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Upcoming Events
Sanshin Tenth Anniversary Celebration 6/22/13
Sanshinji, Bloomington, IN
On Saturday June 22, 2013 the The Sanshin Zen Community will celebrate 10 years of practice in Bloomington, Indiana. To mark this occasion there will be a gathering of sangha and friends at the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center on Snoddy Road on the southeast side of Bloomington. This will be a time to assess the present and look to the future. Activities will start at 10 a.m. Stay tuned for more details!
Schedule:
10:00am - Short Speech by Rev. Hosshin Shoaf, Board President
10:15am - Short Speech by Shohaku Okumura Roshi, Abbot
10:30am - Lecture "Buddha's Evolutionary Sitting: What happened under the Bodhi Tree" by Rev. Issho Fujita (with time for Q&A afterwards.)
12:00pm to 1:00pm - Tea and snacks
Please join us for this momentous date!
RSVP by June 1, 2013.
Please contact the office, 812-339-2635 or
admin@sanshinji.org for more information.
Shuso Hossen for Koshin Yamashita 6/23/13
Sanshinji, Bloomington, IN
On Sunday June 23, 2013 the The Sanshin Zen Community will celebrate Koshin Yamashita's completion of the 90 day training period as Shuso, or head trainee.
Please join us in congratulating Koshin-san on her great achievement.
Everyone welcome!
Please contact the office, 812-339-2635 or
admin@sanshinji.org for more information.
Precepts Retreat 7/3/13 - 7/8/13
Sanshinji, Bloomington, IN
Please contact the office, 812-339-2635 or
admin@sanshinji.org for more information.
Genzo-e Retreat at Brooklyn ZC 7/3/13 - 7/8/13
Brooklyn, NY
Okumura Roshi will lecture on Dogen Zenji's fascicle Zenki from Shobogenzo.
Contact: http://www.brooklynzen.org/contact
Compassionate Earth Walk
As her first offering after dharma transmission, Shodo Spring will lead a pilgrimage this summer, July through September. Here is a brief statement:
The Compassionate Earth Walk traces the Keystone XL route through the Great Plains. The ancient practice of pilgrimage responds to present and future environmental catastrophe, focusing on its causes in our own culture. We walk as a blessing to the earth and to those we meet, and as a prayer for all earth's children.
There will be zazen, silence, and dialogue with those we meet. For more information, or to support or join the walk, look at the website: http://www.CompassionateEarthWalk.org/, or contact Shodo at shodo.spring@gmail.com. Donations are welcome. Please do not divert donations from Sanshinji, but offer if and how you are moved.
After the walk is over, Shodo expects to settle down in Minnesota, practice Zen, and farm, and invites others to join her.
The 2013 Sanshin Practice Schedule is posted on our website:http://sanshinji.org/events/
Sangha News
The Dogen Institute is a new organization within Sanshin dedicated to supporting Okumura Roshi's writing and translation work. Directed by Sanshin board member David Thompson, it has a Facebook page and has recently launched a new website: http://dogeninstitute.org/.
David Thompson is looking for volunteers to help with Dogen Institute's crowdfunding campaign. If you're interested, please contact David: david.thompson@sanshinji.org
Hojo-san's Sunday lectures are being made available for live streaming via Ustream. Look for the notice and link on Sanshin's Facebook page when new lectures are available. You can watch the dharma talk from March 3rd here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/dharma-talk-20130303
We now have the Bendowa 3 CD Digital Audio finished and available for purchase as a digital-download: http://sanshin.bandcamp.com/album/bendowa-3
Gyobutsuji, Rev. Shoryu Bradley's mountain monastery in the Arkansas Ozarks has a lovely new website. Please check it out.
