MZMC will host an online council process meeting on Monday, March 15, from 7 – 8 p.m.
We invite you to join this opportunity to practice deep listening and wholehearted speech, to build community and connection. Council process is a way of deep sharing in which participants speak, one at a time, from the heart. The intentions of council are speaking from the heart, listening from the heart, lean expression, speaking out, spontaneity, and confidentiality. The tenets of council are not knowing, bearing witness, and appropriate action.
Although council is sometimes used as part of a decision-making process, this particular council will focus on the practice of providing one's pronouns (e.g. she/her, he/him, they/them) when introducing oneself, which is occurring more frequently in many settings, including at MZMC. The question will be: "How do you feel when people share their pronouns and when you are in a group where no one does?"
Please join the meeting on time because it is not possible to join council once it has begun. This council will be facilitated by Ted O'Toole and Evan Britzius.
We're creating this gathering in response to recent interest from members of the MZMC LGBTQ+ community. If you are interested in connecting and sharing experiences with other LGBTQ+ folks engaged in Zen practice, please contact the office by Thursday March 25.
MZMC senior teacher Ben Connelly, who is bisexual, will facilitate the gathering.
Online Guest Teacher Osho Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Accessing Peace In the Midst of Chaos
Public Talk Friday via Zoom May 14, 7 – 9 pm No registration necessary. Offered by donation. Zoom link will be posted here soon.
We are living with the coronavirus pandemic. We are also living with a pandemic of grief and hatred underlining the virus. Every morning we wake up from our dreamworld, after a minute we realize that something has died. That the world is not as we knew it. There may be no words, just this sinking feeling in the gut that life itself is being threatened by the very act of breathing. And yet we must continue to breathe, to live despite heavy loss and conflict. How do we survive and thrive? How do we find a deep peace?
In this talk and retreat we will explore the things that threaten our lives—personally and collectively. We will look at what it means to live in the midst of chaos, disruption, and the deterioration of what we once knew. And, through sitting meditation, poetry, dharma talks, and discussion we will engage what is difficult, holding it in healing and liberating ways.
Osho Zenju Earthlyn Manuel is an ordained Zen priest and the dharma heir of Buddha and the late Zenkei Blanche Hartman in the Shunryu Suzuki Roshi lineage. She is author of:
The Deepest Peace: Contemplations From A Season of Stillness
Sanctuary: A Meditation on Home, Homelessness, and Belonging
The Way of Tenderness: Awakening Through Race, Sexuality and Gender
Tell Me Something About Buddhism.
Learn more about Osho Zenju Earthlyn Manuel at zenju.org