Posted on

Newsette 2-3-2025

Dear Branching Streams teachers and leaders and interested readers,

Two days ago, I attended a Jukai ceremony at Presidio Hill Zen Group in San Francisco. Five students received the precepts from founding and guiding teacher Steve Weintraub, witnessed by their friends and family, other sangha members, and their sewing teacher. It was a blustery, rainy afternoon, and the warmth and joy in the room (a rented space in a church) was uplifting. I was reminded of the significance of vowing to live for the benefit of all beings, especially at a time in our world where greed, hatred, and delusion are so prominent

Two Streams Zen in Westhampton, MA, began a recent newsletter with this quote by poet Maya Angelou, in English and Spanish:

“During bad circumstances, which is the human experience, you must decide not to be reduced. You have your humanity, and you must not allow anything to reduce that. We are obliged to know we are global citizens. Disasters remind us we are world citizens, whether we like it or not.”

“Durante las malas circunstancias, que son la experiencia humana, debes decidir no dejarte reducir. Tienes tu humanidad y no debes permitir que nada la reduzca. Estamos obligados a saber que somos ciudadanos globales. Los desastres nos recuerdan que somos ciudadanos del mundo, nos guste o no.”

This Newsette will be shorter than many I’ve sent recently. I am sending it today because there are two time-sensitive offerings you might want to know about. One began yesterday, February 2, and continues for five more weeks, and the other begins on February 4.

Two Stream Zen’s co-guiding teachers,Ryūmon Sensei, and Anraku Sensei, invite us to join them online in six Sunday morning silent sittings (February 2 through 9 March 9), “Opening our Hearts to Love and Awakening to the Cries of the World, Abriendo Nuestros Corazones al Amor y Despertando a los Gritos del Mundo.” The sixty-minute sittings are at 11 a.m. EST, 8 a.m. PST.

The Shogaku Zen Institute is starting a new online ten-week class, Building and Sustaining a Healthy Sangha: An Introduction and Overview of Ethical Practices in Organization and Human Resource Management. The class, taught by Grace Schireson, Steve Kanji Ruhl, and Steven Tierney, meets on Tuesdays from February 4 to April 8, 1pm-2:30pm PST / 4pm-5:30pmEST. “It will emphasize skills in operating a center which practices and teaches the Dharma, with deep respect for individual, sangha, and organizational integrity, safety, sustainability and inclusivity.” The class is open to everyone, by donation. Use this link for more information. To register, email Vanessa at registrar@shogakuzen.org With gratitude for our shared practice.

Posted on

Newsette 1-29-2025

The Program Committee for the September 15-18 Branching Streams Gathering met this week for the first time. We are a group of eight, four members who have planned past gatherings and four who are new to the planning process, bringing fresh energy, skills, and ideas. We spent much of the meeting discerning the theme for the gathering, Bridging and Belonging – Living a Zen Life A in the Midst of Conflict.

A question that has arisen for me and for many of my friends, Zen Center peers and students is how to respond to the cries of the world – including the climate crisis, ongoing wars, and the divisions in the U.S., intensified by the actions of the new president and administration in the last week. Here is one sangha’s response:

The Zen Center North Shore (in Beverly MA) newsletter states: “Weare committed as a sangha to being in and with our world, along with whatever happens to be arising at any given time. On Monday evenings beginning 1/27 we will hold space for grief, anxiety, anger, confusion, determination, and love. This will be a time for sharing emotions, resources, and practices to help us stay buoyant and connected in times to come. You can join at any time and stay for as long as you’d like.” The schedule for Monday evenings (ZenZoom only) from 6:30pm to 8:00pm EST, includes zazen, followed by Jizo Chanting for Total Accompaniment, and Open Space for Sharing and Organizing.

If your sangha is offering listening circles or other gatherings in that vein, please let me know so I can share the information. At this time it’s important to remember what nourishes us and our sanghs, including the gifts of retreats and the wonders of natural environments.

Houston Zen Center is offering an in-person retreat, Awakening with Birds, at HZC’s Auspicious Cloud Zen Retreat Center from March 28 to 30. “What is it like to share our lives with birds? What can we learn from this observation? Join Mary Carol Edwards and Stuart Nelson for a weekend of practicing meditation and observing birds. Both Mary Carol and Stuart are lifelong naturalists.”