Sanshin Wish List
Treasurer needed: Sanshin's Treasurer has asked us to find him a Dharma Heir. Position requires an accounting background, and the ideal candidate would be local to Bloomington, though this isn't absolutely necessary. Please contact info@redwoodzendo.com
Invitation for New Board Members: Sanshin's Board of Directors is in need of three new board members to take on leadership responsibilities for a variety of activities related to the growth and sustainability of Sanshin Zen Community. We are in particular need of board members who live in or near the Bloomington area who can participate locally, but we welcome motivated volunteers from anywhere in the Sanshinji sangha. Board members meet via teleconference approximately once per month, and meet in person at Sanshinji twice each year. Interested individuals are invited to contact the board chair, Don Orr, at djorr@verizon.net to discuss the opportunities and responsibilities of board membership.
New Books and CD Sets
 Living by Vow
By Shohaku Okumura
This immensely useful book explores Zen's rich tradition of chanted liturgy and the powerful ways that such chants support meditation, expressing and helping us truly uphold our heartfelt vows to live a life of freedom and compassion. Exploring eight of Zen's most essential and universal liturgical texts, Living by Vow is a handbook to walking the Zen path, and Shohaku Okumura guides us like an old friend, speaking clearly and directly of the personal meaning and implications of these chants, generously using his experiences to illustrate their practical significance. A scholar of Buddhist literature, he masterfully uncovers the subtle, intricate web of culture and history that permeate these great texts. Esoteric or challenging terms take on vivid, personal meaning, and old familiar phrases gain new poetic resonance.
Order Living by Vow from Sanshinji: Click here for a printable order form
Dogen's Genjo Koan: Three Commentaries [Hardcover]
By Eihei Dogen, with commentaries by Nishiari Bokusan, Shohaku Okamura, Shunryu Suzuki, Uchiyama Kosho, Sojun Mel Weitsman, Kazuaki Tanahasi, and Michael Wenger
From Counterpoint Press: "One of the greatest religious practitioners and philosophers of the East, Eihei Dogen Zenji (1200-1253) is today thought of as the founder of the Soto school of Zen. A deep thinker and writer, he was deeply involved in monastic methods and in integrating Zen realization into daily life. At times The Shobogenzo was profoundly difficult, and he worked on it over his entire life, revising and expanding, producing a book that is today thought to be one of the highest manifestations of Buddhist thought ever produced. Dogen's Genjo Koan is the first chapter in that book, and for many followers it might be thought to contain the gist of Dogen's work-it is one of the groundwork texts of Zen Buddhism, standing easily alongside The Diamond Sutra, The Heart Sutra, and a small handful of others.
"Our unique edition of Dogen's Genjo Koan (Actualization of Reality) contains three separate translations and several commentaries by a wide variety of Zen masters. Nishiari Bokusan, Shohaku Okamura, Shunryu Suzuki, Kosho Uchiyama. Sojun Mel Weitsman, Kazuaki Tanahashi, and Dairyu Michael Wenger all have contributed to our presentation of this remarkable work. There can be no doubt that understanding and integrating this text will have a profound effect on anyone's life and practice."
Order Dogen's Genjo Koan: Three Commentaries from Sanshinji: Click here for a printable order form
Bendowa 2 - CD set
These nine lectures were given by Okumura Roshi during the May Genzo-e at Sanshinji in 2007. It was the second of three such retreats dedicated to Dogen Zenji's Bendowa, one of the foundational texts outlining Dogen's understanding of zazen and Buddhadharma.
Following Bendowa 1, whose theme is Jijuyu Zanmai, Bendowa 2 is the first half of 18 questions and answers. Dogen Zenji picked the most essential and relevant questions for the practitioners and answered them himself.
9 lectures, 13 CDs
Purchase Bendowa 2 via PayPal or click here for a printable order form
Bendowa 3 - CD set
The third and final installment of Shohaku Okumura's commentary on the Bendowa chapter of Dogen Zenji's Shobogenzo features more than thirteen hours of teaching. Recorded during a Genzo-e Retreat at Sanshinji in Bloomington, IN, this contains Okumura Roshi's third set of lectures on "Shobogenzo Bendowa" (Talk On Wholehearted Practice of the Way). Zen Master Dogen's Bendowa is one of the primary texts on Zen practice. Transcending any particular school of Buddhism or religious belief, Dogen's profound and poetic writings are respected as a pinnacle of world spiritual literature.
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In my begging bowl