As an effort to protect our sangha, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate has not met in our Irving Park Road city temple since mid-March, shifting focus to operating as a online practice community. This new realm of Zoom zazen has been sometimes strange but has brought many benefits, including increased practice offerings and new sangha members from around the world. In the month of August, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate held three open community meetings in the online zendo to discuss the helpfulness and challenges of our online practice, possible additional practice opportunities, and whether or not to renew our lease on the temple building on Irving Park Road. Ancient Dragon’s current lease on the temple space, with the option to renew, concludes on December 31st.
Sangha member Brian Taylor assembled a summary of the opinions expressed at these community meetings, which we invite you to read below.
These community meetings will inform the upcoming Board of Directors meeting on September 13th, during which the renewal of the Irving Park lease will be discussed. Once a formal decision has been made, a follow-up Ancient Dragon community meeting will be scheduled to discuss the decision together and plan our next steps together.
With bows and deep thanks for your practice,
Dylan Toropov
Head Doan
Ancient Dragon Zen Gate