CHANTING While the bulk of our common practice is carried out in silence, chanting is an integral part of the total practice package. Far from a departure from the stillness of the zendo, it is that stillness now maintained with the use of the voice. In this respect, it is simply another form of zazen. The words are not as important as our ability to throw ourselves completely into the chant, surrendering to the rhythm of the instruments and the blend of our voices. We are helped in this regard by the fact that there are only a few chants that we do, and the chant lineup remains rather invariant week to week, year in and year out: Sunday Chanting Service The Three Treasures Prajna Paramita Hridaya (Heart of Perfect Wisdom) Kannon Sutra Shosai Myokichijo Dharani Return of Merit Sesshin Morning Chanting Service The Three Treasures Affirming Faith in Mind (Xin Xin Ming) Shosai Myokichijo Dharani Homage to Dharma Ancestors Sesshin Afternoon Chanting Service The Three Treasures Prajna Paramita Hridaya (Heart of Perfect Wisdom) Kannon Sutra Daihishin Dharani Return of Merit The Four Vows There are chant books available in the Buddha Hall, so there is no need to memorize the chants ahead of time. If you'd like to look at them on your own, download this pdf of the chant book.

GLOSSARY Here we use English terms unless there's good reason not to (e.g., since zafu simply means sitting cushion, we just say cushion ). Still, there are limits to some translations, and below are some of the non-English, practice-related words one will hear at the Chicago Zen Center: Daisan: One-on-one meeting with a senior student concerning one's practice and practice-related concerns Dokusan: One-on-one meeting with the teacher concerning one's practice, koan work, and the confirmation of insight Gassho: Hands held palm-to-palm, and, depending on the context, accompanied by a bow Han: The wooden block that is struck before formal rounds, teisho or chanting Inkin Bell: The bell that is used to mark time and movement Kentan: Morning review and greeting of the zendo by the teacher Kesa: The patchwork outermost robe of a priest, the robe of the Buddha Kesu: Metal bowl gongs used during chanting and other services Kinhin: Walking meditation Kyosaku: The flattened, wooden "encouragement" stick (often, we just say stick ) Mokugyo: Wooden "fish" drum used to keep time during chanting Mok-Tok: Hand-held version of the mokugyo Rakusu: The abbreviated robe of the Buddha worn about the neck Teisho: The formal talk of a Zen teacher Umpan: Gong sounded for meals Zagu: The bowing cloth of a priest Zazen: Seated meditation Zendo: Meditation Hall

SESSHIN GUIDELINES WHAT TO BRING WHAT TO BRING WHAT NOT TO BRING WHAT NOT TO BRING Toothbrush & toothpaste Shampoo Pillow and sleeping bag or bedding Bath towel Dark non-patterned loose-fitting clothing for exercise periods Dark non-patterned clothing for work period Dark or white non-patterned T-shirt (if needed) to wear under the robe Dark or white non-patterned, matching socks (if needed) Soft-soled shoes (no boots or hard heels) for outdoor early morning kinhin Prescription medications Shaving articles Hair dryer Cosmetics, non-medicinal creams, etc. Reading or writing material, personal journal, etc. Personal food items (unless needed to take with medication, but clear this first) Electronics SILENCE SILENCE Sesshin is conducted in silence. If you need to communicate something to the monitor, to your job supervisor or to a roommate, use the notepaper and pens provided. If the matter is complicated, the monitor or your work supervisor may take you to a place out of earshot where you can handle the matter by whispering. Make sure your cell phone is OFF and stowed before sesshin begins. If you do not trust yourself to leave it alone, you may deposit it with the monitor for the duration of sesshin. Prior to sesshin you will be given a phone number to share with anyone who might need to contact you in an emergency. That phone is checked for text and voicemail messages about five times a day, and you will be notified if you have a message that requires your swift attention. WORK WORK Everyone is assigned a job for the duration of the sesshin. All kitchen jobs report to the Head Cook; all other jobs report to the Head Housekeeper. Go over your job description with your supervisor before sesshin begins. During sesshin, do not leave your job until you have checked with your supervisor. FORMAL MEALS FORMAL MEALS Breakfast and dinner are formal meals. You will be shown how these are conducted before sesshin begins. Until you have memorized the meal chants, be sure to take a chant card to your place as you enter the dining area. You may also want to familiarize yourself with the meal chants before coming to sesshin; see the "Meal Chants" section of the pdf of the Rochester Zen Center Chant Book . Keep to your practice while eating. Do not look about the room, etc. TIME TIME A system of bells, drum, umpan and mok-tok are used to signal events during sesshin. The mok-tok is a wake-up or warning signal. Three strikes on the big bell indicates that a formal round of zazen is about to begin and that you should be in or headed to the zendo. The drum begins and ends a work period or signals the start of teisho. The umpan signals mealtime. You do not need to concern yourself with the clock time, and no one but those in oversight positions may wear a watch. COMPORTMENT AGREEMENT/ WAIVER To register for sesshin: REGISTRATION COMPORTMENT During sesshin the gaze should be lowered. Do not be making eye contact or looking around. This does not mean becoming oblivious to your surroundings , however, and you should have enough awareness to blend in with whatever activity (chanting, kinhin, prostrations, etc.) is going on. While walking about keep the hands close to the body, preferably in a kinhin position (clasped at the sternum). Do not just let the arms hang at your side or swing them. Be mindful of your footfall, particularly during yaza (informal night sitting after formal rounds) and as you leave and enter the zendo during formal rounds (after your dokusan, for example). Be attentive to your motions. You should not rush about, but neither should you move in super slo-mo; an everyday, relaxed pace is best. Do not loiter; if you are not resting in your room during rest periods, do zazen or kinhin.

