Most of the 2012 schedule of Rinzai Zen Community events, including sesshin sponsored by Daiyuzenji and Korinji, has been posted on the RZC site here. Registration for the April 12-15 sesshin is also now open, and can be found here.
A number of important upcoming events are shown on the calendar. Instructional seminars in Chicago dealing with our Internal Training curriculum, and specifically with Hojo, have been scheduled. You'll also find meeting dates for the Chicago-area practice groups. Please take a look, and we hope to see our distant members at a sesshin or other event very soon!
January 18, 2012
December 16, 2011
The Rinzai Zen Community
For some time now we've been using the name "Rinzai Zen Community" for the network of practice groups and practitioners anchored by Korinji and Daiyuzenji. Now RZC has its own site: http://www.rinzaizen.org.
While the Daiyuzenji and Korinji sites will remain focused on the events and doings of each temple, the RZC site is evolving to be the main resource for our sangha's members. A password-protected page provides access to various practice aids- instructional videos, downloadable docs, a "Contact a Teacher" function, and so on - for our members only. Our first batch of videos, including clips instructing basic zazen and breathing, will be posted shortly.
If you currently donate regularly to Daiyuzenji, Korinji or one of our practice groups, congratulations: you're already an RZC member. Go to the RZC site, click on "Become a Member", fill out the information and RZC will register you.
If you're not currently a member please take a look at the RZC site. We're excited to see our community grow and hope that RZC will serve to open our practice to many, many others...distant as well as near.
While the Daiyuzenji and Korinji sites will remain focused on the events and doings of each temple, the RZC site is evolving to be the main resource for our sangha's members. A password-protected page provides access to various practice aids- instructional videos, downloadable docs, a "Contact a Teacher" function, and so on - for our members only. Our first batch of videos, including clips instructing basic zazen and breathing, will be posted shortly.
If you currently donate regularly to Daiyuzenji, Korinji or one of our practice groups, congratulations: you're already an RZC member. Go to the RZC site, click on "Become a Member", fill out the information and RZC will register you.
If you're not currently a member please take a look at the RZC site. We're excited to see our community grow and hope that RZC will serve to open our practice to many, many others...distant as well as near.
December 13, 2011
Korinji stove, doors
Two shots from our last work weekend in November. Greg Dekker, Jim Mills and myself were on site at Korinji to accomplish several things: high on our list were a final battening down of the work site before winter and some cleanup following a violent windstorm which had dropped some trees across the property. But more exciting: our zendo wood burning stove and our Amish-built main doors were all ready to install.
The stove is rated to heat up to 2500 square feet...more than enough for this space. The latest wood burners are small and extremely efficient. It barely fills one corner of the main space but puts out a surprising amount of heat. With insulation and ceiling fans we'll be in good shape. Our doors are 8' red oak, crafted by Abe Bontrager from LaValle, WI. Finished locally, they came out beautifully. Here is a view of the mounted doors from the inside. It was too dark by the time we were finished to get many good outside shots, but we'll remedy that soon.
We're in the midst of setting next year's work schedule at Korinji and will announce it shortly.
December 5, 2011
Rohatsu lecture in Chicago
The Japanese word Rohatsu literally means the 8th day of the 12th month. This day is the one traditionally viewed as marking the attainment of enlightenment by Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha. Across the Zen world, practitioners are undertaking a period of particularly rigorous training this week to commemorate this event. It culminates with the rising of the morning star on the 8th.
A public Zen lecture will be offered at Daiyuzenji temple in Chicago on the evening of the 8th (this Thursday) by So'zan Miller Roshi, the Daiyuzenji abbot. Please join us! Start time is 7:15pm, and the suggested donation is $10. Tea will be served.
If you'd like to attend, please RSVP to: info@daiyuzenji.org.
A public Zen lecture will be offered at Daiyuzenji temple in Chicago on the evening of the 8th (this Thursday) by So'zan Miller Roshi, the Daiyuzenji abbot. Please join us! Start time is 7:15pm, and the suggested donation is $10. Tea will be served.
If you'd like to attend, please RSVP to: info@daiyuzenji.org.
November 7, 2011
Zen practice group in Ann Arbor
The Rinzai Zen Community welcomes the practice group at Huron Valley Aikikai in Ann Arbor, Michigan under the leadership of Tozan (Rodger) Park Sensei.
