Practice Opportunities

As a Zen community, part of the Appamada Zen family, our community gathers regularly to engage in Zazen and relational practice.  

Weekly Community Meetings

Wednesday Night Gathering - 7:00-8:45 PM CST

Wednesday Evening Schedule:

7:00 PM - 7:15 PM Begin gathering online

7:15 PM - 7:45 Chant Four Practice Principles 3x

Three Bells (Signifying the Start of Zazen - sitting meditation - period)

7:45 PM - 7:50 PM 1 Bell (Signifying the End of Zazen - Sitting meditation)

Chant Eko - Dedication of Merit

7:50 PM - 8:40 PM Announcements

Introduction of prompt for relational practice

Relational Practice

8:40 PM - 8:45 PM Closing

Chant Bodhisattva Vow

What do we mean by Zazen Practice and Relational Practice? 

Sitting Meditation:  Our shared practice of just sitting (Zazen) provides a foundation for showing up in our relationships with wakefulness—with awareness, curiosity, and responsiveness.  Zazen is a practice of meeting life as it is, which includes meeting ourselves as we are, noticing the habitual places to which our attention drifts, thoughts, feelings, planning, worrying, etc.  As we engage in the practice sitting silent and still, we notice when our attention drifts and gently bring it back to a present moment anchor, which in this practice is breath.  Each moment, breathing in, breathing out, we meet the moment as it is and practice letting go of our habitual ways of avoiding our experience.  

Relational Practices:  Relational practices are an opportunity to extend our practice through bringing our present moment awareness into a space of connection and shared experience.  Simple practices or simple prompts (a phrase or a poem or a story or questions) provide an opportunity to turn inwards, notice our reactions or where our attention is drawn while in connection with our community.  The sharing of our internal experience, speaking our truth as it presents in that moment, is an invitation to take the risk of simply being ourselves with one another.  The act of receiving one another’s sharing, simply listening without our habitual patterns of responding, is as much of a gift as the act of sharing.  In this way, sharing, receiving, we embody a flow of relational mutuality.  

Regular Sitting Practice Opportunities

Morning Zazen (Monday-Friday @7:05-7:30 AM CST) & 

Noontime Zazen (Tuesday & Thursday:  12:05-12:25 PM CST)

Bedtime Zazen (Monday & Thursday @10:05-10:30 PM CST)

Awakening Together Chant Book (Click on the box in upper right corner to download)

Awakening Together Zoom Etiquette (Click on the box in upper right corner to download)