Soshimsa Women's Group is "growing"

Soshimsa Women's Group is growing not only in size...Local Scotch Plains resident, Liz McConahay Wanfried, founder of Union County Organic Gardeners, shared great tips, including starting your garden indoors. Liz reminded us to teach children about nature from planting from seeds, embrace our elders as they would love to share their tips and wisdom. Suggestions also included reaching out to neighbors to start community gardens and visiting the elderly in senior homes as a volunteer project to bring gardening to them. We all started our own lettuce mix from seeds and look forward to sharing a yummy salad with The Soshimsa Zen Center soon. A bow of appreciation to Wendy Burney for doing a great job running the SWG.

Founder's Day 2023 (Abbot's Address)

I have, from time to time, on the rarest of occasions, been accused of being...verbose. I know! I was as shocked then as you are now. So, we are in imminent danger of the lunch getting cold. Yet, I don’t have the words (imagine that!) to express how fortunate we are to be in the mere presence of a Dosa. This is the stuff we each have to stick our head through the mystical curtain of mystery to glimpse. So, we won’t go there now. I thought to myself… if I absolutely had to, choose a single quality of IlCho Dosanim that I would want to highlight. What would that be? And of course, we go through the usual list: wisdom, compassion, knowledge, patience, etc. Yet, as much as all of these are true, today they won’t do. And so, I went on, sifting through and I think I found it. So here it is, the single most impressive quality of Il-Cho Dosanim, for me….expressed in a single word… succinct. Succinct. Never have I met someone who can distill the esoteric and the complexities of our human condit...

Headwaters of Social Issues

Many people work in different ways towards resolving issues surrounding civil rights, racism, LGBTQ+ issues, violence, pollution, etc.. How does the Zen Center address these issues? It happens that there are many, many lakes which are polluted. Many are poisoned, making them either unsuitable or impossible for life to continue to exist in them. Many inhabitants of the lakes are sick and struggling because the waters are polluted or poisoned. The task of providing a healthy environment for the life of these lakes seems nearly impossible. We cannot seem to remedy the situation quickly enough. These polluted waters further flow into the one great ocean and it, too, becomes polluted. The way we, at the Zen Center, approach the hardships and suffering of the lakes—and ultimately the one great ocean—is by making sure the sources of water are pure. We address pollution by addressing the source. The source waters of the problems facing the LGBTQ+ community, social justice, women’s rights, raci...

International Day of Peace Address

On Sep 25, 2011 Ven. Myong-Ahn and Ven. Mooh-Sang in collaboration with Somerset County Cultural Diversity Coalition participated in the International Peace Day. The celebration took place at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Somerville and featured representatives from various religious traditions. Ven. Myong-Ahn's address was followed by guided loving kindness meditation led by Ven. Mooh-Sang. The following is the transcript of Ven. Myong-Ahn's address: The Whole World is a Single Flower There is a famous calligraphy by Zen Master Man Gong that reads “The whole world is a single flower”. The statement is short and simple yet points to a deep, deep truth, namely: that we are each indeed a part of a whole. In fact each one of us can make a statement the “I am the most important person in the world”. It is said that when the Buddha was born he pointed one finger up and another down and declared: “Heaven and below, earth and above I am only one”. For it is up to you ...

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