RESOURCES

Practice Resources

The following documents are available for download:

Zendo Procedures

Zen Practice Forms and Etiquette

Chants and Mantras

Maka Hannya Haramita Shin Gyo

The Great Transcendent Heart Sutra

Eight Verses of Training the Mind

The Heart Sutra

SATURDAY PRACTICE

The Heart Sutra is chanted and recited daily in monastic and lay communities throughout the world. We join in this tradition on Saturday mornings before our opening sit. Despite its brevity, it's thought of by many as containing the essence of Buddhism.

It can be a rather inscrutable text, however. Spoken by the Boddhisatva of Great Compassion, Avalokiteśvara, it famously states that 'form is emptiness, emptiness is form', before making reference to many of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings, saying that 'in emptiness, there is no [insert teaching here].' 

But while negation is its tool, the sutra is never suggesting as valid or succumbing to nihilism (a common misinterpretation). Instead, the implication is that the teachings (and words and concepts generally) are maps—they aren't the territory, which can only be experienced directly. In meditation, we learn to do just that, and the Heart Sutra is a joyous exclamation of our potential to do so.

"The Heart Sutra is a strange kind of map. Usually when you have a map it’s showing you how to get from here to there, but the function of the Heart Sutra is designed to show you how to stay where you are."
- James Low

Tea and Incense

Please note that green tea is offered at the beginning of Wednesday and Saturday sittings as part of our opening Tea Ceremony, but consumption is not mandatory, of course.

Also for those with sensitivities, we burn sandalwood incense at the beginning of each sitting, as per ritual custom.