Category : News
From March 22 to 24, Sensei Janet Jiryu Abels will lead a sesshin for members of Still Mind Zendo’s affiliate sangha, Plum Blossom Zendo in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sensei Janet has been leading the weekend sesshins at Plum Blossom twice per year, in March and September, since 2006, and Sensei Gregory Hosho Abels has also led [...]
Sensei Janet and Sensei Gregory recently attended the annual meeting of the Lay Zen Teachers Association (LZTA), held this year at the Garrison Institute. The association is 60-member group of Western Zen teachers from all lineages who, for one reason or another, have decided not to become a priest. The LZTA was formed four years [...]
In September, a half-dozen members of Still Mind Zendo, our two teachers, and a handful of practitioners from other zendos went on a two-week journey through southern China, visiting sites and temples associated with some of China’s great ancient Zen masters. The trip was loosely based on Sensei Janet’s book Making Zen Your Own: Giving [...]
We would like to invite you to hear Sensei Gregory read from his book of poetry, Never Something Else: Poems from the Eye of Zen at Namaste Bookshop on Wednesday, July 11 at 6:30 p.m. Sensei will also speak about the writing of the poems and sign copies of the book. Once again, cellist Anthime Miller will [...]
Andy Ferguson, author of Zen’s Chinese Heritage and leader of our September trip to Southern China, gave a talk at the Zendo on May 31st about recent discoveries in old Chinese texts about the life of Zen’s founding ancestor, Bodhidharma. These discoveries shed new light and new importance on this enigmatic figure in Zen history. The talk was based [...]
Watch Sensei Gregory and Sensei Janet read exerpts from the night of the book launch on February 29th at the Rubin Museum
The editor of the Buddhist magazine Tricycle, Philip Ryan, recently interviewed Sensei Janet about her new book, “Making Zen Your Own: Giving Life to Twelve Key Golden Age Ancestors.” The book and the interview were featured on the Tricycle home page and can be accessed here.
The beautiful and spacious café at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City was the setting for Still Mind Zendo’s book launch party & reading honoring the release of two books by our teachers. More than 40 people gathered there on the evening of Feb. 29th, a number of them sangha members, to [...]
Sensei Janet and Sensei Gregory were empowered as Lay Preceptors (Denkai) in a ceremony on February 10th, 2012. While not groundbreaking, it is rare for lay Zen teachers to be granted the authority to give the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts, and can be seen as part of a wave of the future for Zen in North [...]
Join us February 29th at the Rubin Museum of Art for the launch of our Senseis’ books! COME! Plan to spend a wonderful evening with us at The Rubin Museum of Art. 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The evening will begin at 5 p.m. at the Rubin Museum book store. There you can meet the authors and have your [...]