Liturgical Interpreting Conference, Sept. 23-25 2016

Liturgical Interpreting conference poster, showing interpreters in a church and mosque setting.

This week is the Liturgical Interpreting Conference! And at the time of this posting there is still room for participants! For registration and more information you can visit the website:
www.liturgicalinterpreting.com 
Oshin will be presenting at the conference on interpreting Buddhism. He will be joining a diverse panel of presenters, who represent a wide array of religions and are focused on many diverse topics.
The conference is being hosted at Gallaudet University and includes lunches and not to mention CEU's! We are looking forward to this conference and hearing what Oshin and the NBZ sangha learn from their experience.

A second Liturgical Interpreting Conference poster, with head shots of each of the 6 presenters and information about the conference and the website www.liturgicalinterpreting.com

Away on Retreat

Eli Kozan and Oshin sitting at a cafe table.

Oshin and Mandy sitting on the Grail's porch.

Oshin and members of the No Barriers Zen community are away on retreat in upstate New York with the Village Zendo. 

Oshin has been working with members of our community and many interpreters to help make the Dharma Accessible. They are looking forward to sharing all they have learned when NBZ resumes services in September. 

Jennifer and Oshin standing outside of the Grail.

Buddha's Birthday / Hana Matsuri

A composite image of the Hana Matsuri celebration. Showing the baby Buddha statue being bathed by participants with a bamboo dipper, challah bread, and flower pot shaped cake.

Last Saturday, May 7th, members of the NBZ sangha gathered for zazen and to celebrate Buddha's birthday. The Hana Matsuri ceremony is a simple ceremony that comes to us from our Japanese tradition, people take turns ladling sweet tea over a statue of the baby Buddha. Rev. Ōshin told us the story of Buddha's birth and life. Afterwards the sangha shared their own aspirations for the spring time, then we sang and signed "Happy Birthday Buddha" before the whole sangha blew out candles and cut whimsical flowerpot-shaped cake. 

Sangha members brought wonderful home made foods to share, including freshly baked sweets and even a home made sweet challah, brought to us from the leader of the campus Hillel organization. A wonderful day of community and fun, a great way to wrap up the semester on campus and herald in the spring!

New ASL Dictionary Entries

Screen Shot of NBZ's list of ASL Videos

Screen Shot of NBZ's list of ASL Videos

We just uploaded our first 6 entries into our ASL Buddhist Dictionary here on the website! The site is starting to really come together, and front and center is this great new educational page; our dictionary! Our hope for this dictionary is that it helps to create a culture of education and access. With study and communication being two of our Five Expressions, it is vitally important to continually foster the study of our languages. Our communication, or how we express the Dharma in our lives, and how we connect with each other while doing it, is an important piece of our spirituality!

Added to this new dictionary are ASL signs for: "Buddhism", "Buddhist", "Nirvana", and three sign variations for "Buddha". With many more signs to come in the near future. If you have questions about these signs, or you would like to offer feedback, please contact us.