Author: Tova Green

It’s a rainy day (still a rare occurrence) in San Francisco. The leaves of the large Japanese maple in the City Center courtyard are turning red, and we’ve started heating the 300 Page Street building – all signs that we’re shifting from autumn towards winter.

Planning for the 2022 in-person Branching Streams Conference is well underway. The dates are April 25 to April 28 (Monday to Thursday). Austin Zen Center is hosting the conference at Ancient Yoga Center, about half an hour from Austin. The theme is Healing Relationships – with Ourselves, One Another, Our Communities, Our Planet. Poet Naomi Shihab Nye will join us, and Stephanie Kaza will return to lead The Work that Reconnects. There will be Healing Circles, zazen and service, opportunities to meet informally, network about shared concerns, share music and stories, rest and renew, after so many stressful months. More details about registration will be available in January. Meanwhile, please save the dates!

So many Branching Streams sanghas have signed up for Tassajara 2022 Sangha Weeks that very few spaces remain. Still available are these dates: July 15-17 (three nights), August 5-7 (three nights), 8-11 (four nights), 12-14, 15-18, 19-21, and September 9-11 (three nights). Please let me know if your sangha would like to reserve any of those dates.

When I welcomed Red Cedar Zen Community in last week’s Newsette, I mistakenly said that Zoketsu Norman Fischer is the guiding teacher. Norman is the Founding Teacher. The Guiding Teacher is Nomon Tim Burnett. Norman supported Tim in founding the group in 1971.

Please send me any news you’d like to share with the Branching Streams network.

After over 24 hours of rain, much welcomed after months of drought in the Bay Area, the sun is dispersing clouds and drying glistening raindrops on the maple tree and bushes in the City Center courtyard.

I am happy to welcome a new member to Branching Streams, Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham Washington. Founded in 1991, Red Cedar ZC is affiliated with Everyday Zen Foundation. Zoketsu Norman Fischer is their founding teacher, and Nomon Tim Burnett is their guiding teacher. Here is their Mission Statement: “The Red Cedar Zen Community follows the Soto Zen style of Shunryu Suzuki. We support practice with a spirit of cooperation, extending the essence of Buddha’s teachings into everyday life.” They are currently searching for a new meeting space.

A Men’s Retreat will be held at at Hokyoji in Eitzen, MN from October 28 to 31 (thank you, Chapel Hill Zen Center, for sharing news of this retreat). Retreat leaders, Marc Anderson and Bob Zeglovitch, and participants will investigate “what it means to be male and explore the terrain of awakened, energetic and mature masculinity. The retreat is suitable for all levels of experience – everyone will explore new terrain.” Here is a link to the retreat flyer).

Tonight, Valley Streams Zen Center in Sacramento, CA is featuring a recorded talk, Love and Rage – The Path of Liberation Through Anger with Lama Rod Owens, interviewed by Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz. Lama Rod Owens is an author, activist, African American gay man and authorized lama in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism who explores spiritual practices that transform anger and rage into a force of healing.

San Francisco Zen Center is offering a one-day retreat with Rev. angel Kyodo williams and Green Gulch Farm Abiding Abbess Fu Schroeder, Toward a More Radical Dharma: A Path and Framework for Liberation on Saturday, November 13from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time. The final hour will be a special session for dharma teaches and leaders.

Here’s an autumn poem from Richmond Zen Center’s newsletter:

Although I try
to hold the single thought
Of Buddha’s teaching in my heart
I cannot help but hear
The many crickets voices calling as well

–Izumi Shikibu

We’re approaching the full moon and the end of October – a liminal time when many centers have ceremonies to honor the hungry ghosts.

Mountain Rain Zen Sangha in Vancouver, B.C. is having their “annual ceremony to offer the nourishment of the dharma to the hungry ghost realm” on October 31^st. Chapel Hill Zen Center is combining a Sejiki Ceremony with a Food Drive for the local Interfaith Council pantry on October 23^rd, ET. Here’s the link if you’d like to learn more about the meaning of the ceremony and how it can be linked to a food drive.

