Home Calendar Programs Join Donate Store Contact Us Login

Online Sangha Store

An Introduction to Active Hope

In whatever situation we face, we can choose our response. When facing overwhelming challenges, we might feel that our actions don’t count for much. Yet, the kind of responses we make, and the degree to which we believe they count, are shaped by the way we think and feel about hope. This echoes our zen practice; while we practise diligently in the hope of a moment of enlightenment or deep insight, it might still elude us despite years of practice. Nevertheless we try, try, try, and press on with our meditation practice, insofar as we can keep our hope and faith alive. This introduction to active hope is about finding, and offering, our best response when facing concerns about our world situation, thus helping us to bolster our practice when things seem to be in a mess.

$30
The Art of Solo Retreat

Join Zen Master Soeng Hyang as we explore the importance of solo retreats in our tradition, and how we might try one ourselves. Citing examples from Shakyamuni Buddha, Zen Master Seung Sahn and others, we will explore examples of solo retreats and how they impact our own practice today. Zen Master Soeng Hyang will share the art of doing a personal solo retreat, discussing schedule, format, and the various conditions that make a successful solo retreat that bring lasting benefits to our life beyond the retreat experience.

$30
The Avatamsaka Sutra

The Avatamsaka Sutra is at the heart of Mahayana Buddhism, and a major root of Zen teaching. It is also one of the most ornate, complex and mystical of texts, and the longest of the Mahayana sutras. For that reason, it can be challenging for us to read fully. Join Zen Master Bon Hae (Judy Roitman) for the opportunity to taste the vastness and depth of this sutra as we read excerpts together, and as she outlines its structure and discusses some of the major aspects that help form our Kwan Um teaching.

$30
Bringing Zen Practice to the Center of Your Life

Zen Master Bon Soeng. A firm foundation in sitting meditation is essential for Zen practice, but then how do we use that? This talk will look at how we take that foundation off the cushion into this very moment of our lives.

$15 USD
The Compass of Zen with Zen Master Dae Bong

Zen Master Dae Bong leads a six-part series on the Compass of Zen, a collection of teachings from Zen Master Seung Sahn. The Compass of Zen is the most accessible and comprehensive text giving an overview of Buddhism and Zen. It is an important companion for any serious Zen practitioner whether a beginner or experienced.

FREE
Compass of Zen Highlights: Parts 1 & 2

Join Nancy Brown Hedgpeth JDPSN to explore the the first two sections of the The Compass of Zen. The first session focuses on the purpose and structure of Buddhism, and the second session focuses on insight into impermanence, impurity and non-self as fundamental teachings of Hinayana Buddhism.

$30
Compass of Zen Highlights: Parts 3 & 4

Part 3: The Four Noble Truths This class will focus on Buddha’s teaching: why do we suffer and what can we do to be free from it? Part 4: The Eightfold Path This class will focus on changing our life by training the mind under the classic eightfold path.

$30 USD
Compass of Zen Highlights: Parts 8 & 9

Join Zen Master Bon Hae (Judy Roitman) for a very condensed overview of the Avatamsaka Sutra, including how it pervades our practice. The Avatamsaka Sutra presents concepts that lie at the heart of Zen practice and appear in many of our chants: emptiness, mutual interdependence, the Bodhisattva path, mind as the ground of all phenomena… Our Morning Bell Chant quotes the sutra directly, and uses much of its imagery (the cosmic Buddha Vairocana, Indra’s net…).

$30
Chinul: One of the Giants of Korean Zen

Chinul was a 12th century master who had a tremendous influence on Korean Soen (a.k.a. Zen). Chinul was the great unifier of Korean Buddhism, with an open mind and deep practice; he can open our minds and deepen our practice. Zen Master Bon Hae will talk about his life, his times, and his teachings.

$30 USD
Energy in Zen

Do you want more energy from your Zen practice? In these two sessions, Andrzej Stec JDPSN guides us to explore both the sources of energy from formal Zen practice methods, and also how to balance body and mind with focus on breathing, diet, movement, sleep and social connections. In this class we'll discover a formula for successful practice so that we can make the old Zen saying, “when you are tired, sleep; when you are hungry, eat” work for us.

$30 USD
The Flowering of Zen: War, Famine, Persecution

The Tang dynasty took 150 years to die. In this time there were wars, rebellions, bandits, pirates, warlords, floods, starvation, and severe persecution of Buddhism. Yet it was in the death throes of the Tang that Zen reached its first maturity, with an astonishing group of teachers including, but not limited to, Pai Chang, Ma Jo, Huang Po, Joju, Dok Sahn, Nam Cheon… What was their world like, what were their lives like, and what can we learn from the way they moved through the many crises of their era?

$30 USD
The Heart Sutra

What does it mean when everything is taken away (even sutra, even heart)? What does this mean for our everyday lives? Come study the Heart Sutra with Arne Schaefer, JDPSN, and find out.

$30 USD
Historical Forms of Our Practice

In this two part series, Kathy Park JDPSN guides us through two classes about the historical forms of our Kwan Um School of Zen practices. Session One explores the origin and history of Zen practice forms and how they evolve to best serve each generation of Zen practitioners. Session Two covers the role of ceremonies and rituals associated with the Zen tradition, as well as the overall structure of the Kwan Um School of Zen in supporting the growth of sangha (community).

$30 USD
Hsin Shin Ming (Trust in Mind)

Join Zen Master Hae Kwang as he leads us through the Hsin Shin Ming (Trust in Mind) by Sengcan, the third Chinese Zen ancestor. There are two 1-hour sessions included with this training.

$30 USD
Illuminating the Heart: Art Can Show Us the Way

Lizzie Coombs JDPSN guides us through two classes about how artistic works can speak to our own spiritual life.

