The Cleveland Zazen Group, has been meeting together for over 30 years. We are located in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
08/04/2025
What is Zen? Who is Buddha? Who are you?
Saturday August 8 at 1:30 p.m. we will have an Introduction/Refresher to Zen Meditation practice.
While those new to Zen will learn all the basics they need to begin practice, those needing a refresher or jump-start to a lapsed practice are also welcome and this is a good time to ask questions that may have arisen during the early days/months/years of practice.
Advance registration is required so please call or text 216-630-3583
07/22/2025
Come hungry for Dharma, stay for lunch with Sangha - Bon apetitè 🥰
Sunday July 27, 9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon. Two rounds of sitting with walking meditation in- between followed by a teisho or dharma talk. From 11am-12pm we'll have our monthly sangha potluck brunch, CZG provides. You are welcome to bring additions (but this is definitely not required.)🙏🏼
*drawing by Giei Satō from book:
Unsui: A Diary of Zen Monastic Life
by Eshin Nishamura
copywrite 1973
07/16/2025
Dōgen's vow: "Let this be our prayer: that together with all living beings we will hear the True Dharma from this life through all future lives. When we hear the True Dharma, let us neither doubt or disbelieve it. When we encounter the True Dharma for certain,may we discard the laws of the world and cherish the Buddha's Dharma. Eventually may we be able to accomplish the Way together with all the sentient beings of the great Earth."
*Master Eihei Dōgen 1200-1253 CE
Harada Tangen Roshi's Commentary: "Unless one awakens to the Buddha's Dharma, one cannot fully actualize it. In order to awaken, one must fully understand the preciousness of the Dharma and at the same time, one must have confidence in it's reasonableness. By these means one comes to comprehend the necessity of awakening. The next step is to say "I will begin practice". Thus practice becomes imperative through appreciation of the Dharma. Anyone will come to a real understanding of the true value of the Buddha's Dharma when at last one is able to say, "Of course!" having experienced directly that there is absolutely no way to pacify the mind other than realizing this Dharma.
**Harada Tangen Roshi
1924-2018 CE
*Excerpt from Dōgen's vow: "Hotsugammon" from Dōgens'
Masterful work Shōbōgenzō
**Harada Roshi's
commentary to Dogen's vow.
Zen Bow, Spring 1977 Vol 10, no.1 A Rochester Zen Center publication. Excerpts from article translated by Ken Kraft, called: Zen Master Dogen's "Hotsugammon" with excerpts from Harada Roshi's Commentary
Some of you may know the story of the Zen master who was
asked by a student how long it would take him to get enlightened.
The master said, "About fifteen years."
The student said, "What! Fifteen years?"
"Well, it might take twenty-five years in your case."
"It would take twenty-five years in my case!"
"On second thought, it would probably take fifty years."..You remember Dogen says, "There is no beginning to practice or end to enlightenment; there is no beginning to enlightenment or end to practice."
It is this steady, rocklike sitting that really triumphs in the end, this ever-deepening of our practice.
-Roshi Kapleau
excerpt from the book 'Awakening to Zen the Teachings of Roshi Philip Kapleau.
chapter: Impatience in Practice (1974),
Book edited by Polly Young-Eisendrath and Rafe Martin cw: 1997 Rochester Zen Center
07/05/2025
Wishing Happy Birthday and Long Life prayers to Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, His Holiness the14th Dalai Lama 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
90th Birthday Message
On the occasion of my 90th birthday, I understand that well-wishers and friends in many places, including Tibetan communities, are gathering for celebrations. I particularly appreciate the fact that many of you are using the occasion to engage in initiatives that highlight the importance of compassion, warm-heartedness, and altruism.
I am just a simple Buddhist monk; I don’t normally engage in birthday celebrations. However, since you are organizing events focused on my birthday I wish to share some thoughts.
While it is important to work for material development, it is vital to focus on achieving peace of mind through cultivating a good heart and by being compassionate, not just toward near and dear ones, but toward everyone. Through this, you will contribute to making the world a better place.
As for myself, I will continue to focus on my commitments of promoting human values, religious harmony, drawing attention to the ancient Indian wisdom which explains the workings of mind and emotions, and Tibetan culture and heritage, which has so much potential to contribute to the world through its emphasis on peace of mind and compassion.
