Community Engaged Zen Practice
Hello Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Sangha, We’ve been cooking up some good stuff this past month. The three-week pop-up initiative, Food for Families, which started on August 17th finished up on September 4th. During a three week gap in the federal school lunch program…
Mobile Cafe StreetGreens
Dear Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community, Covid-19 has changed our lives. Things always change and our Zen practice is training on how to show up for whatever is happening, nimbly and with open hearts and minds. The Zen Peacemaker’s three tenets of Not Knowing,…
Public Online Events
Please write Petra (info[at]breadloafmountainzen.org) to receive the zoom link to our online events.
Chant book for Home Practice
The chants and prayers we use during the meditations and services are in our Chant book for Home Practice.
Forty-nine or Fifty? Bearing Witness to Every Life Lost
June 18, 2016 In the days following the terrible mass shooting in Orlando there were vigils and protests all over the country. We were remembering the 50 people who died, as reported in the headlines of the New York Times on Sunday morning. I…
A Zen approach to food and community in Rutland
Zen community serves the homeless By Shudder Hurd-Burnell Correspondent Rutland Herald A man walks into the kitchen with a loud, “Thank you, ladies!” as he hands off his plate to a woman at the sink. “Did you get enough, Dave?” she asks. “Did you…
Plunge In and Open Wide
A Street Retreat Reflection by Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community resident, Willie Kunert Departing out of Penn Station on the train, as I rushed through the crowds to catch the train, I found myself wondering, “Who am I?” There are whiffs of an eerie…
Everybody eats
Every Thursday, Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community residents and volunteers, several from the Rutland sitting group, gather at the yellow house at 197 West Street in Rutland for an “everybody eats” community meal. The food is wholesome, hearty, and delicious. It is cooked with…
Power and Superpowers
I’ve been thinking about Power and Superpowers lately. It comes from studying the Lotus Sutra while I’ve been at Upaya this month leading the spring practice period. The Lotus Sutra, which is so important in our Soto Zen tradition, is a fantastical piece of…
Dharma talk Joshin on the Four Great Bodhisattva vows (part 2)
In this episode, Sensei Joshin Byrnes lists and speaks about the six factors of delusion. These include karmic inheritance, objects or things, the influence of people and culture around us, the following of false teachings, habits, and mistaken conceptualizations. He also discusses different ways in which we…