede seems like a pretty great teacher. Looking forward to your impressions.
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Oct 8, 2020 13:26
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Nessus posted:It has been difficult, especially lately, because I keep having anxiety over this drat election aftermath poo poo and my practice is not very good. I have at times envied the heavy drinkers because they can turn it off. But not enough to take up the habit. There’s quite a lot of this going around; you’re not alone. I’d say virtually all of us in my zendo have had our practice disrupted to a greater or lesser degree, with election anxiety compounding the effects of that. And absolutely all of us have found that despite the unprecedented online access now available, nothing is quite like our little local sangha.
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Nov 23, 2020 04:09
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Hiro Protagonist posted:I've kind of talked about this in this thread, but with COVID I don't have a good place to talk to anyone about this, and I kind of need to vent. Two thoughts, the first much less important, in my view, than the second: - The philosophy of consciousness / mind is a very real and living thing that includes, but absolutely is not limited to, physicalist perspectives. It’s worth exploring before assuming there’s a clear and defined answer in this area. - This may come across as sectarian, and if so I apologize (certainly other approaches may be just as efficacious for you) but from my experience and that of others with whom I’ve practiced over the years, long periods of daily shikantaza (eg 30 minutes a day for a few years) will tend to put you in a very different relationship with questions like this. It’s extremely difficult to explain, and it’s obviously not about knowledge of the kind you’d get from reading books, which is why exploring the epistemic uncertainty is ultimately going to be like trying to eat a painted cake, but it’s very real.
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Nov 26, 2020 02:30
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Greg Legg posted:I have been practicing seated zazen off and on for a long time. I visited the local zen center when I started but I think I was too young and unfocused and I didn't really enjoy it. I read posts on treeleaf every now and then but I don't feel comfortable identifing myself as a Buddhist. I learned a lot from this thread, thank you! Jundo is great. Not familiar with the forums, so I can't weigh in on the membership / other teachers. In the US, Taigen Leighton (ADZG) is also excellent, as is Shohaku Okumura. Lots of good teachers and content at SFZC as well. Not sure how much reading you've done, but Opening the Hand of Thought and How to Cook Your Life are good introductory books (well paired, for the same purpose, with Fukanzazenji, Bendowa and Genjokoan), and for a deeper dive, obviously the balance of Shobogenzo and the source materials listed in the SZBA formation guide, which run through background and history, the Mahayana sutras, philosophical development, early Buddhism, Ch'an and Zen, and more. The guide seems, unfortunately, to have disappeared from their site, but if it's of interest I can paste the list in here.
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Mar 18, 2021 17:44
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I'll be very interested to see what comes up in response to this. I tend to look at the practice as more central than speculative matters, but at a minimum, it would complicate the notion of dependent origination as it is typically understood.
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May 10, 2021 18:08
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Hiro Protagonist posted:Outside of here, does anyone recommend any Buddhist communities online? It might depend on what sort of community and what you mean by online. For Soto Zen, I’ve known people from ZMM and Sanshinji, and they were / are great people and had great things to say about those communities. I don’t know anyone from ADZG in Chicago, but I regularly listen to their podcast, which includes discussion after dharma talks, and it seems like a good group, to add to which their teacher is in my view one of the most outstanding in the country. All three of those have online practice. I’m also a fan of SFZC, which has many excellent teachers, and has online practice and programs, but I don’t know anyone who was a part of their community. A friend tried one of their programs and had good things to say about it. For a somewhat less traditional space, there’s also Angel City Zen. An acquaintance of mine likes it there, and it has online sits. Finally, I’ll mention Treeleaf Zen. Jundo Cohen, who in my view is another excellent teacher, set it up as a specifically online community. It offers everything: practice, forums, even jukai. But while I’m familiar with Jundo, I’m not familiar with the community, and I don’t have a sense of whether the forums are a good place to be.
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Oct 9, 2021 18:33
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Herstory Begins Now posted:^ As an aside, at least one person who is (was?) quite seriously involved with ADZG posts here. ADZG is from sfzc lineage, albeit leighton has been around quite a variety of traditions and is an extremely skilled translator and I wouldn't be surprised if you bumped into more than just the suzuki lineage there. It's been a while, but many thanks for posting these observations. SFZC is a way more formal practice environment than our sangha (different, though related, Soto lineage), but I've always wanted to practice there, and if the pandemic ever ends, I will. They've always seemed to have their priorities straight, and absolutely they have some very talented teachers. In the meantime, our sangha remains in touch, but not physically together for sits, so likely I, too, will be in the market for a digital sangha. Probably ADZG in my case.
