Who is the Baltimore Zen Center?

Welcome to the New Year! May 2010 be a peaceful and fruitful year for you and yours!

Recently the Baltimore Zen Center Facebook group surpassed 100 members. We've got a great following on Facebook, a fan page, a some great, witty, and intelligent posters! If you haven't joined in, be sure to stop by and check us out. It's a great way to avoid actually working when you're at the office!

The thing that interested me most when I looked over our member list though, was how many of you I've never met, how many members had never actually been to the Baltimore Zen Center for a class, retreat, movie night, or bonfire. For sure, some live out of state, and are taking the awesome advantage we have in the 21st century of receiving the Dharma through the great & glorious Al Gore's gift of Interwebs. Yet many others, I just had to wonder...why haven't I had the pleasure of sharing a cup of tea with you?

Coming to a Zen Center for the first time can be a bit intimidating, I know. I remember what it was like the first time I knocked on that door. You don't have any idea what you're getting in to, who you're going to meet, if they're gonna try and sell you a headtrip, if you're gonna have to do some crazy rituals or chants or sacrifice small furry animals to Cthulu...ok, maybe not that part, but it's intimidating, isn't it?

Hopefully, this post will ease your mind a bit

Allow me to introduce us, the Baltimore Zen Center.

Who are we?

We're families with young children. Sometimes, we even bring toddlers to class, and everyone learns to practice patience when they cry. We're fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. We live and laugh, cry and fight, and learn how to love each other through it all. We're a family of families, and the bonds of sangha make brothers and sisters out of those with no blood relations between us.

We're workers, blue collar, white collar, and even unemployed, finding peace from our busy lives in the practice, and support for our daily trials in each other.

We're college students and grad students, balancing strenuos studies, late night cram sessions, and grueling exams with moments of peace & introspection in sitting meditation, and challenging our youthful inquisitive spirits with koan practice.

We're Korean American, Irish American, African American, Chinese American, Hyphen Americans, immigrant, resident, citizens, and everything in between, all of us coming from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and families, even when the externals are all the same.

We're lifelong Buddhists, converts from other paths, or still practicing Catholics, Jews, & Muslims who've found renewed faith through Zen.

We're martial artists. From the youthful exuberance of mixed martial arts, the harmonious partnership of Aikido, the dynamic acrobatics of Taekwondo, to the introspective street fighting of Jeet Kune Do, we find a dynamic form of meditation in combative exercises.

We're dancers; performing belly dancers at local events, Wednesday night country line dancing at the local watering hole, life's beats and rhythms and movements can be a koan in themselves.

We're musicians, guitarists, drummers, pianists, Opera singers, and rockers. From chanting the Heart Sutra to belting out a tune on the mic in front of an audience, we find ourselves as we put our all into the moment of performance.

We're Zen practitioners. Beginners, long time members, teachers, all of us walking on a path together, sometimes a few steps on our own, sometimes helping each other along. Sometimes leading, other times following.

We're the Baltimore Zen Center.

Who are you?

BZC Facebook Group Page:
Here

BZC Facebook Fan Page:
Here

Update

On Sunday morning's Fox News Roundtable, former anchor and long time commentator Brit Hume stated Tiger Woods should leave Buddhism and convert to Christianity in order to receive forgiveness and repair his relationship with his children. Tomorrow morning on the Ed Norris Show, Ed & Maynard will discuss this controversial statement with Baltimore Zen Center Director & teacher, JB MuSsang Jaeger.

Tune in at 730am to listen in to the discussion. The station is Baltimore's 105.7, The Fan.

Or listen on-line at the following link:

http://player.play.it/player/player.html?v=4.10.2&id=115&onestat=whfs1