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Domyo, the Board and the Sangha of Bright Way Zen hold their annual members meeting, open to all.

In our lineage, your relationships in Sangha are considered one of your most fertile fields of practice. This includes relationships with individuals, your sense of yourself within the community, facing social anxiety and other karmic relationship issues, gradually building trust and letting yourself be seen and known, serving and learning to be compassionate and patient with others, etc.

Sejiki is our annual Soto Zen "Festival of the Hungry Ghosts." Mythologically, "hungry ghosts" are beings who have been reborn after death in a hungry ghost realm because of their past stingy, selfish, or grasping actions. We summon the hungry ghosts with a loud "quatz". Our chanting invites the ghosts to come and partake of all the delicious treats on the altar, and then we send them on their way again. Traditionally, Sejiki is also a time to remember people who have recently passed away, praying that the recently deceased have peace and are not in the hungry ghost realm.

Every so often, our teacher opens the floor to answer questions from Sangha.  We began with a guided meditation, then allowed whatever question or subject that arose to reflect upon and discuss.  Today's topics included: What would it feel like to be a Buddha?, the tension between detachment and non-separation, the weight of regret, the three bodies of Buddha, and when memories and emotions arise during Zazen.

Vow and Paths of Practice & the Equality of Lay and Ordained: From the beginning, Buddhism has included both lay (or householder) and ordained/monastic practitioners. Each path is very different, but in our lineage both paths are regarded as completely legitimate ones if you wish to accomplish the Buddha Way. We will talk about the tension created by the existence of multiple paths of vow, but also the benefits.

At our annual Continuous Practice retreats, we study excerpts from Dogen's Gyoji, which includes a section that seems to suggest that we abandon all worldly entanglements...but is this what is expected of us all?  Through formal practices, we can, either short term or long term, choose to become monks of body who enact literal renunciation. However, we also can continuously enact internal renunciation by being monks of mind, without leaving home. To be involved in our lives on the dusty householder path isn't easy, but it is just as valuable a choice to make.

Authentic transmission of the Dharma through the generations requires teachers – lay or ordained – who have verified the truth through their own direct experience, and have demonstrated to their teacher that they embody the training through time and proximity. You can't learn the essential matter of Zen from books, or even from wise peers. What is this about?

Using Tang-era Chan master Guifeng Zongmi's "Five Zens" framework, Anjo explores our relationship with zazen and the way it can change over time.

In this recording, Sangha holders Guzan and Jinryu discuss the important role of Sesshin in our Zen practice and invite fellow sangha members to speak to their experiences in Sesshin.

The Buddha knew it can be very difficult to forgive others, but taught that it could be done. Domyo offers that forgiveness begins with willingness, and has nothing to do with the other person.  It is ultimately, simply letting go - but, to find our way there, we may need to get creative.  We can turn to the teachings, as well as reflect on our own experience, for ideas as to what works best for each of us.

What Characterizes Our Dharma Cloud Lineage? An overview of twelve things that characterize our lineage. These are things we emphasize, value, or offer; we employ the "Dharma Rain" approach to everything, using the metaphor from the Lotus Sutra of the rain of Dharma (teaching/truth) falling equally on all the plants in the forest, from small herbs to giant trees, and each plant takes up just what it needs. Similarly, we honor each person's unique path without judgement, and invite people to participate in whatever aspects of our offerings they want or need: Zazen, Precepts, Sangha, Vow, Dharma Study, Chanting & Ritual, Retreat & Sesshin, the Reality of Awakening, Samadhi Power and Karma Relationship as the two sides of practice, Priest and Monastic Training as an option, honoring Lay Practice as a complete path, and honoring the Dharma Transmission Lineage.

In Fukanzazengi, Dogen says "Learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward." In this, he indicates the essential point of our practice: studying the self, and turning your awareness toward your own heart-mind. Redirecting our focus from external conditions to the essential internal work, we can then gain insight into how to deal with our own circumstances and Karmic entanglements. It all begins, and ends, with Right View.  Those in attendance share their own experiences of when a realignment in view made a positive difference.

In this Tuesday talk, Sangha member Tyler leads a Sangha discussion around our personal Zen path and our relationship to it over time. Using prompts from Dogen's Uji, as well as his experience reflecting on his Zen path while hiking a familiar trail in the woods, we examine our personal path and the path of our lineage and what "trail markers" we use and have developed to guide our understanding of this path.

The Zen Buddhist instructions to let go of ideas of right and wrong, true or false, good and evil, love and hate, and deluded or enlightened, might sound familiar to you - if you've read through everything in our chant book!  But what is this not "picking and choosing" that the Zen masters recommend?  Are we aiming toward becoming a Zen zombie? At a more subtle level, we can still be fully engaged in living our external lives while letting go of our internal commentaries, attachments, preferences, and judgements. A thoughtful discussion follows.

In this episode Domyo talks about the establishment of Westside Zen Circle in 2009, incorporation as Bright Way Zen, the evolution and mission of our Sangha. This talk includes pictures, as well as words from BWZ members who date back to the early days.