Everyday Zen, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, will hold its 20th annual Bay Area sesshin from March 24 to 30, in person at Villa Maria del Mar in Santa Cruz and virtually by Zoom. Guiding teacher Zoketsu Norman Fischer will lead the sesshin.

Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham WA will hold their annual Samish Island Sesshin from June 13 to 20, co-led by Zoketsu Norman Fischer, Nomon Tim Burnett, and Kanho Chris Burkhart.

There will be a memorial service for Peter Schneider conducted by Tenshin Reb Anderson at Green Gulch Farm the afternoon of Sunday, March 2. If you want to know the exact time, please email me after Friday 1/31. Peter Schneider was an early student of Suzuki Roshi and the co-founder and co-guiding teacher of Beginners Mind Zen Center in Northridge CA.

May our practice nourish us and ripple out widely in our communities and countries.

Posted on

Newsette 1-9-2025

This Newsette, the first of 2025, contains both celebrations and mournings.

First, SAVE THE DATE for the 2025 Branching Streams Gathering, September 15 – 18. The Gathering will be co-hosted by Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago and Milwaukee Zen Center, and will take place at LUREC, Loyola University’s Recreation and Environmental Center in Illinois.

As several wildfires are raging in Los Angeles, the annual Wildland Firefighters retreat at Tassajara seems more needed than ever.

Chris Fortin (guiding teacher of Dharma Heart Zen in Cotati CA), who co-facilitated this winter’s Wildland Firefighters Retreat at Tassajara with Marc Lesser (guiding teacher of Mill Valley Zen) and Lee Klinger Lesser, reports: “It was wonderful to feel the valley glowing with warm hand to warm hand relationships as firefighters, work volunteers, students, and staff came together in real and authentic meeting , blending like milk and water to support the activity of the way.

“The firefighter’s work assignment was to move Sojun Mel Weitsman’s Memorial Stone up the hill to the Suzuki Roshi Memorial site and set it in place The photo shows firefighters from all over the country joining hearts and minds in this great activity on New Years Day . Sojun’s stone is in place!”

We mourn the loss of Peter Schneider, Yozen Taishin, Embracing Zen/Surrender to the Truth, who died on January 4, 2025. Peter and Myokaku Jane Schneider, his wife, co-founded Beginner’s Mind Zen Center in Northridge, CA in 2003, after many years of living and practicing in Kyoto Japan. Peter was ordained by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in 1970 and was a dharma heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman. His cremation ceremony will be January 10 between 9 a.m. and noon PST.

There was a cremation ceremony for Hozan Alan Senauke, Berkeley Zen Center’s second Abbot, on January 5, conducted by Gengo Akiba Roshi, the Japanese Sotoshu Bishop for North America. The Ceremony was attended by family members, Berkeley Zen Center members, and friends, as well as by 150 people from around the world who attended on Zoom.

Brattleboro Zen Center (VT) opened its new zendo on January 7 with a ceremony, described by founding teacher Hakusho Ostlund: “We will ritually open the eyes of two of the figures on our altar. Traditionally, Buddhist statues and images are not related to as inert objects or mere symbols, but as actual beings. It is customary to paint the eyes of the image, literally or symbolically. By the performance of this ritual animation, the statue is transformed into someone capable of relating to those who relate to them, who doesn’t just get looked at but who can also look back at us… We will place a statue of Quan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion, on our altar and open its eyes as well. She will be seated alongside Shakyamuni and Manjusri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, where she can face the Sangha directly.

It is a good month to remember the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who deeply understood our interconnectedness and the importance of Beloved Community.

Everyday Zen, based in Marin county CA, will hold its Annual Remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King led by Jaune Evans on Monday, January 20, from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. PT. Here is the link to Join Online, Meeting ID: 818 1405 8944, Passcode: Zazen (note the upper case “Z”).

As we face many unknowns going into 2025, may our practice and our sanghas sustain us and all beings.

Posted on

Newsette 12-21-2024

I’m editing and sending this Newsette on the day of the Winter Solstice. Today, at City Center in the dark of early morning, we had a ceremony in which we lit candles and shared poems and words of the season.

