Spiritual Anarchy
⚡️ACZC Happenings, 2/1 - 2/7⚡️
“Are we a non dual school? Yes, we are a non dual school, which means that you doing zazen wrong has to be a perfect part of everything being completely right. Work that out, and you’ve got the whole thing.” - Dave Cuomo
Hello Sangha!
Sometimes you stand up at the end of zazen with what you think is a perfectly cleverly idea in your head, so you go to the office and sit down to draw a willow tree being bent over backwards by gusts of wind into the shape of an enzo, and then spend more of your work day then you probably should have translating and learning to write the phrase “In a world of shifting wind, bend not to break” in Japanese. And then you look up at the clock and realize it’s past time to send the newsletter out and you’re staring at a fairly incomprehensible image next to some incomprehensible scrawl (to most of your readers anyway), and what can you do? Roll it with it! As the image so helpfully, if incomprehensibly, suggests.
But speaking of taking the time to find the liberation waiting just beyond the limitations of our minds, tomorrow (2/1) is the first Saturday of the month, which means it’s our Half Day Sit! Featuring our new and improved half day sit schedule which goes like this (as always feel free to come and go as you like):
6:30 - 7:00am………………Silent Coffee & Open Zendo (Optional)
7:00 - 8:10am………………Zazen & Kinhin
8:10 - 8:30am………………Chanting Service & Well Being Dedication
8:40 - 9:10am…………..…Zen Breakfast
9:10 - 9:50am………..……Cleaning & Work Practice
10:05 - 11:15am….……..Zazen & Kinhin
11:15 - 12:15pm………...Dharma Talk w/ Dave
And if anyone (who you know personally) is sick or otherwise in need of good health well wishes, you can add their names to the form you see here (bottom of the page) and we’ll be happy to include them in this month’s well being dedication (chanting service is held at the new time of 8:10am).
Also! This week we have a special treat for you. This Monday evening (2/3, 7:30pm) we have a very special guest joining us to give the talk - our good friend Genjo, who Dave spent 3 months at the monastery sleeping, sitting, and complaining next to, and who a few of you had the pleasure of meeting while visiting their last Spring, will be stopping by to regale us with his own tales of Zen monastic mayhem and the life and practice in North Carolina that led him there. And we would love to show him a warm sangha welcome, so come on out and say hello!
But speaking of all the ways the promises of punk do and don’t live up to their best intentions and worst inclinations, this week on the podcast we are very pleased to bring you Spiritual Anarchy w/ Dave Cuomo. Dave tries to find some harmony between the power of rigid forms and the chaos of personal liberation, with mixed results, and offers up a practical guide to finding fundamental self worth along the way. Is conforming to tradition a process of maturity, or a great way to stamp out the precious life and humanity from the things we love? Can Zen be an antidote to our corporate consumer culture? Can Dave properly use the word “noumenon” in a sentence without sounding pretentious? Find out here!
Up now at http://aczc.org/aczcpodcast or on all your favorite podcast platforms.
And hey, here’s some ZenLit™ for us to dig into this week:
“Let’s say a guest stops at an inn for the night. The next day, he packs up and leaves. But if he were the host of the inn, he wouldn’t leave. Thinking of this guest, the one who comes and goes, and the host, the one who stays, I understood what a guest is. A guest is impermanence.
Or let’s say the morning sky clears after rain. Then a ray of light from the rising sun shines through a crack in the door onto a speck of dust floating in the air. The dust moves, but the air is still. Thinking about this dust which moves, and as it moves, blocks the air; and thinking about the air, which stays still — I understood what dust is. Dust is movement and change.”
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 - 2/1, 7am - 12:30pm
Half Day Sit - New Schedule for Half Day Sits this year! (See above…). Our biggest day of the month - join us for a full Half day of Zen starting with morning zazen, including a chanting service, Zen breakfast, a little light work practice, followed by our standard 10am format of two rounds of zazen and a discussion with your friendly caretaker Dave. As always feel free to join for as much or as little of the morning as you like.
Monday - 2/3, 7:30pm - 9pm
Sit & Discussion w/ Genjo - One half hour of sweet sweet zazen and then an old priest friend from Toshoji monastery stops by to regale us with stories of his life and practice in North Carolina, and why monastic life is awesome actually (maybe… we’ll let him tell it however he likes). Come on out and let’s give him a warm sangha welcome!
Wednesday - 2/5, 7:30pm - 9pm
Sit & ZenLit Night - Are we the masters of our house, merely a passing guest, or a glint of light on a speck of dust swirling around an empty room? Is that not enough poetry to make our Zen hearts swoon? Let’s discuss.
Thursday - 2/6, 7:30pm - 8:40pm
Evening Zazen - Join us for two rounds of no frills evening zazen to wind down your day and your week. Good sit with good friends! See y’all there.
Friday - 2/7, 8am
Morning Chanting Service - This week! We chant the Heart Sutra in English and then Hongzh & Dogen’s multi centenary epic exquisite corpse - The Zazenshin, aka Guidance for Zazen. Poetry for the ages! Come on out and lend us your voice.
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