Reirin Gumbel, guiding teacher of Milwaukee Zen Center, is involved with an interfaith group, #Teach the Wisconsin Truth, which sponsored a Week of Action for Racial Equity this month, lifting up stories of Wisconsin history at sites of significance for racial justice. Reirin and a sangha member made a video about their visit to Native burial grounds an hour’s drive from Milwaukee.

#Teach the Wisconsin Truth offers this message: “Around the country, the forces of white supremacy and racism are confronting school boards, demanding they prevent teaching the true history of racism, slavery, sexism, and violence against marginalized communities that is part of the founding of our country. 

“As people of faith, we believe it is the responsibility of each person to do their part to address the systemic inequities and injustices in our society, and to create a world where every human being can live a life of dignity and respect.  Our children need to be prepared to take on their share of this task when they grow up. Yet, without knowing the true history of how our nation came to be, they cannot understand the underlying causes of the issues we face, and therefore, will be ill-equipped to meet the challenges they will confront as adults.”

Here is a resource shared by the Soto Zen Buddhist Association: “This year, scholars and professionals have come together in conversation to provide important information and findings on sexual misconduct in Buddhist communities. These conversations are entitled Abuse, Sex, and the Sangha; A Series of Healing Conversations. The producers of this series are sharing these videos with the broader Buddhist community.  Each of these conversations focuses on a different issue within this general topic area and all are critically important.” The most recent is entitled Sexual Misconduct & Legal Liability Issues in Buddhist Sanghas. In this conversation, attorney Carol Merchasin, highlights the legal responsibility of boards of directors in cases of sexual misconduct. You may wish to watch the video and share the conversation with your boards and sanghas.

San Francisco Zen Center is announcing the release of the newly completed Suzuki Roshi Audio Archive, a comprehensive collection of more than 300 recordings from SFZC’s founding teacher, Shogaku Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, including 29 lost lectures. It’s connected with a longer project of making some of Suzuki Roshi’s earliest talks available on the SFZC website. To read more about the project and to learn about the first two “lost” tapes they have released, go to SFZC’s Sangha News Journal article.

I wish you all good health in this time of the full moon, falling leaves, and feeding our hungry ghosts.

I am focusing in this week’s Newsletter on the ways two Branching Streams sanghas are recognizing indigenous people in the U. S. and Canada.

Yesterday was Indigenous Peoples Day in the U.S.  – a public holiday in some states. Although California is not one of them, members of Everyday Zen sangha, based in Marin County, gathered with several Native community leaders for an online ceremony.

I was invited to attend yesterday’s Everyday Zen ceremony, which was organized by Jaune Evans, a Senior Priest and Teacher with Everyday Zen and Guiding Teacher of the Heart of Compassion Zen in Point Reyes. Jaune works for a foundation that supports indigenous peoples internationally. In introducing the ceremony, Jaune stated that Indigenous Peoples Day gives those of us who are not Native an opportunity to learn about and recognize Native people and how they have cared for the lands we live on. She said that ritual is a way of connecting with all beings, a way of healing the passing of people, a way of honoring sacred places. She noted that both Native spirituality and Zen Buddhism are traditions of gratitude. Expressing gratitude brings us together across language.

Three Native guests introduced themselves in their native languages as well as in English. Melissa Nelson, Turtle Mountain Chippewa from North Dakota, said Indigenous Peoples Day reminds us that indigenous people are still here today. “We are modern people with deep roots.” Kaimana Barcarse, participating from the Big Island island of Hawai’i, said the bones of his ancestors are in Hawai’i; “our ancestors discovered Hawai’i.” Kaylena Bray, a member of the Turtle Clanfrom the Seneca Nation, introduced the ceremony they later shared, “The Words Before All Else,” a Thanksgiving address which begins every Native gathering. They offered thanks to many aspects of nature, honored their elders and the land.

