Please save the dates and consider your participation level. Return here in a few days to complete your registration when all our details are finalized and the links are working properly. Thank you!
Painting by Sue Dirksin, Untitled, with artist's permission.
Ango, Spring Practice 2025
led by Robert Reese and Patricia Wolff
One of the foundational teachings of the Buddha is that renewing our purpose and intensifying our commitment for a short interval of time enlivens our practice and clarifies our intention. Ango, or Practice Period, means “Peaceful Dwelling,” and is a time to take advantage of the singular opportunity to work with our life in this way supported by the community and practice leaders. And, while there are several events offered during this time, the Ango occurs within each one of us — exactly where we are.
With this understanding, the Practice Period is created to sustain our efforts in the circumstances of our everyday life and work. To support this endeavor, we have created a series of options from which you can form an ongoing practice that cultivates and encourages you to go deeper into your own life. According to Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, to live skillful and ethically is an expression of our original nature, rather than rules or an abstract code of ethics. Studying the precepts and paramitas heightens awareness of how ethical behavior can inform and enliven our daily words and actions, assist us at work, and in our interactions with friends, family, and the wider world. In meeting the ethical challenges of modern life, the living skillfully offers a clear and engaged path of practice and show us what the heart and mind of Zen look like when immersed in the world.
A few of the offerings of Practice Period:
Practice Period Classes:
The Vimalakirti Sutra — “The bodhisattva vow is to be there with us and for us, not above us or beyond us.” — Dale S. Wright, Living Skillfully: Buddhist Philosophy of Life from the Vimalakirti Sutra
Skillful Means/Language of the Heart
These Sunday morning classes will explore two significant themes of living in the world: complete speech, as expressed in Language of the Heart, and skillful means (Upaya) as articulated through the Vimalakirti Sutra. Among the questions addressed: What does it mean to use complete speech and live skillfully; how do we enact intimacy in language? How is a perspective of contingency appropriate to everyday life and what does it mean to comprehend there is no permanent self?
Creating a personal zazen schedule
Integrating work and family as Practice
Attending Tuesday night Dharma talk(s)
Attending Half-Day Sitting(s)
Attending Sesshin in full or in part, February 27 - March 2 (other details available soon)
Teas, check-in and support with companions on the Way (TBA - likely to correspond with classes)
Meetings with practice leaders
Working with the Precepts, Paramitas, or Brahmaviharas
To register and participate, please complete the Commitment Form (soon to be linked to this button). Be sure to save a copy for yourself and add any questions you may have for the teachers.
Practice Period participation is by donation and no one is turned away for lack of funds.