As this is the last Newsette of 2024, I am offering a brief summary of my activities as Branching Streams Director this year, and a few interesting statistics:

We’ve welcomed six 6 new affiliates – Crestone Mountain Zen Center (Crestone, Colorado), Dharma Coast Sangha (Florida), Facing the Mountain Zen Group (Reno, Nevada), Ocean’s Compassion (San Francisco, CA) Salt Spring Island Zen Circle (Salt Spring Island, B.C., Canada), Thousand Flowers Dojo (Durach, Germany) and Zendo du Boulay (Saint-Sever de Saintonge, France).

I’ve written thirty two Newsettes since January. There are currently over two hundred and thirty people who receive them.

There are currently sixty nine affiliated Zen Centers and Sanghas in the U.S. and twelve in other countries including Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Northern Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, and Australia..

This year. I visited sixteen affiliates, with visits ranging from several hours to two weeks: Ancestral Heart Monastary and Millerton Zendo (connected with Brooklyn Zen Center, NY), Ancient Dragon Zen Gate (in Chicago, IL), Austin Zen Center (TX), Beginner’s Mind Zen Center (Northridge, CA), Berkeley Zen Center (CA), Centro Zen l’Arco (Rome, Italy), Felsentor (near Lucerne, Switzerland – not an affiliate, but a close cousin), Houston Zen Center (X), Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center (Mountain View, CA), Milwaukee Zen Center (WI), Montaña de Silencio Medellin, Colombia, Presidio Hill Zen Center (San Francisco, CA) Richmond Zen (VA), Zendo am Fluss (Luzerne, Switzerland) – also a close cousin, and Zen Buddhist Center Black Forest (Germany).

The longest visit was to Montaña de Silencio, where I lived with the small residential sangha for two weeks, followed their practice schedule, gave a dharma talk, and assisted founding teacher Sanriki Jaramillo with a five-day sesshin and a Jukai Ceremony at a retreat center in the mountains outside Medellin.

I remembered some words and phrases of Spanish from studying it in Junior High School – and was fortunate that sangha member Engyoku Nidia Gil, who had practiced at Green Gulch Farm and was fluent in English, took me under her wing. She translated for me when I gave talks and coached me on my Spanish pronunciation when I was a preceptor for the Jukai ceremony. I gave practice discussions during the sesshin and learned that my presence as a woman teacher was important to many of the students, especially the women. The photo below was taken at the retreat center by sangha member Brenda Zambrano. Since returning from Colombia, I have begun to study Spanish.

In September I attended the Soto Zen Buddhist Association Conference near Philadelphia, PA, where I connected with many Branching Streams teachers and sangha members. I also hosted a panel of Younger Women’s Voices for the SZBA series Voices of Women in Buddhism. The three panelists practice at Chapel Hill Zen Center (NC), Richmond Zen, and San Antonio Zen Center (TX).

During monthly meetings with my Branching Streams Advisory Committee, a group of eight Branching Streams teachers and leaders, we continued to address topics that were explored during the 2023 Branching Streams Gathering in Santa Cruz. Because of widespread interest in how to support our teachers, we created the survey that was sent to Branching Streams teachers, and a report summarizing the responses.

We also began planning for the 2025 Branching Streams Gathering, which will be co-hosted by Ancient Dragon Zen Gate and Milwaukee Zen Center in September 2025. In response to a suggestion from members of Mid City Zen in New Orleans (LA) we agreed to find ways to elevate the voices and leadership of younger teachers and sangha leaders in planning and hosting the Gathering.

Sangha News : In the first two months of December, many sanghas gathered for Rohatsu sesshins. For some, the session was also the end of their Fall Practice Period.

All Being Zen Sangha in Washington, DC, had a Shuso ceremony at the end of sesshin. The photo below is by Zen’etsu Clay Crowell. In the front row, from left to right, are Shuso Seiryu Paula Chiplis, guiding teacher Inryu Ponce-Barger, and Rev. Konin Cardenas.

++++++++Processed with VSCO with e4 preset

Some Zen Centers and sanghas are on interim near the end of December to rest, celebrate holidays, gather with family members and friends. Many reopen for ceremonies on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Zen Center North Shore (Beverly, MA) is offering a traditional series of events on New Year’s eve with an untraditional ending on New Year’s day.

