Sutra Classes
Zen DownEast offers a monthly Mahayana Sutras class and discussion group led by Diane Shoshin Fitzgerald on the first Thursday of each month from 5:30 to 6:20 pm. The Mahayana Sutras (Scriptures of the Buddha) and Shastras (Indian Treatises) are foundational texts that have profoundly influenced Zen practice and study. Our familiarity with them makes our own study of Master Eihei Dogen's writings and the Chinese Chan and Japanese Soto classics and koans all the more accessible to us and alive with possibility.
This is a drop-in class identical in format to our Dogen classes, which means you are free to attend or not as your schedule permits and it is not necessary to prepare in advance for the class. Feel free to attend and just listen and learn.
Some of the sutras we have been and will be exploring in 2025 and 2026 are: the Avatamsaka Sutra: Flower Ornament Scripture; Sandhinirmochana Sutra, the Foundational Scripture of the Yogacara School, Buddha's Teaching of Mind-Only; the Shrimaladevi Simhanada Sutra: Buddha Nature as Empty and Full; the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra: Great Complete Liberation Scripture; Buddha Nature as True Self; and Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika: Wisdom of the Middle Way, Dependent Co-Arising and the Emptiness of all Things.
If you would like to participate in these classes, please Contact Us for details.
This is a drop-in class identical in format to our Dogen classes, which means you are free to attend or not as your schedule permits and it is not necessary to prepare in advance for the class. Feel free to attend and just listen and learn.
Some of the sutras we have been and will be exploring in 2025 and 2026 are: the Avatamsaka Sutra: Flower Ornament Scripture; Sandhinirmochana Sutra, the Foundational Scripture of the Yogacara School, Buddha's Teaching of Mind-Only; the Shrimaladevi Simhanada Sutra: Buddha Nature as Empty and Full; the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra: Great Complete Liberation Scripture; Buddha Nature as True Self; and Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika: Wisdom of the Middle Way, Dependent Co-Arising and the Emptiness of all Things.
If you would like to participate in these classes, please Contact Us for details.
Art from a copy of the Lotus Sutra from the Kamakura period (Japan). Art from “Universal Gateway,” Chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra, Kamakura period (1185–1333), Artist Unknown / courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art