Madison Rinzai Zen - Ryugenji 龍源寺

How does Rinzai Zen use Buddhist sculpture in practice? - Buddhism 101 To learn more about the documentary film "Carving the Divine - Buddhist Sculptors of Japan" : https://www.carvingthedivine.com/Hosted by filmmaker Yujiro Sek...

Open for viewing by all: patreon.com/korinji

Sit-Heads is an on-line and in-person meditation club based in New York City. Part of Sit-Heads' activity includes virtual dialogues with meditation teachers from various traditions.

Here is the second of two Sit-Heads dialogues in which Meido Roshi has participated, including open Q&A at the end. Please enjoy this wide-ranging discussion, which constitutes an exceptionally clear presentation of the Rinzai Zen path. Jon Krop, the Sit-Heads organizer and a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, hosted this chat.

Shoken, Dokusan, Kentan, and the Teacher's Role | Korinji Get more from Korinji on Patreon

The first of our Tuesday night meetings. We're grateful to the Shambhala Center of Madison for hosting us!

Details of our two weekly Zen practice meetings in Madison can always be found at madisonrinzaizen.org.

Coming up!

Tomorrow night! First meeting at our 2nd new location in town. Our community now meets twice a week in Madison to practice together, under Meido Roshi's guidance. Beginners are always welcome...

Madison Zen Tomorrow Night! Dear Madison Zen Friends, Tomorrow night (July 30) we will have the first of our Tuesday evening Zen practice meetings on the East side, 7pm-8:15pm at the Madison Shambhala Center (408 S. Baldwin St, just off W***y Street).  We also meet every Sunday on the East side, 12:30-2pm at Aikido of Madis...

Quiet time at the monastery: a view looking into the training hall. Visible in front is the gomadan, with the zendo beyond.

The calligraphy above the entrance was brushed for us by the Tendai kaihogyo monk Mitsunaga Kakudo Dai-Ajari during his visit here in 2023. It reads 融通無碍 YU ZU MU GE. Translation: "Interpervading without obstructions." Or as he rendered it, "Mix together, no problem!"

After two July Dai-Sesshin - at Korinji and then in Switzerland - now I'm preparing to depart next week for the 26th annual International Aikido Summer Camp in Olsztyn, Poland. I have taught there together with Tomasz Krzyzanowski Shihan and other teachers in most of the past years. (See AAI-Polska Aikido for details of that event).

I was afraid I'd lost too much weight after a recent time training in a temple in Japan. But it means I can fit again into this older hakama!

Korinji's training emphasis, like that of all of us whose lineage descends from Omori Sogen Roshi, can be described as "Zen-Ken-Sho" (禅剣書): the unity of Zen training (zazen, sanzen, sesshin), the sword (martial arts or other physical culture), and the brush (the arts).

I have spent more than 20 years working to found Korinji. In the 7 years since the monastery was completed, most of my time and energy has been spent building the Zen and Sho aspects of our curriculum, while training also in other Japanese Buddhist traditions that I want to weave into the fabric of our temple. I'm nearing the end now of a three year period of intensive, nearly constant travel and study centered on those things.

Now, the final thread of Korinji's training is coming equally to the fore: because my experience of practicing various bujutsu has been so important to me (and indeed, it was what my late teacher Toyoda Rokoji wished me to carry forward professionally, more so than he wished me to be a priest!), I have in some ways been saving this part of our development for last.

But now it's time to implement the curriculum we have for this purpose at the monastery, for those who are suited to it. Along with our indoor training hall, we now have an outdoor training area specifically for bujutsu. And you will begin to see more frequent events, including retreats at the monastery, focused on Zen and martial arts. This November, for example, I will teach together with Lisa Tomoleoni Shihan at an Aikido Shimbokukai event in Chicago.

In many ways, my personal training journey is returning full circle in this way.

Looking forward to practicing with any of you that have an interest.

We completed our 7 day Dai-Sesshin in Switzerland. A courageous group: i could not be more proud.

We will return here next year in July. And we're looking forward also to a 2025 sesshin near Berlin in October.

Rinzai Zen Monastic Training | Korinji Monastery | WI Information about residential Rinzai Zen practice at Korinji Monastery, under Meido Moore Roshi.

New dharma talk released on Korinji's Patreon, our online library of Rinzai Zen resources to support your home practice:

"Practice is Failure"

Within the mirror of practice, we often encounter difficult conditions: habits of body and mind that can seem to be hindrances or obstructions, and which seem to distract us from our practice. Because of this, it is easy to become discouraged and think that we are not able to walk the path effectively.

Roshi here reminds that those so-called hindrances are themselves the practice. Genuine practice, in fact, is precisely a series of failures: again and again meeting those things that practice reveals, with great courage and frequent failure to maintain clarity, we may have confidence that just this is, in fact, doing practice. Our seeming failures ARE practice, and ultimately the most direct path to transforming our habit. A wonderfully encouraging talk given at the July 2024 Dai-Sesshin at Korinji.

We're pleased to announce that we've confirmed a SECOND meeting time and location each week in Madison: Tuesday evenings at the Shambala Center of Madison, 7pm-8:15pm. Beginning July 30!

This means we are now meeting twice a week in Madison. And Friday night meetings of our sister group in Baraboo, Driftless Zen Community, are also open to Madison members (and vice versa: Baraboo members, welcome to sit with us in Madison).

Come meditate with us!

Details on our website: www.madisonrinzaizen.org

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madisonrinzaizen.org

Our Sunday Zen practice in Madison, Wisconsin, followed by a little social time together.

Join us! Details at https://www.korinji.org/practice-groups

Our sister group in Baraboo! Madison members, you are welcome to attend practice here as well on Friday evenings. Practice group details on the Korinji site (www.korinji.org).

Wonderful practice last night together with seven of our members. Afterward we enjoyed matcha together, and a few of us then adjourned to Little Village Cafe down the block.

Wonderful to see friendships and a genuine practice feeling developing so quickly in this group, right on the square in beautiful Baraboo!

For the folks who were there last night: we discussed visualization of different elements connected to the nanso no ho practice that was instructed. Regarding the fire ritual that was mentioned and that is performed at Korinji, here's a photo.

13 participants turned out today for the first practice at our new home at Aikido of Madison, two first timers among them. Wonderful to be in this beautiful space again! We meet Sundays 12: 30- 2:00 p.m., and beginners are always welcome.

Some of the core group members, shown here, had a short planning session afterward. We're moving forward with a second weeknight practice time at another Madison location. Roshi also announced that starting in the fall, he will be training senior students specifically to lead and conduct zazen practice groups like this one, transmitting the oral instructions connected to things like serving as jikijitsu and leading chanting practice. Korinji will issue meditation leader certificates to the people who complete that training.

Stay tuned for news! You can also join our mailing list by going to www.korinji.org and hitting "subscribe" in the upper right corner of the homepage.