This coming Thursday evening, the 4th of February, at 7pm, at the Pacific Unitarian Church in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, our forming Blue Cliff Zen Sangha will bring Boundless Way Zen to the Los Angeles/Long Beach area.
Pacific Unitarian Church, 5621 Montemalaga Dr, Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA 90274
This evening we will start a monthly informal sit and dharma talk at the church, it will feature a talk by me on the subject Why Zen?
Then next Tuesday, the 9th of February, we will launch our weekly sitting group at 7pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach. This group will begin with a three-week class introducing Buddhism and Zen and Zen practice. On Tuesday the 1st of March this group will begin a regular schedule of liturgy, zazen, and dokusan.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach, 5450 E Atherton St, Long Beach, CA 90815
Our plan is that as soon as we have the participant base we will begin a regular retreat schedule. So, stay tuned on that one.
Now there are various groups with names similar to Boundless Way, so allow me to offer the briefest explanation of what we represent. We were formed by the gathering of teachers representing the Japanese-derived Soto lineage through Jiyu Kennett and Harada-Yasutani lineage through John Tarrant and the lineage of the Korean Son master, Seung Sahn.
Our guiding teachers council currently consists of four fully authorized teachers, Melissa Blacker, David Rynick, Josh Bartok and me. There are also a growing number of teachers who have received the first step toward full authorization, what we call Denkai transmission. We bind ourselves to each other in a covenant of mutuality which includes a clear and actionable ethics code.
We also have a long history of association with Unitarian Universalism, and as those who know me know, I have served as a UU minister for the past quarter of a century. There are obvious influences in our organization from that association with this old American liberal spiritual tradition.
The result is a genuinely American Zen, at least we believe so.
Our forms might be described as a relaxed Soto with some Rinzai flourishes.
Our emphasis is on home-based Zen practice, driven by a commitment to the disciplines of just sitting and the Harada Yasutani reformed koan curriculum. We make no distinction in practice between lay and ordained. Although we do transmit the Soto Zen Buddhist ordination model, emphasizing it as a ministry. While most of our teachers are ordained, not all are, as of today two of our Denkai teachers are lay people, and we consider it important that we honor lay practice all the way through authorization as a full teacher.
If this is interesting to you, I hope you will consider joining us. The monthly Thursday evening informal sit with Dharma talk may be the easiest way in for the complete beginner. And that is what we will be offering at the Pacific Unitarian Church this Thursday.
It would be nice to see you there!
If you want more information or would like to be added to our email list please write us at bluecliffzensangha@gmail.comz or call us at 562.624.5870
Oh, also, if you would be so kind, please “like” the Blue Cliff Zen Sangha on Facebook.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In