Members of Everyday Zen followed with a service. Founding and guiding teacher Norman Fisher was doshi, and sangha members were kokyo, doan, and Zoom host. They chanted the Heart Sutra and the Metta Sutta and ended with an Eko written by Jaune. Here are a few lines of the Eko:

Reaffirming our respect and care for each other

Not turning away from our community or global bonds and responsibilities

Acknowledging and bowing to all our aw-inspiring knowledge systems,

Our diverse cultural lifeways and practices of well-being, our languages and cosmo-visions, our ways of praying, of kneeling our compassionate Earth…

We return the gifts we are given, offering this ceremonial exchange of gratitude for the awakening and freedom of all beings.

Our minds are now One…

Canada has recognized a National Indigenous Peoples’ Day on June 21 since 1996, and the country honored the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30 of this year — the Canadian government has apologized at various points for the suppression and forced assimilation of Indigenous communities. Vancouver’s Mountain Rain Zen Community is midway through their class on “Exploring Right Relationship with Indigenous Peoples,” a series for those of settler/immigrant background, whether recent or generations past, who would like to deepen their understanding of history, culture, spirituality and lived experience of the indigenous peoples of Canada.

The Everyday Zen ceremony and the Mountain Rain class point to ways those of us who are not Native can learn about history we weren’t taught in school, change some of our misconceptions of Native people, and find ways to engage with Native people in our localities that honor their culture and their lives.

Here are some encouraging words from Taigen Leighton, guiding teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate: “We are feeling the season changing in Chicago. It is cooler as we move into autumn, with all its rich, shifting, trembling colors. Our world continues to shift as well, and multiple situations of distress flourish along with flickerings of helpfulness. We engage all with equanimity, resilience, and dynamic balance as we open to responses to the various challenges. Our practice can make a difference.”

Several sanghas, including Berkeley, Houston, and Chapel Hill Zen Centers participate in Buddhist Global Relief’s Walk to Feed the Hungry every year. Houston Zen Center writes: “This year, once again, the COVID-19 pandemic prevents us from holding our walk. Thus we will instead be gathering via Zoom: Buddhist Action to Feed the Hungry Online Gatherings. Saturday, October 30th. [There was an East Coast event on October 2.] Buddhist groups from the Eastern, Southern, and Midwestern states will join together. for Dharma talks by distinguished Buddhist speakers on the theme of “putting compassion into action” and to learn about Buddhist Global Relief and the work of alleviating global hunger and poverty.” Individuals as well as sanghas are invited to participate.

Branching Streams Zen Centers and two other organizations are offering one-day to five-day retreats as well as several longer programs that may interest you.

One-day to Five-day retreats

Seattle Soto Zen is hosting a one-day online Zazenkai with Zoketsu Norman Fischer on Sunday, October 10, from 8:50 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. PDT. The day includes a talk and Q&A with Zoketsu and a Wellbeing and Memorial Service, in addition to zazen. You can Register for this event here.

Valley Streams Zen Sangha in Sacramento, CA is holding an online retreat/one-day sitting with Ben Connelly on November 6. Ben’s topic is Yogacara – Integrating personal and social healing and liberation. This retreat will focus on the Indian Yogacara master Vasubandhu’s Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only. “We will move towards a deeper knowing that in every moment we are participating in the whole of the world in all its beauty and harms, and in every moment we can act for the liberation of all.” Suggested Dana is$40 to$80. Here is the link to register.

Tenshin Reb Anderson, Senior Dharma Teacher of San Francisco Zen Center, and the honorary founder of Houston Zen Center, will lead a 5-day in-person Intensive Retreat at Houston Zen Center’s Margaret Austin Center from Tuesday, November 2 at 7:00 pm to Sunday afternoon on November 7. The theme is “Zen Meditation, Great Compassion” Follow this link for more information or to register. The last day to register is October 19.

Longer programs

Austin Zen Center’s Fall Practice Period will be led by visiting teacher Rev. Kokyo Henkel from October 13 through December 11 focusing on the practices of lay woman ancestor Queen Srimala. In the Srimaladevi Simhanda Sutra, she teaches Buddha-nature as the pure essence of heart/mind which we all share. Read more & Register.

