Open Mind Zen Louisville

25/06/2025

https://mailchi.mp/01efe3127ab0/practicing-with-anger

18/06/2025

Practicing with personal reactivity!

https://mailchi.mp/3acd9bf17d05/practicing-with-personal-reactivity?e=3d7362fee2

13/06/2025

https://mailchi.mp/612a8b321265/finding-the-way?e=baa55c4694

This week we continue our study and practice of the bodhisattva path by practicing to identify and accept any default, subtle & ordinary types of reactivity.

04/06/2025

Julie Nelson speaks this week at OMZL! Zoom and in-person, Saturday 11am EST. Follow link to register.

Sensei Julie Nelson will teach at Open Mind Zen Louisville as part of the speaking tour for her new book, Practicing Safe Zen.

28/05/2025

Sensei Julie Nelson will teach at Open Mind Zen Louisville as part of the speaking tour for her new book, Practicing Safe Zen. Please join us in person and by Zoom.

Saturday June 7, 11 AM EST

Julie Seido Nelson is a transmitted teacher (Sensei) in the Maezumi Roshi Zen lineage. Her home Zen community is the Greater Boston Zen Center, a sangha which has experienced three major upheavals due to teacher arrogance and abuses of power. This has led to the Resilient Sangha Project, and the book she will teach from for this special event.

Your registration is appreciated! (And it's necessary, if you need a Zoom link.)
https://forms.gle/1HzH5xExRKRx3eDY9

Practicing Safe Zen: Introduction
https://julieanelson.com/2024/11/21/practicing-safe-zen/

Praise for Practicing Safe Zen

“A must-read manual, born of the author’s long personal experience with misconduct, for how to protect yourself and your sangha from abuse of power, beginning with how to approach and engage safely and wisely with the teachings. Nelson identifies the problem of s*xual misconduct in Buddhist communities as rooted in more than one factor, including human psychology, institutional structure and the balance of power. This book belongs on the front shelf of every Zen Center.” —Willa Blythe Baker, author, The Wakeful Body

"Practicing Safe Zen fills me with gratitude, because here at last, in clear and compelling language, is precisely the book we need for addressing teachers’ abuses of power, s*x, and money, and for building resilient sanghas that exemplify both compassion and accountability. Julie Seido Nelson's vitally important book should be read by every Zen teacher, board member, and student." —Rev. Steve Kanji Ruhl, author, Appalachian Zen

Practicing Safe Zen dives deep into what every sangha member and especially every person of authority in a sangha must keep in mind. Watch out! Be aware of the perils of cultishness, the pitfalls of spiritual bypassing, the poison of thinking you have arrived, the hazard of minimization and much more! This is an important read for anyone immersed in Zen community and practice." —Genjo Marinello, author, Reflections in Awakening and Maturity

“In this important work, Julie Nelson points out the underlying problems, how Zen Centers go astray, how practitioners suffer and how to have a healthier practice place." —Grace Schireson, author, Zen Women

"Curious about Zen? Serious about Zen? Either way, read Julie Nelson’s edifying and empowering book. It’s a vital companion for anyone interested in a Zen path." —Scott Edelstein, author, S*x and the Spiritual Teacher

“This is a reflective and challenging read, questioning authority, tradition and lineages. Is Zen beyond conditions or must one take into account the conditions in which Zen is practiced? This is a thoroughly engaging exploration based on deep knowledge of the tradition as well as contemporary research." —Martine Batchelor, author, Principles of Zen

"Practicing Safe Zen imparts a lesson we all will have to learn if we want to truly mature in our spiritual practice. It asks us to face the emotionally difficult reality of our own idealizations and subsequent disillusionment... Nelson takes us through the history of one Zen community torn apart by scandal and teacher misconduct. Yet she also tells the story of how that community has tried to put itself back together, with shared communal responsibility taking the place of hierarchy, authority and submission. Hers is a Zen that has the potential to outlive—and outgrow—our fantasies of perfectly enlightened, Yoda-like Masters". —Barry Magid, author, Ending the Pursuit of Happiness

Open Mind Zen Louisville
omzlouisville.com

Event flyer: https://www.omzlouisville.com/julie-nelson-practicing-safe-zen

15/05/2025

Upcoming! Please share and register by email for Zoom access: omzlouisville@gmail.com

Julie Nelson visits OMZL Sat. June 7 11 am EST for an in-person talk on her new book “Practicing Safe Zen”— a fresh and contemporary look at the perils of practicing the Way. All are welcome.

More info about Julie and her work here: https://www.omzlouisville.com/julie-nelson-practicing-safe-zen

14/05/2025

Image: Vimalakīrti debates Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Chinese painting from the Dunhuang Caves, Tang dynasty

Sangha practice

Friday and Saturday at 11:00 am EST
In-person at Open Mind Zen Louisville
Zoom access by request: text (502) 303-7259

This week we begin the Vimalakirti Sutra. The text is available online (link). We will look at Chapter 3 (pages 32-49). It’s not necessary to read the text, but some might enjoy it.

Read on for additional practice opportunities this week.

https://mailchi.mp/905487d90b06/vimalakirti-week-one

23/04/2025

This week is deeper into this case from Xuefeng: The buddhas in the past, present, and future abide in flames and turn the great dharma wheel. Sangha practice Friday and Saturday at 11:00 am EST

We will also sangha-source some wisdom for our precepts students who are just undertaking the study of the Ten Grave Precepts.

Zoom is available either day by request.
Please email omzlouisville@gmail.com or text (502) 303-7259.

Also available this week:

Zen Improv (in person)
Friday 12:30-1:00 EST

meditation with Zoom support
daily 7-8am EST (partial sits welcome)

OMZ talk and discussion by Zoom with rotating teachers
Thursday 7pm EST

OMZ sit and talk by Zoom with rotating teachers
Sunday 10 am EST (talk at 11 am)

🪷

17/04/2025

https://mailchi.mp/8b537bf47026/black-white-monkeys

09/04/2025

https://mailchi.mp/f5c7a267e17d/happy-buddhas-birthday

We will go over the techniques Roshi Al presented last week during our Zen Somatics Retreat, and practice and process our experiences with them.

18/02/2025

A portion of this week's text from Dogen's Gyobutsu Iigi.

"Do not take up the buddha measure to measure and analyze the great way. The buddha measure is one step, just like an open blossom. Do not hold out the mind measure to grope for and deliberate about the awesome presence. The mind measure is a single face, like the world. The measure of a single blade of grass is clearly the measure of the buddha ancestor mind—one blade that recognizes the whereabouts of active buddhas. Even if you recognize that one mind measure encompasses innumerable buddha measures, when you try to measure the active buddhas’ appearance by the motion and stillness of their visage, it is undoubtedly beyond measure. Since their conduct is beyond measure, measuring does not hit the mark, is not useful, and cannot be gauged."

Image: Stone statue of the Buddha seated, with moss-covered stone alms bowl and stone vases containing plants, in Ryōan-ji Zen Buddhist temple, Kyoto, Japan