Classes & Business
One of the many gifts from the maha sangha teachers council meeting that happened earlier this summer was a deeper appreciation for the many ways in which folks reach out and make the Dharma accessible. We've had the deep retreat focus since our beginning. And then came the more 'congregational' or church kinda thing with the Sunday Services, Dharma school for youth, social outreach and so on.
And now we come to the classes.
I've lead classes here before, and they are usually quite well received. In fact, many of our older members came from these 'Intro to Zen Practice' kind of classes. And there has been the 'Encountering the Ancestors' series when we looked at Zen's Chinese heritage generation by generation from Bodhidharma up to Dogen.
But they have more or less been on hold for the last year while we grew the Sunday Service into something real, but there has been a call for more of these classes to happen so now they will begin anew, in a more focused and constant kinda way.
Buddhist studies, Zen studies, some kind of secular version of awareness practices and the Zen Arts Ensemble. For us all these fit in on a Sunday afternoon 2-5pm slot. Hopefully that will work for many who wish to attend.
It seems to me that some academic learning is important though not sufficient. For many it is the entryway into actually taking on the BuddhaDharma in real time, so lets go ahead and go there. And point to practice and retreats and community which all point us to the great matter.
So then what an intense thing it is to configure a registration process that is simple and clear!
Wouldn't seem like such a big task at first glance, but oh yes...
And so, with many bows to Genshin, Shishin and Taigen here is the link to the first of these classes:
What the Buddha Taught:
Soon all the other Drinking Gourd/Toledo Zen Center class offerings and retreats will be up there in the same format as well, along with a new calender section for the Zen Center website to match.
This is actually a big deal for us. We now have way too many classes and retreats to coordinate with the earlier registration process we had going on, as good as it was for the less complex times with bows to Dokan for holding that space for us for so long.
In other news earlier this week several of our community met and held a business meeting and it never ceases to amaze me how much there ends up being to talk about.
And it all really does need saying and figuring and dealing with. Here's the list:
New Retreat Center
Boundless Way Affiliation
501(C)3 & Grants
New Classes
Policies and Procedures
Committees
Marketing
Scholarship Fund
University of Toledo Zen Buddhist Fellowship
The Compassionate City Project
Financial Report
T-Shirts
To the best of our capacity, all done in the context of practice.
Thank goodness!
And now we come to the classes.I've lead classes here before, and they are usually quite well received. In fact, many of our older members came from these 'Intro to Zen Practice' kind of classes. And there has been the 'Encountering the Ancestors' series when we looked at Zen's Chinese heritage generation by generation from Bodhidharma up to Dogen.
But they have more or less been on hold for the last year while we grew the Sunday Service into something real, but there has been a call for more of these classes to happen so now they will begin anew, in a more focused and constant kinda way.
Buddhist studies, Zen studies, some kind of secular version of awareness practices and the Zen Arts Ensemble. For us all these fit in on a Sunday afternoon 2-5pm slot. Hopefully that will work for many who wish to attend.
It seems to me that some academic learning is important though not sufficient. For many it is the entryway into actually taking on the BuddhaDharma in real time, so lets go ahead and go there. And point to practice and retreats and community which all point us to the great matter.
So then what an intense thing it is to configure a registration process that is simple and clear!
Wouldn't seem like such a big task at first glance, but oh yes...
And so, with many bows to Genshin, Shishin and Taigen here is the link to the first of these classes:
What the Buddha Taught:
Foundational Teachings for Difficult TimesBy Rev. Rinsen and Rev. Do-on
Soon all the other Drinking Gourd/Toledo Zen Center class offerings and retreats will be up there in the same format as well, along with a new calender section for the Zen Center website to match.
This is actually a big deal for us. We now have way too many classes and retreats to coordinate with the earlier registration process we had going on, as good as it was for the less complex times with bows to Dokan for holding that space for us for so long.
In other news earlier this week several of our community met and held a business meeting and it never ceases to amaze me how much there ends up being to talk about.
And it all really does need saying and figuring and dealing with. Here's the list:
New Retreat Center
Boundless Way Affiliation
501(C)3 & Grants
New Classes
Policies and Procedures
Committees
Marketing
Scholarship Fund
University of Toledo Zen Buddhist Fellowship
The Compassionate City Project
Financial Report
T-Shirts
To the best of our capacity, all done in the context of practice.
Thank goodness!
Comments
Post a Comment