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A useful definition of Zen is the practice of being present, of experiencing fully. The Zen Community of Baltimore/Clare Sangha offers opportunities for people to learn about and practice Zen. Offerings include days of silence, seasonal retreats, and other training including orientation workshops. See schedule For basic instructions on Zen meditation practice, click here.

Introductory Days are offered for orientation to Zen training and practice, and as an entry point for newcomers wishing to learn about ZCB/Clare Sangha. The following readings are recommended for newcomers to Zen:

- Taking The Path of Zen, Robert Aitken
- The Three Pillars of Zen, Philip Kapleau
- Everyday Zen, Charlotte Beck
- Bearing Witness, Bernie Glassman and Eve Marko
- Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, Shunryu Suzuki
- Zen Gifts to Christians, Robert Kennedy

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things. To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barriers between oneself and others. -- Dogen, Manifestation of the Koan, ca. 1238

These simple but profound words of Zen Master Dogen summarize the spiritual path first demonstrated in the realization experience and life of Shakyamuni-Buddha 2,500 years ago. It is a joyful fact of life that this Way is available to us today. -- Bruce Seiryu Blackman, Sensei

Our emphasis in Zen training and practice is on bare attention -- simple, direct, non-interfering awareness, non-judging awareness. Students who establish a Zen practice find it opens the Way for them amid their own circumstances and conditions. Practice then becomes its own reward and brings power for guidance.

To encourage Zen practice, ZCB offers the 108 Day Bead Ceremony for sangha members who practice zazen one hour or more for 108 consecutive days. Those accomplishing the feat are honored in ceremony at a seasonal retreat.

Such encouragements aim to help sangha members achieve two training objectives. One is to establish a strong home practice. Second is to develop the power of concentrated mind (joriki).

The experience of joriki connects with a principal benefit of Zen -- the centering of one's being. Learning to center one's being in the present moment leads onward to the other main benefits of a Zen life. These include awakening to the Way of wisdom and compassion (forgetting the self), then embodying the Way in one's daily life -- a progressive and life-long undertaking. Our intention at ZCB is to help students have their own direct experience of these benefits.



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