UNSUI

Archive for the ‘Schedule’ Category

Weekly Schedule

Wednesday, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm Evening Zazen

Doors will open 15 minutes prior to the scheduled meeting times.

During the summer we reduce our schedule to a once-a-week meeting on Wednesday nights. The reduced schedule lasts until mid-September, when the full schedule will resume. We will have one occasion for a longer sit this summer, which yet remains to be determined and which will be announced here as well as by an email update.

Have a great summer!

Open House

Once a month the Open House offers guests and newcomers a glimpse of formal Zen training. An abbreviated schedule is followed by refreshments and the opportunity to ask questions and chat with sangha members.

The dates for the summer Open House events are:

July 14, August 4, September 1, all occur during the regular Wednesday time. We start at 7:30 pm and end about 9:00 pm.

On May 2nd we will celebrate Buddhas Birthday with an early start for the Sunday schedule, 7 am. There will be sitting until 9 am, followed by a break with informal, self-serve silent breakfast. The schedule will resume with the usual 10 am sits, and end early at 11:15 am to prepare for the Hanamatsuri Ceremony, which will follow around 11:30 am.

Hanamatsuri (Flower Ceremony) commemorates the birth of the historical Buddha. It is usually held on or around April 8, but some temples delay it. Shuko and Dokuro had the pleasure to participate in Hanamatsuri at Rinzai-ji in Los Angeles on April 8. The CBA Hanamatsuri has been a tradition since Houn-an Dharma Cloud Hermitage started to attend the Zazen-kai.

The ceremony involves lots of flowers, petals on the altar, and the standing baby Buddha in a bowl of sweet tea. In the beginning the Abbot opens the ceremony with prostrations while everybody chants, then four celebrants circumambulate the altar and chant. After each line of the chant the baby Buddha is bathed with a scoop of sweet tea. When the circumambulation ends after the third repetition of the chant, everyone in the community is invited to bathe the Buddha. This is especially popular with the children, who love the color of the flowers and the bathing.

After the ceremony there will be an informal light lunch served. To offset the cost of the food and the flowers a donation for the participation in the ceremony and the early schedule is requested. No sign-up is required, but let us know that you will come so we can prepare enough food.

Please come by the Cambridge Buddhist Association on the evening of the first Wednesday of the month.  We will start around 7:30 pm. If you arrive earlier we can send one of the sangha members to give you a tour of the house; otherwise, please come by 7:30 pm so we can start on time!

Please join us for our first day-long retreat that will be held on Sunday, March 14, from 7 am till 5 pm.

The retreat will be a full day of formal practice, including two chanting services, a formal Mt. Baldy style lunch, a Dharma talk, lots of zazen, kinhin, and the opportunity for an informal meeting with a Zen teacher. In the morning there will be an informal, self-serve breakfast for those who participate in the early morning schedule. The early schedule will continue with the general Sunday morning schedule at 10 am for those who want to join later.

In any case, if you are planning to attend, please let us know so we can plan for the appropriate amount of food for the meals. The suggested donation for the full day (including two meals) is $40, for any part of the day including lunch $30, members receive a $5 discount. Nobody will be excluded due to financial reasons. Please see the vice-abbess or contact us to make arrangements if you experience financial hardship.

The full schedule will be announced in detail. Please remember that registration is required. You can use the contact form on this site or send mail to retreats-at-unsui.org.

Please come by the Cambridge Buddhist Association on the evening of the first Wednesday of the month.  We will start around 7:30 pm. If you arrive earlier we can send one of the sangha members to give you a tour of the house; otherwise, please come by 7:30 pm so we can start on time!

Shinge Rōshi (Roko Sherry Chayat) will be giving a Guest Teacher Talk on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at the Cambridge Buddhist Association. Shinge Rōshi practiced at the CBA under Myōon Chikō Maurine Stuart and later became a Dharma successor to Eidō Tai Shimano Rōshi. It is our privilege to welcome Shinge Rōshi back to her former place of studies and to hear her speak about a portion of the Rinzai Roku.

Please note that the CBA is subject to a strict 35 people limit of occupancy, which will be strictly enforced. Seating is on a first come basis. The talk is part of the regular Sunday schedule, which begins at 10 am. If you plan to come just for the talk, please arrive by 10:45 am. We are able to provide chairs for those who choose not to sit on the meditation cushions.

On Sundays parking on Sparks Street is not restricted, so please feel free to park close to the center. A donation of ten dollars is suggested.

Please join us on December 31, 2009 to say good bye to the old year and to welcome 2010.
We will have a three hour program from 6pm through 9pm at the Sparks Street Zendo. There will be some formal cleaning to help us realize to not leave traces, followed by zazen, a brief talk, and the communal ringing of the large bell. The program finishes at 9pm so you’ll have a chance to celebrate the ‘scientific’ new year with your friends and families.

Please come and get your turn ringing out the old and welcoming the new.

Our regular schedule consists of

• Monday, Wednesday 7:30pm – 9pm  (except Monday holidays)
• Tuesday morning 7am – 8am
• Sunday 10am – 12pm (please note the new start time)

Open House: The first Open House will be on January 6, 2010.

Please come by the Cambridge Buddhist Association on the evening of the first Wednesday between January and April. The dates are January 6, February and March 3, April 7, and May 5. We will start around 7:30 pm. If you arrive earlier we can send one of the sangha members to give you a tour of the house; otherwise, please come by 7:30 pm so we can start on time!

• January 6
• February 3
• March 3
• April 7
• May 5

Jodo-e is the celebration of Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment. We are holding this special event in the evening of Monday, December 7, 2009. While the celebrations are traditionally held early in the morning – to reflect the Buddha seeing the morning star on the eighth day of his sitting under the Bodhi tree -we will have the ceremony in the evening to accommodate the sangha.

Celebrating this event is a celebration of our innate ability to walk the same path the Buddha walked and the possibility to realize the same fundamental insights and be enlightened to the nature of the universe. Guests are welcome.