Month: July 2022

Some upcoming study and practice opportunities:

Black Mountain Zen Centre in Belfast launched a 5-week class today (7 p.m. on Mondays in Belfast, 11 a.m. PDT) on the Bodhisattva Vows and the Brahma Viharas taught by their guiding teacher, Ryushin Paul Haller. The classes will be recorded and it’s not too late to sign up. The class description begins with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King: “The formidable challenges in our lives offer the opportunity of education and transformation”. Paul writes, “The first two Bodhisattva vows offer us insights into the education and transformation that Dr King mentions. The other two vows describe the engagement that enacts that teaching. In a practical way we can apply the four Brahma Viharas to our psychological being to enhance our innate caring and help cultivate the sentiments that guide us in caring for all beings. The website link above has more details.

Chapel Hill Zen Center will host an in-person five-day Genzo-e Sesshin (a teaching retreat) with talks twice a day by Shohaku Okumura Roshi offered through Zoom. The dates are September 9 to 14. Space is limited, so if you’re interested CHZC encourages you to sign up now. For more information, use this link. To register, use this one.

The Tassajara Fall Practice Period (September 26 to December 20) led by Green Gulch Farm Abiding Abbess Fu Schroeder, is accepting applications until August 1. “During this practice period we will view Zen practice through the lens of two classic Zen koans: “Does a Dog Have Buddha Nature?” and “Hyakujo and the Fox.” These teaching stories can help to illuminate the two truths about ourselves and the world—the ultimate truth and the relative truth. Understanding and practicing in the light of these truths, the Buddha said, will set us free. For more information click on this link. If you have any questions, you can direct them to Lauren Bouyea, tassdirector@sfzc.org.

And here’s a way to do something that may make a difference: The Berkeley based Election Retreat team is hosting another online Letter Writing Retreat Sunday July 24, 10 am to 1 pm, PST. Forty-two people attended their July 10 retreat and wrote over 800 letters. You can register at this link. “Once again we’ll focus our efforts on Nevada, where a Congressional seat, a Senate seat, and a Governorship are all in play. Once you’ve registered, we’ll email you everything you need to participate, including letters, schedules, chants, etc.”

I’m happy to let you know that Santa Cruz Zen Center has offered to host our next Branching Streams Conference. The dates are September 18 to 21, 2023. We are returning to the pre-Covid timing, meeting on alternate years to the Soto Zen Buddhist Association’s conference, which will be held this September. We have reserved a wonderful retreat center in Santa Cruz, Villa Maria del Mar, overlooking the ocean. Please save the dates!

It’s time to make your annual contribution to Branching Streams if your sangha has not already done so! You can send your contribution electronically or by writing a check to San Francisco Zen Center with the name of your sangha on the memo line and mailing it to 300 Page Street, San Francisco CA 94102, attention Tova Green. Please contact me if you are unable to make a contribution this year.

Sangha News and Events:

Hozan Alan Senauke, Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center (CA), writes, “On Friday night July 9, in the inner room of Shogakuji/Berkeley Zen Center, I was privileged to entrust the dharma to Nanzan Shunki Harald Schoeklmann and Juen Ryushin Friederike Boissevain. Juen and Nanzan are the priests and teachers at Wind und Wolken (Wind and Clouds) Sangha, a Berkeley Zen Center affiliate in Gettorf, northern Germany, and founders of Hospiz im Wohld, also in Gettorf. We are grateful for wonderful support and assistance from Nyokai Laurie Senauke, Shosan Vicki Austin, and the BZC sangha.”

Santa Cruz Zen Center and Monterey Bay Zen Center will have a 10-year memorial gathering for their Abbot Sobun Katherine Thanas. The gathering will take place outdoors at Santa Cruz Zen Center, 113 School Streat, Santa Cruz, on Sunday, July 24th, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and will include a short ceremony, sharing memories, and enjoying each other’s company with snacks and conversation. All are welcome to attend, and it will simultaneously be zoom- cast.

Santa Cruz Zen Center and Monterey Bay Zen Center will have a 10-year memorial gathering for their Abbot Sobun Katherine Thanas. The gathering will take place outdoors at Santa Cruz Zen Center, 113 School Streat, Santa Cruz, on Sunday, July 24th, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and will include a short ceremony, sharing memories, and enjoying each other’s company with snacks and conversation. All are welcome to attend, and it will simultaneously be zoom- cast.

On June 27,Taigen Leighton, guiding teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Center, shared comments by Konjin Gaelyn Godwin, Abbot of Houston Zen Center, concerning “the end of reproductive rights” along with his own response in an ADZG newsletter.

Richmond (VA) Zen Center’s Difference + Unity Study Group is currently focusing on Asian and Asian American experiences. “Zen Buddhism is a tradition that comes to us from Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese practitioners and the cultures they created to express and transmit the Dharma. Also, an alarming trend of rising anti-Asian violence in the US makes this an urgent inquiry.

They recommend three resources, the PBS five-episode documentary series released in 2020, Asian Americans, which covers the history of Asian and Pacific Islanders’ immigration to and roles in American history and culture; American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War, by Buddhist priest and scholar Duncan Ryukan Williams, and  this 50-minute podcast episode of On Being in which Krista Tippett interviews poet, novelist, and Zen Buddhist, Ocean Vuong.

Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham, WA is participating in the first annual Sacred Earth Fair on July 31st, 2022 at the Center for Spiritual Living. “The fair will include activities, special guests, and informational booths, all focused on how we can come together to honor and protect our precious planet. The fair is offered by the Multifaith Network for Climate Justice (of which RCZC is a member), and co-sponsored by Earth Ministry of Washington and Interfaith Power & Light. The emphasis of the fair is to encourage everyone to view ourselves as allies of the earth, and to view faith traditions as having an important contribution to make, at this important juncture of climate crisis.” Red Cedar’s Wilderness Dharma Program will host an information table and will offer short mindfulness nature walks through the beautiful mature forest surrounding the center.

I find it encouraging to see Zen teachers speaking and writing about some of the divisive issues in the U.S., as well as finding ways to study Zen’s cultural roots, and to encourage sanghas to work with others to care for our planet.