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Residential Practice
Zen training offers you a path for exploring yourself deeply, and
learning your correct relationship to the world. All three of the
New England zen centers offer residential meditation training in
supportive lay community settings, for an indefinite or a limited
period.
Zen Master Seung Sahn has encouraged his students to live
together in Zen centers so they can derive strength and support from
each other's continuing practice. The regular "together
action" schedule acts as a backdrop for seeing our karma appear
and disappear. We use the analogy of washing potatoes together in a
pot of water. As the potatoes bump into one another, they clean each
other more quickly than if each was cleaned one at a time.
In a Zen Center, we see clearly how our opinions create problems
by coming between us and the situations in which we find ourselves.
When we let go of these opinions, it is possible to live our
everyday lives with clarity and harmony. As we learn to cooperate,
to see clearly, and to accept people and situations as they are, our
minds become strong and wide. Then we can act with compassion for
others.
Residing in a Zen Center gives one the opportunity to engage in
formal meditation each morning and evening. Residents can also
connect with teachers who, through their own clarity, can help
others to become clear. Community activities are balanced with the
need for individual time and privacy. Some meals are eaten together
(all food is vegetarian). Each resident assists with meditation
practice, shares in kitchen and house work, and attends house
meetings.
Because Zen mind is everyday mind, we seek to practice clear mind
not only in formal meditation, but in all aspects of our daily life,
within the Zen center and in the outside community. Residents
usually hold outside jobs.
Residents pay monthly training fees and must maintain membership
in the Kwan Um School of Zen. Training fees and membership cover
room and board; participation in programs at that Zen center; and
limited free guest stays and program discounts at the other Zen
centers.
To enter as a long-term resident, you must have attended two Yong
Maeng Jong Jin retreats in the Kwan Um School of Zen. You may be
asked to visit when the Zen center is not on retreat so you can be
interviewed in person. (These requirements may be modified; you are
encouraged to discuss your individual situation with the abbot.)
If you are interested in residential
training, please click here
to go to our contact page. Contact Abbot Paul Bloom for further information:
paul.bloom.arc.70@aya.yale.edu or 203-605-1157.
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