Toledo Buddhist

I was talking with some of the sangha after evening practice last night, and we were all still basking in the glow of last weekends sesshin  which as you may be able to deduce from this pic happened in our family's living room this time around - but that's another story... There is something both utterly mysterious and radically dependable in the practice of sesshin, and the rhythm of joining sesshin, re-emerging into the karmic unfoldings of my life's many up's and down's and then plunging back into sesshin again over and over has in many ways been the root of my spiritual path. At once, it is the place of ease and repose, and it is a intentional holding oneself in what truly is the furnace of deep practice - melting us down over and over as David Sensei so perfectly put it. But any form, any way of practice is no guarantee of anything in and of itself - not even my beloved sesshin retreats. The whole thing, it seems to me, turns (or doesn't) on one...

I've been working on the soon to be sent out newsletter for the Toledo Zen Center and it really hit me just how much we have going on in the sangha here. It really is inspiring and compelling to me in so many ways. One of the many influences that I'm so grateful for in this great project is my association with Boundless Way co-founder, Abbot and Guiding teacher David Rynick Sensei. His particular way of leading and practicing is both compelling and very real world. Happily he will soon be here in Toledo leading a sesshin with Rev. Do-on and I, and it's gonna be a something for sure. His blog is HERE. , and details of the upcoming retreat with him are HERE.