Ongoing Events
5:15 Dharma Study and Discussion before Monday’s meditation, with Sarah Bender, Sensei: Shove Chapel Downstairs, from the north entrance. Topics are variable. Sometimes we discuss a reading; sometimes we discuss a question or observation someone brings. Come on down and check it out.
Zen Threads: Talk by Zac Chapman, Saturday, March 5th at 8:00 am following three periods of meditation. Discussion will follow, and we’ll close with our vows at 8:25, as usual. Once our nomadic Dharma hall is packed away, all who are interested will go to Wooglins for breakfast and more conversation.
Community Night: Monday, March 14. Following a period of meditation, we will have tea, cookies and conversation about Zen practice. What is practice? What nourishes you in your real life? What obstacles do you find appearing, and how do you meet them? What supports do you find valuable? It can be helpful to explore these things together.
Dharma Talks:
March 28 Andrew Palmer, Sensei
Where: 417 Prairie Rd. CSC 80909 Parking on the side off St. Vrain and in front of house. For more information contact: Jacque Minehart jqminehart@yahoo.com
FEBRUARY
The Refuge and Precepts study group continues:
Saturday, Feb. 20 at 11:00 AM. at Creek Bend Zendo: 7528 Jenkin Place, C.S. 80919
Touching the Earth Retreat
With Andrew Palmer, Sensei
Feb 26-27
Creek Bend Zendo
7528 Jenkin Pl, C.S. 80919
MARCH
The Refuge and Precepts study group:
Saturdays, Mar 5, 12, 19, 26 at 11:00 AM
at Creek Bend Zendo
7528 Jenkin Place, C.S. 80919
suggested donation: $10 per session
continuing April 5 and 9
Contact: sembender@gmail.com
Simple Sitting at The Woman’s Club
20 Mesa Rd.
10:A.M.-2:30 P.M.
APRIL
This Vast World Retreat
with Sarah Bender, in 2 parts
Part 1: a Simple Meditation Retreat, April 13-15
Meditation, individual meetings with a teacher, brief Dharma talks, with Sarah Bender, Sensei
When
Wednesday evening, Apr 13 through Friday afternoon, Apr 15
Wed., 7 to 9 PM;
Thu. and Fri., 9 AM to 5 PM.
Where
Creek Bend Zendo
Cost
$100 (Full-time registration only)
Financial assistance is available.
Registration/Information
Steve Milligan,
steve_milligan08@comcast.net.
719-633-5925
Part 2: An Integrative Retreat, April 15-17:
The world is vast and wide.
Why do you put on your robes
at the sound of the temple bell?
Includes silent meditation and mealtimes, and moving in and out of Dharma talk and conversation
When
Friday evening, Apr 15 through Sunday afternoon, Apr 17
Fri., 7 to 9 PM;
Sat., 9 AM to 9 PM;
Sun., 9 AM to 2 PM.
Where
Creek Bend Zendo
Cost
$150 (Full-time registration only)
Financial assistance is available.
This retreat will include a Ceremony of Taking Refuge in the Bodhisattva Way, with Sarah Bender and Andrew Palmer
Saturday evening, 7:00
All are welcome to join us for this ceremony. Please arrive by 6:30, to be seated and settle into meditation.
Registration/Information
Steve Milligan, steve_milligan08@comcast.net.
719-633-5925
Vimalakirti Sutra Study Series with Sarah Bender
Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 PM
April 26; May 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31; June 7, 14
7528 Jenkin Place
Requested donation: $10/ class
contact: sembender@gmail.com
We’ve received permission to offer a Vimalakirti Sutra Study Group using Joan Sutherland, Roshi’s very rich series of talks. We’ll individually listen to the week’s talk before each class, and then have the class time for meditation with, and conversation around, the talk. The requested donation of $10/class will go to Cloud Dragon Dharma Works to support Joan’s work.
Here’s something Joan says about the sutra:
The theme of The Sutra as Spoken by Vimalakirti is nonduality, or as the Chinese say with typical pungency, not two. It’s about not two in a lot of different ways. Vimalakirti lived a life of a householder but was also deeply committed to his spiritual practice, and didn’t see those two things as different. He was a great bodhisattva, and he was sick. And this same theme of not two appeared over the next 1500 years in China, embodied in many different ways.
In the koan tradition, when presented with an apparent duality, we talk about resolving it not by choosing one or the other, A or B, but by looking for C, for that new thing that can contain and embrace A and B and create something new. Here, Vimalakirti himself is C, the reconciliation of the opposites; and so he is a great person to speak to us.
Opportunities for Engagement
In the wider community (not sponsored by SMS)
Earthholders
Saturday, March 19, 9:30
Quaker House–950 E. Cimmaron
Some people from the various Colorado Springs Buddhist Sanghas are getting together to bring practice and action together, to effect change in our community. If you are interested in deep practice and making environmental and social change, join us.
Click here for more details
P.S. Please bring your own cup…tea, coffee, and hot water provided.
Awakening the Heart Mind & Body Class
8 Thursdays, 5:30-7:30pm, January 21st – March 10th with Saturday Daylong 9am-2pm, February 27th.
Suggested Donation for the 8 Meetings and Daylong: $105
TO REGISTER or For A Scholarship: recktenwaldkaren@gmail.com
For more information, select this link
and, looking way ahead to
JUNE:
Sixteen Bodhisattvas Meditation Retreat
Our first Open Source Maha Sangha Retreat is just over four months away : June 19-25, 2016. Excitement and energy are building as we look forward to this gathering. We hope you have saved the dates and are planning to join us.
The Open Source is the network of communities in the tradition of Joan Sutherland, Roshi and the Pacific Zen School. This week long meditation retreat will be co-led by our four Open Source teachers: Sarah Bender, Tenney Nathanson, Andrew Palmer and Megan Rundel.
With a full week’s retreat, there will be plenty of time for silent meditation, community koan meditation, Dharma talks, individual and collective conversation, and hanging out on the sacred ground of a young, rocky mountain at the spine of our continent.
Our setting is the lovely Catamount Center, near Colorado Springs. It’s a beautiful spot on the flanks of Pike’s Peak, with basic but pleasant lodging, tenting area, great vegetarian food, a Dharma Hall (and by then there will be a big yurt), a lake with a barrel sauna, a tipi, and lots and lots of space with trails. It’s a bit high, at 9,500 feet, but there will be little golf carts to help anyone who needs a boost getting around.
http://www.catamountcenter.org/geographic-setting/facilities
Full Time Options
$750 – Double Room
$1,110 – Single Room
$540 – Tent Camping
Part Time Options
$125 per day (including overnight)
$75 per day (no overnight)
Some scholarship assistance will be available.
Preparations for this retreat are underway and registration is now open. Whether you are certain you will attend or simply thinking about it, please get in touch to let us know.
For more information and to register, please contact Steve Milligan –steve_milligan08@comcast.net
“In the old days there were sixteen bodhisattvas. When it was time to bathe they got into the bath together. They suddenly realized the cause of water and said, ‘This subtle touch releases the brightness. We have become the sons and daughters of the Buddha.'”