SPECIAL GUEST TEACHER TALKS
Special Online Guest Teacher Series are presented via Zoom and require preregistration to receive the Zoom link. SMZC offers these programs by donation. If you are able to do so, we kindly ask that you make a donation for the program when you register.
July 14, 2021 Special Evening Dharma Talk: Rev. Daitsū Tom Wright
by Rev. Daitsū Tom Wright, Teacher at Alaneo Zendo, Hilo, Hawaii
Daitsū Tom Wright, born and raised in Wisconsin, lived in Japan for over 40 years. He practiced with Uchiyama Rōshi from 1968 and was ordained as a priest in 1974. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he taught as a professor in the English Language and Culture Program at Ryukoku University in Kyoto. He was a teacher for the Kyoto Sōtō Zen Center until 1995 and then conducted zazen gatherings with Rev. Dōyu Takamine in Kyoto and Tamba. Rev. Wright has worked on the translation and editing of several works on Zen, including “Opening the Hand of Thought.” He also wrote on Zen, the Holocaust from a Buddhist perspective, and Japanese gardens (Samadhi on Zen Gardens—Dynamism and Tranquility, with Katsuhiko Mizuno, Suiko Books, Mitsumura Suiko Shoin, 2010). Retiring from the university in 2010, he now lives with his wife in Hilo, Hawaii, where he continues to work on translations and teach at Alaneo Zendo (Abbot Myoshin Kaniumoe) in Hilo.
Please join us for this special occasion!
Jiko, in the Buddhist sense, is the birth of jiko [self] simultaneously with the birth of the world; the living out of jiko is the living out of that world, and the demise of jiko is the demise of jiko’s world. Jiko, living as animated presence, is the simultaneous presence of world—phenomena, circumstances, situations—everything! So jiko is inclusive of all things, all circumstances. “I” and “all-inclusive world” are not entities separate from ever-changing. There is just one life of jiko—whole self.
― Daitsu Tom Wright
Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom: Three Fascicles from Shobogenzo with Commentary
$20 suggested donation
April 10, 2021 Special Saturday Community Dharma Talk
Shohaku Okumura Roshi's lecture on Dogen’s Shoaku Makusa (Refraining from Evil)
Dharma given by Shohaku Okumura Roshi,
Abbot of Sanshinji Zen Community
Shohaku Okumura is a Soto Zen priest and is a Dharma successor of Kosho Uchiyama Roshi. Okumura practiced at Antaiji with Uchyiama Roshi from 1970 until Uchiyama retired in 1975. Okumura co-founded Pioneer Valley Zendo in Massachusetts and continued to practice Uchiyama’s style of zazen practice. Since 1981 Okumura has been translating writings of Uchiyama and Eihei Dogen from Japanese to English. Okumura has taught at Kyoto Zen Center and Minnesota Zen Center in Minneapolis and was director of Soto Zen Buddhism International Center in San Francisco from 1997 – 2010.
$20 suggested donation
Rev. Shohaku Okumura Roshi's lecture at Sonoma Mountain Zen Center in January 2015
Kosho Uchiyama, Jakusho Kwong, Shohaku Okumura, and Keiko Uchiyama at Noke-in Temple in Kohata, Uji near Kyoto City, Japan in1980’s
He is the author of Realizing Genjo Koan: The Key to Dogen’s Shobogenzo and Living by Vow: A Practical Introduction to Eight Essential Zen Chants and Texts. His other translations include:
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Dogen’s Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Koroku
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Shikantaza: An Introduction to Zazen
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Shobogenzo Zuimonki: Sayings of Eihei Dogen Zenkji
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Heart of Zen: Practice without Gaining-mind
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The Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo
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Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice
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The Wholehearted Way: A Translation of Eihei Dogen’s Bendowa with Commentary by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi
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Dogen’s Pure Standards for the Zen Community: A Translation of the Eihei Shingi
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Dogen’s Genjo Koan: Three Commentaries
Okumura founded Sanshinji Zen Community in Bloomington, Indiana where he now resides with his family.
Rev. Shohaku Okumura Roshi's visit to Sonoma Mountain Zen Center in January 2015
January 13, 2021 Special Evening Dharma Talk: Hoitsu Suzuki-roshi
On January 13, 2021, the special guest teacher Hoitsu Suzuki-roshi gave online Dharma talk from Rinso-in, Japan. Hoitsu Suzuki-roshi is a Dharma heir of his late father Shunryu Suzuki-roshi and held the position of tanto and godo at Eiheiji head Soto Zen training monastery. He has been the abbot of Rinso-in temple in Yaizu City, Shizuoka, Japan since 1966. After his father’s death, he gave Dharma transmission to Jakusho Kwong-roshi in 1978. Hoitsu currently resides at Rinso-in with his wife Chitose.
$20 suggested donation
Replay Available by Donation
The special evening Dharma talk by Rev. Hoitsu Suzuki-roshi was well attended. We are making his talk available by donation for fundraising. You will be taken to the replay video link upon donating. Thank you for your support!
Hoitsu Suzuki-roshi visiting with Eiheiji monks to celebrate 20th-year anniversary of founding of Kannon Sangha in Poland by Jakusho Kwong-roshi