Their invitation reads: “Join with Zen Center North Shore for this unique annual program to transition together from the old year into the new. The evening begins at 9pm with noodles in the kitchen, a tradition that symbolizes longevity and good fortune, followed by three periods of zazen and walking meditation. Beginning at 11:30 pm, we will ring 108 bells symbolizing the 108 afflictions of the human mind such as arrogance, greed, and anger. Then we write down what we are ready to release – and be released from – and offer it to the bonfire. The celebration continues the next morning with two periods of zazen, a brief ceremony and then an exhilarating dip in the ocean to energize us as we enter a brand new year.”

I’ll close with the words of a song offered during City Center’s solstice celebration this morning:

Rise up oh flame/by thy light glowing/bring to us beauty/wisdom and joy.

With gratitude for our shared practice,

Posted on

Newsette 12-12-20224

My last Newsette was sent before the Thanksgiving weekend. This was followed by Rohatsu Sesshin here at City Center – and by many sanghas in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and elsewere. Now we are moving toward the winter solstice and end of the year holidays and ceremonies.

There are both mournings and celebrations to share in this Newsette

Our beloved Alan Senauke, Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center, recently began receiving Hospice care at home. For updates about Alan or to leave a message for him and his family, here is the link to his CaringBridge page.

Bamboo in the Wind’s founding and guiding teacher, Val Meiren Szymanski had a Stepping Down Ceremony on December 7. She founded Bamboo in the Wind in Sunnyvale, CA on 9-11-2001. The new contact person for Bamboo in the Wind is board member Rev. Allison Draper.

Twining Vines Zen Centre in Canberra, Australia, celebrated the priest ordination of Jack Wicks on December 2 at the Silver Wattle Quaker Centre at Lake George near Canberra. Guiding teacher Neti Mushin Parekh ordained Jack, whose dharma name is Zenko Chigetsu/ Zen Illumination, Wisdom Moon. Jack writes, “It was on the second day of our Rohatsu Sesshin, attended by our small sangha and numerous kangaroos and other flora and fauna.”

On December 8, 2024, Renee Rausin and Jane Merschen, members of Great Spirit Sangha in San Francisco, received Jukai from Guiding Teacher, Cynthia RyoTan Kear.

To the left is Renee, Kei Shi So Jin, Fierce Protector Nest of Compassion and to the rightis Jane, Myo Shin Shi Do, Luminous Heart/Mind Messenger of the Way.

Zen Heart Sangha in Woodside CA is happy to announce that Alisa Mallari Tu, Shin Do Fu Rei (Heart Path Wind Spirit), received lay precepts from her teacher Jill Kaplan on November 2.

The Soto Zen Buddhist Association is offering its last event in the monthly series Celebrating the Voices of Women in Buddhism, a Full Moon Bodhisattva Ceremony (Ryaku Fusatsu) on Sunday, December 15 2024, from 3:30 to 5PM EST, led by Konjin Gaelyn Godwin, Abbot of Houston Zen Center. To learn more about the event and the series, click here.

I wish you joy and ease in the coming days, and will send another Newsette before the year-end holidays.

Posted on

Newsette 11-16-2024

In my last Newsette, sent soon after Election Day in the U. S., I shared encouraging words from several guiding teachers and heard from some of you that this was helpful. As always, I welcome your comments about these Newsettes.

At City Center, last week David Zimmerman and I co-hosted two listening circles, one in person and one online. Both were well attended by people who were turning toward sangha to share a range of feelings and responses to the election. Several Branching Streams sanghas provided similar opportunities for members to gather.

In this Newsette we greet a new affiliate and share one sangha’s recent joyful Jukai ceremony. We also note a few Rohatsu sesshins and a three-week residential practice opportunity. You may be interested in the environmental actions two sanghas are engaging in. And SFZC’s City Center is looking for kitchen support as we reopen in January.

Welcome to a new Branching Streams affiliate, Zendo of Boulay in Charente-Maritime, France, near the cities of Saintes, Cognac and Pons. Zendo of Boulay was founded in 1996 by Guiding Teacher Jean Yves Seijo LeClerc. Jean Yves received dharma transmission from Keido Les Kaye in 1996, while practicing at Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center in Mountain View, CA.

