Summer Practice Period Online - Awakened By The Ten Thousand Dharmas

Mountains and rivers right now are the actualization of the ancient Buddha way. Both mountains and rivers abide in their true form and actualize true virtue. Mountains and rivers transcend time and are alive in the eternal present. They are the original self and they are emancipation-realization. – Dogen Zenji

Join Great Vow Residents for our Summer Practice Intensive by increasing your commitment to dharma practice. The theme for our practice period Awakened by the Ten Thousand Dharmas, invites us into the Dharma of the natural world. The whole Earth and the Great Sky are speaking to us constantly. Teaching us to listen, to hear the joys and sorrows of the world, to see with sky eyes, dwell in the stability and presence of mountain mind and to embody tree-like rooted wisdom. We are inter-connected with all that lives. Let your Dharma practice be opened by the Ten Thousand Dharmas.

During this practice period we will study the Mountains and Waters Sutra by Dogen Zenji. Click here for a condensed version of the Sutra. Commentaries of the Mountains and Waters Sutra are available. We recommend Shohaku Okamura’s The Mountains and Waters Sutra: A Practitioner’s Guide to Dogen’s “Sansuikyo”.

Ways to Participate at Home:

• Read and Study the Mountains and Waters Sutra
• Join us for daily meditation at Great Vow via livestream every Tuesday – Sunday (click here for our livestream schedule) Great Vow LiveStream Page : http://bit.ly/gvzendo
• Join us for Body Practice Thursday evening from 7:30 – 8
• Classes on the Theme dates TBA
• Join us for Online retreats, visit the calendar page to register
• The Art of Coming Undone: Dharma Teachings on How to Fall Apart –July 10 – 11
• Transforming the Inner Critic Day Long Retreat — July 18
• Cultivating the Empty Field Sesshin — July 20 – 26
• A Day of Immersion in the Healing Powers of the Earth — August 1
• Being Mountain, Walking Mountain: Practices from the Mountains and Rivers Sutra — August 7 – 8
• Earth and Sky Sesshin — August 17 – 23

Commit to Participate in this Practice Period and you will be supported with

• Practice Instructions/Awareness Tasks on the theme will be sent out weekly
• Weekly on-line teas and practice discussions with Zen Teachers Jogen, Kisei and Bansho

• Committing to sit everyday for at least 20 minutes or increasing your daily or weekly sitting practice in a way that makes sense for your life.
• Spending time everyday outside, taking in the teachings of the natural world
• Doing at least one of the retreats offered during this time
• Attending one of the zoom practice nights
• Attending weekly teas and/or sanzen