April 8   –  Karen DeCotis: Dogen’s Fascicle: Genjo Koan – Actualizing the Fundamental Point, Part 1

April 15 –  Joe Gaston – Zen Ancestor Linji (Rinzai)

April 22  –  Karen DeCotis Dogen’s Fascicle: Genjo Koan– Actualizing the Fundamental Point, Part 2

April 29  – Karen DeCotis : Introducing Lojong

May 6 – Traditional Practice Evening

May 13 – Wesak Celebration: Buddha’s Birth, Enlightenment and Parinirvana – see below

May 20 – Wendy Roberts: Zen Ancestor Talk on Mahapajapati

May 27 – Memorial Day – Program TBD

June 3 – Traditional Practice Evening

June 10 – Bill Salsman: Exploring “The Problem and the Paradox” in David Bohm’s, On Dialogue

June 24 – Kerry Neal : Ancestor Iron Grinder Liu

Hold the date : Wednesday, May 22 – an evening with Zen Teacher, Ben Connelly

Go Beyond Mere Mindfulness – books available for sale

Deepen your connection to your self, the people in your life, and the world around you. Mindfulness is an ancient and powerful practice of awareness and nonjudgmental discernment that can help us ground ourselves in the present moment, with the world and our lives just as they are. But there’s a risk: by focusing our attention on something (or someone), we might always see it as something other, as separate from ourselves. To close this distance, mindfulness has traditionally been paired with a focus on intimacy, community, and interdependence. 

Helpful meditations and exercises show how mindfulness and intimacy can together enrich our empathetic engagement with ourselves and the world around us—with our values, with the environment, and with the people in our lives, in all their distinct manifestations of race and religion, sexuality and gender, culture and class—and lead to a truly engaged, compassionate, and joy-filled life.

Biography: Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and Dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage. He also teaches mindfulness in a wide variety of secular contexts including police and corporate training, correctional facilities, and addiction recovery and wellness groups. Ben is based at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center and travels to teach across the United States. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.