High Quality Poison
ACZC Happenings, 11/11 - 11/17
Hello Sangha!
Just a quick one today while we grab our gear and head out for retreat this weekend. Our graphics team had their hand fulls trying to carry all their brushes and buckets up the mountain, but luckily they’d already done their duty this week with an epic cover illustration for the Diamond Sutra for the koan vid of the week (have we mentioned there’s an ACZC tik tok? Follow us on tik tok! (Or there’s weekly vids on instagram too)). And why yes, that is Thor’s Hammer, aka lightning itself, smashing into the indestructible Diamond of Wisdom to represent the “Vajra” in the Sanskrit title of the Diamond Sutra meaning both lightning like a sudden flash and diamond like indestructibility at the same time, thank you for noticing! We were pretty excited by that concisely congruous fusion of folk lore too.
Podcast will be back next week!
But hey, here’s a koan for the week:
Case in point:
A monk asked Qinlin, “What if a student goes straight there?”
Qinlin said, “There’s a dead snake blocking the highway. You should probably stay out of its way.”
The monk said, “What if I don’t stay out of its way?”
Qinlin said, “You die.”
The monk said, “And what if I stay out of its way?”
Qinlin said, “There’s no way to avoid it”
The monk said, “Ok then, what do I do?”
Qinlin said, “Oh! It’s gone now.”
The monk said, “Where’d it go?”
Qinlin said, “It’s in the weeds, you’ll never find it”
The monk said, “Venerable. You really need to be more careful.”
Qinlin clapped his hands and said, “Now that is some high quality poison.”
This Week in Zen! All times posted in Pacific time zone, all sessions hosted in person and on Zoom unless otherwise marked (email us for quick and easy Zoom access info):
Saturday - 11/12 at 10am
Sit & Talk w/ Emily Eslami - Our biggest day of the week! Two half hour rounds of zazen, and then Emily zooms the retreat in live to ACZC to see what’s happening up on the mountain. Come on over and join in!
Monday - 11/14 at 7:30pm
Sit & Talk w/ Gyokei Yokoyama - One half hour of zazen and then our favorite supporting teacher is back in the hot seat with some hot takes on some chill wisdom. See y’all there.
Wednesday - 11/15 at 7:30pm (Zoom Only)
Sit & Koan Discussion w/ Emily Eslami - This week! We return to our peer lead rotating facilitator model of Mahayana mayhem as Emily leads the crew to dish about some of the silliest and highest quality banter we’ve seen in awhile, aka, all these m.f. snakes in all these m.f. koans. What’s blocking our way? And why are or aren’t we more afraid? Let’s discuss!
Thursday - 11/16 at 7pm (Zoom Only)
Yoga & Zazen w/ Nina Snow - Nina returns to lead us in one hour of Slow Flow Zen Yoga perfectly designed to open up our hips and hearts to help make the following one half hour of zazen that much sweeter (and quite likely, a whole lot easier). Join us!
Friday - 11/17 at 8am
Chanting & Zen Breakfast - This week! We chant the Heart Sutra in English followed by Sengcan’s words so wise we had them carved on our hearts, The Trusting the Mind Inscription. Poetry for the ages! And then stick around for ACZC’s fresh hot take on traditional Zen breakfast (house milled multi grain porridge - now with persimmons! mmm…). A nutritious (and delicious) part of this complete practice. Let’s dig in.
Tuesday - Friday, 7am - 8am
Morning Sit - One simple hour of what we do best - just sitting. Optional five minute stretch break offered in the middle.
See y’all soon!
Love,
ACZC