Rohatsu sesshin - Living in Indra's Net: the Avatamsaka Sutra and Beyond (1)
/Shinmon Michael Newton opens Rohatsu sesshin with an introduction to Samantabhadra's Ten Vows and an exploration of bowing practice.
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Living in Indra's Net - Practice Period 2024 (14)
/We all, at some point in life, become aware of a longing that is not satisfied by any material thing or distraction or accomplishment. Shinmon Michael Newton explores the Avatamsaka Sutra’s list of 10 demons or personal obstacles met when walking this path of zazen.
Living in Indra's Net - Practice Period 2024 (13)
/Myoshin Kate McCandless shares more of Sudhana’s pilgrimage, the companions he meets along the way, including people, animals, and plants. Each has teaching to offer, not always easy to receive. All these stories help humanize Sudhana and make him relatable, more than just allegorical.
Living in Indra's Net - Practice Period 2024 (12)
/Shinmon Michael Newton explores chapter 11 of the Avatamsaka Sutra, in which there are 140 verses encouraging mindfulness in daily life.
Living in Indra's Net - Practice Period 2024 (11)
/Shinmon Michael Newton explores how the skillful use of imagination can help us open to our Buddha nature.
Living in Indra's Net - Practice Period 2024 (10)
/Daikan John Green offers images and metaphors for the infinite interconnections and feedback loops of Indra’s Net, such as quantum entanglement or the root structure of a redwood tree. How can we practice with these infinities when we are only finite humans?
Living in Indra's Net - Practice Period 2024 (9)
/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.
Living in Indra's Net - Practice Period 2024 (8)
/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)