Cynthia RyoTan Kear, Guiding Teacher of Great Spirit Sangha in San Francisco, gave Shukke Tokudo (priest ordination) to Betsy Groh on Sunday, Nov 10th. Betsy’s dharma name is Sei Ka Ken Jo, Sacred Fire Manifesting Love and Mercy. Betsy is a long-time meditator and has been a member of GSS for many years. She leads Meditation in Recovery’s monthly Marin meeting. 

Practice opportunities

Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center and Zen Heart Sangha in Mountain View CA will jointly host a two-day Rohatsu sesshin on Friday and Saturday, December 6th and 7th at Kannon Do. “The sesshin will be led by Misha Shungen Merrill, who is a Dharma heir of Les Kaye’s and is Guiding Teacher for the Zen Heart Sangha. The Rohatsu Sesshin will be held from 8 am – 5 pm each day and will include a modified oryoki lunch. This sesshin is appropriate for first timers and experienced practitioners. There is a $10-50 suggested donation/day which includes the cost of lunch, tea and treats. To attend, please sign up using this form.”

Chapel Hill Zen Center (NC) is offering a December Sesshin from December 6 – 13 led by founding teacher Josho Pat Phelan Roshi. “Sesshin is an intimate way to practice with ourselves and others. We begin sesshin together, sit zazen together, walk together, eat together, and work together. Our practice is supported by the entire universe and each of us is supporting everyone else.” The sesshin day will include zazen beginning at 6 AM, kinhin, a Dharma talk, work period, and oryoki meals. Dokusan with Josho Roshi will also be available.” Here is the link to the registration form; register beforeNovember 27.

Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver BC will hold Rohatsu Sesshin from November 30 to December 7, in person and online. “Please join the Mountain Rain sangha for this seven-day residential retreat, led by co-guiding teachers Myoshin Kate McCandless and Shinmon Michael Newton, in the beautiful natural surroundings of Brew Creek Centre near Whistler.” More information is HERE

Brooklyn Zen Center is offering its first ever Residential Practice Intensive from January 4 to 26, 2025, as they begin their 20th anniversary year. “This a rare opportunity to study with our root teacher Soshin Teah Strozer, who will lead this three-week intensive with the support of BZC Dharma teacherKosen Gregory Snyder at Ancestral Heart Temple and neighboring Watershed Retreat Center” in Millerton, NY. More info and a registration form is here.

Actions to protect the environment from sanghas in the U.S. and Canada:

Santa Cruz Zen Center’s Earthcare Practice Group offers Quick Actions for the Planet each month. This month they include:: Tell Bank of America to Stop Financing Deforestation. They note that “industries destroying the rainforests — primarily for soy, beef, palm oil and wood products — are financially supported by banks.” To send a message, Sign Here.

The Engaged Buddhist Practice Group atMountain Rain Zen Community (Vancouver, BC, Canada)is hosting (w)righting on November 25 in person and online. “On this day, send a letter or email to defend Vancouver’s Climate Plan. Let’s support each other in practicing right speech, voicing our concerns regarding current social/environmental/climate issues. Let’s find ways to express wisdom and compassion in response to the issues that concern us most deeply.” See website for more example letters..

San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center, which has been closed for renovations during 2024, will reopen in January, 2025. City Center is looking for an experienced cook to come for six months. For more details, please email the City Center Director, Choku Proudfoot at choku.proudfoot@sfzc.org.

May we find support and joy in our sanghas and with friends and family as we navigate this challenging time.

Posted on

Newsette 11-6-2024

Several Branching Streams teachers sent messages to their sanghas on the day of the November 5 election, and the day after – messages to remind us of the support of sangha and our kinship with all beings.

Eden Kevin Heffernan, guiding teacher of Richmond (VA) Zen, sent on Election Day:

“Whatever may happen today and the following weeks, and well, really, the rest of your life on this vast wild Earth — home, I will remind you now of an outrageous and impossible array of beings, like anteaters, fruit bats, snow leopards, kangaroos, orangutans, amberwing dragonflies, honeybees, garden spiders, magnolias, Venus flytraps, jasmine, Beluga whales, bioluminescent squid, and yes, bioluminescent fungi that play a role in the Wood Wide Web, the network supporting, among other beings, coast redwoods, the forest giants that grow to over 250 ft in height and live two millennia — know that you are as large and deep and ancient as a coast redwood, with your deeply rooted ancestry exponentially branching behind you, your IRL internetwork of kinships and communities, gut microbiomes, living stone infrastructure of bone and bioelectrical mesh of flesh that lights up with sights, sounds, smells, textures, tastes, memories and dreams of this and worlds past, present, and future.”

