Dharma Talk: “The Oak Tree of Life” with Maria Habito
Thursday, February 19th | 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 Maria Habito at Mountain Cloud Zen Center’s zendo, where she will be leading the Dharma Talk titled, “The Oak Tree of Life.”
This is in reference to the Biblical “Tree of Life,” which we disconnected from when we ate from the “Tree of knowledge.” How does our Zen practice help us to reconnect? Does Joshu`s “Oak tree in the garden” give a hint?
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. Dana to Maria can be made through her partner Ruben’s Venmo: 469-286-6325 or Zelle: rhabito@smu.edu
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Maria Reis Habito began zen practice in 1987. She serves as guiding teacher of Sophia Zen Center in Indiana and is a teacher at the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas. Maria is the International Program Director of the Museum of World Religions, the Director of the Elijah Interfaith Institute USA, and a Zen Teacher authorized in the Sanbo Zen lineage. She has lived in Taiwan and studied the Chinese language (1979-1981), and in Kyoto, Japan, where she studied the Japanese language. She received her M.A. in Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies and Philosophy in 1985, and completed her Ph.D. at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich in 1990. After teaching at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, she assumed responsibility for the international Interfaith program of the Museum of World Religions in 2002.
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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.
