The Albuquerque Zen Center offers traditional Zen meditation practice and a community of support for all who wish to explore the Buddha’s teaching:
Eliminate Personal Confusion
Diminish Suffering
Cultivate Compassion in Daily Life
Eliminate Personal Confusion
Diminish Suffering
Cultivate Compassion in Daily Life
A Message From Our Guiding Teacher
Dear Dharma Friends,
As I pack up belongings and prepare to move from a rain forest to a high desert, I marvel at the wondrous nature of change. I feel honored and humbled to begin again with my new sangha in Albuquerque.
Whether the felt experience is bitter or sweet, anxious or excited, or all of the above, we can receive change as our opportunity to take a great leap of faith into Before-Thinking Mind. What is this? How interesting and alive it is! How bright and true.
As I pack up belongings and prepare to move from a rain forest to a high desert, I marvel at the wondrous nature of change. I feel honored and humbled to begin again with my new sangha in Albuquerque.
Whether the felt experience is bitter or sweet, anxious or excited, or all of the above, we can receive change as our opportunity to take a great leap of faith into Before-Thinking Mind. What is this? How interesting and alive it is! How bright and true.
Core to the original teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, change is one of the three aspects of reality. Because everything is constantly changing, nothing (no thing, no one) has a fixed nature. If we can experience and accept these first two qualities of reality (change and non-self), then it is
possible to experience and express nirvana. If we cannot, we experience and express suffering. In this way, our Zen practice is very straight-forward. Not complicated.
In a case from the Blue Cliff Record, a monk once asked the great Tang Dynasty master, Yun-men, about the nature of reality. Yun-men replied, “Body exposed in the golden wind.” What does this mean?
May we, all together, respond to this question with courage and curiosity. What is it like, now, to be open to the new, momentary world, just as it is? From that place, it will then be possible for all of us to be flexible, as is our inherent nature. Flexibility will give us the freedom to see clearly and if we can see clearly, we can create a vibrant sangha, community, and world.
I plan to arrive at my new practice home at the Albuquerque Zen Center by June 20. Please join us for practice! I look forward to meeting you, and building our practice home together.
Yours in the dharma,
Jeong Ji
Read less ...
In a case from the Blue Cliff Record, a monk once asked the great Tang Dynasty master, Yun-men, about the nature of reality. Yun-men replied, “Body exposed in the golden wind.” What does this mean?
May we, all together, respond to this question with courage and curiosity. What is it like, now, to be open to the new, momentary world, just as it is? From that place, it will then be possible for all of us to be flexible, as is our inherent nature. Flexibility will give us the freedom to see clearly and if we can see clearly, we can create a vibrant sangha, community, and world.
I plan to arrive at my new practice home at the Albuquerque Zen Center by June 20. Please join us for practice! I look forward to meeting you, and building our practice home together.
Yours in the dharma,
Jeong Ji
Read less ...