Study Group with our sister sangha Santa Barbara Zen Center
Sunday, October 8th, 10:00 am to 12:30 pm
* On Zoom *
"Ending the pursuit of happiness" by Barry Magid
During the month of October 2023, Jikoji Zen Center will be joining SBZC to study Barry Magid’s book “Ending the Pursuit of Happiness”, available at Amazon here: Amazon Link to Magid Book, or by order at your local bookseller some of whom can be found at this Bookshop.org webpage and ordered online: Store Locator. We extend a warm-hearted invitation to everyone from all sanghas to join us.
October 8: Dave Dietrich (Santa Barbara (SB) Sangha and online via Zoom, 10 a.m.)
Chapter Four: The Search for Enlightenment?
Chapter Five: Body and Mind
Chapter Six: Love, Sex and Compassion
Discussion Points:
Barry Magid suggests that we need to make our preconceptions about Zen practice (including our wishes for enlightenment) explicit, “keeping an eye on them,” and “not burying them out of sight.” How do you keep an eye on preconceptions related to your practice?
Chapter 4 suggests that our inner emotional life and thoughts can sometimes be treated as obstacles to attention. What do you think Magid means by this? How can we deal with anxiety, anger and other emotions and to be able to say to them: “That’s me.”?
What do you think Joshu is trying to teach when he describes a clay Buddha, a golden Buddha, and a wooden Buddha? Do you see connections to your practice and Buddha nature?
In chapter 6, George Bernard Shaw is quoted: “love (romantic) is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.” How do we understand and practice with our personal sense of love for particular individuals and our universal love for all beings? How do we understand and work with those different senses of relationship and love?
If you have other questions or thoughts that you would like to include in Sunday’s discussion, please feel free to raise them then, or share them with me via email beforehand, and I will try to introduce them to the conversation. - Dave
Each session will begin with our regular periods of zazen and kinhin, followed by a facilitated discussion of the reading. We welcome your participation in this likely-to-be-engaging discussion of our practice.
ONLINE ZENDO ETIQUETTE
To help maintain as best we can the intimacy and integrity of an in-person gathering, we ask all who join us online to please observe the following practices.
- Sign in using real name.
- Keep microphone muted unless speaking during discussion periods.
- Maintain zendo silence during meditation periods and while waiting for discussion period to begin.
- Keep camera on and maintain facial visibility during discussion period.
- Anonymous participation online will not be permitted, as it would not be permitted in person.