THE LANKAVATARA SUTRA: foundational text of Zen Buddhism
We’ll take this up with Sarah Bender, Roshi in eight sessions:
Saturdays, 10:30 to 12:00 January 12, 19, 26; February 2, 16, 23; March 2, 9
at Creek Bend Zendo , 7528 Jenkin Place
In order for this practice of close reading and koan practice to be strong, we ask for a commitment to the series. So please register in advance, by contacting Liz Cramer Elizabeth.cramer51@gmail.com
Suggested dana for the series is $80.00.
Our text is The Lankavatara Sutra, Translation and Commentary by Red Pine, from Counterpoint Press. There are several other translations, but we have found Red Pine’s commentary to be enormously valuable.
Red Pine’s Preface says this:
“The event that brought Bodhidharma to the attention of historians and hagiographers alike occurred in or around 534 when he chose Hui-k’o as his successor and handed him a copy of the Lankavatara. Bodhidharma told him everything he needed to know was in this book, and Zen and the Lanka have been linked ever since, if they were not already linked in India.”
This text is not easy! The experience of our group, last time we studied it, was that at first it seemed so dense as to be impenetrable, but soon something started to happen. The teaching seemed to be unweaving each concept we could form about what is real, patiently, step by step, until we could start to have glimpses of what remains when concepts about consciousness dissolve, in the gaps before we can form new ones. And the more we allowed this experience, the more the teaching felt transformative. It turned out to be about us, in our time, in our lives.
So we recommend it! Will it help us with the day to day challenges of meeting the world, our lives, just as they are? Oh yes it will!
Again, to register, please contact Liz Cramer Elizabeth.cramer51@gmail.com
— Class recordings moved to shared Box account (see Frank for details if needed)