About JissoJi Zen Ann Arbor
We are currently holding in-person sittings with a Zoom option. We meet at the Center for Sacred Living (210 Little Lake Drive, Suite 7, Ann Arbor, MI 48103). To get access to the Zoom room please email [email protected] with the subject “Request access to Zoom” at least 12 hours before the sitting.
We sit every Sunday 11:00am – 11:40am, followed by a short service and informal check-in. The sutra book we use can be found at the SFZC website.
Coming up:
- One day retreat with Koji Acquaviva Dreher – September 17th, 9am-5pm at Great Oak Cohousing Common House, 500 Little Lake Dr, Ann Arbor, MI 48103.
Relaxing Into the River of Joy Retreat
Literature from all eras of the Zen tradition encourages neglecting one’s own well-being or comfort while aspiring for Buddhahood. Early Buddhists in India, however, maintained that equanimous dispassion has calmness and happiness as its forebears.Dogen Zenji said in the Shobogenzo Gakudo Yojinshu,
“Difficult though it may be to break our bones and crush our marrow, the most difficult thing is to make our mind balanced. Difficult though it may be to keep the precepts and maintain pure conduct, the most difficult thing is to make our physical conduct balanced.”
In this daylong retreat we will forge a connection with the joy and ease that must fuel our practice if we’re to awaken to wisdom and compassion. Koji will show us practices tailored to increase relaxation, which makes us want to practice more and stabilizes the mind for insight.
Participants will have the freedom to explore a variety of meditation postures, prioritizing ease and comfort. Though the zazen schedule is robust, the periods of meditation will be a bit shorter than usual so that our minds and bodies will be refreshed throughout the day.
Koji Acquaviva Dreher is a Soto Zen priest and a teacher at Clouds in Water Zen Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. He entered monastic training at Tassajara when he was 21 and spent nearly a decade as a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center. He co-founded the Mid City Zen Center of New Orleans and has served regularly as a visiting teacher at the Austin Zen Center. A queer and neurodivergent person who trained traditionally, Koji seeks to identify and confront the ways traditional Zen teaching methods reinscribe harm for members of marginalized communities. In addition to Soto Zen, Koji has studied Vedanta, hatha yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism in residential practice centers.
- On September 10th our half-day sitting starts at 8:20 am. We will have several sitting and walking periods until 11:00am when we will have a Dharma talk from Seigen Johnson. Join us for the whole time or a part.
- On September 24th after the sitting we return for “Sit. Stop. Write” (1:30pm-3:00pm) to practice Zen and Poetry writing in a small group – no prior experience necessary.
JissoJi Zen Ann Arbor is a Zen meditation group in the tradition of Shunryu Suzuki (founder of the San Francisco Zen Center and author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind). Our Zazen –Zen meditation– is held at Center for Sacred Living (210 Little Lake Drive, Suite 7, Ann Arbor, MI 48103) and online via Zoom.
JissoJi Zen Ann Arbor follows a Japanese Soto Zen lineage, the American practices originate in the San Francisco Zen Center. All are welcome, no prior experience necessary. Orientation & Introduction to Zazen –Zen meditation– and Zendo forms are available upon request.
JissoJi also offers lay-ordination preparation, studying the precepts and sewing of Buddha’s robe. Links to our online Zoom classes are available by request. The Rev. Taikodo Marta Dabis is a board-certified hospital chaplain and ordained Zen priest in the Suzuki/Katagiri lineage. She lives in Ann Arbor, MI.