Tozan is a long-time Zen practitioner and a good friend. He's also been very supportive of our work at Korinji - you'll see him in quite a few of the work crew photos. If you'd like a place to practice in Ann Arbor please check them out.
Tozan is a long-time Zen practitioner and a good friend. He's also been very supportive of our work at Korinji - you'll see him in quite a few of the work crew photos. If you'd like a place to practice in Ann Arbor please check them out.
October 25, 2011
Zen Community of Cincinnati
We're pleased to welcome a new practice group in Ohio associated with our Rinzai Zen Community: the Zen Community of Cincinnati. The group meets at Aikido of Cincinnati, www.aikidocincy.com. For more information please contact Mr. Mark Agerton through that site.
An autumn week at Korinji
We've just returned from our end-of-year work week at Korinji. In glorious autumn weather and with a whirlwind of activity the zendo exterior was essentially completed: the walls are now clad with stucco siding trimmed with cedar, while the cupola is entirely finished in cedar.
Our professional crew managed by Jim Mills, and our volunteers managed by Greg Dekker, somehow accomplished everything we set out to do. In addition to the progress on our building we also continued our development of the grounds: the trail system has been expanded, the stone and earthen ramps bracketing our small bridge have settled nicely, and the rocks lining the paths are planting themselves more deeply and growing thick coats of green moss. We harvested several thick hardwood trunks; though they were standing dead and dry, they're rock-solid and heavy as iron (we believe them to be hophornbeam). These will be the pillars anchoring our future entrance gate. And the process of clearing our future house site, overgrown with rose, buckthorn and burdock, has begun.
Some small but significant jobs were completed on the sidelines as well. Two umpan (metal gongs), cut from 1/2" steel and donated to us, now serve to call work crews to lunch. One of them has been hung temporarily from our zendo porch where it is forming a fine patina of red rust. We'll let that one continue to age over the winter. The second has been finished differently, with a hand-peened rim and dark bluing. The striker was made from wood found on the land.We expect to have one more work weekend at Korinji in November (dates TBA). Our 8' tall red oak doors hand-crafted by Abe Bontrager, a woodworker from the local Amish community, are completed and now getting stained and sealed locally. We also have our wood-burning stove on the way. We hope in November to have both of these installed....and of course you will all be welcome to help.
To see some more photos from the week (including our 8' red oak doors) please go here.
October 3, 2011
Sesshin next week
Fall sesshin, hosted jointly with Daiyuzenji temple in Chicago, is next week (October 6-9)! This sesshin will be held at House-in-the-Wood, a retreat center on Lake Delavan in Wisconsin. It's a beautiful place and the site of many of our sesshin in the past. For more information (including directions and an online donation link) please see Daiyuzenji's registration page: http://daiyuzenji.org/SesshinD
September 14, 2011
Upcoming events
Fall promises to be as busy as ever. The next Korinji work weekend is this coming Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17-18. Fall Sesshin is set for Oct. 6-9. Visits by Meido Roshi to various Chicago-area practice groups are scheduled through December. And the end-of-year work week at Korinji will be held Oct. 17-22 with our annual party on the 22nd.
Stay up to date and in touch! To join the Korinji email list go to http://www.korinji.org/
To see the Korinji general events calendar for USA and Europe go to http://www.korinji.org/Calendar.html
For specifically Chicago-area events and practice group meetings go to the Chicago Zen Community site here: http://www.chicagozencommunity.org/
Please help us spread the word about Korinji and the Rinzai Zen Community! Forward these links to your email lists, post them on your Facebook page and in general talk us up! Korinji is a community of practitioners, not just a place - and we welcome anyone to join us on the path of Zen...
Stay up to date and in touch! To join the Korinji email list go to http://www.korinji.org/
To see the Korinji general events calendar for USA and Europe go to http://www.korinji.org/Calendar.html
For specifically Chicago-area events and practice group meetings go to the Chicago Zen Community site here: http://www.chicagozencommunity.org/
Please help us spread the word about Korinji and the Rinzai Zen Community! Forward these links to your email lists, post them on your Facebook page and in general talk us up! Korinji is a community of practitioners, not just a place - and we welcome anyone to join us on the path of Zen...
September 6, 2011
August training and travels...
I'm happy to report to all our friends and to the members of Korinji's Rinzai Zen Community on the activities of the past month. Since the beginning of August, two sesshin and two important training seminars have taken place.
