Investigating Your Life

These classes are offered as an introduction to the Sixteen Zen Bodhisattva precepts – what they are, and how they function in your life, and how your life is an expression of these precepts (kai). Each class includes a mix of lecture and discussion, with reading assignments for each week, as well as writing assignments to allow us reflect on our lives. We learn from each other and from our own experience; this is not an intellectual exercise, this is a practice of being intimate with our own lives! The only requirements are a mind of curiosity, a willingness to look at your own life, mind and conduct, and a willingness to reflect with one another.

We encourage every Zen student to engage deeply in precept practice. While this class is a prerequisite to receiving jukai, whether you go on to receive jukai is your own choice.

Class 1: Saturday, September 19, 1:30 – 3:30 In-person
Overview and Introduction to the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts
The Three Precept Viewpoints
Assignment: Workbook pp 5-13, 16-17
Opening to Oneness Introduction, pp. 1-20

Class 2: Monday, September 21, 7:30 – 9:00 Zoom
The Three Treasures – Buddha, Dharma, Sangha (one body/realized/maintained)
The Three Pure Precepts – Don’t Do Evil, Do Good, Do Good for Others Assignment: Workbook pp. 19-23, 24, 18, 14-15

Class 3: Monday, September 28, 7:30 – 9:00 Zoom
The Three Tenets – Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, Taking Action
Assignment: Workbook pp. 14-15
Opening to Oneness Appendix 2, pp. 225-35

Class 4: Monday, October 5, 7:30 – 9:00. Zoom
Precept #1 – Non-killing Assignment: Workbook 25-26, 27-32
Opening to Oneness pp. 23-29, Chapter 1

Class 5: Monday, October 19, 7:30 – 9:00. Zoom
The BODY Precepts
Precept #2 – Non-Stealing
Precept #3 – Not Being Greedy (Not Misusing Sexuality)
Precept #5 – Not Being Ignorant (Not Using Intoxicants/Clouding the Mind)
Assignment: Opening to Oneness Ch. 2, Ch. 3 and/or Ch. 5
Write one essay on Precept 2, 3, or 5

Class 6: Monday, October 26, 7:30 – 9:00. Zoom
The SPEECH Precepts
Precept #4 – Non-lying
Precept #6 – Not Talking about Others’ Errors and Faults
Precept #7 – Not Elevating Oneself and Blaming Others
Assignment: Opening to Oneness Ch. 4, Ch. 6 and/or Ch. 7
Write one essay on Precept 4, 6, or 7

Class 7 Monday, November 2, 7:30 – 9:00. Zoom
The MIND Precepts
Precept #8 – Not Being Stingy
Precept #9 – Not Being Angry
Assignment: Opening to Oneness Ch. 8 and Ch. 9
Write one essay on Precept 8 or 9

Class 8: Monday, November 7, 7:30 – 9:00 Zoom
ROLLING IT UP!
Precept #10 – Not Speaking Ill of the Three Treasures
The Sangha Sutra
Assignment: Opening to Oneness Ch. 10
The Sangha Sutra; Write one essay on Precept 1 or 10

Opening to Oneness
$21.95
by Nancy Mujo Baker

Stop trying to become “better” by suppressing or hiding parts of yourself, and learn what it means to be fully human with this accessible guide to the core ethical teachings of Zen Buddhism. In Opening to Oneness, Zen teacher Nancy Baker offers a detailed path of practice for Zen students planning to take the precepts and for anyone, Buddhist or non-Buddhist, interested in deepening their personal study of ethical living. She reveals that there are three levels of each precept: a literal level (don’t kill, not even a bug), a relative level that takes moral ambiguity into account (what if it’s a malaria-spreading mosquito?), and an ultimate level—the paradoxical level of nonduality, in which the precepts are naturally expressed from a state of oneness.

Purchase Your Copy Today

Cost: $225 for Members; $315 for Non-Members

The Zen Center policy is to turn no one away for lack of funds. If you have concerns about payments, click here to request the Dharma Training Fund. If you have any other questions, please contact Myoki.