Guidelines

Deeply Ordinary

All forms of Zen see the dharma realized in everyday activity. We emphasize ordinary activity is the dharma.
Family life, work, play, our relationships with people and the world which sustains us – these are our Buddha fields.
Laying down a path by walking
Our practice is alive. It changes in response to circumstances. When we make mistakes or get stuck, these are pivot points. Our community arises from our practice, and our practice nourishes our community.

Home Sweet Home

At OMZ alll sangha members are commoners – we hold the Dharma in common with each other.
We do not leave home to practice. Our practice is to return, again and again, to our original true home without clinging to anything or pushing anything away.

Practice is not Preparation

We do not meditate to become enlightened – we meditate as an expression of the enlightenment we share with all being.
Our forms give us a a way to share what we do in the zendo. We follow the forms whole-heartedly while letting go of judgments of self or other.
Zen is not an exercise in self-improvement. Our forms remind us that what we need is always here, so we can return to just this in all our activities.

Minding Mind

Mind is ungraspable. Mindfulness is full engagement.
Meditation helps us touch Original Mind: unconditioned, unborn, undying. This very mind is the enlightened basis of our practice.
Our conditioned mind reflects our individual experience. Psychological insight and behavior change help us cope with this conditioning.
Original Mind and conditioned mind fit together like foot before and foot behind in walking.

Precepts

We approach the precepts not as moral commandments but as koans challenging us to figure out how to express them in our everyday life. The Buddhist precepts are guides for a harmonious, satisfying life together with all beings.
We encourage everyone, when they are ready, to study and take the precepts formally in a ceremony with the sangha.

Nothing Special, Nothing Hidden

There is no “more” or “less” to devotion. Everyone has full access to the dharma and simultaneously both a teacher and a student. We approach each other from a standpoint of non-hierarchical equality, while also acknowledging the value of teacher-student relationships.

Every where, Every when

We offer a place where people can meditate regularly; we encourage daily meditation because it provides us with a foundation for our lives. But Ordinary Mind practice is continuous: it is not restricted to a schedule here but not there, confined to some times but not others.
Meditation on the cushion helps us touch our enlightened nature. Our daily activities are where we put our enlightenment in play

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When you find your place where you are
practice occurs
actualizing the fundamental point.

When you find your way at this moment
practice occurs
actualizing the fundamental point.

For the place, the way
is neither large nor small
neither yours nor others’
has not carried over from the past
and it is not merely arising now.

Eihei Dogen win Genjo Koan (“Actualizing the Fundamental Point”)