is a small

Sōtō Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai school, Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Caodong school, Cáodòng school, which was founded during the ...

Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

near

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

in Madison County,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is located in the

Boston Mountains The Boston Mountains is a Level III ecoregion designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Part of the Ozarks, the Boston Mountains are a deeply dissected plateau. The ecoregion is steepe ...

of the

Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as a small area in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover ...

. The temple focuses primarily on the practice of

zazen ''Zazen'' is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. The generalized Japanese term for meditation is 瞑想 (''meisō''); however, ''zazen'' has been used informally to include all forms ...

in the tradition of

Kosho Uchiyama Kosho may refer to: People * Emperor Kōshō, the fifth imperial ruler of Japan to appear on the traditional list of emperors * Kōshō Tateishi, Japanese yamabushi * Kōshō Uchiyama (1912–1998), Japanese Sōtō priest and origami master O ...

and Shohaku Okumura, the latter being the teacher of the founder,

Shōryū Bradley Shōryū Bradley () is a Sōtō Zen priest and the founder and abbot of Gyobutsuji Zen Monastery located near Kingston, Madison County, Arkansas, Kingston, Arkansas. Biography Shoryu Bradley studied psychology at Texas A&M University, where he ...

. Study of the writings of Eihei Dōgen and the teachings of

Shakyamuni Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist lege ...

are also emphasized. The monastery holds a five-day

sesshin A ''sesshin'' (接心, or also 摂心/攝心 literally "touching the heart-mind") is a period of intensive meditation (zazen) retreat in a Japanese Zen monastery, or in a Zen monastery or Zen center that belongs to one of the Japanese Zen trad ...

every month except in February and August. Sesshins are Uchiyama-style consisting of 14 periods of zazen (50 minutes) and

kinhin Walking meditation (Chinese language, Chinese: 經行; Pinyin: ''jīngxíng''; Romanization of Japanese, Romaji: ''kinhin'' or ''kyōgyō''; Korean language, Korean: ''gyeonghyaeng''; Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: ''kinh hành'') is a meditati ...

(10 minutes) without liturgy,

dokusan Some Buddhist terms and concepts lack direct translations into English that cover the breadth of the original term. Below are given a number of important Buddhist terms, short definitions, and the languages in which they appear. In this list, an a ...

ōryōki is a set of nested bowls and other eating utensils for the personal use of Buddhist monks. Ōryōki also refers to a meditative form of eating using these utensils that originated in Japan and emphasizes mindfulness awareness practice by abiding ...

. The name Gyōbutsu-ji literally means 'Practice Buddha Temple' and is derived from Eihei Dōgen's

magnum opus A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

the

Shōbōgenzō is the title most commonly used to refer to the collection of works written in Japan by the 13th-century Buddhist monk and founder of the Sōtō Zen school, Eihei Dōgen. Several other works exist with the same title (see above), and it is som ...

, specifically the chapter titled Gyōbutsu igi (行仏威儀). While the standard

Classical Chinese Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...

interpretation of this title is "practice Buddha's dignified actions", Dōgen re-interpreted it as "dignified actions of the Practice Buddha" in line with his assertion that

practice Practice or practise may refer to: Education and learning * Practice (learning method), a method of learning by repetition * Phantom practice, phenomenon in which a person's abilities continue to improve, even without practicing * Practice-based ...

and

enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

are the same. The chapter explains:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gyobutsu-ji 2011 establishments in Arkansas 21st-century Buddhist temples Buddhist organizations Buddhist monasteries in the United States Religious organizations established in 2011 Soto Zen Buddhism in Arkansas Zen centers in the United States Buildings and structures in Madison County, Arkansas