The Soto Zen Buddhist Association
Monthly Archives: July 2018
2018 SZBA Conference
July 7th, 2018
2018 Soto Zen Buddhist Association Conference
Interconnecting: One Soto Zen, Many Expressions
September 19-23
Zen Mountain Monastery
Mt. Tremper, New York
8th Biennial Conference of the SZBA
Full and associate members of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association are cordially invited to attend the 8th biennial SZBA conference. If you are a Soto Zen priest but not yet a member of the SZBA, please consider joining the organization!
The conference begins Wednesday evening, September 19, and ends Sunday morning, September 23.
Interconnecting: One Soto Zen, Many Expressions
As Soto Zen priests, we have many ways of expressing the Dharma. Even so, if we are to truly be of benefit in the world, we must move beyond the idea that we are independent, separate Zen centers and temples to the understanding that we are interconnected, as one Soto Zen body. What we offer the world becomes more available when we are more available to one another.
Our Zen training teaches us to be fully present to suffering and the causes of suffering from a place of deep knowing. From this strength of knowing what is most fundamental, what is at the center of our offering, how can we explore ways we might begin to change shape to truly meet people where we are—especially those who, for whatever reason, feel they do not or cannot be a part of Soto Zen Buddhism? What are the walls between us? And what are the walls we have built around us?
Dharma Heritage Ceremony
The conference includes a Dharma Heritage ceremony, which is a ritual of affirmation by one’s peers, a welcoming into the circle of Soto Zen priests in the West. If you are a dharma transmitted priest and have not participated as a candidate before please consider doing so at this conference!
Location
Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt. Tremper, NY
Built in the 1920s and 30’s, Zen Mountain Monastery was originally a Benedictine monastery and boys’ camp. Now, for over three decades, it has offered practitioners from all walks of life a refuge from a culture of distraction and a way to become immersed in Buddhist teachings and practice. Located on 250 acres of protected woodlands that are home to an extraordinary variety of plant and animal life.
Find out more at: www.zmm.org.
Keynote Speaker
Ann Gleig is an Associate Professor of Religion and Cultural Studies at the University of Central Florida. Her primary research area is Buddhism in America. She has published a number of articles in journals such as Journal Of Global Buddhism and Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Her first monograph, American Buddhism After Modernity, will be published by Yale University Press in 2019. Dr. Gleig won the UCF Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2017. You can read her articles on The Shifting Landscape of Buddhism in America and The Dukkha of Racism online.
Featuring
Thomas Bruner has been helping mission-focused businesses do great work for decades. Bruner brings a wealth of experience to his work, including 25 years of executive-level leadership, a master’s degree in clinical psychology, a diversity management certificate, and civic volunteer engagement. Since launching Bruner Strategies in 2016, he has helped 40 organizations in four states and three countries do great work in Leadership & Governance; Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; and Financial Development. Bruner is a senior student at Dharma Rain Zen Center, where he spent 2015 as a postulant.