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Dec 5, 2021 01:00
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Cephas posted:Thank you for your feedback. I read it and really appreciated it. That koan is interesting to me. I have noticed that many koan take the form of someone being corrected on their mistaken views of attainment. That is something I always take very seriously--in fact, it makes me uneasy to hear that attainment is possible and certifiable at all. But I suppose that unease is partially aversion and will eventually go away. Cephas, are do you still practice in the Soto tradition? Because if so, I might recommend you check out Shinji Shobogenzo. There's a full translation by Nishijima available and it's an amazing koan collection. I also find myself rereading Genjokoan again and again (along with other selections from the Treasury) but obviously that's a rather different form (though the collection is replete with embedded koans).
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May 26, 2022 14:32
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Cephas posted:I've actually been needing to find a sangha now that social restrictions are becoming a bit loosened, so I can't say that I'm quite part of one tradition or another. But I do find Soto to be a very natural fit for me. Thank you for the recommendation! Dogen has been on my to-read list for a while now, especially after reading some of Ruth Ozeki's writing. I will have to sit down with Shobogenzo. Apologies if you’re already aware, but just in case (because it can be confusing): Shinji Shobogenzo is a koan collection, whereas Shobogenzo is a massive collection of essays. The latter is amazing but demands a lot of reflection and may be opaque at first. I can recommend a translation if you’d like. For an initial but no less meaningful bit of Dogen I’d recommend How To Cook Your Life (brief but superb) and Opening the Hand of Thought (not Dogen but very useful). As for a sangha, until you can find something local, I heartily recommend Ancient Dragon Zen Gate online. Taigen is a prolific scholar and a wonderful person, and I listen to his dharma talks (and read his work) whenever I can.
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May 27, 2022 04:22
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Hiro Protagonist posted:The avidyā was coming from inside the thread the whole time! 
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Jun 6, 2022 21:06
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Achmed Jones posted:it's really easy to get disillusioned with the sangha. it seems like a teacher is always being outed as a sexpest of some variety, or you'll see people that are clearly mentally unwell and not completely benign (shall we say) join a group, or somebody's going really hard into some weird charlatan teacher and you don't wanna tear down their practice, but you also don't want to, you know, be part of that poo poo. Sangha has been immensely beneficial for me despite the inherent limitations, but at some point it's probably better not to be part of a dysfunctional group (and *absolutely* better to leave if a problem concerning a teacher is tolerated in my view). It seems like the scope of choices is broader than ever since the advent of Covid / widespread zoom; would it be worth considering something different?
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Jun 6, 2022 21:34
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Likely only of interest to Soto Zen goons, but the Soto-shu has finally published the long awaited new translation of Shobogenzo by Carl Bielefeldt and others as part of the Stanford Soto Zen Text Project. The initial publication comprises an eight volume set, hard bound, likely on very high quality paper, and is relatively expensive ($350 for the set). The reference page is here, and it includes a link to the order form if anyone is interested. https://buddhiststudies.stanford.edu/publications/treasury-true-dharma-eye-dogens-shobogenzo?search=shobogenzo The Soto-shu has indicated that a softcover set will be forthcoming at a later date. But given the very long lag between the completion of the project and this initial publication, I wouldn't count on it being soon. If you're on the fence, it would probably make sense to call them directly about timing (though you should view any response as tentative). Their contact information is on the order form. My own suggested reading links on the first page of the thread include a link to a different translation, for anyone interested who wants to spend $0, but it won't be the same translation, obviously, and in particular the newer one may be (significantly) more accessible and more fully annotated. It's been a while since I dropped in here; hope this finds all of you safe and well.
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Jul 21, 2023 01:16
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Huxley posted:Thank you all, "What the Buddha Taught" is on its way. I was also a little wary of "pay to pray" type places and it's nice to have that validated. Late to this, since it's been ages since I logged in. In case it's of interest (and it may well be given your perspective), I'd like to offer up a few Soto Zen links and suggestions, starting with my post near the start of the thread: Red Dad Redemption posted:Ok here are a few starter links for Soto Zen. We always used to like to recommend Opening the Hand of Thought as a starter book for Soto Zen, and for me and many others Uchiyama's How to Cook Your Life is a favourite, though the latter improves with a bit of background on Zen. Also, I don't know if you have a sangha nearby, but should Zen be of interest, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago is led by the excellent, and prolific, Taigen Leighton, and has a podcast that includes all of his dharma talks, as well as online sits nearly daily, with the main one on Sundays. https://www.ancientdragon.org/
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Nov 18, 2023 21:04
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nice obelisk idiot posted:Has anyone read anything interesting regarding the mechanisms of Buddhist meditation practices? I keep on thinking of how to relate things to brain functionality, like the connection between concentration and insight into ongoing mental processes. I'm not trying to make a claim about the relationship between the brain and the mind here. This comes with a huge caveat, namely that I haven't read her and am not at all sure about the quality of her work, but not long ago I ran across an interview with Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard neuroanatomist who had a stroke and in the wake of that wrote two books, potentially touching on this, or on related matters: My Stroke of Insight and Whole Brain Living.
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Nov 24, 2023 21:20
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