COVID-19, Boundless Way Zen Temple and Blogging

The COVID-19 pandemic has reached Massachusetts and all of us here in the Commonwealth are responding – as individuals, as families and as institutions. To this end, the Boundless Way Zen Temple Leadership Council met last night to determine how best to fulfill our mission to awaken together at the same time we stay safe and contribute to the slowing down of the spread of the virus.

We unanimously decided that the wisest course of action for the sangha is for us to suspend all in-person Temple activities for the next two weeks. An official notice will go out to all members and everyone on our mailing list.  (To sign up for the Temple mailing list: https://worcesterzen.org/subscribe/ )

We’re now exploring how to virtually nurture our community and our practice through these two weeks, and perhaps beyond. Melissa and I will continue to follow our Temple meditation schedule: Monday – Friday mornings at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. All practice periods last for one hour except Sunday which has a longer Sutra service and lasts for 90 minutes. We invite you to join us from wherever you are and we are looking into Zoom and/or a conference call line to allow us to see/hear each other in real time. (Details to follow.)

For several years, we have considered how to make the Temple practice available to those who do not live within driving distance. To date, our Dharma Talk pod-casts available at our web site are the main resource. But this current crisis is spurring us into new practices that may expand the number of people who can regularly participate in the rhythms of our daily Temple practice.

In considering how I might be of support through these uncertain days, I have decided to resume my practice of daily blog postings. As some of you reading this know, I have done this at various times and the writings that first appeared here  https://davidrynick.com/blog/ ten years ago were the main part of my book: THIS TRUTH NEVER FAILS. You can sign up there to receive these posts directly and I will also post them on my Facebook page and on the Temple Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/worcesterzen/.

Stay tuned.