Crooked River Zen Center

10/26/2026

Tonight our monthly book discussion group will be meeting virtually at 7:30pm. I'm including below the text of an email that our facilitator, Joe, sent out to the gang that has been participating in this so as to invite our entire list to join in if you so desire. Newcomers are always welcome and it is not a prerequisite that you have previously read the text. An active dharma curiosity will suffice or the desire to reactivate a formerly active curiosity.

On Monday we close in on the end of this book in these last few chapters picking up in Chapter 27 "The Mind Is A Donkey, The Word Is A Horse" discussing the modes of attainment from the relative perspective, and the independent aspect of our dharma position (despite all the talk about interdependence).

Join in on these last few chapters and be a part of choosing the next book that we'll begin reading in January. The meetings are virtual and the details are below. See you there!

Book: Eihei Dogen's "Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji" by Shinshu Roberts.
Beginning in Ch 27 "The Mind Is A Donkey, The Word Is A Horse" page 202
Day: Monday, October 26th 2026
Time: 7:30 to 9:00 PM EST
Place: Google Meet at https://meet.google.com/zjy-ctnn-kzn

We will then follow our usual schedule for the remainder of the week with sittings on Thursday evening and Saturday morning at 7pm and 9:30am respectively. The dharma talk on Thursday will be looking at lines 5 - 8 of Sandokai which you can access in the chant book on our website at CRZC-Chant-Book-2023-Update.pdf - Google Drive. On Saturday the talk will have a Halloween theme. Costumes are permissible if you really are feeling in the spirit this year.

Looking down the road into December and beyond there are a couple of events I want to make you aware of. First off is Rohatsu sesshin which will take place Saturday and Sunday, Dec.5&6 running 8:30am - 8:30pm on the 5th and 8:30am - 3:30pm on Sunday. This will be a joint retreat by Crooked River Zen and Cleveland Zazen Group. Our maximum capacity for this will be 18 so advance registration is very strongly recommended to ensure you are not blocked out. I expect we will be opening this up for registration with next Monday's email which will also have further details about the schedule, cost, etc. Scholarships are available if the cost is prohibitive as we don't want to turn anyone away who wants to attend.

Much further ahead on the calendar I am delighted to announce that we will be co-sponsoring with Neighborhood Zen in Pittsburgh a sesshin led by Kokyo Henkel May 19 - 23. This will be held at the wonderful Villa Maria Education and Spirituality Center in Pulaski, PA which is just across the OH stateline, not far from Youngstown. The following link will take you to Kokyo's website. I attended a sesshin he led at Jikoji quite a few years ago when his dharma theme for the week was Sandokai and found him to be an excellent dharma teacher. I look forward to having the opportunity to practice with him again. https://kokyohenkel.weebly.com. For those who have not attended a longer term zen retreat in the past, the Rohatsu retreat would serve as a good preliminary event for you.

Gassho,
Dean

10/26/2026

On Monday we close in on the end of this book in these last few chapters picking up in Chapter 27 "The Mind Is A Donkey, The Word Is A Horse" discussing the modes of attainment from the relative perspective, and the independent aspect of our dharma position (despite all the talk about interdependence).

Join in on these last few chapters and be a part of choosing the next book that we'll begin reading in January. The meetings are virtual and the details are below. See you there!

Book: Eihei Dogen's "Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji" by Shinshu Roberts.
Beginning in Ch 27 "The Mind Is A Donkey, The Word Is A Horse" page 202
Day: Monday, October 26th 2026
Time: 7:30 to 9:00 PM EST
Place: Google Meet at https://meet.google.com/zjy-ctnn-kzn
🙏🏼
--
Joe
cell 216.337.9624

10/20/2026

Tonight Jim and John D will be at the men's shelter serving dinner. Our next date to be there is Nov. 16, the week before Thanksgiving. Let me know if you'd like to volunteer for this one.

Our schedule this week will consist of the usual sittings on Thursday at 7pm and Saturday at 9:30am. The dharma talk on Thursday will continue our look at the opening lines of Sandokai (The Harmony of Difference and Equality).

