What is Zen?
Zen Foundations | Module 1
Explore the basics of Zen practice and the core Buddhist principles which inform it.
What is Zen (and is not Zen)? What are the root teachings of Zen? How do practice (Buddha), teachings (Dharma) and community (Sangha) work together?
This class took place live in February 2022 as part of the 12-module Zen Foundations Course offered by Eon Zen Center and is now available individually as a self-paced course.
You may register below for this module, or sign up for the full Zen Foundations Course through Eon Zen to receive access to all 12-modules.
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Getting Started
Tips on how to engage with this course and recommendations to get you going.
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Topics and Recommended Readings
Explore the basics of Zen practice and the core Buddhist principles which inform it.
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Suggested Practices
Counting Breaths, Washing Dishes.
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Chapter 1
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Chapter 2
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A Conversation about Zen Practice with Sean Tetsudo Murphy
Gyodo Sensei and his long-time dharma brother, Sean Tetsudo Murphy, Sensei, share their experiences with Zen Practice over thirty years — from what makes Zen "Zen," to what drew each of them to meditation practice, to the fundamental principles, obstacles, and realizations they have experienced along the way.
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A Conversation about Zen Practice with Roshi Gerry Shishin Wick
Gyodo Sensei talks with Roshi Gerry Shishin Wick about the evolution of Zen in America to how fundamental Buddhist teachings manifest in practice, and common misconceptions of practice
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Meet Your Instructors
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Paul Gyodo Agostinelli, Sensei is the principle teacher for the Zen Foundations course and Founder and Spiritual Leader of One Body Sangha and Eon Zen Center. He received Dharma Transmission in 2015, after 25 years of Zen practice, from his teachers Shishin Wick, Roshi and Shinko Perez, Roshi, founders of the Great Mountain Zen Center.
Gyodo Sensei has long and intimate experience with the main Zen practice styles of koan (Rinzai) and shikantaza (Soto), as well as the Great Heart Way path developed by his teachers.
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Sean Tetsudo Murphy, Sensei, MFA, SAGE Institute President and Co-founder, Hemingway Award-winning novelist, and author of One Bird, One Stone: 108 American Zen Stories, first studied under the direction of Taizan Maezumi Roshi of the Zen Center of Los Angeles and then with John Daido Loori Roshi of Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York. He continued his studies with Gerry Shishin Wick Roshi of Great Mountain Zen Center, receiving Dharma Transmission in 2019.
Tetsudo Sensei teaches meditation, creative writing, and literature for UNM-Taos and has taught and presented on Zen practice and meditation for many years. He is the founder of the Sage Institute for Creativity, Consciousness & Environment which offers a 200-Hour Meditation Leader Training. You can also learn more about Sean at murphyzen.com.
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Gerry Shishin Wick, Roshi is the Co-Spiritual Director of the Great Mountain Zen Center in Berthoud, Colorado, and a Dharma Successor of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, having received transmission in 1990 after 24 years of Zen training under Maezumi, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and Sochu Suzuki Roshi. In January, 2006 he received Inka from Roshi Bernie Glassman in the White Plum Asanga and the Zen Peacemaker Order.
In May 2007, he was elected President of the White Plum Asanga, the organization of Zen teachers in the lineage of Maezumi Roshi. In 2014 when Shishin Roshi stepped down as President of White Plum Asanga, he was acknowledged as an Elder in the organization.
Shishin Roshi is the author of three books including The Book of Equanimity: Illuminating Classic Zen Koans, My American Zen Life, and co-author of The Great Heart Way with Ilia Shinko Perez, Roshi.
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ZEN FOUNDATIONS
