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Summer Ango 2005
Program Information

Precepts and True Expression, led by Barbara Joshin O’Hara. Rather than a set of strict rules to be rigidly adhered to, the precepts are a description of what Is. Yet, our appreciation of the free-flow of reality is hampered by the fixed narratives we impose, the reliable outcomes we demand, the insistence on our own separateness. Following the Ango schedule of daily zazen, work and body practice, this workshop-retreat will use art as a medium to ground our awareness of the moment, investigate our habitual reactions and allow the precepts to teach us. A day trip to Storm King Sculpture Park or the Dia Art Center is included. Please bring any art supplies or materials you might like to use. No prerequisites necessary. Beginners are welcome. Those taking jukai will take a separate workshop on the precepts

The Writing Workshop, led by Barbara Joshin O’Hara, will explore writing as a means of getting out of our own way and letting our aliveness and unique way of being in the world speak for itself. We will engage in a series of exercises to help liberate, moment to moment, our authentic self. It's not about becoming a world-renowned author but learning to be at home in this-moment mind.

Zen Study Week, led by Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, will study the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, a well-known Zen representation of training of the mind. The ox-herding pictures illustrate our progress toward enlightenment. In them, our True Nature is likened to an ox. In this process, to search for the ox is to investigate this True Nature. We seek the ox, grasp it, tame it and finally, the self which has always been seeking, becomes completely one with the ox. During this week, through individual and group work, we will realize the subtle nature of our practice by exploring the steps described in the pictures. All of the illustrations and explanations of these pictures point to the same basic truth; one doesn't obtain enlightenment by pursuing it elsewhere, but by discovering it within oneself.

For questions and general inquiry, please contact Koshin, the Village Zendo’s 2005 Summer Ango registrar,at 917 622.8341 or koshin@dharmateam.com


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Mailing Address : 2 Washington Square Village, #10V New York City, NY 10012

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