17th Annual Fall Practice Period
October 12 - December 7 2025

Embodying the Bodhisattva’s Path
The Avatamsaka Sutra, Chapter 26
The Ten Bodhisattva Grounds

In Person and Online Via Zoom

Schedule of Events

The Dharma Heart Zen Annual Fall Practice Period is an important event in the life of the sangha, as we come together to affirm and deepen our practice. Everyone - those new to practice and seasoned practitioners - is warmly welcomed and encouraged to participate.
If you are in the Practice Period and have questions about the Practice Period or your Practice Period Partner, please get in touch with Shuso Rachel.

Chanting the Avatamsaka Sutra
Several sangha members have said that they are enjoying chanting the Avatamsaka sutra and want more opportunities to chant together. Kristen Sorensen has offered to schedule/organize; contact her at Kristen_Sorensen@hotmail.com.

THEME

The theme for this Practice Period is Embodying the Bodhisattva’s Path with the Avatamsaka Sutra.
Resources:
The World Could be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path, by Norman Fischer
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
The Ten Bodhisattva Grounds: The Ten Highest Levels of Practice on the Bodhisattva’s Path to Buddhahood, annotated translation by Bhikshu Dharmamitra
Inside the Flower Garland Sutra, Huayan Buddhism and the Modern World, by Ben Connelly
The Flower Ornament Scripture, A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra, by Thomas Cleary
The Avatamsaka Realm, by Thich Nhat Hanh
Understanding Our Mind, by Thich Nhat Hanh
And There Was Light: The Extraordinary Memor of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II,
by Jacques Lusseyran

THE SHUSO

Rachel Gardner
Ennin Sho’zen
Complete Circle Person, Illuminating All Things

Rachel Gardner is a long-time and committed Dharma Heart Zen practitioner and sangha member currently serving as DHZ Co-Ino (head of the Zendo/meditation hall). Rachel is a Clinical Psychologist and former professional chef; she worked serving the HIV/AIDS community for over 20 years, as garden program and client services manager at the Food For Thought food bank in Forestville. Rachel loves both wild and cultivated nature, deep conversation and poetry; she treasures deep friendship as well as deep solitude.

CURRENT PRACTICE

FROM HOKA CHRIS

Our immersion in and commitment to practice with The Ten Bodhisattva Grounds of the Avatamsaka Sutra—rooted in the ancient teaching of the Jewel Net of Indra, a vast and infinite web of jewels with each jewel containing and reflecting the entirety of all jewels in the entire universe—is a wonderful dharma support for the times we find ourselves in. How do we live and embody the teaching that there is nothing not contained and held in all the other things in the universe? I look forward to being with you in this deep and timely investigation. What would a bodhisattva do?

Great gratitude for practice! 

Thich Nhat Hanh encourages us in our understanding of the Avatamsaka realm and the way that Buddhas and bodhisattvas perceive:
The Avatamsaka land is a product of our mind. The cosmos is a mental construction. Everything comes from our mind. If our mind is filled with afflictions and delusions, we live in a world of afflictions and delusions. If our mind is pure and filled with mindfulness, compassion, and love, we live in the Avatamsaka world...

It depends on the way we see. 

As we enter and practice with the Avatamsaka Sutra, may it penetrate every body and heart and mind and bring peace and healing to all beings everywhere.

Entering and abiding in the Avatamsaka Sutra illuminates the vast mystery of our lives and this infinite-present-moment coming home to ‘alive.’

Here are some wise words to help awaken bodhisattva activity in this round, flowing, and radically interdependent world:

 Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.
—Joanna Macy 

The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within each of us, are unconsciously controlled by its many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.
—James Baldwin 

We criticize and separate ourselves from the process. We’ve got to jump right in with both feet.
—Dolores Huerta

You’ve been earnestly studying the Way year after year.
And now no longer cling to either existence no non-existence.
But having come home you should not just sit around,
But instead go out and till the field of merit for others.
—The Chan nun Daoqian 

 It is a joy to be on this journey with you!

FROM ENNIN RACHEL

I have been enjoying delving into Practice Period and the Avatamsaka Sutra, and my role as shuso. Hopefully you have been in contact with your Practice Period partner by now and have set up your first meeting. For me, these deeper connections have been great opportunities to give and receive the support needed as we nurture our intentions, especially while living through such challenging times. I hope to see you at one of the upcoming teas; and at my talk on Thursday, focused on how I am entering and navigating the Sutra and exploring its teachings relevance.

Chanting together has been an inviting and evocative way to enter the expansive, mind-blowing Avatamsaka world. In the midst of the unfathomable, we have encountered some more-familiar terrain, the source perhaps of the precepts and teachings on interbeing and emptiness. Let’s stay with and trust the potent imaginal realm. As Norman Fischer says, “The only way to do what cannot be done is to do it imaginatively.” And there is much to be done that feels impossible these days. So together we are in Bodhisattva training: deepening our practice; tasting our interconnectedness; learning to embody love, compassion, and joy for ourselves, one another and the world.

CORE EVENTS & ACTIVITIES

Please note: It is not necessary to come to all of the events to participate in the Practice Period. If you live locally, please do your best to attend in person. Especially important are Opening and Closing Ceremonies, weekly sangha meetings on the dates that the Shusho will be leading, all-day sittings, and to participate with Practice Period Partners, tea with the Shusho, and Buddha’s Enlightenment Retreat.

• Weekly Tuesday and Thursday Sangha with zazen, kinhin, dharma talk, and small group discussions.
  There is a special effort to attend when the Shuso is teaching: November 4, 13, 18, and 25.

• Weekly Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning Zazen on Zoom: Join sangha member Debi Papazian; drop in, open to everyone.

• Bodhisattva Precept Study with Chris and Shuso: November 11, 6:45-7:45pm PT, hybrid

• All-day Sittings: November 9, 9am-4pm PT, hybrid

• Practice Partner Meetings: Structured conversations with Practice Partners provide support and are an opportunity to deepen sangha relationships over the course of the Practice Period. Suggested partner meeting guidelines.

• All-Sangha Tea: November 16, 10am-1pm, hybrid/Yulupa Co-housing

• Shuso Hossenshiki (Dharma Inquiry) and Closing Ceremony: December 7
  Together, the Shuso and the sangha will bring forth the dharma, on December 7, at the conclusion of the Buddha’s Enlightenment Retreat, December 6-7, followed by tea and celebration. Everyone in the Practice Period is encouraged to participate. You can attend by sitting the full retreat, which is open to everyone, or coming for just the ceremony, in-person or on Zoom.