Please join Mountain Rain Zen Community and Calgary Soto Zen in a joint month-long practice intensive.
As we look towards the future and imagine a post-pandemic life, while still living daily lives in the midst of pandemic conditions, core questions arise: about life and death, sickness and health, right and wrong, self and other. Questions about making difficult choices, about how we manifest our practice in our daily lives. These are what we’re calling life koans. During this practice intensive we will investigate how the teaching stories and dialogues of the classical Zen koan tradition support practicing with our personal and collective life questions.
The practice intensive will begin the weekend of April 24-25 and end May 29-30. with Wednesday evenings will be a dharma seminar format, with an extended schedule to accommodate participants in both time zones. Wednesday evenings will be a dharma seminar format, with an extended schedule to accommodate participants in both time zones. It will also include dharma talks each week during Mountain Rain's regular Sunday practice, as well as morning practice with both sanghas.
Practice Intensive Schedule: Click here for MRZC Zoom links.
Saturday, April 24 7:00-11:10 PT 8:00-12:30 MT Day retreat hosted by Calgary Soto Zen
Sundays, April 25-May 31 10:00-12:15 (PT) hosted by MRZC
Wednesdays April 28-May 26 co-hosted by CSZ and MRZC (use regular MRZC Zoom link: Click here)
Wednesday Schedule in Pacific Time, one hour later Mountain Time
6:00: zazen
6:25 kinhin
6:35 zazen
7:00 service: Metta Sutta
7:10 teacher talk followed by small group talking circles
8:00 kinhin
8:10 zazen
8:40 Pali refuges
8:45 greetings and announcements
Saturday May 30 7:00-11:10 PT 8:00-12:30 MT Day retreat hosted by Calgary Soto Zen Zoom link will be posted.
Monday-Friday 7:00 PT morning zazen with MRZC
Monday-Friday 7:00 MT morning zazen with CSZ
Participation in practice intensive events is flexible, so please attend in whatever way best supports your practice, but it is good to set your intention in advance.
No formal registration is required, but to help you set your intentions we invite you to fill our this form, which will go to the teachers. This will help us to get a sense of what your life koans are!
Spring Intensive Engaged Practice Initiative
Concurrently with the practice intensive, our Engaged Buddhist Practice group. invites the sangha to participate in to participate in a one month Call To Action to consider, observe, and become more aware of our personal relationship to our consumption and use of plastic, particularly single use plastic. Please join us for a film showing of The Story of Plastic to launch this initiative, on Earth Day, Aprill 22. Click here for details.
