Deepen Your with Bright Way Zen Practice in 2023

Regular zazen practice – A great maintenance regime of zazen is 25-30 minutes, five days a week. How might that happen for you? The easiest way is to join Sangha – we have sitting 6 days a week. If you aren’t in or near Pacific Time Zone, though, look for online sitting with Zen groups closer to your time zone – there are lots of them! And frankly, doesn’t really matter who you sit with if it’s silent!

Individual zazen practice – This may be trickier, depending on who you are and what your life circumstances are. Some people have no problem with this (great!). If you do, however, consider make a vow to incorporate zazen into your life, asking what could you do, no problem? Five minutes a day, 5 days a week? If you think about it and it sounds kind of silly, that’s probably good! Give up judgment – what’s most important is you start to incorporate this habit of returning to zero. Consistency is more important than length of time. Once you get yourself to start, you should experience a positive feedback loop as zazen helps you feel more sane.

Exposure to the teachings – Attend Tuesday class, Sunday Dharma Talk, listen to Domyo’s Zen Studies podcast. It’s valuable to get plenty of exposure to our way of practice, our way of expressing the Dharma. Obviously, it’s fine and valuable to learn from all kinds of different sources, but if you want to go deeply, with us, then it’s helpful to become familiar with how we approach practice, the language we use to communicate the Dharma. If you’ve been around for a few years or more and attended lots, and some of the talks and classes are getting boring? Start to study how the Dharma is communicated; how would you communicate it? What seems to work to get through to people?

Sangha! Show up, be seen, speak up, participate. Get to know people, let yourself get to be known. Stay for tea, stay for breakout rooms. If Tuesday or Sunday discussions are too daunting, there are smaller “Sangha Practice” groups: Monday evening grief group, Thursday late afternoon/evening podcast discussion group, Saturday morning (Pacific Time) Sangha check-in, Monthly book group (3^rd Saturday of the month). (Check the BWZ Calendar; hover over the Sangha Practice Groups label in the left menu, and click the eye to show only those activities on the calendar.) Or, connect with other Sangha members and make arrangements to meet up or talk outside of BWZ events. Attend Sharing in Sangha – Saturday, Feb 11^th, 5-7pm Pacific Time! Just keep showing up, you will belong.

Precepts & Jukai – Once a year we study the Buddhist precepts, and then have a Jukai ceremony where people can choose to receive the precepts and formally become a Zen Buddhist. Click here to learn more. Sunday, June 4^th is our 2023 Jukai ceremony, precept study in on Tuesdays for 10 weeks leading up to that.

Term Student Program – Spring (Feb 25^th – May 27^th); Fall (Sept 23^rd – Dec 16^th). Click here to learn more.

Retreat – Retreat is an essential part of Zen practice if you want taste the deeper truth for yourself. Except for July & August, we have a retreat every month on third Saturday (some are term student retreats). Zazenkai (5:30am-9pm PT): Jan 28^th, June 24^th, Oct. 28^th. One-Day Retreats (7:30a-4:30pm, with Mondo): April 22^nd, Nov 25^th. Sesshin: March 20-24^th.

Deepening Vows Even Further – See Lay Vows at Bright Way Zen. If you have received Jukai, and have been an active BWZ member for a year, talk to Domyo if you are interested in the Zaike Tokudo process. Domyo[at]brightwayzen.org.

If you have been an active BWZ member for 3 or more years and have received Jukai, talk to Domyo about joining the Practice Intensive Group (Domyo[at]brightwayzen.org.)