SUGGESTED READING The Dharma taught by the Buddha and carried across generations to our day is not something to read about but something to experience and know directly for oneself. That said, there are times when a word or phrase might just prompt one to explore more deeply or help to clarify a point of confusion. While there are any number of "Buddhist" or "Zen" books available, one can do no better than to read the sources themselves. One should always remember, however, that until one has come to some measure of insight (and even after, to be honest), they should be read with humility and caution; their meaning is bound to be obscured by the everyday, ego-driven mind, and one can end up thinking things about the Dharma that are quite wide of the mark. Still, the titles below are offered so that one might get a sense of the breadth and depth of what practice entails and that toward which it leads. Buddhist Basics Gethin, Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford University Press The Words of the Buddha Ñanamoli and Bodhi, The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha. Wisdom Bodhi, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha. Wisdom Bodhi, The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. Wisdom Walshe, The Long Discourses of the Buddha. Wisdom Bodhi, The Suttanipata. Wisdom Fronsdal, The Dhammapada. Shambhala Mahayana Texts Pine, Three Zen Sutras: Heart Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Platform Sutra . Counterpoint Pine, The Lankavatara Sutra, Counterpoint Watson, The Lotus Sutra. Columbia University Press Thurman, The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti. Penn State University Press Santideva, The Bodhicaryavatara . Oxford University Press Lamotte, Suramgamasamadhisutra. University of Hawai'i Press Nagarjuna, On Generating the Resolve to Become a Buddha. Kalavinka Zen Guides Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen. Vintage Aitken, Taking the Path of Zen. North Point

BOARD OF TRUSTEES The Board of Trustees of the Chicago Zen Center is tasked with setting administrative policy and overseeing the financial and legal affairs of the Center. The Board is composed of five members, four elected by the sangha and one appointed by the Board. A member of the Board, whether elected or appointed, may serve no more than two consecutive two-year terms before being required to sit out a year before possibly being reelected or reappointed. To serve on the Board, one must be a non-ordained member of the Center in good standing. The members of the Board of Trustees and the dates their terms expire are: Tuck Decker (4/2028-1) Ellen McClure, Chair (04/2027-1) Brian Mazzaferri (04/2028-1) Hugh Thomas (04/2027-2) Travis White-Schwoch (10/2027–1) Pictured left to right: Brian Mazzaferri, Tuck Decker, Ellen McClure, Travis White-Schwoch. Not pictured: Hugh Thomas CORPORATE OFFICERS The Center has four corporate officers as stipulated by the Bylaws. Officers are elected by the Board of Trustees annually, and their duties are outlined in the Bylaws and relevant parts of Illinois law. The Center's current officers are: President: Ven. Shodhin Geiman Vice-President: Hugh Thomas Secretary: Alex Shelley Treasurer: Nat Krause GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE The Center's Bylaws and Ethical Guidelines call for the establishment of a Grievance Committee. The Grievance Committee is tasked with fielding ethical complaints that may arise against any of the Center's administrators, officers or other leaders. A Center member may approach any of the Grievance Committee members to initiate the inquiry process. The current Grievance Committee members are: Wayne Guzy Mary Jeanne Larrabee Mary Reynolds In case one of the members is unable to serve or is the subject of the complaint, the Board will designate an alternate.

OVERNIGHTS & RESIDENCY Members coming from a distance—or even those who live not too far away—can arrange to stay at the Center overnight so as to take advantage of added time in the zendo or to attend two back-to-back sittings (for example, Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning). Check with the Center beforehand to be sure of space availability. A member may find that the time is right in their life for a more concerted form of practice, and full-time residency at the Center emerges as a possibility. The CZC is not a training temple with a full program of daily activity geared toward its residential staff; for that, one might look to residential training at the Rochester Zen Center. Instead, we offer an opportunity to framing one's existing everyday life in the context of a practice environment for a time, taking advantage of frequent access to the zendo and dokusan room, and sharing in the quiet background work that sustains the practice life of the Center. More more information on residency, including cost, responsibilities, and expectations is available here .