The beginning of August saw our annual long sesshin, jointly sponsored by Daiyuzenji in Chicago and Korinji. The group this time around consisted mostly of experienced students, and so the sesshin was smooth and marked by a quiet depth that was perhaps also reinforced by the warm, humid weather. Once again Daiyuzenji rented Camp Dewan in south-central Wisconsin as the sesshin venue...after so many sesshin there, the place seems to fit us like a glove (with the Korinji zendo nearing completion, however, it's wonderful that we can finally envision a day when renting such a place will be unnecessary).
Daiyuzenji Abbot So'zan Miller Roshi, Soen Linxweiler Roshi (who also served as tenzo) and myself were all present; James Traywick was shika and Alex Shakar lent his energy as jikijitsu.
Immediately following sesshin, I flew to Poland to instruct at an annual 8-day summer training camp there hosted by Tomasz Krzyzanowski Sensei's AAI-Polska, a large Aikido organization. I was pleased to instruct not only a number of martial art classes but also zazen each morning. It was encouraging to see 80-odd students - many of them first-time meditators - solidly sitting at the beginning of each day. Even when the exhaustion of the week's training schedule began to take its toll, zazen attendance did not drop off. It's my hope that this bodes well for future Zen training activities there.
This year and in past years the Poland event has drawn martial artists and teachers from Poland, Russia, Latvia, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Germany and Sweden. Of course this year I was excited to show pictures of our progress at Korinji to many of the students, and in general to spread the word about our community. I do anticipate that when Korinji is complete some of the first resident trainees may well come from among this group of international friends.
After that event I had a week free before the start of another sesshin in Germany. During this time a few of us toured by car from the Baltic Sea, south through Poland into Slovakia and Hungary, and then through Transylvania in Romania to the Black Sea at Constanta. It was an exhausting but fascinating journey through parts of Europe I'd never seen. Then in Bucharest, I tracked down an old training friend from many years ago named George Raicu. George had spent some time in 1990 in Chicago at the training hall of our late teacher, Toyoda Rokoji. Though it's been twenty years since we last met, the bonds of our time living and training together still held. He (and Romania) have been through a lot in the decades since his return from Chicago, and George has been instrumental in spreading traditional Japanese martial arts there. Toyoda Sensei would be pleased, I'm sure. We had a wonderful, nostalgic meeting together which may also blossom into further activity.
Finally, in the last week of August I flew from Romania to Salzburg, Austria, and was driven from there over the border into the town of Laufen. Our annual European sesshin is held in Bavaria in a renovated 16th-century Capuchin monastery which, though now hosting many kinds of events, still holds something of its originally rigorous, quiet atmosphere. The sesshin organizers are Anselm Stahl and Raymond Schroder, who both have many years of Zen, martial arts and bodywork training. The attendees are largely drawn from the community of bodyworkers they've worked to develop in Europe. It is certainly a pleasure to practice with such a focused and physically "present" group of trainees.
I was particularly impressed to see many of the students taking advantage of the free-sitting periods, not only in the zendo but on the grounds of the old monastery and even in the small cemetery where the simple stones of the monk's graves stand. One particular area a few of us used for for walking meditation, in the forested rear of the compound along an old wall into which are set faded paintings of the stations of the cross, remains strongly in my memory. I feel very good that our group's usage of this old monastery is, in some small way, in union with the spirit of those contemplative monks who lived, trained and died there over several centuries.
After a long journey back from Europe and a few days rest, we then held the second of this year's Internal Training seminars in Chicago. The event was scheduled for Labor Day weekend and so I didn't expect the type of attendance we'd had earlier in the year. But still, 14 enthusiastic trainees came, including a few from a Soto practice group in the Champaign/Urbana area of Illinois. After the events and travel of the previous weeks, it was wonderful to spend two days practicing tanden kokyuho, Hakuin's naikan and nanso exercises, and our Do-in Ho breathing, movement and self-massage practices. Physically and energetically it was a perfect way to end what's been a whirlwind month of travel, training and teaching.
I'm grateful to everyone who organized all of these events. And I'm especially grateful to Enmei Hunter and our other Korinji board members and friends whose work in my absence makes it possible for me to travel without worry. Greg Dekker and Jim Mills also have kept the ball rolling on construction at Korinji, and we're now set for our next work weekends. Before the end of October our zendo's exterior will be completed.
Everyone here in Chicago did such a wonderful job holding the fort, in fact, that I now feeel very comfortable leaving again when necessary!
