Community Practice

Community discussion led by Shinjin Sensei at ASZC.

By definition a COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE is;

A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals.
Communities of practice often focus on sharing best practices and creating new knowledge to advance a domain of professional practice. Interaction on an ongoing basis is an important part of this.
Many communities of practice rely on face-to-face meetings as well as web-based collaborative environments to communicate, connect and conduct community activities.

At ASZC, community practice occurs in all facets of our organization. The goal of our community practice team is facilitate and nurture spaces and dicussions where our members can share their experiences, ask questions, and support one another in their practice.

On second Sundays of each month the community practice leader(s) facilitate discussions related to Zen practice, principles, and activities. This page will provide our practice schedule and resources. You are welcom to send any questions to aszcinfo@gmail.com.

The inital focus for the 2022 Community Practice discussions will be the the six perfections, which are important as they allow a Buddhists the opportunity and the means to follow the Buddha's Dhamma (Dharma). The paramitas can be used as a part of individual and group practice that can be utilized in support of our aspiration with our Buddhist vows and precepts (we will explore this as part of our practice discussions). The six perfections can provide guidelines as a structure for how to live a good life and behave in a morally good way. Examples of morally good behavior include being generous and charitable, putting other people before yourself, telling the truth, and being mindful of other people’s feelings.

The six perfections are:

Generosity (dana) - The sincere and selfless desire to give to others with no expectations.
Morality (sila) - Following the five moral precepts.
Patience (ksanti) - Tolerance, forbearance and endurance.
Energy (virya) - Making a concerted effort to achieve and attain enlightenment.
Meditation (dhyana) - A way of helping a person to attain the highest state of consciousness.
Wisdom (prajna) - Understanding that is gained through Buddhist practice such as meditation.

Image to the right and text on Six Parmitas above share from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zkdbcj6/revision/6