Dear Branching Streams Teachers and Leaders,
This week’s Newsette is very rich, as many of you are sending news of your sangha’s activities and recommending events, talks, and other resources offered by other sanghas.
Thank you to those of you who contacted me about the first Branching Streams online course, Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership with Crystal Johnson. The planning group will meet this week to design a registration form and clarify the process for registration. In case you missed last week’s announcement, this will be a 6-week course meeting on Saturday afternoons (most likely 1 to 3 PM Pacific time) every two weeks beginning July 25th. If you are interested please let me know by June 24th, including the number of people who would like to attend. A longer description with Crystal’s bio is attached.
Cultivating Solidarity and Building Stamina for Transformative Action for White Practitioners
Crystal Johnson, who will be teaching the course for Branching Streams, will be leading an online daylong event for white people at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland CA on Saturday June 27th. If there are white folks in your sangha who might be interested, please let them know. This could be a good introduction to Crystal’s work for those who are interested in the Branching Streams course.
Zoom Clinic with Jon Voss will continue!
There is still interest in and need for Jon’s Zoom Clinic. It will not meet this week, as Jon is participating in a Sangha Week program. It will resume on Wednesday, July 1st.Here is the link to join weekly drop-in clinics, 11am Pacific time. These weekly clinics are designed as open workshops in which participants bring any questions or problems they are facing, as well as their own ideas and expertise for what is working in their own sangha. If you need the meeting password, please contact Jon Voss. Jon will be available for individual consultations.
Reopening
Daya Goldschlag, guiding teacher of Stone Willow Zendo in Spokane WA reports: Stone Willow Zendo has started meeting in our backyard at 8am on Friday mornings. Everyone brings their own chairs or cushions and we sit a good distance from each other. A lot more noise than inside….squirrels, robins and garbage trucks rumbling along in the alley along with lovely fresh air breezes. This Friday we will sit slightly closer and have study…passing our study book to read aloud along with hand sanitizer. At the end of June the sangha will come 25 miles NW of Spokane to our 30 acres and we will have an outdoor 1/2 day retreat. Again, folks will bring their own chairs and cushions, water, sunhats and bag lunches. We will sit among the ponderosa pine and douglas fir.
Houston Zen Center Glossary of terms
This is a glossary of terms related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusison, and Accessibility, posted by Houston Zen Center. It was recommended by Inryu Ponce-Barger, guiding teacher of All Beings Zen Sangha in Washington. “This living document was compiled by the White People 4 Black Lives Class Committee as an act of love and commitment to making our spaces and our language more accessible.” DC: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/523901f9e4b08b04ff30cc5f/t/5ee68316389cec341a089376/1592165142416/Glossary+of+Terms.pdf
Awakened Action: Women Leaders Speak to Race, Poverty, Climate, and the Pandemic sponsored by Upaya Zen Center
Chris Fortin, guiding teacher of Women’s Lotus Sangha in Sebastopol CA attended this daylong conference on June 21st and recommends listening to the recordings: https://www.upaya.org/resources/awakened-action/
Dharma talks focusing on meeting the challenges of this time:
Recommended by Choro Antonaccio, Tanto at Austin Zen Center: Zenju Earthlyn Manuel spoke two weeks ago as part of a year-long program called Commit to Sit. This link will take you straight to a Vimeo recording of the talk. https://tinyurl.com/y8spejzg
I recommend two talks given at San Francisco Zen Center this past week: Yuki Kobiyama (Tenzo at Green Gulch Farm) on June 24th and David Zimmerman (City Center Abiding Abbot) on June 27th. Lucy Xiao, a City Center resident and practice leader will be speaking on Wednesday, July 1st. All these talks can be found at https://www.sfzc.org/offerings/livestream-media.
I hope all of you are in good health and taking care of yourselves as you take care of your sanghas.
With appreciation,
Tova