Fukanzazengi with Shinshu Roberts, Online 2/9–3/2
Description
The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions.
Four Tuesdays, February 9–March 2, 6:00–7:30 pm PT
Fukanzazengi, Dogen’s instructions for zazen, presents intriguing questions that this class will explore and attempt to answer.
What does it mean when Dogen describes zazen as the “Dharma gate of repose and bliss”? How do we take the backward step, and what is the meaning of dropping body and mind? And of course, what is “think non-thinking”?
The class will also explore the history of the text itself as well as the question Dogen poses at the beginning: if suchness/buddha-nature is already present, why do we need to practice?
Course Outline
Over four sessions, the course will move chronologically through Suzuki Roshi’s Tassajara years:
- Creating a Zen Monastery — the first and second sesshins
- Teaching the Dharma in a New Setting — Lotus Sutra and other talks from 1968–69
- Form and Freedom — Sandokai, Eko, and the practice culture of 197
- The Last Summer — Suzuki Roshi’s final season of teaching at Tassajara
Optional recommended reading
Books by David Chadwick:
- Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki
- Tassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West—The First Year, 1967
- What Happened at Tassajara: Stories of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West, 1968–1971
Recordings:
All course sessions will be recorded, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
Fee Information
- Benefactor Ticket Price: $210 — supports others’ participation
- Standard ticket price: $168 — covers full program costs
- Member (Become an SFZC Member): $151 — for current SFZC members
- Supported: $101 — community supported rate
- Deeply Supported: $42 — for broadest accessibility
- Current SFZC residents and qualified SFZC retirees may attend this course for free. To register, please email onlineprograms@sfzc.org at least 72 hours before the program begins.
Registration Information
Or call 415-354-0360.
Shinshu Roberts
Shinshu Roberts is co-founder and teacher, with Daijaku Kinst, of Ocean Gate Zen Center in Capitola, CA. After training in residency at San Francisco Zen Center for 17 years, she received Dharma transmission from Sojun Weitsman Roshi, in the Sōtō Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki.