Episode Details

The path of the paramitas leads to the shore of freedom, of liberation / love.

OM ! Gate, gate, para gate, parasum gate, bodhi svaha

Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone to the other shore–Svaha! Oh what a realization!

The zen buddhist path is a path of mystery as much as it is a path of awakening, when we speak of awakening, we usually invoke a sense of realization, understanding, wisdom, knowing—enlightenment.

The path of mystery invokes the dark, unknowing, the hidden, the secret

Prajna Paramita is translated as wisdom beyond wisdom, wisdom beyond understanding

To talk about it inherently limits what can not be named, or grasped, or bound or contained

Sometimes we invoke prajna paramita as emptiness, pure potential energy, the womb of the great mother—pregnant nothingness, where anything, everything has the potential to emerge

But also, the mother of all manifest, of all life. The spacious, unconditional acceptance of things as they are, great love or great compassion.

Listen to the Podcast for more!

Also, I am excited to announce that I will be leading an online class series on Awakening the Sacred Feminine: The Practices and Teachings of the Women Ancestors

You can learn more here.

February 2 - April 26, 2024

Fridays 9:30A - 11A PT

An Online Class Series Meeting Every Other Week for a total of 7 Weeks 

What is the sacred feminine? A zen student may ask. And for good reason, aren’t we taught in Zen to transcend duality? 

Chozen Roshi would often say: Zen practice invites us to become completely male, completely female, both and neither.

Still, cast under the cloud of patriarchy, for millennia the sacred feminine and the women ancestors have remained hidden and obscured within the Zen Buddhist tradition.

Or have they? What if their hidden-ness is itself an invitation to descend into the depths? To encounter the mystery? To share in the open secret?

In this spirit, this class series is a descent, an endarkenment, an underworld journey. For to awaken what is historically hidden and obscured one must be willing to enter the mysterious womb of Prajna Paramita, to carry the sacred embryo, to dream, to lose things, to fall down, to gaze into the empty mirror, to shapeshift, to love.

Each week we will encounter one or more of the great women ancestors, beginning with the archetypal Mother of the Buddhas, Prajna Paramita. Each class will include a teaching and story from these wise women  and a guided practice based on their teaching. There will be opportunities each week for further study and ways to deepen one’s home practice.

This class is open to all genders and to any one who is interested in encountering the hidden, the veiled, the mysterious—just know, you may be transformed in the process.

What’s included:

* 7-Live Weekly Class Meetings (Meeting every other Friday)

* Recordings of teaching/practices from each class

* Home Study material

* Weekly Practice Encouragements

* Optional Journaling or Creative Prompts to help integrate the learning

DATES:

Week 1 – Feb 2

Week 2 – Feb 16

Week 3 – Mar 1

Week 4 – Mar 15