Toledo Buddhist

So here is what I'll be doing with most Sunday afternoons for the rest of the year... Toledo Zen Center Fall/Winter Class and Retreat Schedule! by  Jay Rinsen Weik  on Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:18pm The Drinking Gourd/Toledo Zen Center Fall/Winter 2011 Class Schedule What the Buddha Taught: Foundational Teachings for Difficult Times with Rev. Rinsen and Rev. Do-on Dates: Three Sunday Afternoons from 2pm to 5pm Sept 4th, 11th and 18th at the Toledo Zen Center 6537 Angola Road, Holland OH, 43558. This class offers an in-depth exploration of core Buddhist teachings.  If you have been lurking in the Eastern Thought section of the bookstore for years or are newly curious, this class is the perfect opportunity for you to encounter the ancient wisdom of the Buddha freshly unpacked and made both assessable and relevant to life in the 21st Century by the ordained Buddhist p...

PS: What truly small thing have you allowed to take over your feeling this day?

Brad, Shari, Rev. Rinsen, John and Mae. Since I can remember, I have often felt the pull of living as a Monk and in my youth I visited many monasteries in the Catholic tradition I was born into.  It was eventually a Zen monastery that would catalyze my entry into the Dharma. Today, I am so happy that I live in the world - that I did not choose to become a single monastic living in the cloister, but rather have followed the bodhisattvha path through the market place (kicking and screaming at some points to be sure) with a wife and kid and job and mortgage, directly working with the culture in ways that make sense to me and that I largely enjoy. Of course, I am at the same time an ordained Zen Buddhist Priest - the same ordination that some would refer to as a monastic one, though for me the title priest fits much more the vocation I live. And also I'm teaching Jazz at a western university, and universities are the direct heir to the western monastic tradition of learning, a...

I found myself trapped in a holding pattern for a time at the University of Toledo Student Activities Committee meeting today. As the Faculty advisor of the newly formed UT Zen Buddhist Fellowship I was there in a show of support for the groups request to fund an opening event and have our constitution approved, both of which thankfully happened due to two bodhisattvhas - one student member who took time from their busy schedule to meet with the committee and answer questions, and another on the committee who volunteered to stay late and review our constitution. Between the presentation and deliberations for the funding of the event and the consideration of the constitution there was a good hour plus hanging out there waiting while other matters were tended to, and during this time, I found myself using the brim of my hat as a kind of improvised and discreet Mala and used it as I practiced Metta for everyone: May these beings be free from animosity, free from oppression, free from t...