Eight-week class led by Kosen Greg Snyder
Class Dates: Fridays 9/20, 9/27, 10/18, 10/25, 11/1, 11/8, 11/15 & 11/22
Class time: zazen from 6:30 to 7pm, class from 7:15 to 8:45pm
“The Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi”
“The Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi” opens with the lines:
The teaching of suchness has been intimately communicated by buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it, so keep it well.
This fall Kosen Greg Snyder will be leading a study course on this beautiful 9th century Chinese poem by Dongshan Liangjie 洞山良价 – Tozan Ryokai in our ancestral list – regularly chanted by practitioners of Soto Zen around the world. Among other aspects of practice, the poem primarily addresses Dongshan’s Five Ranks and the Buddhist teaching of suchness. Together we will work through the poem line-by-line with the Chinese characters at hand, collectively bringing Dongshan’s poetic teachings to life in our current time so that we too might keep well the teachings of suchness.
If you have time, the following two books are recommended for reading prior to the start of the class:
Leighton, Taigen Daniel. Just this is it: Dongshan and the Practice of Suchness. Boston: Shambhala, 2015.
Bolleter, Ross. Dongshan’s Five Ranks: Keys to Enlightenment. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2014.
Class fee: $200 Sustaining / $150 Base / $110 for BZC members (more than 3 months)
To register, please click here. Please note that registration for this class closes September 27.
Please note our cancellation policy for this offering: To request a refund for this class, you must notify BZC in writing by the start of the first class. Refunds will be issued in the total paid less a $15 processing fee. Please note that there are no refunds for events with registration fees under $50. This policy supports the organizing effort involved in managing registrations and cancellations and the largely volunteer-based structure of the Brooklyn Zen Center. Please see our complete cancellation policy here.
About Kosen Greg Snyder
Kosen Greg Snyder is a dharma teacher and senior priest at Brooklyn Zen Center, as well as its co-founder and a current Board Member. He is also the Senior Director of Buddhist Studies at Union Theological Seminary, where he directs and teaches in a Masters of Divinity program focused on Buddhism and Inter-religious Engagement. Kosen received priest ordination and dharma transmission from Teah Strozer and is a lineage holder in the Suzuki Roshi lineage of Soto Zen. Kosen is active with multiple interfaith and community networks organizing around peace-building, anti-violence and social justice initiatives, and currently sits on the Brooklyn Borough President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Community Partnerships. Kosen’s practice of Zen and the dharma includes an understanding that personal and social liberation are a deeply integrated process of mutual unfolding. In addition to teaching in a formal Zen context, he facilitates Undoing Whiteness and Undoing Patriarchy workshops and ongoing groups that focus on investigating self-identities that may unconsciously perpetuate societal suffering. His efforts include ensuring the dharma is truly available to everyone, supporting young people in practice, developing a community-responsive Zen center, and advocating for bringing the illumination of conditioning around patriarchy, racism and economic exploitation to the center of our Buddhist exploration of self. He is devoted to co-creating an American dharma movement that fully embraces a deep social engagement focused on transforming inequity, bias and violence in ourselves, our communities and the world.
Access Notes: There is one short flight of stairs leading to the Carroll Street entrance of the building; please press 3-0 to be buzzed in. From there, the center is located at the top of a longer flight of stairs. A ramp and elevator are available via an alternate entrance on President Street; please email us in advance if you need access to the ramp. Chairs, benches, and extra support cushions are available. We are not yet a fragrance-free space; our hand soap is scented with essential oils. Visit our Accessibility Page for more detailed access info. If you have any additional questions about accessibility, please contact us at info@brooklynzen.org.