right here, right now
Zen helps us to dissolve negative habits of body and mind, live with clarity, and be of service to all beings.
Practice
Standing
We do a brief warm-up and spend about 10 minutes in standing meditation forms (zhan zhuang). These standing forms are excellent for getting us out of our heads and into our bodies, discovering our posture, and getting our ki flowing.
Sitting
We then do two 25-minute periods of zazen, or seated meditation, with a short walking meditation (kinhin) in-between. Beginners will receive instructions in correct posture and body usage, belly breathing (fukushiki kokyu) and unified breath counting (sussokukan).
Chanting
We end each session with about 10 minutes of practice with breathing and mantric vibration by chanting okyo (sutras and dharanis), followed by three full bows.
Instructor
Genryo Jones Osho was lucky enough to get a taste of traditional Rinzai Zen training in Japan in the late nineties, at Sogenji monastery with Shodo Harada Roshi, where he was ordained and trained for three and a half years. Recently, he has become a student of Meido Moore Roshi, abbot of Korinji in Wisconsin, and found a flavor of zen strikingly similar to what he experienced in Japan. His hope is to help make this flavor of Rinzai Zen training available locally for anyone with whom it might resonate, as it did for him. Iron City Rinzai is affiliated with the Korinji Rinzai Zen Community.
Join us
Practice sessions are held on Sunday mornings from 9 to 10:30am in room 205, upstairs at the Wilkins School Community Center in Pittsburgh. Newcomers are always welcome and instruction will be provided. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or to let us know you’re coming using the form below. Drop-ins and partial attendance are fine!
Wilkins School Community Center
7604 Charleston Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
USA
Send Us a Message
email genryojones@gmail.com
Donate
There is no fee required to participate, but a $5 donation per session is suggested to help defray the cost of renting our space ($150/month) paid to the WSCC. (Venmo, PayPal or cc accepted)
News
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Iron City Rinzai
Iron City Rinzai is a Zen practice group in Pittsburgh. We will soon be meeting in person at the Wil
Can’t recommend this group highly enough!Our October Month-long Online Intensive starts October 1st. Please join this sincere group of consistent practitioners.
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If you are a beginner wishing to get into your internal process or an experienced meditator wanting to go deeper or recharge your practice, this work is transformative.
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Zhan Zhuang, qigong, seated zazen, non-directed body movement, homework to take it into daily life, discussion about practice and a very welcoming community of experienced practitioners.
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Touch the source with your whole being
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#zhanzhuang #zhanzhuangqigong #qigong #zen #taoism
Thanks so much!!!
Making some more zafu—with a little helper 😆
Glad to see a quality control officer on site 😁
I found this passage from the fourth patriarch Dayi Daoxin (580-651) particularly remarkable as it echos almost exactly the instructions I received nearly 1400 years later.
It is from Daoxin’s “Instructions for Novices” in Masters of the Lanka, translated by Sam Van Schaik in his book “The Spirit of Zen”.
“To begin, sit with your body upright, in comfortable clothes without a belt. Relax your body and loosen your arms and legs by rubbing them seven or eight times. Allow your mind to come to rest in your abdomen, and let your breath out completely. [from the footnotes: in some versions of the text the word xin or “mind” is missing and this passage can be translated “force all the air out of your abdomen.”] You will suddenly realize your nature to be pure and lucid, calm and clear, with body and mind in harmony.
Then as you pacify mind and spirit, subtle and profound, with calm, refreshing breathing, gradually turn the mind within. The spiritual path will become clear and sharp, the mind’s ground pure and luminous. When you examine this luminosity, you find both internal and external are empty and pure. This is mind’s natural stillness.
This stillness is the manifestation of the Buddha’s mind itself. Though it is formless in nature, it always has purity of intention. This spiritual energy is never exhausted; it is always present in its bright clarity. This is what we call the Buddha nature.”
This antique Japanese temple bell appeared on Etsy recently at a price just too good to pass up. It’s rich, full sound has been a wonderful addition to our chanting practice on Sunday mornings. Please come by and join us!