Join Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman with the Tassajara residential community in this opportunity to immerse yourself in Zen practice during the summer at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Each day of the Sangha Week will include morning and evening zazen, liturgical services, three and a half hours of work practice, communal meals, and a daily group meeting for Dharma study and discussion. There will also be time each afternoon, before and after the study sessions, to rest, relax, and enjoy the natural beauty of Tassajara.
During our afternoon sessions, we’ll be exploring a beloved 6th-century poem, Xin Xin Ming (‘Trust in Mind’ or ‘Faith in Mind’), attributed to Zen’s third Chinese Ancestor, Sengcan, which begins with the following provocative lines: “The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.”
Trust in Mind offers an extraordinarily straightforward message that points to the heart and aim of Zen practice: the path of liberation is found by letting go of dualistic thinking (eg, right/wrong, like/dislike), cultivating a peaceful, trusting heart-mind, and realizing non-duality (oneness) in all things. When we can intentionally surrender our judgments, preferences, self-clinging, and reliance on conceptual thinking, we can experience effortless awareness, equanimity, and freedom from striving and worldly attachments. Sengcan’s poem offers profound teachings that can help us trust our True Heart-Mind, even as we navigate uncertain times.
All levels of practice experience are welcome.