Early morning sunrise with crest moon visible through the trees

Quince in bloom on the kitchen window sill

A few of us forest bathing before returning to the city

All Beings Zen Sangha 2019 Shuso (head student) Seidō Clear Way David Sarpal during the final ceremony

All Beings Zen Sangha members, Shuso David Sarpal (center with gold fan) and friends and family following the final ceremony.

Congratulations to Robert Quinn YōShin EtsuDō Nourishing Heart, Joyful Way, Craig O’Brian KasenBan MyoGetsu Ten Thousand Rivers, Wondrous Moon and Chris Leader Tendō ShoRyū Unfolding Truth, Auspicious Dragon as they receive precepts and Dharma names during the Jukai ceremony December 2019.    Inryū Sensei is the preceptor.  

Twelve ABZS members at the end of a Zen Day Retreat at Woodburn Hill Farm.

A number of All Beings Sangha Members attended and enjoyed the wonderful workshop focusing on the Koan Stories of Zen Women Ancestors.  Florence Caplow the co-editor of the collection was in town from Champagne Il and made the time to lead the afternoon gathering of this assemble of women coming from diverse Sanghas in the greater Washington DC/Baltimore region.  The workshop was very engaging and brought forth qualities of tenderness, strength, solidarity and resolve among those gathered.  Gratitude to One Heart Sangha for hosting and organizing the event!

Saturday October 26th, 1:30-3pm

As part of the All Beings Zen Sangha Ango theme The whole Earth is my body we will host guest speaker Mike McClary, esq. to  present information and answer questions on the topics of:

What is climate change?

How it will affect the world in the coming decades?

What needs to be done to reduce its risk?

Mike McClary has served for 27 years as an environmental enforcement attorney for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  Since 2009, that work has included criminal enforcement in EPA’s Legal Counsel Division, in the Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training (OCEFT), in Washington, D.C.  Mike has a Master of Divinity (M.Div) degree from Yale, and a Master of Legal Letters (LL.M.) degree in Environmental Law, from Pace University Law School.  He has completed the Climate Reality Leadership Program training,  in order to help educate people in the fight against global warming.  The Climate Reality Project is a climate education and action initiative founded and led by former Vice President Albert Gore.  

Mindfulness and Intimacy

Go beyond mere mindfulness—and deepen your connection to your self, the people in your life, and the world around you.

Mindfulness is an ancient and powerful practice of awareness and nonjudgmental discernment that can help us ground ourselves in the present moment, with the world and our lives just as they are. But there’s a risk: by focusing our attention on something (or someone), we might always see it as something other, as separate from ourselves. To close this distance, mindfulness has traditionally been paired with a focus on intimacy, community, and interdependence. In this book, Ben Connelly shows us how to bring these two practices together—bringing warm hearts to our clear seeing.

Helpful meditations and exercises show how mindfulness and intimacy can together enrich our empathetic engagement with ourselves and the world around us—with our values, with the environment, and with the people in our lives, in all their distinct manifestations of race and religion, sexuality and gender, culture and class—and lead to a truly engaged, compassionate, and joy-filled life.

Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and Dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage. He also teaches mindfulness in a wide variety of secular contexts including police training, correctional facilities, and addiction recovery groups. Ben is based at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, travels to teach across the United States, and is the author for Wisdom Publications of Inside the Grass Hut, Inside Vasubandhu’s Yogacara, and Mindfulness and Intimacy. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Well attended workshop at All Beings Zen Sangha for guest teacher Rev. Daigan Gaither. He offered a meaningful look at “sickness, old age, and death” and how our zen practice requires us to quiet down and come back to connection with the bodies we have. All were touched and supported by his compassionate responses to questions and deep diving into our bodies with guided meditation and clear question processes to see “what does our practice ask of us”.

Call to Artists! All Beings Zen Sangha is announcing a call to artists for the 2020 Sangha calendar project. Submissions are now being accepted for drawings, paintings, photography, poetry, and other forms of art and expression in digital format. Please submit up to three works for consideration by August 15, 2019 via e-mail to Inryu at inryubobbi@gmail.com or John at emailjohnf@gmail.com

(photo by Alex Lima)

May all beings be happy!