Open Mind Zen Louisville

04/10/2026

Image: preparing to celebrate Buddha’s Birthday 2026. All we need now are the flowers!

🪷
Buddha’s Birthday

Saturday April 11, 11am-3pm

Zendo opens at 9:45
Unprogrammed sitting* begins at 10 am
Retreat begins at 11 am

(Lunch at 12:30!)

Cost: donation + a vegetarian dish or snack to share. Finger food/no dishes required, please!

Donation links here

This 4-hour retreat—a sangha practice and celebration—will involve some dharma (“self-care, meditation techniques, and the window of activation”), some somatic exercises, a koan, some sitting, and a meal together. Come early after 9;45 for more sitting if your practice is ready for that. “Sitting” means meditation in whatever posture is right for your body: standing, walking, sitting, or lying down.* Bring whatever physical supports work best for you if they are not already in the zendo.

Participants may undergo the self-guided Baby-Buddha-washing ceremony to take/retake the Three Pure Precepts.

*Standing, walking, sitting or lying down,
As long as one is devoid of torpor,
One would resolve upon this mindfulness
—This is known as sublime abiding here.
-Metta Sutta

Please register with an email: omzlouisville@gmail.com

03/27/2026

Here’s our weekly newsletter about this week’s sangha practice! If you’d like more like this or to attend by Zoom, message to be added. 🪷🙏❤️ Image: a 6-Realm Bhavachakra with the 12 Nidanas

Happy Friday!

Our dharma study continues with the 3rd Noble Truth, Cessation (of suffering).

This week and next, we investigate the experience of unconditional presence and clarity to practice for in zazen… as contrasted with the experience of dissociation (“detachment from reality”).

We will begin with the Buddhist framework of the 12 Nidanas and consider dissociation as the “near enemy” of equanimity.

We pivot to contemporary scientific research about neurology and un/intended impacts of meditation techniques.

Are we creating experiences of liberation, dissociation, or both? Can we help ourselves create the experiences that we want?

Finally, we will group-source a list of self-directed practices, shifts and interventions a practitioner can make in meditation practice, depending on the needs of the moment.

Saturday Sangha Practice
in-person at OMZL and by Zoom
all times EST

10:00 am open (unprogrammed, optional) sitting
10:25 Bell Verse
10:30-12:00 Sangha Practice
12:15-1:00 open discussion “gathering of the Dharmaheads”

03/18/2026

image: Maureen Hagerman "changing ponds" 36 x 48" acrylic on canvas Maureen Hagerman

https://mailchi.mp/d3c0b949b542/retreats

No sangha practice this Saturday due to the OMZ teacher retreat.

7am sits, practice meetings & rakusu sewing will be held as scheduled.

There are two upcoming retreats to consider and save the dates. Scroll down for the annual Open Mind Zen spring retreat, May 15-17.

Our sangha will celebrate Buddha’s Birthday with a retreat as well. The details are still to be determined, but the date is Saturday April 11.

See newsletter for more info.

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03/12/2026

Upcoming this week at OMZL, and SAVE THE DATE for our OMZ Retreat May 15-17.

https://mailchi.mp/355a146e6d91/three-doors-of-liberation

03/06/2026

This week: the cessation of suffering, and a koan. New Saturday practice schedule.

https://mailchi.mp/799f17c28283/prajnatara

02/25/2026

Image: the first two Nidanas as symbolized in a bhavachakra. Avidya: a blind person is helped to walk. Sankara: a potter makes and uses vessels.

This week we will look at the first two Nidanas [avidya (ignorance, delusion) and sankara (formations, obstructions] in sentient experience… when there is suffering, and when there is not.

We will learn about how our delusion functions to limit our experience, and our formations shape our experience.

We will learn and practice simple Zen technique for liberation from suffering.

Sangha Practice

Saturday 10:30-12:00 AM EST hybrid
Link for details.

https://mailchi.mp/bac24e89aa62/avidya-sankara

02/20/2026

https://mailchi.mp/b9e549dd1948/samsara-nirvana

02/11/2026

https://mailchi.mp/a2cc60c8ca45/dependent-origination-10343729?e=baa55c4694

We’ve been studying how to apply our foundational practice of simple nonjudgmental awareness (“yes”) to working with our own anger and ill will.

02/11/2026

Interfaith work is 🪷🙏❤️ Wonderful panel! Assistant teacher Angie Reed Garner offered a 5 min. talk on "a Buddhist perspective on reproductive justice."

02/06/2026

Last week we studied how to apply our foundational practice of simple nonjudgmental awareness (“yes”) to working with our own anger and ill will.

As Thich Nhat Hanh put it, “You have to do it [meet your anger] tenderly, without violence. This is not an act of suppressing our anger.”

This week we will look at the Akkosa Sutra-- the story of Akkosaka ("The Insulter") and how a powerful practitioner (Buddha, described here as the historical teacher) worked with someone insulting him. He makes some powerful moves that depend on direct personal realization of anatta (impermanence of self) and advaya (nonduality).

Last week we studied how to apply our foundational practice of simple nonjudgmental awareness (“yes”) to working with our own anger and ill will.

01/30/2026

BRRRR!

It’s predicted now to be 10F when we gather tomorrow. We are Zoom-only again this Saturday. Right now it looks like we may get back to in-person on the 7th, but watch this space.

Our topic this week is anger, the kind of anger that comes up with a hurt or loss caused by the actions of others.

This is a specific type of suffering, and we will look at some Buddhist and Zen strategies for getting free.

This week’s topic is inspired by the Precepts student discussion on the 9th Precept: May I transform suffering into wisdom. This is the Precept of Not Being Angry.

It’s extremely tricky suffering to transform. We will look at a variety of strategies.

🔥

THIS WEEK ZOOM ONLY

Saturday 10:30-12:00 AM EST
see newsletter (below link) for Zoom info

🪷

https://mailchi.mp/af66765fa3bf/dependent-origination-10343401

12/13/2025

Happy Bodhi Day! Early sitting at OMZL.