$30 USD
Kong-Ans in the Kwan Um School of Zen

Do you want to improve your experience of kong-an practice? A famous Master once said, “Understanding only goes as far as that which it can understand.” Our understanding serves us quite well for most purposes, as we navigate through our lives at home, at school, and at work. For certain other questions though, the big questions of our human condition, our understanding comes to a screeching halt. In this class, Zen Master Bon Yeon (Jane Dobisz) will share her experience of several decades of working with Zen kong-ans. She will teach some different examples of kong-ans that have helped her in her own life, and hopefully they will help you with yours!

$30 USD
The Lotus Sutra

In our classes about the Lotus Sutra, we will learn how this Sutra teaches Primary Point as the nature of the whole universe; that without any distinction of subject or object, everything becomes one and is already Buddha. We will find out how we connect with the universal energy of One, and become free. When we open this gate, we are able to do everything. The teaching of the Sutra integrates all kinds of practices, even those with mystical approaches, since all teachings are skilful means to help all beings. We will find out how on this basis the Sutra becomes a universal teaching, which is wonderfully reflected in our own Zen practice. The whole universe is a single lotus flower.

$30 USD
The Mahayana Vision

The generosity and trust of the Mahayana vision offer a perspective that allows us to be clear-eyed without panicking, our actions not limited by shortsighted notions of a self desperately trying to preserve its individual prerogatives. We are not the whole. We are part of the whole. Our own liberation is bound up with the liberation of all. And liberation is the destiny of all.

$30 USD
Mind & Body Zen Practices

In these classes, Kathy Park JDPSN will explore the origin and history of bowing and walking meditation in Zen, and seon yu exercises created by Zen Master Seung Sahn for Zen practitioners. While we say that Zen is 'mind sitting, not body sitting', using our physical human form is the path to attain our true nature. Some skillful tips on how to do it can help us have a better experience. The first session will explore the history and various forms of bowing and walking meditation. The second session will focus on seon yu exercises and their benefits for Zen practitioners. With demonstrations, we will do some of the exercises together.

$30 USD
Milestones in the Zen Tradition

Zen Master Joeng Hye will guide us to explore the life and teachings of Zen masters Ma Tsu, Huang Po and Lin Chi. The wisdom and enlightenment of these three masters is timeless and can inspire and enrich the practice of contemporary students as it did with all past dharma generations. The first session will focus on Ma Tsu, the second on Huang Po and Lin Chi.

$30 USD
The Platform Sutra

Delving into explicit passages from the Platform Sutra, we will explore the life and teachings of Hui Neng, the Sixth Ancestor of Zen, and discover how Zen master Seung Sahn connects this important teaching to the Kwan Um Zen tradition.

$30 USD
Precepts in the Kwan Um School of Zen

Zen Master Hae Kwang will guide us to consider the five, ten, sixteen and forty-eight precepts in the Kwan Um School of Zen both as a Buddhist moral code and as the substance of the school's induction and authorization ceremonies. We will also look at the origin of the precepts in the Brahma Net Sutra and their relation to the Eightfold Path and the Four Great Vows. The class will conclude with some observations on the poem on the precepts’ certificate.

$15 USD
The Sound of Chanting

Zen meditation has often been associated with sitting meditation and not through the use of sound. And yet chanting is a big part of our meditation practice in the Kwan Um School of Zen. Where did this chanting practice come from? Why do this form of meditation? In this class, Rebecca Otte JDPSN will explore Zen Master Seung Sahn's teaching on chanting as well as some of the other older teachings on chanting. Although we'll be looking at some of the chants in our school, this will not be a discussion of translations, but rather the importance of the sound itself.

$30 USD
Theravada and Zen

In this course, Zen Master Dae Kwan will connect the thread of her practice from 10 years in the forests of Chiangmai to 31 years in the bustling city of Hong Kong. She will share the many lessons about nature from her Thai Theravada teacher Tan Ajahn Pongsak Tejadhammo and how they connect to Zen Master Seung Sahn’s simple but profound teaching of “the sky is blue; the tree is green.” Nature is always pure and clear. Nature never thinks for itself. Our true nature and the universe’s nature have the same substance. Everything in nature is pointing us to this substance.

$30 USD
Transforming Your Work Into A Spiritual Practice

The Kwan Um Zen Online Sangha presents a special talk by Zen Master Soeng Hyang. Is your work satisfying? Does it genuinely have meaning? Learn how work itself can become a spiritual training once we take our meditation practice off the cushion into our workplace.

$15 USD
Understanding the Morning Bell Chant

Zen Master Hae Kwang, Stanley Lombardo, guides a discussion through the sources, meaning, and significance of the Morning Bell Chant. This course comes with a copy of his interlinear translation of the chant allowing people both a word by word translation as well as a more lyrical translation to help get at the deeper meaning of the chant.

$15 USD
Women in Buddhism

Women have been practitioners and teachers going back to the time of the Buddha. But you probably haven’t heard much about them. This course with Zen Master Bon Hae (Judy Roitman) is about who they are, what they taught, the barriers women practitioners faced, and the ways they overcame them.

$30 USD
Zen and Buddhist Chaplaincy

Lizzie Coombs JDPSN guides us to explore the what, why and how of being a Buddhist chaplain with the emphasis on prison chaplaincy, informed and supported by Zen practice. Learn about a direct way to alleviate the suffering of others, a way to connect with people practicing other forms of Buddhism and other faiths, and an opportunity for right livelihood through your practice.

$30 USD
Zen and Taoism

We will explore key passages from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu's Inner Chapters to examine their influence on early Zen writings like the Hsin Shin Ming and the Sandokai.

$30 USD
Close

50% Complete

Two Step

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.