Online Study Group – Living By Vow: Studying our relationship to Liturgy
October 5 @ 6:30 pm – October 26 @ 8:00 pm CDT
The liturgy used in any spiritual practice can often become wearisome or flat, a recitation of memorized words or phrases that leave us wondering, “What’s the point? How is this connected to my practice? How does it help to nourish life?” In this autumn online study group, using excerpts from Shohaku Okumura’s “Living by Vow”, we’ll take time to reflect on how the chants used in Zen liturgy are there to help uplift our practice rather than being obligatory passages to recite.
Join us as we explore how chanting offers us the opportunity to redirect our habit minds, deepen our understanding of them, and to engage more fully with the present moment, connecting with why we have taken up this spiritual practice to transform the suffering of the world.
Hokyoji’s Associate teacher Onryu Kennedy, along with Darin Musho Podulke-Smith, Adam Isshin Kokotovich, and Dan JunKan Mattimiro will be facilitators for this four week study group. We will meet via Zoom for four Mondays: October 5, 12, 19, 26 @ 6:30 – 8:00PM Central Time
Rev. Onryu Kennedy has received transmission in both the Katagiri and Uchiyama Roshi lineages. She was shuso in 2020 and completed zuise in 2023. She was approved as Kokusaifukuyoshi in 2024 by Soto-shu.
Throughout her life she has valued social justice work as an expression of her vow. She is currently an Associate teacher at Hokyoji Zen Practice Community. She experiences great joy in the opportunity to learn and teach Buddhist practices.
Rev. Musho Podulke-Smith completed the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program in March of 2023. He took Tokudo under Rev. Onryu Kennedy later that year. He works with inmates at the Federal Medical Prison in Rochester and leads a sitting and study group in Rochester.
Jun’kan Dan Mattimiro began his practice at Clouds in Water in 2016, receiving jukai from Keiyu Ken Ford in 2017. There he served on the tenzo ryo and board of directors. At Hokyoji, he has been tenzo for Practicing the Ways and has co-facilitated online study groups at Hokyoji, the most recent being Dogen’s Uji/Time-Being. When not running with his dog or enjoying time with his ever-expanding family, he continues to teach high school biology and must remind himself that the students aren’t getting older, he is.