Series Description
Invitation to Deep Sangha Work
Mary Ellen Seien Roshi and Charlotte Jigen Sensei
An Inquiry into The Five Poisons, Core Fear, and Sangha Awakening
This offering is a form of Sangha work: a shared inquiry into how we meet and relate to one another as practitioners, within Sangha, family, friendship, work and the world.
Three Sequential Series
This offering unfolds over three separate series across the year.
Each series consists of five modules, building progressively from individual pattern recognition to collective realization of the Three Treasures.
Participants commit to one series at a time, while understanding the larger arc.
Series I: The Five Poisons
March 7, 14, April 4, 11, 18
Seeing the Patterns Clearly
We begin by working directly with the Five Poisons:
Greed, Anger, Ignorance, Pride, and Jealousy
Transforming Reactivity into Wisdom
The world is turning, and it’s turning hard. Confusion, chaos, and uncertainty ripple through every part of our shared experience. It is natural to feel fear, loss of control, and even a threat to who we are and what we value.
How do we respond when our sense of stability is shaken?
How can we stay open, awake, and compassionate, even in the midst of turmoil?
In Buddhist teachings, our instinctive reactions to fear and threat are described as the Five Poisons:
Greed, Anger, Ignorance, Pride, and Jealousy
These energies arise when we feel that our being, or our world, is under attack. They divide us, both from one another and from our own deeper wisdom.
Yet within each poison lies a hidden gem, a potential for awakening. When we meet these energies with awareness, they can transform from reactive patterns into insight, clarity, and compassion.
Across five modules, we explore:
- How the poisons show up in real relationships
- How reactivity is sustained interpersonally, not just internally
How to meet these patterns openly and impersonally- How awareness loosens identification without fixing or suppressing
- How practice deepens when the inquiry is shared
Series II: Core Fear and Core Contraction
Dates to be AnnouncedWhat the Poisons Protect
In the second series, we move beneath the poisons to the core fear and core contraction that give rise to them.
Here, reactivity is no longer treated as something to manage, but as something to listen to.
Across five modules, we explore:
- The primary fear each poison is guarding
- The somatic and relational shape of contraction
- How fear organizes identity and behavior
- How contraction relaxes through awareness rather than effort
- How contact with core fear opens genuine empowerment
This phase is where liberation becomes personal, embodied, and precise.
Series III: Sangha Awakening to Itself
Dates to be Announced
Realizing the Three Treasures Together
The third series turns explicitly toward collective awakening.
Rather than treating Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha as concepts, we explore how the Three Treasures are realized in the midst of relationship, including reactivity, misunderstanding, and difference.
Across five modules, we inquire:
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How Buddha nature expresses collectively, not just individually
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How Dharma becomes alive through shared investigation
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How Sangha itself becomes the field of awakening
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How ignorance sustains separation, and how it dissolves
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How practicing together reduces reactivity in sangha, family, and work
It is awakening in the middle of things.
A Different Kind of Inquiry
This is not therapy
It is an inquiry rooted in:
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Shared human experience
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Curiosity and compassion
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Awareness without pathologizing
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A reframing from or melting of the separate inner and outer life
It is also an experiment:
What happens when a sangha commits to waking up together?
Who This Is For?
This offering is for zen practitioners who feel called to explore this territory with:
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Honesty
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Steadiness
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Emotional and relational maturity
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Respect for both psychological depth and awakening practice
Because of the nature of the work, participation is limited to 10 people.