Month: July 2020

It’s past mid-summer and many sanghas are finding creative ways to practice together out-of-doors.

This Newsette includes glimpses of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate’s Camping Sesshin and an outdoor work-day at Milwaukee Zen Center. If you have found ways to practice in nature, please share your experiences.

This Newsette also contains an update about the launch of Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership last weekend and a workshop next weekend with Paula Arai offered by Kannon Do in Mountain View CA.

This is an excerpt from a longer article with photos that will be posted soon on the Branching Streams website: “Since 2016, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago has held an annual three-day Camping Sesshin that combines traditional Zen forms and Dharma teachings within the natural setting provided by Illinois Beach State Park, writes Senior Student Eishin Nancy Easton. “Our sesshin takes place in a sheltered, open-air environment, and opportunities for tent camping are available for overnight participants. Daily Dharma talks, discussions, communal meals and nature walks are offered by our co-leaders Eishin Nancy Easton and Gyoshin Laurel Ross, and other senior students under the guidance of Guiding Dharma Teacher Taigen Dan Leighton. This sesshin offers us an opportunity to bring our practice to an encounter with the natural world, without venturing far from home.

“For Ancient Dragon as a non-residential, urban practice center, Camping Sesshin brings a welcome opportunity to practice together in an extended way, as participants bring their own tents and camp overnight in the land surrounding our tent zendo. Pre-dawn zazen on the shore of Lake Michigan is one of the highlights, along with our extended walking meditation along a trail that precedes the morning’s Dharma talk.

“During the COVID pandemic this year, we have not been able to occupy our zendo, and have similarly not felt that it was safe to offer this practice due to the hazards of communal food preparation. However, plans are currently in the works to offer a half-day or all-day sitting in this format, with participants bringing their own bag lunch. Our spacious tent zendo can easily accommodate 6-8 socially distanced participants, and the outdoor setting adds to our physical safety.

Reirin Gumbel, Guiding Teacher of Milwaukee Zen Center writes about a recent sangha work-day: “Sangha members worked on projects individually and brought their own lunches and water. The work was mostly outdoors, weeding and repair, a couple of members cleaned the basement, and one person with a truck took various items to Goodwill and to the dump. It was lovely to see everyone in person, though at a distance.”

Kannon Do Zen Center is offering a workshop, The Healing Power of Everyday Activities in the Time of Covid-19, on Saturday, August 1st led by Dr.Paula Arai, author of Women Living Zen and Bringing Zen Home. You can find more information at: https://kannondo.org/event/summer-workshop-with-paula-arai/

Branching Streams launched our first online course on Saturday, Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership, led by Crystal Johnson. 107 participants from 29 different sanghas in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. enrolled in the course. Thanks to Jon Voss of Mid-City Zen and Teresa Bouza for their technical support.

Jon’s Zoom Clinic helped Teresa and me learn how to manage security and create breakout groups on Zoom. All are welcome to join our weekly drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 11am Pacific time.

This will be a brief Newsette, as I have only a few items to share with you – all things occurring on the coming weekend. A dharma friend shared a term this morning that resonates with me: “caution fatigue.” With the spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths in 40 states, the need for physical distancing and wearing masks continues.

The Branching Streams Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership course begins on Saturday July 25th. One hundred participants from sanghas in many states, Canada, and the U.K. have registered. Dana for participating in the course raised over $10,000 for the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland CA.

Crystal Johnson, who will be teaching the course, gave a dharma talk at SF Zen Center on Saturday July 18th which I recommend. Here’s a link to the dharma talk archives, where you can find a video of her talk.

Royce Johnson, a priest at Houston Zen Center, will be leading a one-day sitting that same day. You can learn more about it here.

And San Francisco Zen Center is offering an online retreat with Rev. angel Kyodo Williams and Abbess Furyu Schroeder on Radical Dharma from Friday the 24th at 7p.m. to Sunday the 26th at 4p.m.

Jon Voss’s Zoom clinic continues: All are welcome to join our weekly drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 11am Pacific time.

May you all be healthy and strong – and finding ways to enjoy summer despite “caution fatigue.”

As we reach mid-summer, sheltering in place continues in many states, not in others, as the Covid-19 virus continues to take lives and wreak economic havoc. I hear that some sanghas are exploring what it would take to be able to meet in person, and others are wrestling with hard decisions about whether to renew leases or have already decided not to do so.

This Newsette contains updates about the Branching Streams Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership course, new dates for the Fundraising Class Houston Zen Center is hosting led by Thomas Bruner, some words from the Brooklyn Zen Center’s board regarding closing their Brooklyn center, recommendations for new books by Marcia Lieberman and Pamela Weiss, and a reminder about Jon Voss’s weekly Zoom Clinic.

