North County Zen Collective, Four Vows Sangha

Teens and Young Adults for a meditation class this week!

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was living among the Sakyans. Now there is a Sakyan town named Sakkara. There Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, Ven. Ananda said to the Blessed One, "This is half of the holy life, lord: admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie."[1] "Don't say that, Ananda. Don't say that. Admirable friendship, admirab...le companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life. When a monk has admirable people as friends, companions, & comrades, he can be expected to develop & pursue the noble eightfold path.--Upaddha Sutta, trans. Thanissaro Bhikku This week we will speak to spiritual friendship, as it existed among Buddha's disciples and as it unfolds and supports us now as Zen students. Join us at 7 pm Friday for sitting and Dharma talk. Also, the book launch is in process. Here is the link to the events related to the release of my book, Field of Blessings: Ritual and consciousness in the work of Buddhist healers.https://www.mountainpath.org/books Join our celebrations. We will see you on the cushion, and on Zoom... Metta, Ji Hyang

Tonight !!! Zen Monday Nights at 7pm (PST)

Join Me for 3 Months Sitting with NY Zen Center for the Contemplative Care, at your pace. Beginning on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021 join me, @koshinpaley, and other Zen teachers from across the United States and Japan for a special online practice period, Realizing Your True Nature: Commit-to-Sit 90-day meditation practice period. Through weekly online dharma talks, daily practice emails, group discussions, and meditation, we will ground ourselves in the wisdom of our ancestors as our world begins to heal from a traumatic and difficult year. Click for more info and to sign up! https://bit.ly/3tIgG0F

Calling out to Hungry Hearts Everywhere through endless time You who wander, you who thirst I offer you this Bodhi Mind. Calling all you hungry spirits... Everywhere through endless time Calling all you hungry hearts All the lost and left behind Gather round and share this meal Your joy and sorrow I make it mine. --Gate of Sweet Nectar This week we will speak to the liturgy of the Gate of Sweet Nectar as it appears within our practice-- and how that practice becomes action to help this hungry world. Join us at 7 pm Friday for sitting and Dharma talk. Also, the book launch is in process. Join our celebrations. We will see you on the cushion, and on Zoom... Metta, Ji Hyang

Tonight!Come to celebrate Buddha’s Awakening at 7 pm Zazen and Dharma Talk , join us via Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86285320163

A memorable awakening story from our Korean Zen lineage

Buddha's Enlightenment and Us How many of the classic stories of Enlightenment happen on the road, on the way to some other destination which is, in the final story- telling, not even named. Zen Master Gu Chi's overstay in a mountain hermitage, where through wind and rain, another visitor is borne in, who asks him for one true word...Su T'ung Po, who happens by a waterfall. Someone's head slips off a wooden pillow, someone else wanders by an old man crying for a deer. How inc...redibly valuable these transitional realms are -- as a reminder that everything is changing, changing, changing-- yet there is an inner wakefulness, in which we can take refuge. We are in a pandemic- transitional-realm, now... Zen Master Chinul spoke to this point. If you want to become a Buddha, understand that Buddha is the mind. How can you search for the mind in the far distance? It is not outside the body. The physical body is a phantom, for it is subject to birth and death; the true mind is like space, for it neither ends nor changes. Therefore it is said, "These hundred bones will crumble and return to fire and wind. But One Thing is eternally numinous and covers heaven and earth." Kuei-feng, in a profound explanation of the meaning of initial awakening/ subsequent cultivation said, "Although we know that a frozen pond is entirely water, the sun's heat is necessary to melt it. Although we awaken to the fact that an ordinary man is Buddha, the power of dharma is necessary to make it permeate our cultivation. "When that pond has melted, the water flows freely and can be used for irrigation and cleaning. When falsity is extinguished, the mind will be numinous and dynamic and then its functions of penetrating brightness will manifest." On Friday our Dharma talk will be an early celebration of Enlightenment Day, with teaching from the Buddha, from Chinul and from other awakened beings... Join us! We look forward to seeing you soon! Metta, Ji Hyang

Tonight Zazen and Dharma Talk at 7 pm please join us ! Via zoom One branch stands out on the old apricot tree; Thorns come forth at the same time

Thank you for your sava

Gratitude, Grace, and Enough-Mind Every year, at this time, I talk about developing enough-mind, so that we are able to know that we are enough, what we have is enough. We don't need to get the new iphone, and this in turn means less pressure on the environment and greater world peace. The ability to have enough-mind arises out of practice--our ability to stay with ourselves, just as we are, and to stay with the moment, just as it is.... Gratitude supports this-- which is one reason it is so wonderful to adopt some form of mindful appreciation before eating. Here is a grace written by Zen Master Norm Fischer: One Heart Grace As we make ready to eat this food we remember with gratitude the many people, tools, animals and plants, air and water, sky and earth, turned in the wheel of living and dying, whose joyful exertion provide our sustenance this day. May we with the blessing of this food join our hearts to the one heart of the world in awareness and love, and may we together with everyone realize the path of awakening, and never stop making effort for the benefit of others. On Friday our Dharma talk will be on gratitude-- all the things we are grateful for, and some keys to accessing gratitude when it isn't easy to source from that. The bowing we do in a traditional Zen practice is ultimately a gesture of gratitude. Even if we are in a kind of dark night bootcamp, we can be grateful for the lessons we would not have gotten any other way. Join us! We look forward to seeing you soon! Metta, Ji Hyang