Zen Community

(Formerly the A2U2 Zen Community)

"We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep."

Naturalists had thought the dawn redwood was long extinct and that it was only known from fossils. But in 1941 a living tree was discovered in a sacred grove next to a small temple in the countryside of Sichuan Province, China. Descendants of this beautiful "living fossil" have since been planted in eastern Asian and North America—including our own church yard. As this descendant of ancient Chinese trees hidden in sheltered mountain ravines and valleys has been transplanted to our front yard, so too the teachings of Zen have been grafted from Asia onto our own western stock, even here at A2U2. The Dawn Redwood Zen Community is a practice group of Boundless Way Zen (www.boundlesswayzen.org) the first community in North America to bring teachers of different Zen lineages together with the intention of creating a distinctively Western vision of Zen.

We meet weekly on Tuesday evenings, 7-9:00 P.M. The schedule for each evening includes a Zen liturgy, two 25 minute sitting periods with walking meditation in between, and a period of study and reflection following. Newcomers are most welcome to attend this ongoing group. If you are interested in joining us, please contact David Heald to arrange a brief orientation session. FMI, contact the Leader of the Zen Community.