Soto Zen Practice in Vancouver, BC
Recent talks can be found below.
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You can browse all past talks by speaker, date, category, and program in our archive found HERE
How do we take in and then process the traumas of war, have our hearts broken over and over again, while abiding in the two truths, of relative and absolute? Myoshin Kate McCandless explores practices of patience and equanimity in the face of conflict, offered in the Avatamsaka Sutra.
Daikan John Green helps peel back layers from Book 16 and 20 of the Avatamsaka Sutra, revealing that Mind is like an artist able to paint the world…
"If people want to really know/ All Buddhas of all time,/ They should contemplate the nature of the cosmos:/ All is but mental construction". (Thomas Cleary, translation of chapter 20)
Myoshin Kate McCandless continues the exploration of Sudhana's story as he encounters a series of nine night goddesses. How can we open to, and be with, the fruitful and generative darkness?
Shinmon Michael Newton explores Chapter 17 of the Avatamsaka Sutra, which focuses on boddhicitta - the way-seeking mind that is awakening for the benefit of all. How do we relax the tight self-centered grip of our usual way of being, to step into the teachings of ease?
Daikan John Green gives a talk about the ten dedications of merit or ten transfers of merit and offers the practice of rapid sutra recitation.
Daikan John Green, our Practice Period shuso, presents two questions posed by the bodhisattva Manjushri, regarding how to bring the teachings of Indra's Net into everyday life.
Myoshin Kate McCandless discusses meetings with teachers on the Path of awakening. Sometimes those meetings are pivotal, sometimes disappointing, and sometimes we don't even recognize or appreciate them at the time. She shares excepts from the Gandharva Sutra (last chapter of the Avatamsaka) and the Korean poet Ko Un's retelling of the young boy Sudhana's pilgrimage.
Myoshin Kate McCandless explores "worlds within worlds", the ways our mutual well-being depends on the complex interconnection of relationships within Indra's net, drawing on the Avatamsaka Sutra and the microcosmos.
MRZC's Soto Zen practice emphasizes being fully awake to our own moment-to-moment experience, from our meditation cushion to every aspect of our everyday life. Join us!
Mountain Rain Zen Community's Wall street Zendo and Bright Stream Temple (Koryuji) are situated on the unceded, traditional and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Mountain Rain Zen Community
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Banner: Blue Mountains Walking by Bruce Shotoku Nielsen (2013)
