 When the isolation brought on by COVID ended and the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community started meeting in person again, we started with only a few people coming to our Tuesday night programs and our half-day monthly Saturday morning meditation (zazen) intensives. Now we have grown to having 20-30 people attending our Tuesday night programs and we have 73 people on our Google Group contact list
This last week, we had a visiter from the Blue Plum Zendo Group which is an informal affiliate of the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism in Johnson City, Tennessee. Ms. Polly Kiho Horne is the facilitator of that group. She was visiting family in the Buffalo area for the holidays. She also has attended video meetings with Ron Hogen Green with members of the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community. Also, coming regularly is Mr. Lee Carlson who is the author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in "Zen Philosophy," "Personal Transformation & Spirituality," "Philosophy and Spiritual Growth," "Men's Personal Spiritual Growth," and "Spiritual Healing." Besides these exciting developments and the start of the Zazenkai events, and outdoor events, our hope is to eventually have an information talk by one of our members Mike Kicey about Buddhism and to have an official teacher of the MRO come to Buffalo for a retreat like we used to do in the past. So for the latest developments, please periodically check our blog page. Also
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 The zazenkai started at 7:30 AM with the setup of the zendo. Everyone was seated doing zazen (meditation) by 8:25 AM and after two periods of zazen, with kinhin (walking meditation) chanting was done to start the day. Next a recorded talk given by a lay teacher in the Mountains and Rivers Order was played. Two more periods of meditation and kinhin was done with a subsequent silent lunch break. Everyone brought their own lunch. After the noon break, at 2 PM two more periods of zazen were done with kinhin, with a following liturgy service, one more peroid of zazen, and ending with chanting the Bodhisattva Vows and ending bows. All together there were in this day of practice seven periods of zazen, six periods of kinhin, a recorded talk by an official teacher in the order, a liturgy service with a break in the middle. There were 11 people who attended.  Besides the Tuesday night program which, at most, will have three periods of zazen and our monthly half-day Saturday zazen intensives (which has at most only six periods of zazen), the zazenkai is the most intense practice opportunity yet offered by the Buffalo Zen Dharma Community. The only prerequisite for the participant is to have received beginning zazen instructions and instructions on kinhin. It allows for practitioners to take their spiritual practice to a deeper level which is not possible during shorter practice periods to help them seen into their true nature and reduce suffering for themselves as well as others.
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Westminster Presbyterian Church
724 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14209 
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Donations may be sent by checks (handwritten or through a bank's online bill pay system) to: Buffalo Zen Dharma Community 165 Warsaw St., #330 Depew, NY 14043 |