Classes and Workshops
These classes allow us to learn various aspects of Buddha’s teachings and the Zen (Mahayana) perspective. Some classes will provide materials and resources; others will encourage us to buy the book! As always, scholarships are available so everyone can receive the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha.
To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains and this no trace continues endlessly.
– Eihei Dōgen, Genjokoan
Taoism, Ch’an and The Tang Dynasty Poets
This class is postponed and we hope to offer it in the fall. Sorry for the inconvenience. It will be led by Michael G. Smith, Ph.D. Stay tuned for registration information. Thank you.
Considered the golden age of China, the Chinese Tang Dynasty was a flowering periodically interrupted by uprisings, invasions, starvation and mass migration. Inspired by Nature and educated within the tenets of Taoism and Buddhism the Tang poets responded with plain-spoken poems of hardships and the natural world that resonate today. In this series we will discuss several poets, including Li Po, Du Fu, Fayuan (a Tang family royal and Buddhist nun of the early Tang) and Cold Mountain, with respect to their historical context and respond with our poems written during the workshop and elsewhere.
During two sessions the workshop will explore Tang Dynasty history and life, and their influence on its poets; important Taoist and Buddhist teachings relevant to Tang poets; and the challenge of translating poems written in a homophonous language into English. There will be time in each session for participants to craft poems modeled by the Tang poets, if desired.
SUGGESTED READING FOR THE TANG DYNASTY CLASS
If you are able, check out some of these before the class begins:
Awakened Cosmos|The Mind of Classical Chinese Poetry by David Hinton;
China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty, by Mark Edward Lewis;
China Root: Taoism, Ch’an, and Original Zen, by David Hinton;
Finding Them Gone: Visiting China’s Poets of the Past, by Red Pine;
In the Same Light:200 Tang Poems for Our Century, translations by Wong May;
The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai, by Li Bai and Ha Jin;
The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, by Cold Mountain and Red Pine;
The Silk Dragon: Translations from the Chinese, by Arthur Sze.
