Dear All,
I highly recommend this event to all, even if you have not been joining in our "No Words" Book Club readings!
The great Shosan Victoria Austin of the San Francisco Zen Center will be visiting us on Saturday, March 4th, 8AM, California Time, to offer a netcast Talk and Chat about her wonderful essay ...
“Impact: Accidental Zen-How the Three Pure Precepts Trained Me to Heal Self and Others”
... published in the book we are currently reading, "Zen Teachings in Challenging Times." The essay recounts the story of her Zen Practice in the aftermath of two extremely debilitating and traumatic accidents, which she faced with strength, patience, wisdom and good humor too.
More about Shosan:
Shosan Victoria Austin began practicing both Zen and yoga in 1971. In the Soto Zen tradition, she is entrusted as a Dharma heir in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, an international priest of the Soto School, and a Dharma teacher at San Francisco Zen Center. She trained in the U.S., in India, and in Japan. In addition, she is certified as an Intermediate teacher in the Iyengar tradition of yoga. Her teaching goals include transmitting Zen Buddhism as a yogic path and Yoga as a path of awareness. Keeping faith with each tradition, she offers classes and workshops accessible to a wide variety of abilities and circumstances.
It is a truism in Zen that unpleasant surprises can happen to anyone at any time, and that the main problem is that we suffer rather than rolling with the punches. Though I knew this, I had not expected to wake up in a hospital emergency room, surrounded by concerned and crying faces. I was shocked by brain fog, dizziness, and language issues over the next few days and weeks. My capable self-image took a sharp hit as I struggled for words and lost the ability to make sense of my experience. I discovered I could not read nor drive. I spoke at a pace too slow for people to comprehend. I forgot my education, including many of the Buddhist and yogic teachings necessary for my occupation. ... Like many people with traumatic brain injuries, I experienced increasing hopelessness and despair, as I struggled to accomplish formerly routine parts of daily life.
It can also be viewed "one way" at the time, or later, at the following screen:
Even if you do not have the book, you can read a PDF version here from PAGE 35 (please consider to purchase the book if the remainder looks interesting to you):
Zen Teachings For Challenging Times - First Half (PDF DOWNLOAD LINK)
There will be a Q&A after her talk, at which you can either ask a LIVE question, or email me a question which I will read (email your question to Jundotreeleaf[a]gmail.com)
I would really appreciate a BIG TREELEAF TURNOUT for this event, and I assure you that it will be worth your time to attend.
DONATION:
The event is free, but we ask those who can afford to make a voluntary donation to the following cause which Shosan is supporting:
Shosan is currently working with others at SFZC to assist a fellow from India who is currently a refugee in Vietnam, who they are hoping to bring to the US to practice Zen at SFZC. The person is LGBTQ and has been the target of great family and social persecution in India. Shosan and others are working hard to secure him a visa, and to complete paperwork, so that he can enter the U.S. If you can offer some financial donation, whatever you can afford and feel right, you can send it to Shosan's PayPal at her account there, austinvictoria[a]sbcglobal.net, using the “family and friends” option so it is clearly a gift (or if in the USA, as a check to Victoria Austin, 300 Page Street, San Francisco, CA 94102). Please mark either clearly as “donation for Vinod.”
Thank you.
Shosan's essay is also part of an AMAZING book which I cannot recommend highly enough to all, a very unique collection of short essays by a group of women Soto Teachers, focused on Zen Wisdom and Compassion applied to real life problems. The book deserves to be better known, and is not to be missed. We are currently reading and reflecting on it in our "No Words" book club (LINK)
Some other writings by Shosan are:
- “Suzuki Sensei’s Zen Spirit,” in Buddhist Women on the Edge: Contemporary Perspectives from the Western Frontier, Marianne Dresser ed, North Atlantic Books, 1996
- “Beyond Words,” in Umbrella Man: Recollections of Sojun Mel Weitsman by his Dharma Heirs, Max Erdstein ed, privately published, 2009
- “Zen or Yoga? A Teacher Responds,” in Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind; Essays on the Connections between Yoga and Buddhism, Michael Stone ed 2010
- “The True Human Body: Shinjingakudo,” in Receiving the Marrow, Eido Frances Carney ed, Temple Ground Press, 2012
- “Zongchi and Bodhidharma’s Flesh,” in The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women, Florence Caplow and Susan Moon eds, Wisdom Press, 2013
- “The Seated Meditation Pose for a Woman’s Life,” in Seeds of Virtue, Seeds of Change, Jikyo Cheryl Wolfer ed, Temple Ground Press, 2014
- “Mayumi Oda and the Shining Practice Bodhisattva,” in Divine Gardens, Parallax Press, 2017
Gassho, Jundo
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for positive poetry 優婆塞 台 婆
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