Awake-in-Life: Zen & Crafting a Life Fully Lived
6-month Home Practice Program : Jan. 16 - June 19, 2027 ONLINE
Access to Zen (A2Z) invites you to participate in a program which emphasizes practices geared especially for those who live and work outside of temple or monastic settings! This program will give you the container in which to frame how you can live fully, manifesting and sharing what’s important to you with your loved ones, your community, and the planet.
How it’s geared for you
Currently, most United States practice programs have generally emphasized meditation to practitioners. This may be due to how Zen has been promoted in Western convert practice settings. It’s been a very useful way. Yet, now, with the maturing of practices in the US, it’s time to reclaim how the laity — called “householders” in the Buddha’s time — was a large and important aspect of Buddhism and Buddhist practices.
Therefore, the revitalizing of this term for the laity is fitting in our current times as we seek to make accessible the teachings and practices which traditionally have been offered first and foremost to ALL practitioners: studies and engagement with the precepts.
Enacting values framed around these Compassionate /Ethical Conduct Aspects:
16 Bodhisattva Precepts are: (Rev. Liên own wording. More traditional ones can be find on the web)
3 Refuges — Exploring how to know & be in: Awareness/Buddha, Teachings/Dharma, & Community/Sangha
3 Over-Arching Aspirations — To not engage in harm. To promote life-affirming practices & actions. To know for myself, & with others, our interconnectedness.
10 Guiding Values —- Living to realize & promote: life; contentment; love/connection; honesty; clear-heart & mind; kind speech; equity/non-competitiveness; sharing & receiving; openness of mind-heart; and non-separation/interconnectedness.
These are essentially a set of values which, in the engagement with them, acts as guides for us to see how we can live more fully.
We are pleased to make the studies of the precepts, or values-enactments, more accessible with the Awake-in-Life Program by offering 2 tracks:
Engaged-Studies or Jukai (Lay Initiation/Ordination Ceremony). Each will have different practice requirements for the duration of the program (to support your mediation practice) but everyone studies and engages in the same materials (monthly readings, meditations, and practices). Fully ONLINE via Zoom
The idea for the two tracks came about because study with the Precepts is a core of practice yet it isn't emphasized in the West very much. Yet, a main intention of the Precepts is to give practitioners a framework to engage in harmony with oneself and with others. In doing so, it becomes much easier to bring one's full attention to the craft of meditation "on the cushion." Engagement with the Precepts is a healing and transformative practice when done in conjunction with meditative practices.
The Awake-in-Life (“Awake”) Program offers us a chance to bring practice into our whole being, our whole life --- on and off the cushion.
Awake Program's tracks requirements (w/ dates & Pacific Times):
BOTH tracks INFO:
Engaging with the Soto Zen 16 Bodhisattva Precepts as a study class:
1 meeting per month with the full cohort:
3rd Saturdays: Jan. 16, Feb. 20, March 20, April 17, May 15, & June 19
8:30 -11 am PST
Reading/Study materials to prepare for each month’s meeting:
Access to Zen Precepts Readings packet (provided once accepted) and
REQUIRED: 2 precepts books (not included):
Cheri Huber (ed. Sara Jenkins) — Good Life: A Zen Precepts Retreat
Thich Nhat Hanh — The Mindfulness Survival Kit: Five Essential Practices
Optional: Reb Anderson: Being Upright
Online access to a webpage with monthly practices, Dharma talks, and other resources to support the application of the Precepts in your daily life -- in reflection writings, as an awareness/mindfulness exercises, and/or other forms.
Monthly individual Practice Discussion (PD) with Rev. Liên (6 sessions: in-person for local folx; online otherwise)
Access to A2Z’s weekly Meditation Group (ALL Mondays from January - June)
All A2Z Dharma events follow this sangha-determined Noble-Giving scale: (NOTE: A2Z Noble-Giving Cancellation Policy)
Pay-it-Forward (PiF): (more than $75K): $280 /month
Standard (S): (between $50 -$75K): $230/month
Limited Income (LI): (less than $50K): $180/month
Access: No one turned away due to economic hardship. And, as dana is a mutuality practice, please note that everyone is asked to give in ways you’re able. Feel free to discuss with Rev. Liên
IN THESE TIME: If you’re able, to provide access, please consider giving to cover monthly for another participant
In the spirit of economic transparency, please note you’ll be asked to share with the Awake cohort this information at our first meeting on January 16 and, if it changes, at that time also.
Zelle preferred: SuddenLeap.A2Z@gmail.com; Venmo : @SuddenLeap-A2Z (tel. 2585); Checks accepted (ask Rev)
Pledge to give by the 7th of each month
If you’re ending participation, 30-days in advance notice is needed, please. No refunds after the 7th.
Again, please note A2Z Noble-Giving Cancellation Policy
ENGAGED-STUDIES Track Specifics: 6 months
Commitment to being guided in your practice by Rev. Liên for the duration of the program
6 months commitment to the Awake Cohort/Sangha (community of practitioners)
Committing to having a home meditation/zazen practice of 3+ days/week and attending two (2) one-day silent meditation retreats within the 6-month Awake program time period.
ENCOURAGED but optional: A2Z’s 2027 Silent Retreat (likely in late July or early Aug. in CA)
JUKAI (Lay Initiation/Vowing Ceremony) Track Specifics: 6+ months
Commitment to Rev. Liên as your Dharma teacher AND to continuing a similar practice schedule for 2+ YEARS after completing the Awake Program
6+ months: Beginning with the Jan.-June studies in Awake Program. Then, monthly PDs with Rev. Liên until Jukai (Soto Zen Lay Initiation/Vowing ) Ceremony. ---
Date TBD on individual basis with Rev. Liên; dependent on completion of rakusu & when a ceremony date is available.
From July 2027 on, monthly A2Z Meditation Group & PDs giving follows standard A2Z structure
Committing to having a home meditation/zazen practice of 4+ days/week, attending two (2) one-day silent meditation retreats within the 6-month Awake time period, and A2Z’s 2027 Silent Retreat (likely in late July or early Aug. in CA)
IF you have not taken Meditation Training “1.0” AND MT 2.0, completion of both courses before Jukai date
Sewing a lay rakusu before Jukai date (involves additional costs and time to a Soto Zen sewing program; several in the Bay Area or in US & Canadas)
Apply no later then 5pm PST on Friday, January 2, 2027
Applying does not guarantee acceptance. Thank you for your interest!
