Infinite Circle Zen Center
The center is everywhere.
The circumference is nowhere.
A member of the White Plum Asanga
Infinite Circle
The center is everywhere.
The circumference is nowhere.
ROOTED IN TRADITION, OPEN TO ALL
Meeting You Where You Are
Dear Friends and Visitors,
On behalf of Infinite Circle Zen Sangha, I welcome you to this webpage, especially if you are “zen curious” or relatively new to Zen and are seeking a community to practice with. We hope this page will introduce you to our sangha, give you a taste of what Zen practice is and a glimpse of how this particular group of seekers cultivates, maintains, and shares this wonderful, life-transforming tradition.
We hope to meet you where you find yourself amid all the complexities of your life in this demanding time of a shifting and changing world.
Sincerely,
Sensei John Mitsudo Mancuso
If you are not new to Zen and are looking for a sangha with which to practice, please let us know by using the contact form below.
Our Hybrid Model
Virtual Opportunities
- Zazen
- Zen Study Group
- Chanting Service and Liturgy
- Introduction to Zen Program
- Individual meetings with a teacher
- Finding Your Way Workshops: Spirituality and Emotional Wholeness
In-Person Opportunities
- Community Meditation Days (Zazenkai)
- Silent Retreats (Sesshin)
- Training for liturgical service roles
- Prison Ministry, Volunteering, and Community Service
- Sangha Celebrations and Ceremonies
Grounded in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
Fingers Pointing to the Moon of Awakened Life
I and all beings everywhere simultaneously attain enlightenment.
The Buddha upon his enlightenment (Transmission of the Light)
Love Letters: Every day, priests minutely examine the dharma and endlessly chant complicated sutras. Before doing that, though, they should learn how to read the love letters sent by the wind and rain, the snow and moon.
Zen Master Ikkyū Sōjun, d. 1481
Being Yourself: The point is to learn how to be yourself, how to be a person the way that a stone is completely a stone…. Since it is just about being a human being, about coming to life or ‘being yourself,’ there is no place it cannot be a transformative teaching, and no time it can lose relevance.
Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki
Set aside all involvements and let the myriad things rest. Zazen is not thinking of good, not thinking of bad. It is not conscious endeavor. It is not introspection. …. It is not learning to do concentration. it is the dharma gate of great ease and joy. It is undivided practice-enlightenment.
Zen Master Eihei Dogen
If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few. …The true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.
Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki
I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I’ve been circling for thousands of years and I still don’t know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?
RILKE
To study the Way of enlightenment is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all creation.
Zen Master Eihei Dogen
Our Principles
Welcoming All
those searching for a community of seekers to support their spiritual development.
Honoring Each Individual
in their personal and spiritual histories, talents, challenges and demands of day-to-day life.
Supporting Each Person’s Unique Expression
in embodying the awakened life supported in the Zen path.
Transforming our selves, our relationships and our world
by bringing wisdom and compassion to family, personal life, work, community service and environment.
Meet Our Community
Unique Expressions of a Shared Path
Tony G.
Mary Teresa O.
Michele S.
Lorraine S.
Eva Suiren H.
Robert Anryu B.
Josh Jikai O.
Mikel Shosen B.
Steve M.
Dave R.
I Will Be A Great Tree
Teachers Circle
Our Pledge
“I will be a great tree....
“I will be a great tree....
rooted deeply in practice, providing any and all with shade, shelter and the breath of life.
I commit to life-long efforts toward embodying Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
I will devote myself to manifesting an Awakened Field of Benefaction serving all realms of creation wherever called forth.
I will know and care for the members of Infinite Circle Sangha and all the communities to which I belong.
I will do my best to listen well, care deeply and provide wise council when asked.
I will conduct or assist in conducting the liturgy and ceremonies of our community.
I will study the Dharma, embody the Dharma and share the Dharma.
I will open the Gate of Enlightenment, stand just outside that threshold hearing the cries of existence, and help usher all through.”
The Priest Pledge from the Ordination Ceremony
Tucker Sansui Brown
Priest and Dharma Holder
Rev. Jesse Daisho Caudill
Novice Priest
Rev. Ruth Jiyugen Diones
Senior Student
Rev. John Mitsudo Mancuso
Sensei and Founder of ICZC
Upcoming Events
Further Your Practice
Ango (Intensified Practice Period): March 15-June 8
Fusatsu (Ceremony of Recommitting to Precepts): April 5 and May 3
Zazenkai (Retreat Day): April 18 (register below at Events link)
Sesshin (Silent Retreat): June 8-12 (register below at Events link)
Infinitely Growing
Deepening Our Services
Prison Ministry
The Zen path calls us to engaged compassion. Infinite Circle Zen currently support three sanghas in three different prisons, In the coming year we seek to increase the number of volunteers, raise funds to purchase meditation mats and cushions for incarcerated individuals, implement an annual schedule for meditation days (Zazenkais) for incarcerated individuals.
Introduction to Zen
Our teachers and members are implementing an approachable, multi-faceted introductions to Zen that offers practical group and individual guidance in meditation and in integrating Zen practice into the fabric of your life.