Stanford University is offering the Contemplation by Design Summit from October 25 to November 2., a free series of presentations to further individual, community, and planetary health and well-being. Several sessions focus on the climate crisis. You can learn more and register here.

I will be participating in an opening panel of the International Western Dharma Teachers Gathering, A Virtual Conference, from October 20 to 24. The theme of the Conference, sponsored by Lions Roar and the Hemera Foundation, is Facing Truth: Love, Equity & Justice on the Path of Awakening. Speakers will explore topics important to Dharma Teachers everywhere during our modern times.

As the season, and our world continues to shift and change, may our practice make a difference, as Taigen says.

Perhaps some of you who have gardens are enjoying the last tomatoes, or the first winter squash. Yesterday I participated in an afternoon of gleaning at Green Gulch Farm, one of about forty volunteers who harvested over 300 pounds of collards, chard, kale, broccoli, and cabbage – good nourishing food left in the fields after the commercial harvest to donate to the wider community through several local organizations.

This Newsette features three offerings on racial justice, news from Just Show Up sangha, and a book recommendation.

Hollaback is launching a new training in Bystander Intervention to support Latinx communities in Public Spaces.  “We are offering this free, one-hour, interactive webinar, in honor of Latinx Heritage Month (September 15th – October 15th) and to bring awareness to the increase of harassment toward the Latinx community in recent years. Register here. I have participated in several Hollaback bystander trainings in the past year and highly recommend them.

Houston Zen Center and Dawn Mountain dharma center are presenting Myokei Caine-Barrett Shonin speaking on A Story of a Fully Engaged Dharma Life, on Sunday, October 10^th from 3 to 4:30 p.m. CST online.  Her talk is part of their ongoing series of events on Dharma and Social Justice

Registration is open until October 1 for the Soto Zen Buddhist Association’s class Many Communities, One Sangha: Exploring the Reality of Equity and Inclusion, with Rhonda Magee, Mushim Ikeda, and Crystal Johnson. The five week online class meets October 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30 from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time. You may find it useful to attend with several members of your sangha.

Just Show Up Zen Sangha in Southern California has started an online fall practice period, Seeing the Habits of Heart Mind Using the Five Precepts which goes through December 11^th. Guiding teacher Ava Stanton writes, we will each choose a precept to live and practice with.  We will meet in small groups and as a sangha, speak in Practice Discussions and sit a final retreat together.  More information is available at our website.”

Ruth Ozeki is a priest affiliated with Everyday Zen, a novelist and filmmaker. I have been awaiting her new novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness, released last week. I find the characters in Ruth’s novels jump off the page and permeate my life long after I’ve turned the last page, and look forward to finding out who I will meet this time.

May you and your sanghas be healthy and strong.

Although in San Francisco we are experiencing our usual belated summer days, the upper leaves of the Japanese maple in the SFZC courtyard are turning red, and we’ll have an Autumn Equinox ceremony on Wednesday. It’s also the time of the September full moon – the Harvest Moon.

These words were posted on the website of Two Streams Zen in western Massachusetts:

“We cannot see or hear autumn, or hold it in our hands. But when the leaves turn red and the ears of rice turn golden, they signal the arrival of autumn. When we hear the crickets chirping at night, or an autumn shower striking the eaves, or pick ripe apples and persimmons, we embrace autumn. Autumn becomes something to savor.“
Shundo Aoyama Roshi, from Zen Seeds: Reflections of a Female Priest,
translated by Patricia Daien Bennage, Roshi

Some good news: Our Branching Streams website is now easy to access from the San Francisco Zen Center’s homepage if you scroll down to the bottom under “locations.”It has also been added to this page which features the three SFZC practice centers.

In this Newsette you will find several online practice offerings. In October, Taigen Leighton will offer another seminar on Dogen, Chapel Hill Zen Center will host a class on Dainin Katagiri’s teachings, Houston Zen Center will launch a class on the precepts, and Two Streams Zen will begin a virtual practice period. Also, Jaune Evans shares information about Healing Circles.

