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Newsette 4-25-2025

Welcome to a new Branching Streams affiliate, Jissoji Zen Ann Arbor in Ann Arbor, MI. Jissoji was established in 2016 by guiding teacher Marta Dabis. Marta is a student of Koji Acquaviva Dreher, who practices at Clouds and Water Zen Center in Minneapolis MN and often leads retreats at Jissoji.

Earth Day has been celebrated widely this month, including ceremonies at City Center, Enso Village, and many Branching Streams groups.

This photo shows Austin Zen Center’s heritage oak tree encircled with ema, paper strips inscribed with “words of gratitude, intention, and vow to our Mother the Earth.” The ema were hung around the tree in a ceremony this week led by guiding teacher Choro Antonaccio. Photo by Chris Azbill.

Valley Streams Zen Sangha in Sacramento CA celebrated Earth Day on April 21. Their newsletter includes these words of Joanna Macy:

“Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to nuclear war, none is so great as the deadening of our response.”

They write, “During our Earth Day celebration we will awaken our care for the earth and our essential connection to the natural world. We will begin with a sitting meditation and service, chanting Dogen’s Self-Receiving and Employing Samadhi, followed by outside walking meditation. We will return to the zendo to listen to the words of Black Elk and form a practice circle to discuss our commitment to the great Earth.”

Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham, WA is offering a Backpacking Mountains and Rivers Retreat from September 6 to 11. “Inspired by Eihei Dogen’s 1240 text the Mountains and Rivers Sutra (Sansuikyo), this retreat includes a day of guided nature awareness and meditation in the front-country followed by four days and three nights of silent backpacking through a beautiful old growth hemlock forest to a seldom-visited base camp at Mazama Park, just south of Mount Baker at the foot of Park Butte. Our days will be interspersed with some social and free time.”

At Berkeley Zen Center, Linda Galijan and Greg Fain will be installed as Abiding Teachers in a ceremony on May 2 at 5:45 p.m., in person and online (see the BZC website for the online link). They will co-lead BZC’s spring practice period and co-teach a class on the Lotus Sutra.

Many of you signed a letter of support for Mohsen Mahdavi. Mahdavi is a Palestinian Columbia University student, a Green Card holder and permanent resident, who was arrested and detained by ICE officials in mid-April. The letter (attached), drafted by SF Zen Center’s Abbot Mako Voelkel, was widely circulated and as of 4/27 had 170 signatures. If you wish to sign the letter it is here.

The letter was made available to Mahdavi’s legal team. It was posted, along with a letter of testimony for Mahdavi by Bikkhu Bodhi, in Lion’s Roar. Tricycle also posted the letter as well as an article, “Mohsam Mahdavi, the Buddhist: understanding and responding to the latest college student abduction by ICE,” by Michael Santi Keating, which explores Mahdavi’s commitment to non-violence.

I continue to settle into Enso Village, meeting people who share my love of practice, music, art, and social activism.

May you find peace, ease, and joy in the midst of changes and challenges.

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Newsette April 15, 2025

Plans for the 2025 Branching Streams Gathering are moving forward. The theme is Bridging and Belonging: Living a Zen Life in the Midst of Conflict. Please save the dates, September 15 to 18. This Gathering is co-hosted by Ancient Dragon Zen Center in Chicago and Milwaukee Zen Center and will be held at Loyola University’s Recreation and Ecology Center in Illinois. The registration form will be available in early May.

If your Zen Center or Sangha has not yet made an annual contribution to Branching Streams for 2025, you can do so on the Branching Streams website or by sending a check to San Francisco Zen Center with your sangha’s name on the memo line. Checks can be mailed to 300 Page Street, San Francisco CA 94102, attention Branching Streams.

Although I have moved to Enso Village I continue to work for SF Zen Center as the Branching Stream Director. I visit City Center often and will be there later this week to be one of three preceptors at a Jukai Ceremony. I have spent the last few days refreshing my calligraphy skills, discerning dharma names, and creating Serene Name cards and kechimyaku envelopes – a joyful practice once I get past my anxiety about all of it.

You may be interested in an essay and two new books by Branching Streams writers.

Ryan Wong, the Director of Brooklyn Zen Center, in his essay “On Rebuilding” reflects on a recent trip to South Korea and his thoughts on returning to the U. S. in this blog.

Shinshu Roberts, co-guiding teacher of Ocean Gate Zen Center in Santa Cruz, wrote a commentary on the Genjo Koan, Meeting the Myriad Things, which will be published by Shambhala in August and can be pre-ordered.

Pamela Reitman, a student at Everyday Zen in the San Francisco Bay Area and a resident of Enso Village, wrote Charlotte Soloman Paints her Life, a novel published this month by Sybilline Press.

Positions open:

Stone Creek Zen Center (SCZC) is seeking a Head Priest, a Soto Zen priest-teacher who is well-trained in Dharma and formal practice ”to lead a thriving non-residential sangha of more than ninety members. Stone Creek is a well-established sangha based in a newly renovated zendo in a small town in beautiful Sonoma County, California, an area with a vibrant cultural life.” Full job description and contact information here.

