Deming Zen Group

Deming Zen Group is a small group of people practicing Zen in the style and tradition of the Kwan Um School of Zen. 

We meet weekly on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings.  Please see calendar or click on "Contact Us" for more information.

Algernon D'Ammassa, the group's founder, is a Senior Dharma Teacher in the Kwan Um School of Zen.   Algernon (dharma name, "Mu Mun")  has been teaching and leading meditation since 1998.  He has undergone periods of residential training at Providence Zen Center, Cambridge Zen Center (where he served as Director), and Dharma Zen Center in Los Angeles (serving as Abbot and later as Head Dharma Teacher).  He now lives in Deming with his wife and 1-year-old son, and teaches performing arts in the Deming Public School system.

 In our school, Senior Dharma Teachers are people who have taken the 16 Precepts, undergone intensive training including 90-day silent retreats (or intensive practice periods at home), and have had several years of experience giving meditation instruction and public talks about Zen Buddhist practice.  They lead daily practice and meditation retreats, and perform services such as weddings and funerals.  Senior Dharma Teachers do not give kong-an interviews or transmit the Buddhist precepts.

 Our group has been meeting since March 2009 at a private residence, and are currently planning retreats at other locations in Deming. 

The Kwan Um School of Zen is an international organization of more than a hundred centers and groups founded by Zen Master Seung Sahn, the first Korean Zen Master to live and teach in the west, and his students.  The School's purpose is to make this practice of Zen Buddhism available to an ever-growing number of students throughout the world.

The heart of the Kwan Um School of Zen is the daily practice that goes on in its Zen Centers and groups.  Students and visitors eat together, work together, and meditate together, gradually attaining a clear and compassionate mind from moment to moment which is able to help all beings.

The School offers training in Zen meditation through meditation instruction, daily morning and evening practice, public talks, teaching interviews, sittings, retreats, and workshops.  Our programs are open to anyone regardless of previous experience and are often offered at no cost.

Click here to visit the Kwan Um School of Zen on-line.

Zen is very simple... What are you?

In this whole world everybody searches for happiness outside, but nobody understands their true self inside.

Everybody says, "I."  "I want this, I am like that."  But nobody understands this "I."  Before you were born, where did you come from?  When you die, where will your "I" go?  If you sincerely ask, "What am I?" sooner or later you will run into a wall where all thinking is cut off.  We call this "don't know."

Zen is keeping this "don't know" mind always and everywhere.

When walking, standing, sitting,

lying down, speaking, being

silent, moving, being still.

At all times, in all places, without

interruption -- what is this?

One mind is infinite kalpas.

Meditation in Zen means keeping don't-know mind when bowing, chanting, and sitting Zen.  This is formal Zen practice.  And when doing something, just do it.  When driving, just drive.  When eating, just eat.  When working, just work.

Finally, your don't-know mind will become clear.  Then you can see the sky, only blue.  You can see the tree, only green.  Your mind is like a clear mirror.  Red comes, the mirror is red.  White comes, the mirror is white.  A hungry person comes, you can give him food.  A thirsty person, you can give her something to drink.  There is no desire for myself, only for all beings.  That mind is already enlightenment, what we call Great Love, Great Compassion, the Great Bodhisattva Way.  It's very simple, not difficult!

So Buddha said that all things have Buddha-nature (enlightenment nature).  But Zen Master Joju said that a dog has no Buddha nature.  Which one is right?  Which one is wrong?  If you find that, you find the true way.