- Meido
The beginning of August saw our annual long sesshin, jointly sponsored by Daiyuzenji in Chicago and Korinji. The group this time around consisted mostly of experienced students, and so the sesshin was smooth and marked by a quiet depth that was perhaps also reinforced by the warm, humid weather. Once again Daiyuzenji rented Camp Dewan in south-central Wisconsin as the sesshin venue...after so many sesshin there, the place seems to fit us like a glove (with the Korinji zendo nearing completion, however, it's wonderful that we can finally envision a day when renting such a place will be unnecessary).
Daiyuzenji Abbot So'zan Miller Roshi, Soen Linxweiler Roshi (who also served as tenzo) and myself were all present; James Traywick was shika and Alex Shakar lent his energy as jikijitsu.
Immediately following sesshin, I flew to Poland to instruct at an annual 8-day summer training camp there hosted by Tomasz Krzyzanowski Sensei's AAI-Polska, a large Aikido organization. I was pleased to instruct not only a number of martial art classes but also zazen each morning. It was encouraging to see 80-odd students - many of them first-time meditators - solidly sitting at the beginning of each day. Even when the exhaustion of the week's training schedule began to take its toll, zazen attendance did not drop off. It's my hope that this bodes well for future Zen training activities there.
This year and in past years the Poland event has drawn martial artists and teachers from Poland, Russia, Latvia, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Germany and Sweden. Of course this year I was excited to show pictures of our progress at Korinji to many of the students, and in general to spread the word about our community. I do anticipate that when Korinji is complete some of the first resident trainees may well come from among this group of international friends.
After that event I had a week free before the start of another sesshin in Germany. During this time a few of us toured by car from the Baltic Sea, south through Poland into Slovakia and Hungary, and then through Transylvania in Romania to the Black Sea at Constanta. It was an exhausting but fascinating journey through parts of Europe I'd never seen. Then in Bucharest, I tracked down an old training friend from many years ago named George Raicu. George had spent some time in 1990 in Chicago at the training hall of our late teacher, Toyoda Rokoji. Though it's been twenty years since we last met, the bonds of our time living and training together still held. He (and Romania) have been through a lot in the decades since his return from Chicago, and George has been instrumental in spreading traditional Japanese martial arts there. Toyoda Sensei would be pleased, I'm sure. We had a wonderful, nostalgic meeting together which may also blossom into further activity.
Finally, in the last week of August I flew from Romania to Salzburg, Austria, and was driven from there over the border into the town of Laufen. Our annual European sesshin is held in Bavaria in a renovated 16th-century Capuchin monastery which, though now hosting many kinds of events, still holds something of its originally rigorous, quiet atmosphere. The sesshin organizers are Anselm Stahl and Raymond Schroder, who both have many years of Zen, martial arts and bodywork training. The attendees are largely drawn from the community of bodyworkers they've worked to develop in Europe. It is certainly a pleasure to practice with such a focused and physically "present" group of trainees.
I was particularly impressed to see many of the students taking advantage of the free-sitting periods, not only in the zendo but on the grounds of the old monastery and even in the small cemetery where the simple stones of the monk's graves stand. One particular area a few of us used for for walking meditation, in the forested rear of the compound along an old wall into which are set faded paintings of the stations of the cross, remains strongly in my memory. I feel very good that our group's usage of this old monastery is, in some small way, in union with the spirit of those contemplative monks who lived, trained and died there over several centuries.
After a long journey back from Europe and a few days rest, we then held the second of this year's Internal Training seminars in Chicago. The event was scheduled for Labor Day weekend and so I didn't expect the type of attendance we'd had earlier in the year. But still, 14 enthusiastic trainees came, including a few from a Soto practice group in the Champaign/Urbana area of Illinois. After the events and travel of the previous weeks, it was wonderful to spend two days practicing tanden kokyuho, Hakuin's naikan and nanso exercises, and our Do-in Ho breathing, movement and self-massage practices. Physically and energetically it was a perfect way to end what's been a whirlwind month of travel, training and teaching.
I'm grateful to everyone who organized all of these events. And I'm especially grateful to Enmei Hunter and our other Korinji board members and friends whose work in my absence makes it possible for me to travel without worry. Greg Dekker and Jim Mills also have kept the ball rolling on construction at Korinji, and we're now set for our next work weekends. Before the end of October our zendo's exterior will be completed.
Everyone here in Chicago did such a wonderful job holding the fort, in fact, that I now feeel very comfortable leaving again when necessary!
- Meido
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