Update on the Retreat

Our teacher, Lincoln Rhodes, jdpsn, has been a little ill and, sadly, will not be coming to Kansas next week. He sends everyone his love.

We are scaling back the retreat to a single day, Saturday June 21, 6 am to 5 pm. We will serve breakfast and tea; you should bring a snack lunch. Senior Dharma Teacher Margaret Wheeler will give consulting interviews. We hope everyone can join us.

Email us at tallgrasszen@yahoo.com or call 785 537 8713.

Tallgrass Zen Summer Solstice 2014 -- our plans have changed

Public Dharma Talk  with Linc Rhodes JDPSN
Thursday June 19, 2014 7:30 pm
Orange Sky Yoga 227 Blue Earth Place
Manhattan, Kansas
THIS EVENT IS CANCELED


Konza Prairie Morning Bell Chant &Walking Meditation
Friday Morning June 20, 2014 7:30 am
THIS EVENT IS CANCELED

Meditation Retreat at Deep Creek Community Center
THIS EVENT IS RESCHEDULED:
Saturday June 21, 6 am  5 pm. Bring a sack lunch
Friday June 20 1:30 pm - Sunday June 22 12:00 pm.
Late entry: Friday 6:15 pm. Saturday 5:45 am; 9:00 am; 1:00 pm. Sunday 5:45 am; 9:00 am.

Overnight camping available on site at Deep Creek Community Center in the Flint Hills, 10 minutes from downtown Manhattan. Retreat includes instruction in chanting, sitting and walking meditation; vegetarian meals served in four bowl silent meditation; interviews with our Guiding Teacher Linc Rhodes JDPSN.

Full retreat $100; Kwan Um Members $90; DT/DTIT $80 Suggested donation: $10 - $20

Tallgrass Zen Center is affiliated with the Kwan Um School of Zen. 

To register for the retreat contact us at 785.537.8713 or tallgrasszen @ yahoo.com, 

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Winter Solstice Retreat, Potluck & Candlelight Kido

Deep Creek Community Center 
Saturday December 21, 2013
Meditation Retreat 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Potluck 5:30 - 6:45 pm
Candlelight Kido Chanting 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Late entry times: 1:00 pm; 5:00 - 6:45 pm.
This retreat welcomes beginners and experienced meditators. 
Setting is in the Flint Hills, 10 minutes from downtown Manhattan.  
Retreat will include consulting interviews with a Senior Dharma Teacher. 
What to bring: your own lunch; a vegetarian dish to share for potluck dinner.
There is no charge for this event, we accept free will offerings.
Tallgrass Zen Center is affiliated with the Kwan Um School of Zen. 
Contact us at 785.537.8713 or tallgrasszen @ yahoo.com.

Join Us For Our Fall Retreat

1. One Day Meditation Retreat Saturday October 19, 2013   8am - 5 pm Deep Creek Community Center in the Flint Hills 10 minutes from downtown Manhattan, Kansas We welcome beginners and experienced meditators. Consulting interviews with a Senior Dharma Teacher. Bring a sack lunch. No charge for this event, we accept free will offerings. Register: 785.537.8713 or tallgrasszen @ yahoo.com.

Living in Sandcastles

Everyone has at one time or another built a sandcastle. Maybe just a small one, a mound of scraped into shape with the hands or a bucket of hard packed sand turned upside down with a moat dug around it. Or maybe an elaborate one with multiple buildings and turrets and flying buttresses. Regardless though of how small or large, all sandcastles must come down when the tide turns if not earlier, whether the wind kicks up or someone kicks its over. We accept this because we recognize the extreme impermanence of the sandcastle being made of nothing but tiny grains of sand held together by a little water and lot of pressure.

It’s harder to accept the impermanence of the self even as an idea let alone an absolute fact. But we too are comprised of heaps of stuff, not sand, but what the Buddha called skandhas (lit. heaps): form, feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.

We spend our whole lives making these heaps, shaping them according to our karma, moment by moment, grain by grain, millions of moments, millions of grains, producing the perfect sandcastle of the self. And because we identify as this sandcastle, we do everything in our power to protect it from elements that would destroy it. We build larger and larger structures. We dig large moats to keep out anyone who might try to kick our sandcastle over. In the process of perfecting the self, we forget that the tide must eventually turn, and when it does the force of the waves crashing down and flowing back will dissolve the beautiful structure leaving nothing but sand.

When the Buddha woke up he is reported to have said something like “Seeking but not finding the house builder I traveled through life after life. How painful is repeated birth! House-builder, you have now been seen. You will not build the house again.” In short, Buddha recognized the impermanence of the self and he not only welcomed the dissolving waves of that reality as they washed over him, he ceased all building.

Just as everyone builds a self and becomes so absorbed in it that we forget about death, so everyone can stop building the self and let it start to crumble.

Winter Retreat

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Location:Deep Creek Rd,Manhattan,United States

Retreat!