We are in the process of planning to conduct a Rohatsu sesshin over the dates Dec. 4 - 6 in collaboration with Cleveland Zazen Group. I hope many of you will be able to take advantage of this opportunity to engage in a period of more intensive practice. I will share more details about this over the next few weeks and will look to open up pre-registration in early November.
Gassho,
Dean

10/12/2026

We will be following our usual schedule this week with sittings on Thursday at 7pm and Saturday at 9:30am. For the dharma talk on Thursday we will begin to look at the chapter of "Living by Vow" that covers Sandokai (Merging of Difference and Unity). For those interested in taking a deeper dive into this important Zen text I am recommending "Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness" by Shunryu Suzuki as supplemental reading.

Our next visit to the men's shelter on Lakeside Ave. to serve dinner is next Monday, Oct. 19th. We could still use one more person on our team that evening so please let me know if you would like to join us there this month.
Gassho,
Dean

10/06/2026

We will have our usual Thursday evening sitting at 7pm. Since last week we finished our study of the Heart Sutra, this week, in lieu of a dharma talk, I wanted to share with you a recording of various chanted versions of the Heart Sutra (8 in total) that I received at a Heart Sutra sesshin held at Jikoji back in 2010. They range from teachers such as the Dalai Lama and Taisen Deshimaru to the Chinese singer and actress, Faye Wong. There's even an Electric Guitar Heart Sutra and you don't want to miss the final cut on the cd, The Heart Sutra Mash Up by Kukai with his friends. Next week we will begin looking at the chapter from "Living by Vow" where Shohaku provides his commentary to Sandokai (Merging of Difference and Unity). A highly recommended additional source book for our study of this important early Zen text is "Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness" by Shunryu Suzuki.

On Saturday we will not be meeting at the zendo. Instead, we will be joining with Shadybrook at their location in the Shore Cultural Centre, 291 E. 222nd St., Room 111 in Euclid for a program I am leading there on the paramitas. It will be really helpful if everyone who plans to attend can pre-register using the link below so that we don't have to collect money at the door, although that option will certainly be available.
www.shadybrook.org/crooked-river-zen

Gassho,
Dean

Let’s get curious.These experiences invite us to explore the exceptional,inspire insight, connect in community, and spark the courage to live more fully you. Programs → Featured Programs → The Six Perfections In Partnership with Crooked River Zen CenterThe Six PerfectionsExploring the Heroic ...

09/28/2026

This evening at 7:30 our monthly book discussion group will get started again after taking the summer off. We will pick up our study of "Being-Time" by Shinshu Roberts at pg. 202, chapter 27 of the text. Newcomers are always welcome. This is a remote-only program which can be accessed via the CRZ Google Meet link which follows. https://meet.google.com/zjy-ctnn-kzn

We'll be following our usual sitting schedule this week with sittings on Thursday at 7pm and Saturday at 9:30am. On Thursday the dharma talk will be looking at the final section of Shohaku Okumura's commentary on the Heart Sutra which can be found in his book "Living By Vow." Since Saturday is the first Saturday of October we would normally be holding a Jukai class, but since John will be out of town we will make this an open topics session following our sittings.

Looking ahead to next week, on Saturday the 10th our practice will move to Shadybrook where I will be giving a talk on the paramitas. For more information about this event please use the following link. Advance registration is requested which can also be done via the link. www.shadybrook.org/crooked-river-zen
Gassho,
Dean

09/27/2026

Our summer break is past and it's Time to meet again. Our last session ended our book review season by finishing chapter 26, The Morning Star Appears. The various aspects of Being-Time, the interconnectedness, interdependence, in being right-here-right-now, all helps us to understand Dogen's teaching methods as he tries in his own fashion to instill an understanding of an unobstructed passage to nonduality. As we close in on the end of this book in these last few chapters, we now pick up in Chapter 27 "The Mind Is A Donkey, The Word Is A Horse" discussing the modes of attainment from the relative perspective, and how attainment and non-attainment are both aspects of being-time.

Join in on these last few chapters and help us choose the next book that we'll begin in January. This is virtual only and the details are below. See you there!

