SMS offers several kinds of study and community practice opportunities:
- Book study series are organized several times a year, often led by members of the community.
- Sutra study series, or shared investigation of another text, are offered once or twice a year, led by Sarah Bender or Andrew Palmer.
- Koan series are offered several times a year, also, and these are not so common in Zen practice in America. Koans are expressions of the Way handed down to us through our tradition. Each has the ability to evoke for us a direct experience of the Way.
- In koan gatherings, we take up a koan or two together, as a group meditation out loud. Together, we invite the koan into our circle and see what the conversation of koan and all of us becomes.
- A precepts study series is offered when a number of people ask for it, or are interested in formally taking refuge in the Bodhisattva Way. This seems to be once every year or two.
Please watch this website and our newsletters for announcements of these opportunities. See the Classes and Gatherings Schedule and Classes and Gatherings News page for details.