Taigen Leighton, guiding teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, is offering a seminar on October 3from 1 to 4:30 CST on Dogen’s teachings about our Environment and its Awakening Capacity, and how Dogen links environmental awareness to devotional practice. For more information or to register, fill out this form:  https://www.ancientdragon.org/event/dogens-link-of-environment-and-devotion-seminar-by-taigen-pre-registration-required-2/. 

Chapel Hill Zen Center is launching a study group on the talks of Dainin Katagiri Roshi beginning September 21 from 6:45 to 8:00p.m. EDT. Here’s a link for more information.

Houston Zen Center is offering a series of six classes on The Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts, an intermediate class. It starts on  Monday, September 27 at 6:30 p.m. CST. “The practice of Zen allows each of us to sit upright in the middle of our life as it actually is. When we glimpse our true relationship with all beings, this naturally leads to an ethical way of life.” Here’s the link for more information or to register.

Two Streams Zen’s virtual practice period begins tonight. Their guiding teachers, Ryumon H. Baldoquin and Anraku Hondorp write: “In the spirit of living in awakement, in ease and acceptance with all that arises, we look forward to seeing you at this season’s Full Moon to Full Moon Virtual Practice Period, The Essence of Contentment, starting Monday, September 20 through Wednesday, October 20.

Jaune Evans, founding teacher of Heart of Compassion in Pt. Reyes, CA and a teacher at Everyday Zen hosts Healing Circles for those with cancer and autoimmunity each week. She recommends Healing Circles as a resource to all of us and our sangha members.

May you enjoy the light of the full moon and this season of harvesting.

I’m happy to tell you that the Fall Practice period at Tassajara, led by Ryoshin Paul Haller, began yesterday with about 40 participants, including members of Austin Zen Center, Chapel Hill Zen Center, and Milwaukee Zen Center.

Ten sanghas have signed up for Branching Streams Sangha Weeks at Tassajara for Summer, 2022. Please let me know if your sangha is interested in going. There are still openings.

As folks seem to have settled into their zoom zendo rhythms, be it virtual or hybrid, we are discontinuing the zoom zendo clinics that Jon Voss has been facilitating. If you have issues you want to work out though, he remains available for free, 30 minute consultations, which you can book online here.

This Newsette highlights several ways Branching Streams groups are appreciating nature and tuning in to the climate crisis, as well as a few other offerings that may interest you.

Akazienzendo in Berlin is planting a 100 meter hedge as a sanctuary for birds, insects, and other beings at the country home of two members who host sesshins for the sangha. Guiding teacher Bernd Bender writes, “It is a sangha project that also aims at overcoming individual feelings of hopelessness, given the magnitude of the climate crisis.” If you would like to contribute to the realization of this project, here is a link to their Go Fund Me page.

September’s Full Moon, the harvest moon, is Monday, September 20^th. Bozeman Zen Group in Montana is celebrating it in a unique way, gathering at a member’s house. After a half hour of sitting as the moon rises, they will “view the night sky from a high vantage point over the Gallatin Valley, and enjoy the cool evening with moonlight, firelight and the warmth of our sangha’s heart.” 

Richmond Zen in Virginia is offering a Mountains & Waters Field Trip, an overnight primitive camping trip. October 16-17. They write, “The Buddha and his first followers primarily practiced in forests and fields. We’ll head to a generous member’s forested land for zazen in the wild, nature exploration, and community with the more-than-human world. The land is a two-hour drive from Richmond.”

On September 30^, All Beings Zen in Washington DC is hosting a talk by Rev. Konin Gaelyn Godwin (Abbot of the Houston Zen Center) and Rev. Taiga Ito (Soto Zen International) focusing on environmental dharma, and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Other events of interest:

Chapel Hill Zen Center announced a concert taking place in Chicago, the world premiere of A Brush With Our Time from composer Andrea Clearfield and librettist Doreen Rao. This piece for four voices, shakuhachi, percussion, and piano is based on the poetry of Zen artist Kazuaki Tanahashi, and explores the tension between peace and conflict.   The concert can be viewed and heard September 19-21.

