Dragon Lake Zen warmly invites you to:
MONTHLY COMMUNITY PRACTICE
Meditation, Dharma, Interpersonal Connection
Zazen (Japanese for: Sitting Zen) is the great exploration in sitting still, in silence and spaciousness, allowing everything to simply be as it is in order to experience and realize our true nature. Practicing together, we both deepen and polish each other’s insight and natural expressions of wisdom, compassion, and playfulness. We become confident in our innate unity with all of Reality, and also learn to work skillfully with, and even celebrate, our differences.
Sundays Once a Month
9-10:30 am Mountain Time
In Person at:
Kelly’s Barn
1360 Sumac Ave,
Boulder, CO 80304
Sundays:
September 10th, 2023
November 5th, 2023
December 17th, 2023
$15 per gathering
or
$120 to pre-register for 10 gatherings
~ If finances are an obstacle, please reach out to DragonLakeZen@proton.me about work-trade opportunities. ~
“I encourage you. Please enjoy this wonderful life together. Appreciate the world of just this! There is nothing extra. Genuinely appreciate your life as the most precious treasure and take good care of it.”
~ Taizan Maezumi Roshi
In our Monthly Community Practice gatherings, for beginners and experienced practitioners alike, members of Dragon Lake Zen will facilitate a supportive space to clarify our intentions, and train our attention in zazen. Allowing our body, breath, and mind to function harmoniously, we will be invited to encounter a vivid, natural intimacy with Reality as it is.
Our time together will also include a dharma talk/ brief teaching from senior monks and nourishing, energizing connection with community through guided interpersonal practices.
The schedule will evolve with what is alive in the group each gathering. Please wear comfortable clothing for sitting, and avoid fragrances and perfumes.
An optional brunch together at a nearby restaurant will follow the 90 minute gathering.
Dragon Lake Zen is a Boulder-based organization of Zen practitioners who are longtime students of Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi. We practice in the White Plum branch of Soto Zen Buddhism, and live at the fruitful intersection of deep tradition and bold innovation. We assert that there exists, here and now, a way and a training that can welcome our divisions, clarify value, and align with the currents of life-force that bring unreasonable joy, clear wisdom, and unconditioned compassion to all beings.
Our members include:
Brooke Teisui McNamara, MFA, is a poet, teacher, and ordained Zen monk. She has practiced as a student of Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi, since 2010, and before that as a student of nondual teacher and poet, Dorothy S. Hunt. Brooke has published two books of poems: Bury the Seed and Feed Your Vow, and has taught at Naropa University in Yoga Studies and CU Boulder in Dance. She lives with her husband and two sons in Boulder, CO.
Rob Daishin McNamara is the author of Powerful Listening, The Elegant Self and Strength to Awaken, and a co-founder of the advisory and consulting firm Delta Developmental. He is a core faculty member for Real LIFE programming and is a senior monk training under Diane Musho Hamilton at Two Arrows Zen. Rob’s intimate experiences with death have sharpened him to wholeheartedly engage what matters most. He is a devoted meditation practitioner, husband and father of two boys with a radical heart that’s fierce, playful and loving.
Brian Butsudo Turner has been practicing Zen in the White Plum branch of the Soto lineage for nearly fifteen years. He received ordination in 2012 from Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi. Brian has a Ph.D. in Physics and currently works as an engineer in a local optics manufacturing company.
Sashi Etsudo Gerzon-Rose has been drawn to the numinous for as far back as she can remember. She has been practicing meditation for just shy of 20 years, and has been a student of Zen Buddhism for more than a decade. She is a long-time teacher of yoga and meditation, and currently works as a contemplative therapist and coach. Sashi is endlessly inspired by how practice on the cushion translates so directly into being a kinder, more skillful human in relationship with others. Sashi ordained as a Zen monk in the White Plum Lineage in 2019.
Lauren Juno Beale has been practicing Zen with Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi, Dragon Lake and Dragon Heart Sanghas for 6 years. She has felt the significance of practice in all aspects of her life, bringing forth compassion, inquiry and heartfelt action into her movement teaching, creative expression, relationships, parenting and humanity. She most recently deepened her devotion to Zen practice by ordaining as a monk, and lives in Longmont with partner Amanda and children, Lila and Finlay.
Ari Gerzon has been practicing with Two Arrows Zen and Dragon Lake Zen since 2016. He participated as a boy in retreats with Thich Nhat Hanh that awakened in him the beauty of meditation and Zen practice. Ari is a passionate student of the dharma and finds deep connection in the sangha.
We welcome contributions to support our ongoing practice, and to provide scholarship opportunities to ensure access regardless of economic ability.
“Once you experience it, you are like a dragon swimming in the water or a tiger reposing in the mountains."