Book: Eihei Dogen's "Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji" by Shinshu Roberts.
Beginning in Ch 27 "The Mind Is A Donkey, The Word Is A Horse" page 202
Day: Monday, September 28th 2026
Time: 7:30 to 9:00 PM EST
Place: Google Meet at https://meet.google.com/zjy-ctnn-kzn
🙏🏼
--
Joe
cell 216.337.9624

09/22/2026

This evening Joe and John W. will be at the men's shelter serving dinner. Our next time there will be October 19th.

We have our usual sitting at 7pm this week when the dharma talk will be a look at the section of Shohaku Okumura's commentary on the Heart Sutra titled "No Hindrance" which can be found on page 193 of "Living By Vow."

We will not be meeting on Saturday. 5 of us will be at the Center of Solitude in Belmont, NY this weekend where I will be leading a retreat that we've titled "Zen Koans and Poetry." Cleveland Zazen Group will be holding a weekend retreat at the zendo.

Looking ahead to next month, on October 10 I will be conducting a program that Shadybrook is co-sponsoring along with CRZ. This will be in place of our usual sitting on that day. I am including below a link that will take you to the registration form. You are strongly encouraged to register in advance in order to assure that there will be a space for you. www.shadybrook.org/crooked-river-zen
Gassho,
Dean

Let’s get curious.These experiences invite us to explore the exceptional,inspire insight, connect in community, and spark the courage to live more fully you. Programs → Featured Programs → The Six Perfections In Partnership with Crooked River Zen CenterThe Six PerfectionsExploring the Heroic ...

09/15/2026

We will be following our regular schedule this week with sittings on Thursday at 7pm and Saturday at 9:30am. On Thursday the dharma talk will be based upon the section of Shohaku Okumura's commentary on the Heart Sutra titled "No Attainment" which can be found on pg. 185 of his book, "Living By Vow." On Saturday I'm going to draw on Suzuki Roshi's "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" once again using the section on pg. 57 that is titled "Zen and Excitement."

We could still use one more volunteer to join us next Monday, the 21st, when we will be serving dinner at the men's shelter. Please let me know if you would like to work with us that evening.

We will not be meeting on Saturday the 26th as 5 of us will be at the retreat I am leading in Belmont, NY at the Center of Solitude. CZG will be conducting a retreat at the zendo that weekend. You can still register to attend the NY retreat if you do so within the next several days. I am including the links to be used to register and also to arrange for a room while you are there. Financial assistance is available for anyone who may be prevented from attending due to the cost. I am also including here a copy of the schedule we will be following. As you can see, this is going to be much less intense than our typical retreats and zazenkais, making it ideal for someone who is looking to try a longer practice period but is concerned about all of the sitting that typically entails. Zen Koans & Poetry Retreat - Fall 2026
Looking ahead to next month, I will be leading a program at Shadybrook on the morning of Saturday Oct. 10 on the topic of the paramitas. I should be able to share with you next Monday further information about this, including directions as to how to register to attend. If this program is well attended I will be continuing it over the following months focusing each month on one of the paramitas. We will not be meeting at the zendo on the 10th.
Gassho,
Dean

09/09/2026

We will have our usual sitting on Thursday at 7pm when the dharma talk will cover the section of Shohaku Okumura's commentary on the Heart Sutra entitled "No Buddhism" which comes from his book "Living By Vow" beginning on pg. 177.

On Saturday we will have our monthly Jukai class (delayed by a week due to the holiday). We will begin at 9:30am with a 30 minute sitting with the class immediately following. We have been studying Shantideva's "The Way of the Bodhisattva" and this month's class will pick up in the text with verse 90 of chapter 8 which deals with the practice of meditation in Buddhism. This class is open to everyone regardless of your familiarity with the text, or lack thereof. We will have a work period immediately following the class which will involve cleaning of the zendo, kitchen, bathroom, and cushion storage room. Work practice is a very important aspect of formal zen practice.

Our next date for serving dinner at the men's shelter on Lakeside Ave. is on Sept. 21 from 5:15 until 7:00pm. Please let me know this week if you would like to be part of our team that evening.
Gassho,
Dean