Reciting the Lotus Sutra

Saturday, December 31, 2022
10:00 AM 9:00 PM 10:00 21:00

McGowan House West Franklin & High Street Monterey, CA 93940 US (map)

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Shogen Danielson leads an all-day reading of the Lotus Sutra on New Year’s Eve at McGowan House. Also online. By suggested donation.

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(For full details on the reading, and to donate, scroll down below this form.)

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The Lotus Sutra is a seminal text for the Tendai School and many Mahayana schools that came later including Soto Zen. Though it informs much of Dogen Zenji’s teachings and is quoted widely in the Shobogenzo, the Lotus Sutra is rarely read, recited or copied in the West as the sutra itself recommends. This will not be a class or discussion group, and we won’t be pausing along the way. Rather, we will give our full attention to recite it from beginning to end. We will take turns reading together in person at McGowan House (copies provided) and from an online copy that will be available via Zoom.

For those who wish to study ahead, we are reading from: The Lotus Sutra, a Contemporary Translation of a Buddhist Classic, translation and introduction by Gene Reeves. Wisdom Publications, 2008.

Also as a supplementary commentary see: Peaceful Action, Open Heart: Lessons from the Lotus Sutra by Thich Nhat Hanh. Parallax Press. 2009. (The earlier edition was titled Opening the Heart of the Cosmos: Insights on the Lotus Sutra, 2005. Limited in-print, however readily circulating.)

Suggested donation as affordable: $30-$150 to MBZC will be shared with Shogen. An additional $20 contribution toward dinner is also requested.

No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please contact Shogen for any information using the quick form above.

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Additional plans are formulating regarding the schedule and will be sent to confirmed participants:

Timing and format for the day overall.
A rough/estimated schedule to sign up to read a particular chapter.
A bibliography for attendees who want to delve further.
Food. Advice on bringing personal snacks and or dinner if attending at dinner break.
Volunteer to shop and prepare the dinner.

Shogen Danielson, Shogen Nyoho: (Luminous Night :: Tender Release) Following trips to India and Nepal in 1996 and a stint in the US Peace Corps in Africa where he began sitting and studying Buddhist teachings, Shogen resettled in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2001. He then began practice at San Francisco Zen Center where he met his teacher, Teah Strozer. He ordained as a priest in 2008, served as head monk at Tassajara Zenshin-ji in 2013 and received Dharma Transmission from Teah Roshi in 2022. (full biography)