Ralph Waldo Emerson Zen Sangha in Boston, MA | Eastern Religions

Ralph Waldo Emerson Zen Sangha

We sit together on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 pm in the chapel of First Church of Boston. The chapel is on the second floor.
Beginning instruction and orientation to Boundless Way Zen is always available beginning 6:30 pm (no prior notice is necessary, but please be prompt). All first-time visitors are encouraged to come to an orientation. If you wish to bring your own meditation cushion or bench, please do so. Some chairs, cushions, and benches will be available.
Sessions include lectures, question-and-answers, Zen meditation, Zen liturgy, and private interviews. After having attended an introduction, you are invited to attend all or any portion of the activities.
Named after the son of a First Church minister, our Zen group is led by Josh Bartok, and overseen by Rev. James Ishmael Ford of Boundless Way Zen and Rev. Stephen Kendrick of First Church.
In ceremony there are forms and there are sounds, there is understanding and there is believing. In liturgy there is only intimacy. Liturgy is a constant reaffirmation of the experience of a group of people. Bodhidharma said that invocation is not about chanting words or sounds. You invoke with the mind. You do zazen with the mind. You do liturgy with the mind. Please don't take this practice lightly. Know that in every single aspect of it there are multiple levels of depth to be seen, appreciated, realized and actualized. It is only then that we give life to the Buddha.
Putting my right and left hands together as one, I just bow.
Just bow to become one with Buddha and God.
Just bow to become one with everything I encounter.
Just bow to become one with all the myriad things.
Just bow as life becomes life.
Contact us at 617-776-2637