“When we forget or ignore this kinship, we suffer and cause others to suffer isolation and alienation. When we turn toward and embrace our wholeness, the whole of our wild life, we lighten up and relieve others of their painful delusion of separation. And we can, perhaps, do this with nothing more than a smile. Kinship calls us to kindness.”

This morning, soon after I learned the results of the presidential election, a member of Brooklyn Zen Center shared this message from their co-guiding teacher Sarah Emerson:

“Beloved Sangha,

Here’s what I want to say as a Dharma teacher and as a human being to you this morning:

Keep Healing

Keep uprooting the deep tendrils of domination culture and oppression in ourselves and in society, keep challenging powers that seek to dominate and dehumanize, keep looking closely at what our truest values really are, and keep in the forefront of our awareness and actions how we are all inextricably connected.

Notice what’s happening in your hearts, and bring the full force of all the love you have received and all the love you have to offer and hone it in on any division you find, and illuminate it with the light of the Dharma.

This absolutely does not mean we shouldn’t be angry (I’m really angry), or despairing, or numb or fearful. These and many other feelings are all legitimate responses to violence. And the question we can ask ourselves is how we can feel into the support of one another, feel the ground of the Sangha, and illuminate our anger, fear, despair, numbness, and anything else with the light of how we’re ALL in this together. Let the Dharma be our collective compass to finding a different way forward than more division and more despair and more violence.

There is a lot coming, and a lot already here, that we will need to be ready and able to show up for.

Don’t give up Bodhisattvas!
Every ounce of love we drop into this mess matters.”

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel posted in her newsletter on Substack, “To Have and To Hold Each Other. Our shared suffering is less than one degree from each other. Our shared liberation must be the same. No matter who won this 2024 presidential election, twenty-four years into a new millennium, there is something that we all must do more than ever. We must keep faith in those around us. We must relish and cherish the relationships of family and friends no matter their human flaws. It doesn’t mean we have to suffer other’s suffering but the way to our liberation is to forge, with our heat, all that is broken in this country into a kind of freedom we never imagined we had the power to shape. I say this because it is only us that we have and only us who will need to stand at the doors to protect our free communities, free spaces, free loved ones, and more—not as protectors of people only but protectors of what has always been sacred and that is life itself. We must value all life even in the middle of all life not being valued.” To read her entire message, go to the link above.

On another note, San Antonio Zen Center writes, “It is with great gratitude that we officially install our new guiding teacher, Rev. Karen De Cotis, at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 16. We will also celebrate and offer reflections on the 20-year anniversary of the San Antonio Zen Center.”

Their message includes these words of Thich Nhat Hanh: “Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world.

Norman Fischer, founding teacher of Everyday Zen Foundation, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, will be reading twice this week, today (Wednesday) and Saturday, from his new book of poetry, Through a Window. The readings will take place in the New York area and will also be streamed on Zoom.

Wednesday’s reading, from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. PT, with Farnoosh Fathi and Ryan Lee Wong, will also include a conversation on Zen, poetics, and Eihei Dogen’s “grandmotherly” mind. On Saturday, Norman will share the podium with the New York Neo-Futurists, an ensemble whose high-energy work fuses elements of poetry, game, and performance art.” [It may be too late to register to view this event online.]

On Saturday, November 9 from 2 to 5:30 PT, Norman will participate in a reading, “Norman Fischer and the New York Neo-Futurists.” You can Join on Zoom.