Enso Village in Healdsburg CA is looking for a Spiritual Life Director This is from the job description: “As the Spiritual Life Director at Enso Village, you will cultivate a spiritually rich environment for our residents and team members. Your leadership will foster a culture of mindfulness, kindness, and care by weaving Buddhist principles with inclusive, interfaith wisdom. You’ll guide the creation of meaningful practices, rituals, and programs that support contemplative aging, mindful living, and end-of-life transitions.” Please share the link to the job description if you know someone who you think would be a good candidate.

May you be nourished by the colors of spring, the birdsong, and whatever else brings you joy.

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Newsette – April 3, 2025

It has been a month since I sent the March 5 Newsette, written in my last week of living at San Francisco Zen Center. I am writing today from Enso Village in Healdsburg CA, about 70 miles north of San Francisco. I moved on March 10. It will take me a while to put down roots here, get to know community members, and establish a daily schedule. I’m happy to continue in my role as Branching Streams Director until the Fall.

Meanwhile, Branching Streams groups have continued to flow and there is much news to share.

On March 15, Mid City Zen (MCZ)in New Orleans celebrated the ordination of two priests. Jon Voss, our Branching Streams webmaster, was ordained by Susan O’Connell, who flew from San Francisco for the ceremony, and Reimoku Greg Smith was ordained by Greg Fain. Greg Fain and Linda Galijan are in New Orleans for six weeks leading the MCZ spring practice period. Jon’s dharma name is Gikai Shinryu, Justice Protector, Authentic Dragon. Reimoku Myoshin, Spiritual Silence/Clear Heart, received the name Reimoku from his first Zen teacher, Robert Livingston Roshi, and the second part of his name, Myoshin, from Greg Fain.

(from left to right: Greg Fain, Reimoku Smith, Jon Voss, Linda Galijan, and in front, Susan O’Connell)

Two days after the ordination, Rev. Reimoku, spiritual advisor to Jesse Hoffman, who was imprisoned on death row at Angola State Penitentiary for many years, offered support to Jesse during his execution, the first in Louisiana since 2010. Jon Voss wrote, “While Reimoku was inside at Angola, Greg Fain and I took part in the interfaith vigil outside, with ours and other sanghas, waiting for Jessie Hoffman’s family and Reimoku to come out. Meanwhile Linda [Galijan] led zazen and discussion at MCZ. Brooklyn Zen Center held a vigil and service for Jessie as well.

“While it was a sad and heavy day for us all, and a jump from the joy of ordination to the pain of a senseless state sanctioned murder, our sangha has been held close together in meditation and action, and our sangha and our close friends at Sanghahouse NOLA have played a prominent role in the voices calling for an end to execution.”

Reirin Gumbel, guiding teacher at Milwaukee Zen Center, writes, “Yesterday [April 1] was a big day in Wisconsin.” {Reirin is referring to the State Supreme Court Race, which was won by liberal candidate Susan Crawford despite $20 million invested in her opponent’s campaign.] “I was an election observer at three different polling places, and we had three people here from Election Retreat for two weeks, who practiced with us in the morning and canvassed every day.”

Brooklyn Zen Center is offering an online class, Practicing with Jizo Bodhisattva, Cultivating Fearlessness in a World of Suffering. Co-led by Dojin Sarah Emerson and Wesley Sansei Ancel, the class will meet on four Tuesdays, May 16 to May 27 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. EDT.

Wesley Sansei Ancel writes, “I’m excited to announce that Zen Tailoring is open for business!     I make a full range of custom Soto Zen robes and samue for lay practitioners and priests, including nagasamue, kairyoe, and koromo. I’m grateful to Jakuko Mo Ferrell, who trained me to make robes in the Soto style. See the website for more info, and contact me at wesley@zentailoring.com.”

Tatsudo Nicole Baden will be in residence at Crestone Mountain Zen Center in Colorado during April and May. She is the Abbot of the international non-profit organization Dharma Sangha and its two Zen practice centers, Crestone and the Zen Buddhist Center in the Black Forest, Germany. Nicole is a Dharma Successor of Zentatsu Baker. She and Baker Roshi will visit San Francisco Zen Center and Green Gulch Farm during her stay at Crestone.

The Sati Center, which has been offering yearlong Introduction to Buddhist Chaplaincy programs co-led by Gil Fronsdal, Paul Haller, Jennifer Block, and others, will have an online free informational event for those interested in the 2025-2026 training on April 27 from 9 a.m. to noon.

Reirin reminded me of a poem that we shared at a Branching Streams conference a few years ago, “We Are of a Tribe,” by Alberto Rios. It includes these lines:

“Together, we are a tribe of eyes that look upward,

Even as we stand on uncertain ground.”

May we remember to look upward, and to look at one another, in these uncertain times.