We were able to admit everyone who applied, including those on the waiting list, to Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership. There are about 100 people enrolled in the course. I think this speaks to the heightened awareness of systemic racism in the U.S. and throughout the world and a …

Fundraising for Buddhists: From Hesitance to Confidence! Taught by Thomas Bruner, this workshop will be hosted by Houston Zen Center. For more information, contact info@houstonzen.org. New dates: Tuesdays, August 11, 25, 6 – 8 pm.

Brooklyn Zen Center’s board sent a letter to their sangha describing the process they went through to reach a decision to close their city temple. The board wrote: “We realize that this may be painful news to hear. Our temple on Carroll Street has been our spiritual home for over a decade. Please stay tuned for emails and announcements about opportunities for dialogue and ritual that will allow us to express our collective grief and appreciation around the loss of this space. Please know that we are committed to a Zen practice space in Brooklyn. Once we have more clarity regarding a post-pandemic New York City, we will assess what makes sense at that time regarding a space. In the meantime, we will be wrapping the virtual sangha around Ancestral Heart and supporting our community from the monastery.”

I was saddened to hear this news, as you may be if you’ve visited Brooklyn Zen Center – and I know that other centers, particularly those that rent spaces, are grappling with questions of whether they can afford to keep paying rent on spaces they are currently unable to occupy due to the pandemic.

New books: Your sangha may have had a summer visit from Marcia Lieberman, a San Francisco-based member of Presidio Hill Sangha. Marcia’s many skills include writing, gardening, and photography. You will soon find a letter from Marcia on the Branching Streams website, with a link to order her new book, Clean Slate, Images from Dogen’s Garden, published by Goff Books.

Pamela Weiss, a dharma heir of Teah Strozer, former guiding teacher at Brooklyn Zen Center, gave a riveting dharma talk at City Center last Saturday on themes from her book published today by North Atlantic Books, ­A Bigger Sky, Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism.

Although both books are available at Amazon, you may want to order them through your local bookseller.

Jon Voss, our Zoom wizard, says “All are welcome to join our weekly drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 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. We share resources we’ve discovered during the week, try out different methods, do hands-on training, and generally provide a place for mutual support. If you need the meeting password, please contact Jon Voss.”

I’ll end this Newsette with lines we chant in the SFZC Online Zendo every morning after the robe chant: May all be healthy and strong. May all have ease and joy in their lives and be free from suffering.

With deep bows,

Tova

I hope this Newsette finds you in good health and finding nourishment in practice in the midst of a spike in coronavirus cases in many states, including California, and ongoing unrest in the U.S.

This Newsette includes an update on the upcoming Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership from a Buddhist Perspective course, announces Thomas Bruner’s next Fundraising for Buddhists class, shares Houston Zen Center’s deliberations on reopening, and offers a creative sangha-building idea from Brooklyn Zen Center. It also provides the link to Jon Voss’s weekly Zoom Clinic, and an invitation to join a weekend workshop with angel Kyodo williams and Furyu Schroeder offered online by SFZC.

Registrations for the Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership from a Buddhist Perspective course have poured in and the course is at its capacity. We closed registration today and are taking names for a waiting list. I know this will be disappointing news to some of you. Crystal is looking into the possibility of offering a second course starting later and I will keep you posted. If you would like to be on the waiting list please fill out the registration form. The link is: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Xk35dishqaIRKl4Gz85BDvDt-QycwkDE_rIkeKHHLtw/edit

Thomas Bruner’s next Fundraising for Buddhists series will be hosted by Houston Zen Center on Aug. 4, 11 and 18. This class is highly recommended for board members as well as teachers or sangha members who wish to hone their fundraising skills.

Reopening: Houston Zen Center’s board president, Carter White, wrote about why HZC is not reopening this July. It may be helpful to your sangha as questions about reopening arise. Here’s the link: https://mailchi.mp/houstonzen/a-message-from-houston-zen-center

An idea for your sangha from Brooklyn Zen Center: collecting Kitchen Practice Stories
“Our kitchens are also our home zendo and, even if we are not able at this time to prepare meals together as a sangha, we can still support each other in our kitchen practice. In this spirit, we invite you to share your stories and images of kitchen practice during this time of physical distancing. Whether you have been cooking by yourself, sharing the kitchen with your family or with near-strangers, fixing quick snacks or cooking elaborate meals – we would love to hear from you.” They plan to post the stories and images on their website.

Jon Voss continues to offer the Zoom Clinic. He says, “All are welcome to join our weekly drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 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. We share resources we’ve discovered during the week, try out different methods, do hands-on training, and generally provide a place for mutual support. If you need the meeting password, please contact Jon Voss.”

Radical Dharma: Embodying Race, Love, and Liberation with angel Kyodo Williams and Furyu Schroeder will be offered online the weekend of July 24 – 26. For more information, here is the link: https://www.sfzc.org/online-programs