Below are some of the public events that the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community has had in the past.  Our plan is to have similar events in the future once the COVID pandemic and its restrictions are over.

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei visits the Buffalo Community July 2024 

Ron Hogen Green is a husband, father, grandfather, sports-enthusiast, retired podiatrist, and a lay teacher in the Mountains and Rivers Order. Hogen Sensei formally began practicing Zen in 1978 with Philip Kapleau Roshi, shortly after graduating medical school and entering private practice. In time, Hogen and his wife, Cindy Eiho Green, helped run the Denver Zen Center, an affiliate of Kapleau Roshi’s Rochester Zen Center. He attended his first retreat at Zen Mountain Monastery in 1988, and not long after began studying with Daido Roshi. In 1993, Hogen completed his training in the Kapleau Lineage and was designated a senior student in the Mountains and Rivers Order. He and Eiho left Denver in 1995 and entered full time residency at ZMM. At the Monastery, Hogen served as Director of Operations for Dharma Communications for 10 years and, in 2000, ordained as a monastic.  In 2007, Hogen Sensei returned to lay life, spending time with family while continuing to play an active role in the MRO, its practice centers and affiliates. In 2016, he received dharma transmission from Shugen Roshi, becoming the first lay teacher in the Order. He served as co-director of the Zen Center of NYC for a number of years and currently divides his time between rural Pennsylvania and South Florida.

Sensei Green arrived in Buffalo on the 23rd of July and started the long weekend event with a public talk about how lay practitioners can incorporate an authentic Zen Buddhist practice into their lay life.  On the 24th, there was a concentrated period of meditation (zazen) for the majority of the afternoon with Sensei Green offering Daisan (private face-to-face teaching).  That evening he gave another public talk but this time on what exactliy Zen practice was. That Saturday, he gave instruction on karma and how it intimately affects our life and those around us.  There was a break for lunch and socializing between the morning and afternoon sessions.  His time in Buffalo ended with a Sunday morning liturgy, zazen/Daisan, and a mondo (question and answer period) before heading back to Pennsylvania.  

The Buffalo Zen Dharma Community (BZDC) is an affiliate of the Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO) of Zen Buddhism here in the United  States with affiliates in not only Buffalo, New York, but also a very large one in New Zealand.  The MRO is headquartered at Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, NY in the beautiful Catskill Mountains.   The MRO has made the commitment to send a teacher to support the Buffalo Community (sangha) twice a year as well as supporting the BZDC with helping coordinate senior monastic and senior lay practitioner visits and Zoom talks during other events such as a day-long events (zazenkais).

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery & Zen Center of NYC
May 7th (Thursday) and 9th (Saturday), 2020
Suspended until further notice.

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Past events:
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery & Zen Center of NYC
May 16th (Thursday) and 18th (Saturday), 2019
Episcopal Diocese of WNY Ministry Center
1064 Brighton Rd., Tonawanda, NY 14150

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The Gift of Karma: Understanding Cause and Effect in a Spiritual Life
Thursday Public Talk May 16th, 2019 7:00pm – 9:00pm Doors open at 6:15 (Donation $15*)
I am the owner of my actions (karma), heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir. – The Buddha

We have all had the experience of deciding not to act out of some familiar, negative pattern of thinking, speech or action, only to watch almost helplessly as we fall again into that very cycle.  On the Buddhist Path, examining and understanding karma – cause and effect – is essential if we are to break those binding patterns and live more fully and freely.

In this evening talk, Shugen Roshi will offer basic teachings on karma to help better understand how we can each live more in accord with our deeper intentions. There will also be time for questions and answers.

Before the lecture, 6:30-6:55pm, Shugen Roshi will give meditation instructions to those who are interested.
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Atonement & Forgiveness on the Path of Liberation
Saturday Workshop May 18th, 2019 2:00pm – 5:00pm Doors open at 1:30 PM. (Donation $25*)
In the Buddhist Path of awakening wisdom and compassion, practitioners study the teachings and reality of cause and effect, karma and its resulting consequences. We must do so not abstractly, but through the past and present desires, decisions, actions and results that we ourselves create. In this intimate spiritual examination, we will experience the many emotions that arise from our own hurtful actions, as well as from injuries we’ve experienced by others. How do we do this honestly and authentically within this practice of taking responsibility, nonattachment, seeing clearly, and true compassion? To live a life of truth, to practice and actualize harmony, there must be a way to recognize harmful actions and to restore the harmony that has been broken.

In this afternoon teaching and discussion, we’ll explore some of the powerful Buddhist teachings and practices that allow us to courageously accept, learn from, and let go of the painful effects of living within this human form with each other. In this way, we can free ourselves so we don’t unnecessarily carry the heavy burden of our past into today.

Discounts available–financial hardship will never be a barrier to participation.
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Click here for a printable copy of the events.

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