Author: Tova Green

A year ago, in early March, I was beginning a two-week trip to Texas to visit San Antonio, Austin, and Houston Zen Centers. While I was on the road, Covid-19 was designated as a pandemic and the first cases were being reported in the cities I visited. I gave the last “live” talk in Austin before the Zendo closed and the first online talk in Houston before flying back to San Francisco on a nearly empty plane to enter two weeks of quarantine.

Today is also the beginning of Women’s History Month in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia. International Women’s day is celebrated on March 8th in many countries around the world.

For International Women’s Day, Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver, BC is “Honouring Mahapajapati, our first woman ancestor with a talk and a ceremony on March 7th. This talk is part of our regular Sunday morning practice schedule. Everyone welcome!”

Most sanghas are being cautious about reopening their zendos despite the increasing availability of vaccines. As spring nears and temperatures rise,  more outdoor programs may be possible.

Here is San Antonio Zen Center’s plan for an outdoor “hybrid” experience: On Saturdays March 6 and 27, we will attempt to have outdoor in-person zazen here at SAZC. This will be contingent upon weather and San Antonio’s Covid numbers. We will monitor this closely and there will be a go/no-go announcement before the event. If we can hold the Saturday program in person, it will also be broadcast on Zoom.

Taigen Leighton, guiding teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago writes: “We continue doing the mysterious, challenging work of sustaining our practice and our teaching tradition. Just to continue this dignified practice of upright sitting and life expression is a wonderful gift to our world, to each other, and to ourselves. We continue even through the current challenges of pandemic, climate breakdown, and our historical karma of slavery and now violent white supremacy. Just to sustain caring and attention provides possibilities for healing.  Though we are now a homeless sangha, we are beginning the process of locating a new permanent Chicago home where we can also include our new widespread zoom sangha folks.”

Sunday morning March 14th from 9:30 to 11 Ancient Dragon will host Pamela Ayo Yetunde in their series of Black women teachers. Ayo is a college professor who teaches pastoral care, counseling, and comparative religion, with connections to Vipassana and Soto Zen communities. To access the room, click here.

Emily Dashawetz, the Ino of Zen Center North Shore in Beverly, Massachusetts, writes in their newsletter, “We may feel the hope of the vaccine and an end in sight to the conditions of this pandemic – not because our hope is held elsewhere, in some other, unattainable place, but because we can expand ourselves wide enough to know all things must shift and change. We do not know the timetable, or the events to come, but change itself is unremitting.” ZCNS is offering several dharma talks by guest speakers this month:

Thursday, March 4, 6:30 – 8:30 pm ET: Zazen and Dharma Talk by Rev. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel on The Shamanic Bones of Zen
Thursday, March 11, 6:30 – 8:30 pm ET: Zazen and Conversation with Chenxing Han on Be The Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists
Thursday, March 18, 6:30-8:30pm ET: Zazen and Conversation with Rev. Andre Bennett and Rev. Myozen Joan Amaral on The Sacred Work of Justice 
Thursday, March 25, 6:30 – 8:30 pm ET: Zazen and Guest Talk by Rev. Bernadette Hickman-Maynard on Liberation

Bernd Bender describes a project conceived by members of Akazienzendo in Berlin as a response to their longing, during this time of meeting in digital space, for physical contact and analog exchange. They are individually copying by hand one or more pages of Suzuki Roshi’s “Zen Mind, Beginner Mind.” Sangha members are invited to add drawings, collages, photos or whatever arises from their own creativity and the desire for expression in connection with the book. At the end, the handwritten and designed book will be put together and made into a jointly developed whole.

 Fushin Susan Schoenbohm at Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago sends “a very heartfelt thank you to all the folks who have responded to our request for information regarding how your sanghas have conceived and organized sangha care. It’s been very helpful as we have begun to formulate how we will proceed.”

Jon Voss’s weekly Zoom drop-in Clinic continues on Wednesday, March 3rd, from 11 a.m. to 12 PST. Here’s the Zoom link or Meeting ID: 222 402 816, Passcode: 057143.

I want to thank Hiro Ikushima in SFZC’s Communications department for formatting this Newsette.

May you be well, and may you be encouraged by the strength, persistence, and creativity of dharma friends around the world.

As the weather has warmed in some parts of the U.S., sanghas in Texas may be resuming many of their activities and finding ways of supporting those who have suffered during last week’s power and water outages. I checked back with the guiding teachers of Austin, Houston, and San Antonio Zen Centers last Thursday. If you’d like to read what they reported, you can find their words here.

At City Center we are getting ready for a three-week intensive led by Kathie and Norman Fischer on Dogen’s Zuimonki, from March 2^nd to March 20th. Here is a link to an interview with Kathie Fisher that you may enjoy reading. Norman is the teacher of many Branching Streams guiding teachers. Perhaps some of you will be participating in this intensive.

I am wondering what questions you have for other sanghas. What information would you like to share or hear from Branching Streams groups in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Columbia, and several countries in Europe?

Jon Voss and I are still working on the Branching Streams website. Pat Yingst of Austin Zen Center is assisting us with updating the links, particularly on the Resources page. 

