Zen Sitting Group of Pittsburgh

Hogen Green has recently posted the new sitting schedule for the ZSGP. Everyone is invited to sit with this group that meets by donation at Yoga Matrika in the Peace Room on some Sunday mornings and Tuesday evenings. The Zen Sitting Group of Pittsburgh has been very generous to Yoga Matrika and it is their beautiful Buddha that creates a sanctuary out of the Peace Room. If you are interested in Zen, I encourage you to contact Hogen directly. He provides orientations for those in the community who are new to Zen if you let him know ahead of the meeting that you are coming and require this introduction.

Here is the focus for the next group of sittings as communicated by Hogen in his most recent e-mail to the group:

The Bodhisattva is the model of practice in Mahayana Buddhism, and our model of how to live a life in the midst of the turmoil and challenges we face both in personal relationships, the life and death of those we know intimately as well our own death, and the catastrophes we see and feel in the larger perspective of this world.

At then end of each sitting together, we take the Four Bodhisattva Vows:

Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them

Desires are inexhaustable, I vow to put an end to them.

The Dharmas are boundless, I vow to master them,

The buddha way is unattainable, I vow to attain it.

We chant these vows 3 times.

This is not a casual chant we do. Taking a vow, these vows, sitting after sitting is transformative. Can be transformative if we begin to make a connection between how we live in response to the challenge of our life, and what these vows are poinying at. Transformation is the point of Zen practice. But transforming what, from what to what? And how does this happen? How does our life actually change in a way that helps our self and others?

Over the next several months, I’ll be giving a series of monthly talks on the path of the Bodhisattva. We will look at that path from the perspective of Vow, from that of the Prajna Paramita Sutra- the Heart Sutra as well as from the perspectives of what the great teachers of our tradition have offered. I invite you to make a special effort to attend both the scheduled talks and the sittings so that the words of the talks and the experience of investigating the Bodhisattva path can be given life: your life. I would encourage you to deeply question what is said in these talks and if it is helpful, to bring these questions up for exploration.

Here is our schedule for the next weeks:

Tuesday evening May 25th 6:30 zazen

Sunday morning May 30th 9:30 AM, zazen, liturgy and senior’s talk

Tuesday evening June 8th, 6:30PM zazen

Sunday morning June 13th, 9:30 AM zazen liturgy

Tuesday evening June 22d 6:30PM zazen, liturgy

Sunday morning June 27th 9:30 AM, zazen, liturgy and senior’s talk

I hope to see you in the zendo and sit with you in sharing the Dharma.

Sunday Spring Schedule (9:30 to 11:30 am):

May 30
June 13
June 27

Tuesday Evening Schedule (6:30 pm):

May 25th
June 8
June 22

You can read more about the Zen Sitting Group of Pittsburgh and obtain contact information for the group’s leader, Hogen Green, on the Yoga Matrika website:

https://www.yogamatrika.com//contact-us/zen-sitting-group/

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika. Yoga Matrika is located in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of the City of Pittsburgh.

https://www.yogamatrika.com/

Tuesday Evening Schedule (6:30 pm):

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