I develop determination and courage in my daily life through the teachings of the Buddha and Indian masters such as Shantideva, whose following aspiration I strive to uphold.
As long as space endures,
As long as sentient being remain,
Until then, may I too remain
To dispel the miseries of the world.
Thank you for using the opportunity of my birthday to cultivate peace of mind and compassion.
Tashi Deleg and with prayers,
Dalai Lama
5 July 2025
07/02/2025
Staying grounded through the Winds of Change -
whatever happens in whatever situation we find ourselves in.....isn't it all flux?! Isn't change constant?! Isn't everything, just part of the cycle of causes and effects?!
Our practice is not to avoid difficulties or uncertainties or wallow in despair.
None of us knows how things will turn out. Predicting the future is also not our job. There is one thing though that we can do - and that is simply to give ourselves to our practice, to do the work and trust that Zazen really is, the one thing that will enable us to see more clearly,
to think and speak and act from - a Mind of stable awareness🙏🏼
*Sensei Dhara Kowal
Winds of Change
excerts-edits from Teisho March 2 2025
Rochester Zen Center
*Sensei Dhara (Donna) Kowal was authorized as a Zen teacher by Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede in 2022 and serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn. She was ordained as a Zen priest on August 6, 2023.
Rochester Zen Center
06/27/2025
"How should we practice? What is the path? Zazen is the foundation of our practice. We start out by learning to do Zazen correctly, following the guidance of a teacher to settle the body, settle the breath, settle the mind."
-Tangen Harada Roshi
"Doing zazen is Buddha. Doing zazen is already the full expression of Buddha nature."
- Harada Tangen Roshi
Zazen, taking refuge in Buddha🙏🏼
Quote from interview:
Recalling Daisetsu Tangen Harada Roshi, Beloved Master of the Soto Way
March 14, 2018 by James Ford
06/17/2025
"The depth of truth is bottomless. Your interconnection is bottomless. A single grass in the field is perfect Buddha. How utterly ONE are all things: the grasses, the trees, the great earth, the great sky. All being is born in relation to all things. This is the true self, the perfect self. No matter what, all is goodness."
Roshi Bodhin Kapleau, Dharma heir of Roshi Philip Kapleau (studied with Harada Tangen Roshi and Yasutani Roshi) also spent time w/Harada Roshi as he shared in this writing: https://www.rzc.org/news/harada-tangen-roshi/
06/11/2025
Zazen practice is Taming the Ox:
From the origin of our birth all beings are searching, as infants the search is simpĺe... for the milk, seeking comfort of warmth and clean diapers. Our search continues through out our life for sustenance that supports life, searching to be free from suffering and to escape bordom and suffering by seeking pleasures.
At some point within ones consciousness -heart we seek Truth, what/why is life?
In some, the question of what is Truth is not yet strong, in others it is fervent!
In Buddhism the symbol of the ox is the untamed mind. The 10 ox-herding pictures tell the story of a now curious, determined, brave, student/monk of Life taming his ox to finally Awaken to Truth:
Buddha Nature🙏🏼
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The Cleveland Zazen Group has been meeting together for over 30 years. We are located in Cleveland Heights and follow traditions established at the Rochester Zen Center by Roshi Phillip Kapleau and his Dharma-successor, Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede. Regular sittings (meditation) are every Tuesday evening from 7:30-8:45 p.m.
We also meet every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. for zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a recorded teisho (sermon or dharma talk) by Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede of the Rochester Zen Center or other teachers in similar lineages. Twice a month on Sundays, from 11 to noon, we have brunch together.
Periodically there are all-day sittings and Introductory Workshops. Introduction to Zen meditation practice can be arranged for interested individuals and groups.
There are no accidents! If you have come to this website, you have questions about your life, about pain and suffering, about meaning, peace, or your own personhood. You may have done some reading on Zen, on Buddhism, or on meditation. But, as the old masters have said, "Painted cakes do not satisfy hunger."
For more information or to get on our email list, please contact Susan or Larry Rakow at 216-932-3084 or susanrakow@earthlink.net.
