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Description
We resume our Dharma Dialogue series for the new year on Saturday, March 14, with a Dharma reading and discussion after the meditation practice. Join us!
This is a group discussion which takes place one Saturday each month following the regular weekly Saturday sitting practice. Our usual 2 hour meditation practice will be shorter to allow for the hour long discussion.
Our Dharma Dialogue selection this month is a passage from Meido Moore’s The Rinzai Zen Way. It will be a new approach for the Dharma Dialogue, as this passage gives instructions for a specific practice called Releasing Fixation. Participants are encouraged to give the practice a try prior to the Dharma Dialogue, and we can also give it a try during the session and share our experience of how it goes. In Meido’s words:
“Nonabiding” (muju) is an important term in Zen practice. We may say that it refers to an aspect of the experience of samadhi in which the mind functions freely and with clarity in a flowing manner, without reflexively '“stopping” upon phenomena. Our usual deluded state is not like that at all; it is marked instead by a serial fixation on whatever we apprehend, such as visual images, sounds, mental activity, and so on. As we have noted, the greatest of these fixations is the delusional fabrication of “self’ separate from “other” — that is, the fundamental and habitual ignorance of dualistic seeing.
As we enter the path of Zen practice, therefore, it will be useful for us to begin learning to release habitual fixation. Doing so, we we may experience a great sense of nonabiding relaxation and calm. The following exercise can help us to accomplish this.”
Find the reading/practice instructions here
We will host the Dharma Dialogue this month on Saturday, March 14, following an hour of practice starting at 10 am. Join us!
Adjusted practice schedule for this date:
10-11 AM: tea ceremony, chanting, sitting and walking meditation
11 AM-12 PM: dharma dialogue
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Arrive 5 minutes before start to select your mediation seating. The Jiki will lead a practice of sitting and walking meditation in the Rinzai Zen format.
The practice opens with traditional Japanese tea service followed by chanting The Heart Sutra in both Japanese and English. Closing chant is The Eight Verses of Training the Mind. Candles and incense are used.
Please come early if you would like any instruction or assistance.
Contact: easternsunsangha@gmail.com
Date & Time
Sat, Mar 14, 2026 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Venue Details
The Paul LeDrew Room @ Wesley United Church
101 Patrick StreetSt. John's, Newfoundland A1E 0A5