Refining Our Hybrid Model
As our Sangha continues to grow, we will increase the number of opportunities for Zazen and joint study to accommodate the busy schedules of sangha members.
Prison Ministry
The Zen path calls us to engaged compassion. Infinite Circle Zen currently support three sanghas in three different prisons, In the coming year we seek to increase the number of volunteers, raise funds to purchase meditation mats and cushions for incarcerated individuals, implement an annual schedule for meditation days (Zazenkais) for incarcerated individuals.
Introduction to Zen
Our teachers and members are implementing an approachable, multi-faceted introductions to Zen that offers practical group and individual guidance in meditation and in integrating Zen practice into the fabric of your life.
Refining Our Hybrid Model
As our Sangha continues to grow, we will increase the number of opportunities for Zazen and joint study to accommodate the busy schedules of sangha members.
You’ve Met Us
We would be delighted to meet you
FAQ
What is Zen?
Zen is a branch of Buddhism that emphasizes the direct experience of our truest self, which goes by many names in Zen: Our Awakened Nature, Buddha Nature, our Original Self, Big Heart-Mind. Zen helps us cultivate this experience of Self ever increasingly to become a new center of our emotional and spiritual gravity.
This is expressed explicitly In the words of Bodhidharma, the 6th Century Zen Master who brought Zen to China: “Zen is pointing directly to the human heart-mind, seeing into one’s true nature and becoming a Buddha (an awakened one).” Roshi Taizan Maezumi who brought our branch of Zen to America puts it more simply and fully: “Zen is Life!”
Perhaps, it may also be helpful to note here what Zen is not:
- Zen is not about zoning out in an otherworldly state of bliss. Quite the opposite. It is about zoning into every part of our lives and engaging with the world in all its beauty and ugliness, and everything in between;
- It is not narcissistic navel gazing but rather the experience of a transformed Self in the service of the wellbeing of others and the planet;
- It is not a set of dogmatic beliefs, but rather a path to directly experience our own awakened nature, our true Self.
What is Infinite Circle Zen Center?
Infinite Circle Zen Center is a community (sangha) of dedicated Zen practitioners who come from various backgrounds. We support each other in and through our practice, our community and our connection with each other. We follow traditional practices and also work on finding new forms that correspond to our current times and living conditions. We are a group of fellow travelers walking on a path both ancient and untraced.
We practice in the Japanese Soto Zen Buddhist tradition, in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi and the community of his successors, The White Plum Asanga to which our Infinite Circle Zen belongs.
Our objectives are to:
- Promote Zen Buddhist spiritual guidance and practice for any who seek.
- Offer educational programming on meditative practice and well-being in a hybrid form (virtual and in-person).
- Train, empower, and promote Zen teachers, priests and lay teachers.
- Promote compassionate Zen practice through community service, pastoral care and support for vulnerable populations.
Infinite Circle Zen Center is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization under IRS code 501(c)3 .
In Zen a religion?
“Zen” in Japanese means “meditation,” and Zazen means “seated meditation,” which is the central practice for Zen. So much so that Zen Master Eihei Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen in Japan (13th Century) said that there was no need for other devotional practices. He tells us to ”just sit in zazen and let your body and mind drop off.” The ultimate purpose of zazen is to realize (make real) our true Self, our awakened-nature with its wisdom and compassion.
Can I practice Zen if I belong to another religion?
If you practice another religion, nothing requires you to turn your back on it. In fact, as some members of our community experience, Zen can enliven, support and deepen the way you experience your faith tradition.
Infinite Circle Zen embraces the practice of many of Zen communities in our lineage who echo the teaching of the respected Zen Master and author Yamada Kōun who would conveys to his Christian students that he didn’t want them to practice Zen to become a Buddhist but to practice Zen to become a better Christian. There are, in fact, many fully empowered Zen teachers in the US who are Catholic nuns, priests and monks. This is true of members of other religions as well.
Does Zen Work?
This is an important question that points to the very heart of Zen practice, which is the transformative recentering of our spiritual and psychological experience of “self.” In answer to the question, then, we can say: “Yes, indeed! From our experience, Zen does work and works exceedingly well.”
Most people first come to Zen, like most of us, because of suffering, difficulties, a sense of not being grounded, or because of a feeling that something important is missing in their inner and outer life. It is accurate to say that as people engage in the process of awakening to their true self, their new center of selfhood, they will likely experience many benefits that come with it:
- Zen helps us develop a deeper awareness of and connection to our emotional life and to our bodies;
- it helps us engage life’s challenges with more resilience;
- It diminishes reactivity and increases our ability to respond and show up in our life with wisdom and compassion;
- It helps us manage and decrease stress;
- It helps improve interpersonal relationships;
- It quiets or softens our “persecutory mind”;
- It provides community and support;
- It offers strong support for people in recovery;
- it increases our ability to concentrate;
- it helps us restore healthy life-work-self care balance;
- It supports us in finding purpose and direction in life.
- It opens us to wonder of and a deeper connection to the natural world and all the dimensions of Life.
Contact us if you have a question or would like to meet with Sensei Mitsudo
Support Our Sangha and Our Prison Ministry
Every contribution nurtures wisdom, compassion, and connection