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Newsette – June 4, 2025

I am back at Enso Village after spending several days at City Center and two weeks at Tassajara. Enso Village is beginning to feel like home. There is much news to share this week.

June is Pride Month and Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago’s guiding teacher Laurie Belzer writes: we will feature voices of our LGBTQI+ dharma companions The dharma is vitalized by small acts of good friendship and committed alliance.” I, Tova, will be giving the Sunday June 8 ADZG talk by Zoom from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. CDT. On Saturday June 21 Rev. Jisho Lisa Hoffman, a co-host of SFZC’s Queer Dharma Group, will offer a hybrid half day sitting from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. CDT, titled Not One Not Two: Sangha Strength. To register,: CLICK HERE

Zen Center North Shore (ZCNS)in Beverly, MA is offering a Queer Sangha Panel on July 26from 7:15 to 8:30 EDT at 72 Grapevine Road in Wenham. They are also participating in a Pride Parade and Festival on Saturday June 28th, from12pm to 4pm EDT in Salem, MA. “ZCNS will again be marching in the parade proudly displaying our banner, and we welcome sangha members to join us as we march to the Salem Common, where the Festival is located.”

ZCNS participated in “They All Have Names” Vigil held May 27 to 28 which recognized the names of more than 17,400 children killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. “The 24-hour vigil was held in Harvard Square and ZCNS was there from 3am to 5am to bear witness as each child’s name was read. Holding banners and pictures of children who have been lost to the violence and the resulting lack of food and medical care was a profound experience for those who were able to attend.”

Last month Brattleboro Zen Center (Vermont) hosted its first bodhisattva precepts initiation ceremony. Guiding teacher Hakusho Ostlund writes: “Two of our members received the sixteen precepts of the Soto Zen tradition: Alison Bundy, whose Dharma name is Shōshu Insan, True Guardian, Hidden Mountain, and Paula Marks, whose Dharma name is Kangetsu Kisei, Generous Moon, Resolute Vow. 

“This was the first time I have had the honor to officiate this formal commitment to a life grounded in vow. In the wake of it, my overwhelming feeling is one of gratitude. While we collectively witnessed and celebrated the culmination of Paula and Alison’s extensive study and preparation, this ceremony felt like a big celebration for the Brattleboro Zen Center as a Sangha.”

Linda Galijan, co-Abiding Teacher at Berkeley Zen Center (BZC), writes, “The BZC Board voted to join an interfaith amicus brief on behalf of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student, a husband and father who was arrested in March 2025 by ICE agents in New York. Khalil was targeted for his pro-Palestinian activism and involvement in the Columbia University Gaza war protests. He remains detained in Louisiana.

“The brief explains the motivation of the signatories: “Amici are leaders, congregations and organizations across faiths who revere the Constitution and cherish its guarantee of freedom of speech. Without presuming to speak for all American faiths—a diverse community that holds a multitude of viewpoints—amici are compelled to file this brief because the arrest, detention and potential deportation of petitioner Mahmoud Khalil for his protected speech violate the most basic constitutional rights. We share with him a profound interest in the integrity and protection of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (U.S. Const., Amend. 1). The government did not object to the filing and it appears likely that the court will accept it.”

Mid-City Zen in New Orleans LA and Dharma Heart Zen in Cotati CA also signed the brief, as did several Zen centers in other lineages.

Crestone Mountain Zen Center (Crestone, Colorado) and Zen Buddhist Center Black Forest together launched their online Dharma Academy, with a weekend event, “Engaging the Heart of Wisdom.” If you missed the event and would like to hear the many speakers, the Recordings and Reflections study packet is available for purchase.

The Bay Area Buddhist Association will offer a free online talk on the deep connection between the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals and Buddhist Principles on Saturday June 28 from 12:00 p.m. to 2 p.m. CDT. The speakers are Rev. Rinso Ed Sattizahn and Rev. Gyokudo Giuseppe Prisco. Here’s a link to a flyer with more information.

May you be well and may you be nourished by Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.