Today, Norman sent this message to the Everyday Zen sangha:

“An invitation to pay close attention to your life your breath your daily tasks and relationships, not to be baited into confusion and despair. You are alive in a world that’s everywhere alive, pay attention to this. And to kindness. And watch the government and society in which you live just as carefully, listening for the rhythm underneath the jagged melody. Build counter-movements and strengthen counter-movements that already exist. Every day.” To see the rest of Norman’s message, click here. He ends with a poem:

Day after day.
Would that words knew how, what to feel 
To do 
Would that the heart on the sleeve 
Turn inside out with the terrible news clean fabric 
Soldier on, those parts of the body in whose darkness 
Sanity resides Kindness as natural as wind 
Blows through to some shaft of light 
In which the truth scrolls show scraps and clear hints 
Of what’s to come 
That’s never as imagined 
Humans have their many foibles fear elicits 
But the body marches forward ever 
Forward and round and round
This too passes 
And passing refreshes 
Every new moment’s a promise That being human matters 
On a green and greening earth… And the trees hold steady

May our teachers’ words inspire us to continue our practice, love and encourage one another, and stand up for what we most care about.

Posted on

Newsette 11-1-2024

Kaishin Victory Matsui, the director of Ancestral Heart Monastery in Millerton NY, connected to Brooklyn Zen Center, sent this photo of the view from their garden.

Two Streams Zen in Western MA posted a quote from the late historian Howard Zinn that speaks to this time in our country and the world:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places – and there are so many – when people behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in another direction.

“The future is an infinite succession of presents and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

Reirin Gumbel, guiding teacher of Milwaukee Zen Center in the battleground state of Wisconsin, has been hosting an Election Retreat. She writes, “The Election Retreat is a vibrant group of Zen people, mostly from Berkeley, CA, but also from Chicago and locally…People meditate, eat, work, and go out together to canvas for the election. Almost every day, there is a dharma talk given by Taigen Dan Leighton, Zenshin Florence Caplow, Hozan Alan Senauke, Greg Fain or myself.” Reirin is also preparing to be a poll chaplain for the November 5election.

On September 22, Reirin gave the precepts to three students: Eli Lu, Fragrant Breeze,Field of Virtue; Fay Akindes, Clear Lake, Supreme Peace; and Meg Lucks, Brilliant Moon, Circle of the Way.

News from Tassajara Zen Mountain Center: The application for the 2025 Winter Practice Period, led by Eijun Linda Cutts, from January 7 to April 2, is online, with a deadline of Nov 20th.

 Summer 2025 Applications are also now open! Director Ashley Ng writes, “We are looking for volunteers to help with the summer guest season, especially volunteers with kitchen experience or trade skills. We will have visiting teachers in residence throughout the summer, and as usual, there will be weekly dharma talks, offered by visiting and resident teachers.” Please email zmcdirector@sfzc.org if you have any questions.

The Soto Zen Buddhist Associate is offering two more events in this year’s series Celebrating the Voices of Women in Buddhism. The first isThroughout the Body, Hands and Eyes: Compassion and Bodhisattva Activism on November 9, and the Finale event is on December 15, Full Moon Bodhisattva Ceremony (Ryaku Fusatsu). Both events are online via Zoom, with a sliding scale of $10 -$15 (no one turned away for lack of funds) and open to all.

May you have ease of well being in this uncertain time.

Posted on

Funding the Future by So’On Jim Hare

Having led Valley Streams Zen Sangha in Sacramento CA for over 20 years, I have begun think about stepping back.  So last year I initiated a discussion with our Board about planning for the future.  Because I had a career and retirement from local government, I have not needed financial compensation from the sangha.  The other priest who I share leadership with also had a long career and is financially secure.  Since our circumstances are unlikely to be replicated, I proposed to the Board that we needed to begin “funding the future.”

In spring 2023, we held a dedicated Board retreat on this issue with pre-arranged presentations by representatives from two local community foundations.  Community foundations are grantmaking public charities that focus on supporting nonprofits in their local area.  Among their many functions, they allow nonprofits, including religious nonprofits, to establish funds to carry out their missions.  One condition of setting up a fund is that the participating non-profit must irrevocably grant the monies they invest to the foundation.  However, the nonprofit can designate itself as its fund’s beneficiary, thereby ensuring sole access to grants from its discrete fund.

Board member concerns focused on the irrevocable nature of investing with the foundation, with some fears that the foundation could withhold a grant to us.  As an alternative, the merits of investing with a for-profit brokerage were discussed, but ultimately that idea was dismissed (who would make the investment decisions?).  Another concern was a lack of socially responsible investment criteria – neither of the two foundations offered this choice.  Some of our money would be invested in the broad stock market.