Chris Fortin, guiding teacher of Dharma Heart Sangha in Sebastopol CA, and Jennifer Block are co-leading an online Jizo practice group, Journeying through Grief and Change with Fearlessness, from October 14 to November 11. “Each session includes Dharma teachings, discussion, small group sharing, and/or creative practices. The final session will be a Jizo Ceremony in which we bear witness to each other’s losses and dedicate our efforts to the healing of grief in our communities and in the world.”

Crystal Johnson, who led last year’s Branching Streams Unpacking Whiteness class will be leading an online White and Awakening Together class at Spirit Rock, on Sundays from October 3 to November 21, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time. “This course is designed as a guided, collaborative exploration for people who self-identify as white, or for whom whiteness is a significant part of their identity. Previous experience with whiteness work and/or meditation is not required in order to benefit from this course.”

May you and your sanghas be well as we head towards the harvest moon and autumn equinox next week.

Yesterday I returned from a week at Tassajara. It was wonderful to see the sangha there growing and preparing for an in-person Fall Practice Period, which begins September 12. While there I heard of Hurricane Ida’s destructive path through Louisiana to New Jersey and New York. The new home of Mid-City Zen in New Orleans survived the storm with little damage, although parts of New Orleans are still without power.

Offerings from Branching Streams groups this Fall are varied and rich. Here are a few.

“Right Relationship, Healing and Nurturing Connection” is the focus of the Fall Practice Period at Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver, BC.  As part of the practice period co-guiding teacher Myoshin Kate McCandless and Shinsen Reamick Lo are facilitating an eight-week study and practice group, Exploring Right Relationship with Indigenous Peoples, “open to anyone of settler/immigrant background, whether recent or generations past, who would like to deepen their understanding of history, culture, spirituality and lived experience of the indigenous peoples of Canada.”

Brooklyn Zen Center is launching a 10-month intensive program, The Bodhisattva Path of Liberation: Racial Suffering and Collective Transformation – “exploring, witnessing, and transforming the individual and collective suffering and harm caused by race and racism, and in particular by the identity of whiteness and the ideology of white supremacy.” This program, which begins in October, is currently limited to practitioners who identify or are identified as white. The schedule, format, cost, and application form are available here.

Roshi Cuca Kosen Montecel, the founder and guiding teacher of Living Water Zen in San Antonio, will lead a three-day online sesshin at San Antonio Zen Center September 19-21 on the theme Practicing with Uncertainty. Roshi Montecel is a teacher in the White Plum lineage. For further information or to register, email info@sanantoniozen.org.

 

Ancient Dragon Zen Gate’s guiding teacher Taigen Dan Leighton willexplore Dogen’s teachings about our Environment and its Awakening Capacity, and how Dogen links environment to devotional practice in an online seminar on Sunday October 3rd, from 1-4:30 pm Central Time. For a fuller description or to register, click here; for more information, contact info@ancientdragon.org.

Here’s some good news from Austin Zen Center –  Choro Antonaccio, AZC’s Tanto (head of practice), will soon be entering a three-week period of ceremonies leading to Dharma Transmission with her teacher Konjin Gaelyn Godwin Roshi, in Houston at Auspicious Cloud Temple. Former Austin Zen Center Director Tim Kroll is now at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center where he will be Shuso (Head Student) for the Fall Practice Period. In a few days he will be priest-ordained by Paul Haller, who will lead the Tassajara Fall Practice Period. Austin Zen Center senior student, Pat Yingst, will also be heading to Tassajara for the practice period.

Today is the first day of the Jewish New Year – ushering in ten days that focus on being in right relationship with oneself, with others, one’s community, and the wide world. A practice I enjoy at this time is dipping slices of apples in honey and saying, “I wish you a sweet and fruitful year.” That is my wish for you.