Lee Shields and Madelon Bolling, Three Treasurers’ two lead teachers.
Photos by: Jugum Press, Jeff Miller, Lee Shields, Three Treasures Sangha

Three Treasures Sangha is offering its first sesshin since the pandemic, one of many next steps for the Seattle Zen community.

The sesshin will be the first for Lee Shields in the role of senior teacher. Shields also recently published a book, “Weaving Wind and Stone,” which brings Zen Koans into everyday life.

The traditional residential seven-day Zen sesshin, will take place March 2-9, 2025, at Samish Island Camp and Retreat Center near Bow, Washington. Teachers Shields and Jack Duffy will lead the sesshin.

Here is more information about the March sesshin. If you are new to Zen practice, be aware that sesshins are rigorous and quite demanding. They are silent except for daily teisho and dokusan. Full-time participation is preferred, though part-time attendance may be considered, if space is available.

“We are excited to be planning and organizing a residential retreat once again,” said Three Treasures President Larry Keil, conceding our group is a bit rusty when it comes to organizing residential retreats. We welcome members and non-members to all our events, regardless of ability to pay.

Duffy had been Three Treasures Sangha senior teacher from the early 1990s. A little more than 10 years ago, Duffy named Shields and Madelon Bolling as teachers to the group. In 2021 Duffy retired from his role as senior teacher, and asked Shields to take that role. The transition has since been moving organically, continuing to this day.

With each change of teacher there is some shift in culture, some students who leave with the exiting teacher, while new ways of expressing the dharma emerge. The Three Treasures sangha is deeply grateful to Duffy and our previous teachers, as we carry on the tradition today.

In the new book, “Weaving Wind and Stone,” Shields uses stories from Zen koans that can help us connect everyday relationships with the mysteries that are right here and right now. Our everyday life is filled with our own encounters with family, friends, and the greater world. Each is evocative of a range of emotions, from despair over the state of things, to the joy of seeing a bee loaded with pollen. Each is an invitation.

Since the Covid-19 epidemic, our practice now encompasses both in-person and Zoom-based practice opportunities. This expansion enables members from around the globe to participate in weekday zazen; dharma discussions; dokusan with our teachers; monthly day-long retreats (zazenkais); and twice-yearly, multi-day, intensive sesshins.

Additional practice options include our hybrid Wednesday night sittings, which are proceeded by a discussion of practice issues or questions, and Friday morning sitting, which is followed by a koan discussion group on Zoom. We also sponsor a gardening retreat each spring, and gardening Saturdays at the end of each month.

Three Treasures is a small, lay Zen group based in Seattle. We are affiliated with the Diamond Sangha, whose founding teacher was Robert Aitken. Our forms are derived from Japanese Zen traditions and favor simplicity, focusing on zazen with recitations of sutras (writings of ancestral teachers), dharma talks (teisho), and interviews (dokusan) with the teachers. We became a Washington State non-profit in the mid-1980s.

Three  Treasures’ physical home is Dharma Gate, a zendo (practice center) in the Rainier Valley neighborhood of south Seattle that we share with the Mindfulness Community of Puget Sound.  The former home includes a zendo, dokusan room, library, kitchen, and lovely kinhin (walking meditation) garden. Our weekly and monthly sittings are held here.

The practice center garden is a special place for all members of both sanghas, as well as for our visitors and neighbors. For many members, pulling a weed or pruning a branch is Zen, so we all have the gift of the garden’s presentations all year round. It gives us a fresh kinhin experience during our retreats. We offer regular garden retreats, for the benefit of the community and the weeds.

We’re always looking for ways to use the discussion before our Wednesday sitting to deepen our collective engagement with practice, beyond words and into our daily lives. Starting in January, we will initiate a series of discussions on the precepts, the ethical vows, before our evening zazen (meditation), in hybrid format.

We’ll explore the precepts one at a time starting with the Four Infinite Vows, then proceeding to the Three Pure Precepts, and then the Ten Grave Precepts. Those of us new to Zen can help us all to see the ancient way afresh, while experienced practitioners can enrich our discussions with their insights and lived experiences. This series and all our events are open to members and non-members.

Shields’ experience of  first encountering Three  Treasures, and finding a connection, was very natural.

“In 1988 I was living in Detroit and looking for a sangha to sit with on a regular basis, not available where I was,” he said. “I came to the Seattle for a sesshin with these folks, who I met for the first time as we packed up all that was needed to move the Seattle dojo to set up at Camp Indianola.

“I was at once taken by this group of people who didn’t take themselves seriously, but who took the practice of Zen seriously at the first bell of sesshin,” he said. “Some of those present back then, are my dear friends in the sangha still.”

If you are looking for a dharma home, consider the Three Treasures Sangha. We welcome beginners as well as seasoned sitters, both in the Puget Sound region and far-flung locales. For more information, please reach out to us at: 206-395-5226 or ttssangha@gmail.com.