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BSPG News and Meeting (No. 172)
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Edited by Stony Brook Buddhism Study and Practice Group

News
Drs John Crook and Simon Child, Dharma heirs of Master Sheng-yen will be given a special talk about the Western Zen Retreat on Thursday evening. The title of the talk is "Emptying theBarrel: a Western Zen Retreat." Dr John Crook is a retired professor of behavioral science at the University of Bristol. Dr Simon Child is a general practitioner (family doctor) in England. Both of them have practiced Buddhism for many years. The website of the Western Chan Fellowship, the organization headed by Dr. John Crook, has this description about the program: "A simple monastic regime enables the mind to face the major paradox - Who am I? - in creative mutual questioning. People work in pairs in exploring this fundamental Koan. The intensive focus drives each into a self-presentation that is difficult to experience in other ways. The outcome may be a profound sense of the unity of self and possibly a direct insight into the 'ground of being', in traditional Zen considered to be a glimpse of Enlightenment. Whether or not such an insight happens, participants share a rich experience in new self-knowledge and understanding others. Open equally to beginners and established trainees."

The venue is the Chan Meditation Center in Queens. Admission is free of charge. If you are interested in going and need a ride, please contact Hai-Dee at hdlee@bnl.gov. The talk starts at 7:30pm and runs for one and a half hour. You can also call the Chan Meditation Center at (718)592-6593 or visit their website at http://www.chancenter.org/
 

Meeting
303 Student Activities Center
Thursday, 3/14/02, 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Please be on time!
 

Words from the Suttas/Sutras
"Virtuous men, if after awakening to the pure nature of complete enlightenment, these Bodhisattvas using this pure Bodhi mind grasp at neither illusions and transformations, nor all states of stillness, they will see clearly that body and mind are hindrances. They will be freed from basic ignorance. They will not cling to abstractions, and they will forever be beyond both hindering and non-hindering states. They will feel comfortable and at ease in the use of body, mind, and universe. While still in the phenomenal world they will be like the far-reaching sound of a musical instrument, for neither pleasure nor nirvana will obstruct them any longer. Then inwardly they will experience a lightness of body and mind, and they will feel at ease in that state of stillness, that state of extinction of passion. Thus this stage of wonderful enlightenment will be in harmony with the condition of nirvana which is beyond body and mind, beyond the conception of an ego, a personality, wherein a being, or life, is just a passing thought. This experience is called Dhyana."--Sutra of Complete Enlightenment.
 

Quotes of the Week
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."--Marcel Proust

"Everybody has a unique perception of the world. For example, assume you have a lot of problems and you feel very unhappy. You canít see any way out, and you cry for a long time until finally you fall asleep. But at the moment when you wake up, it seems your problems are gone, or at least theyíre not as bad as before. You see the world in a fresher, more positive way. Even though the external environment remains unchanged, your perception and feelings about the world can change."--Master Sheng-yen
 

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