Ultimately the Board decided open a fund with the larger of the two community foundations, the Sacramento Region Community Foundation.   A lawyer on our Board was able to have language inserted in our fund agreement to the effect that grants “would not be unreasonably withheld.”  Our decision was to open an “expendable fund” rather than an “endowed fund.”  We are a very low budget sangha (approx. $30,000/per year) and were only initially investing the minimum $10,000.  An endowed fund would have limited our grants to four percent of principal per year.

The Sangha’s response to the fund has so far been modest, with donations to the fund by only two individuals.  We not been very assertive in promoting the fund, but one large future donation has been promised.  This year the Board decided to close our long-term savings account and deposit its $31,500 (the surplus of 20+ years) into the fund.  Our initial $10K has grown to about $90K in less than one year.  A little under $5,000 of that is investment return.  We haven’t taken any grants from the fund and don’t plan to until the time comes when we are seeking new Dharma leadership. 

According to the Council on Foundations there are more than 900 community foundations around the country.  We have found our local foundation staff to be responsive, friendly and easy to work with.  This spring we participated in the annual Big Day of Giving sponsored by the foundation, and raised a modest   As a fundholder we also get invitations to participate in various educational events on fundraising and planned giving.

I’d be happy to respond to any queries about our process – email to: zenenhare@sbcglobal.net.

Posted on

Newsette 10-24-2024

On Sunday, many SFZC residents attended the 90th anniversary ceremony of Sokoji in Japantown. Konjin Gaelyn Godwin, the Director of Soto Zen Buddhism International Center, and Abbot of Houston Zen Center describes Sokoji as “the temple from which hundreds of North American temples emerged after Shunryu Suzuki arrived to serve as their Abbot in 1959. The celebration was deeply moving, beautiful, elegant.”

Welcome to a new Branching Streams affiliate, Facing the Mountain Zen Group in Reno, NV. Founding and guiding teacher, Shinzan Sekibu Alice Tulloch received dharma transmission from Baika Andrea Heaton in 2018. Facing the Mountain has have had a physical location in Reno since 2014, and offers both in person and online zazen and other practice events.

As Election Day in the U.S. now less than two weeks away, many sanghas are responding to the intensity and uncertainty of this time by offering ongoing or Election Day vigils or sittings

Guiding teacher Koshin Steven Tierney writes, “Oceans Compassion Sangha (San Francisco) and friends have been sitting together for Peace and Justice in response to the world in which we live online on Tuesdays at 7:00 a.m. and Thursdays at 5:00 p.m. PDT. The format is 25 minutes of Zazen followed by a poem or verse on peace read by somebody different each time. Here is the Zoom link.

On Election Day, Steven will join me to co-host Election Day Zazen at San Francisco Zen Center, in person in the Conference Center at 308 Page Street from 4 to 8:30 p.m.

Zen Center North Shore’s (MA) Guiding Teacher Joan Amaral, writes: “we’re holding an Election Day sesshin on ZenZoom as a way to encourage grounding and connection at a particularly anxious time for many. You can log on at any time from 6am-11pm – the whole time the polls are open East-West. We’ll be sitting half-hour periods of zazen and walking five minutes in between. There will be breaks at 7:30am, 12:30pm and 5:30pm for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with chanting before each meal. But otherwise, just sitting. Sitting with it all, with ourselves and with each other.”

So’on Jim Hare, the guiding teacher of Valley Streams Zen Sangha in Sacramento, CA wrote an article, “Funding the Future,” describing the way his sangha is investing funds in a Community Foundation to provide support for future teachers after Jim retires. He offered to make it available to other Branching Streams sanghas. It’s posted on the website.

Here’s a correction to my last newsette: Dharma Heart Sangha (not Heart of Compassion Sangha) in Cotati CA began their Fall Practice Period this week, focusing on Training in Compassion, the Practice of Lojong, studying Norman Fischer’s book.

Two more programs in the SZBA’s 2024 series, Celebrating the Voices of Women in Buddhism, are coming up – on Sunday October 27.Receiving the Marrow by Bowing; and in November,  Throughout the Body, Hands and Eyes: Compassion and Bodhisattva Activism. All events are online via Zoom, and open to all on a sliding scale donation.