CEREMONIES Zen, like all other expressions of the Dharma, has always had we might call a devotional aspect to it—employing space, sound, smell, and imagery to stir the mind of awakening and to give it bodily expression. We are fortunate to have a facility in which we are able offer a full range of Buddhist ceremonies, and the yearly cycle of ceremonies and celebrations is an integral part of Center life. TEMPLE NIGHT & JUKAI Twice a year, the main indoor areas of the Center are transformed into temple settings where richly appointed altars are set up. These will generally have the figure of a bodhisattva prominently enshrined, and flowers and incense fill the rooms with fragrance. The Kannon altar also serves as our Memorial Altar, where pictures of our sangha's deceased and other loved ones are set in remembrance. At the start of the evening the lights are dimmed and the candles lit. Persons may do zazen, offer incense, or do prostrations. A chanting service is held halfway through the evening, and those who have sewn rakusus receive them in a short private ceremony. TEMPLE NIGHT & JUKAI The evening concludes with everyone present gathering in the Buddha Hall for Jukai. Together we recite the Repentance Gatha acknowledging our lapses in body, speech and mind; then we take together the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts, thereby entering into, or reaffirming our belonging in, the family of the Buddha. VESAK VESAK In the height of spring the Center joins the whole of the Buddhist world in the celebration of Vesak, the commemoration of the Buddha's birth. We start by taking turns pouring sweet tea over the Baby Buddha. The birth narrative is read, and our attention is then brought to the import of the birth narrative as part of our own story as men and women on the path to awakening. We wrap up the celebration with a pot-luck buffet of sangha members' delicious cooking. CEREMONY OF GRATITUDE CEREMONY OF GRATITUDE On the Sunday before Thanksgiving we celebrate what Philip Kapleau called "the most Buddhist" of American holidays by gathering to recall all that we are grateful for. This is a family event, and the children sometimes become the teachers as they express thanks for things we adults often overlook. After a short chanting service and a talk, particular points of gratitude written on slips of paper by the participants are read aloud. Then those present may, if they wish, voice further expressions of gratitude. After the ceremony, we enjoy a potluck of foods members have prepared. NEW YEAR'S TEMPLE PURIFICATION NEW YEAR'S TEMPLE PURIFICATION At the dawn of the new year we take stock of our lives, acknowledge our past unskillfulness, and rededicate the temple and ourselves to further practice in the year ahead. We begin with a repentance ceremony in the Buddha Hall. We then follow the priests as they make their way from altar to altar throughout the Center, purifying them to the accompaniment of shakujos, chanting, and all the noise the kids can make. Then, ourselves and the temple renewed, we gather to share a meal and renew our ties with one another. WEDDINGS WEDDINGS It was never part of the task of the first Buddhist monks and nuns to perform marriage ceremonies, and Buddhism has by and large considered marriage a civil, rather than a religious, affair. Nevertheless, one of the signs of Buddhism's adaptation to American culture has been the expectation that one may marry at a temple with a monastic or priest officiating. The Chicago Zen Center is happy to be part of that adaptation. In recent years weddings have been held at the Center for members and non-members alike. Priests have also be called upon to officiate at ceremonies in the wider community. FUNERALS & MEMORIAL SERVICES FUNERALS & MEMORIAL SERVICES The Buddha squarely faced the utter inevitability of sickness, old age, and death, and our sangha has experienced its own losses. We come together at such times to commend our sister or brother to the loving and compassionate care of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as he or she makes the journey on. We offer incense and food, chant sutras and dharani in the sure expectation that our friend will one day find his or her True Home. Priests at the Center have also been called on over the years to conduct Memorial Services in the community for those not expressly connected with the Center. Email the Center if this is something you are considering for yourself or for a loved one.

OUR LINEAGE Practice at the Chicago Zen Center has from the very beginning been built upon a strong teaching tradition. Philip Kapleau, the Center's founding teacher, is widely recognized as one of the major contributors to the establishment of the Harada-Yasutani tradition of Zen on American soil and beyond. His Three Pillars of Zen continues to serve as a sure guide for anyone interested in getting to know something of Zen from the inside out. At its founding in 1974, the Chicago Zen Center was an affiliate of the Rochester Zen Center, where Kapleau was abbot. When Kapleau passed on the abbotship of the RZC to his Dharma heir, Bodhin Kjolhede, responsibility for the CZC was passed on as well. Both Kapleau and Kjolhede would travel to the Midwest (Chicago or Madison, WI) at least twice a year for short sesshins, and CZC members often made the trip to Rochester to attend longer sesshins there. Their dedication to the Chicago sangha helped the Center to grow, and by 1996 the CZC was large and established enough to warrant its own resident teacher. Sevan Ross, who had trained extensively in Rochester, moved to Chicago that year and was made its first autonomous teacher in 1997. At the same time, the CZC became financially and administratively independent of Rochester, but the CZC continues to maintain strong Dharma ties with RZC and the other sanghas throughout the world that have their roots in the Kapleau teaching tradition. After almost a decade and a half of tireless service, Ross decided the time was right for a new generation to guide the Center. Yusan Graham was sanctioned as a teacher in 2009, ordained a priest in 2010, and installed as the new abbot that same year. Under his leadership the sangha stabilized and grew both in numbers and in the spirit of dedicated practice. In 2021 Yusan sanctioned Shodhin Geiman, a priest of the Center since 2010, as a teacher in his own right. In 2023 Yusan retired as abbot and designated Shodhin as his successor. Philip Kapleau Bodhin Kjolhede Sevan Ross Yusan Graham Shodhin Geiman

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