Dharma Talk: “Freedom and the Sound of the Bell” with Carolyn Seburn
Thursday, November 13th | 5:30–7:00 PM
Meditation begins at 5:30 pm MT, followed by the Dharma Talk (teisho) at 6:00 pm MT.
You are invited to join us for an evening with Carolyn Seburn at Mountain Cloud Zen Center’s zendo, where she will be leading the Dharma Talk titled, “Freedom and the Sound of the Bell: Mumonkan Case 16.”
How do we reconcile the wondrous and borderless reality of the essence with the messiness of our everyday lives? Are changing diapers, checking a phone or driving to work really compatible with “vast and void, no holiness?”
Carolyn explores this question as it was posed by Unmon in 10th century China (Case 16 of the Mumonkan) “the world is vast and wide like this. Why do we put on our seven-panel robe at the sound of the bell?” Delve in to see how there is no contraction here.
This hybrid event is free and registration is not required. Please arrive five to ten minutes ahead of the scheduled time.
To participate online, please click on the zoom link below.
sit.mountaincloud.org
Passcode: mountain22
Trouble logging on to our online sits? Click here for guidance. Need help with time zone conversion? Use the World Time Buddy .
If you miss a dharma talk, you can find it on our YouTube channel within one to two weeks.
Kindly consider contributing dana (a traditional Buddhist offering) to express financial gratitude to our visiting teacher. For those in Canada, dana can be made through e-transfer to mountainmoonottawa@gmail.com. For others, dana can be sent to Mountain Cloud through our donation page.
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Carolyn Seburn is a Sanbo Zen Teacher based in Ontario and a regular teacher in our hybrid/online events.
She provides online dokusan to our members and during our 6-day retreats, dharma talks, and workshops for our 30 Days of Zen Course.
She is an authorized Dharma successor of Roselyn Stone (Sei’un An – Clearing Away the Clouds) Rôshi of the Mountain Moon Sangha (Toronto and Brisbane). She has been practicing Zen meditation since 1985 and guiding Zen practice since 2015. Married, with one offspring, Carolyn is also a biologist and public servant who focuses on wildlife conservation. Carolyn is also appointed a Zen teacher with Sanbo Zen International.
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Teisho literally means “presentation of the shout.” It is not a lecture or a didactic discourse but a direct sharing of the dharma springing from the teacher’s experience. A teisho or dharma talk is not intended to engage the discursive mind. Rather, the invitation is to let the language wash over the listener and, if something strikes, to let that resound.
At Mountain Cloud, teisho often take up a koan, a record of an exchange between Chan/Zen masters or masters and disciples that conveys the world they are sharing and carries the seeds of awakening. Teisho invite us to keep company with the ancestors whose practice-awakening (a term from Dogen) is freshly conveyed each time we turn to this living tradition.
