Cultivating Upāya: The Lotus Sutra’s Wisdom in Action

A Four-Week Journey Through Its Great Parables

STARTS JANUARY 15

The Lotus Sutra declares something astonishing and deeply consoling:
No one is left behind.
The Buddha meets beings exactly where they are, using whatever means are needed for awakening.

This four-week journey explores how the Lotus Sutra’s great parables reveal Upāya — skillful means — not as an idea, but as a living capacity we can cultivate in our own lives. Through story, meditation, reflection, and conversation, we will explore how wisdom becomes action, compassion adapts to the world, and awakening becomes something embodied, not admired from afar.

Each week we will explore multiple parables together, not as distant scripture, but as mirrors for our lives. We will consider how the Buddha’s imaginative, compassionate creativity shows us how to respond to suffering, confusion, beauty, and responsibility.

Whether you’ve studied the Lotus Sutra before or are encountering it for the first time, you are welcome. Curiosity is all that is required!

What to Expect

• Four weekly sessions — offered both in-person at One River Zen and online

• Multiple parables each week to reveal different dimensions of Upāya

• Accessible teaching rooted in tradition, grounded in lived life

• Recordings provided for those who cannot attend live

• A supportive, sincere community of practice