Saturday, March 30th at 10:15am
In our long service of bowing and chanting (during retreats and sesshins), we recite the “Names of Buddhas and Ancestors” – beginning with the Seven Buddhas Before Buddha, and ending with the founder of our Soto Zen School, Eihei Dogen, and his two immediate successors who established the lineage of teachers that we honor. All of these have been considered male. In fact, we used to call them “Buddhas and Patriarchs”. In recent years, much research and collaboration by a group of women and men teachers and scholars have created a parallel list, a women ancestors document. This list is also now being chanted in many temples, include AZC. What does it mean to have a separate women’s lineage? Why are there no women in the traditional lineage – or are there? And what does Dogen have to say about women, gender, and separation?
All are welcome to join our Saturday Program:
8:00 am Beginner’s Instruction (Zendo) -or- Informal Zazen (classroom)
9:15 am Zazen
9:50 am Chanting Service
10:15 am Dharma Talk by Rev. Choro
11:00 am Tea & Cookies
~ Lunch with Choro ~
1:00 pm Workshop on Gender, Status, and Identity, w/ Rev. Choro
4:00 pm End
About Rev. Choro Carla Antonaccio: Rev. Choro is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest ordained in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi by her teacher, Josho Pat Phelan Roshi. She began formal practice in 1999 at Chapel Hill Zen Center where she has been a resident practitioner since 2005. Rev. Choro has trained at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, San Francisco Zen Center City Center, and Green Gulch Farm. She was Shuso for the Chapel Hill Zen Center community in 2016 and has served as Tenzo, Work Leader and Ino in Chapel Hill. In 2018, after 30 years of teaching and fieldwork, Choro stepped back from her academic career as an archaeologist. She is married and lives on temple property as a resident priest.