Jon’s weekly Zoom class has been lively, and you or any member of your sangha are welcome to participate. It’s a drop-in group, although some people attend week after week to hone their skills and ease in creating ceremonies, using breakout rooms in creative ways, and solving audio and video problems. The next class is Wednesday, February 24^th, from 11 a.m. to 12 PST. Here’s the Zoom link or Meeting ID: 222 402 816, Passcode: 057143.

Can you please share this message with any members of your sangha you think might be interested? Guest Student Program Reopens at City Center

We’re pleased to announce that the guest student program at San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center location has reopened to the public. For this new iteration of the program, guest students participate in a three-month residency designed to deepen one’s practice, connect to the community, and experience what it’s like to live the temple life. The temple schedule includes morning and evening zazen, service (sutra chanting and bowing), work as a form of practice in action, Buddhist classes, and communal vegetarian meals.  To ensure the health safety of guest students and residents alike, we have created a hybrid program where some of these activities occur in person and others online. This allows new students to live, work, and practice in the temple, while supporting the health and well-being of the sangha.

To learn more about the new guest student program as well as our health and safety protocols, visit the guest student stay webpage.  

February is the shortest month, yet it can seem very long, especially in places where spring doesn’t begin to show its colors until March or even April. Many people may be feeling exhaustion, especially after nearly a year of meeting the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the weather has warmed in some parts of the U.S., sanghas in Texas may be resuming many of their activities and finding ways of supporting those who have suffered during last week’s power and water outages. I checked back with the guiding teachers of Austin, Houston, and San Antonio Zen Centers last Thursday. If you’d like to read what they reported, you can find their words here.

At City Center we are getting ready for a three-week intensive led by Kathie and Norman Fischer on Dogen’s Zuimonki, from March 2^nd to March 20th. Here is a link to an interview with Kathie Fisher that you may enjoy reading. Norman is the teacher of many Branching Streams guiding teachers. Perhaps some of you will be participating in this intensive.

I am wondering what questions you have for other sanghas. What information would you like to share or hear from Branching Streams groups in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Columbia, and several countries in Europe?

Jon Voss and I are still working on the Branching Streams website. Pat Yingst of Austin Zen Center is assisting us with updating the links, particularly on the Resources page. 

Jon’s weekly Zoom class has been lively, and you or any member of your sangha are welcome to participate. It’s a drop-in group, although some people attend week after week to hone their skills and ease in creating ceremonies, using breakout rooms in creative ways, and solving audio and video problems. The next class is Wednesday, February 24^th, from 11 a.m. to 12 PST. Here’s the Zoom link or Meeting ID: 222 402 816, Passcode: 057143.

Can you please share this message with any members of your sangha you think might be interested? Guest Student Program Reopens at City Center

We’re pleased to announce that the guest student program at San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center location has reopened to the public. For this new iteration of the program, guest students participate in a three-month residency designed to deepen one’s practice, connect to the community, and experience what it’s like to live the temple life. The temple schedule includes morning and evening zazen, service (sutra chanting and bowing), work as a form of practice in action, Buddhist classes, and communal vegetarian meals.  To ensure the health safety of guest students and residents alike, we have created a hybrid program where some of these activities occur in person and others online. This allows new students to live, work, and practice in the temple, while supporting the health and well-being of the sangha.

To learn more about the new guest student program as well as our health and safety protocols, visit the guest student stay webpage.  

February is the shortest month, yet it can seem very long, especially in places where spring doesn’t begin to show its colors until March or even April. Many people may be feeling exhaustion, especially after nearly a year of meeting the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

May you be well, and may you find moments of delight even in difficult times.

Dear Branching Streams Teachers and Leaders,

Last week I mentioned a number of parts of the U.S. that were dealing with winter storms – and Texas and the Gulf Coast were not included. However, an intense cold front accompanied by snow and freezing rain, has landed in that part of the country.

This morning. Reirin Gumbel, Milwaukee Zen Center’s guiding teacher, posted her concerns about sanghas in Texas on the Soto Zen Buddhist Associations members’ forum. She wrote:

Our three Texas Branching Streams sanghas in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio responded within hours. 

Mako Voelkel, guiding teacher of Austin Zen Center replied, “Texans are *really* not prepared for such cold temps, and pipes freezing seems to be a huge issue. One of the buildings at AZC has lost hot water, and we’re concerned it’s due to a frozen pipe. Natural gas still works, thankfully, but we just received a recent warning statement from Texas Gas Services saying gas wells are starting to freeze due to the sustained low temps!

“While Austin Zen Center (with five residents) has not lost power yet – likely due to its location a few blocks from a major hospital – our Tanto and a few board members have not had power since 5:45pm last night. With no clear end in sight of either above-freezing weather or repairs to the energy grid, this may go on for some time. Driving anywhere right now seems out of the question, with snow on top of a sheet of ice, cars left stranded, and zero preparedness for such conditions! I myself am safe and thankful for having power (as well as Tassajara training in hot water bottles, headlamps, and bundling up).”

Gaelyn Godwin, Abbot of Houston Zen Center, commented: “Thanks for asking – the report in Houston is almost identical to Mako’s in Austin. A wide array of concerns and outages. Perhaps the biggest issue right now is that the water pressure is so low – due to everyone leaving their taps dripping and the big pumps freezing – that we may start having back flow into the drinking lines. The city asked us all to stop the dripping, but we already had frozen pipes here the first day and we are reluctant to repeat that.
“Tim told me part of the electrical shortage is due to the freeze on the gigantic wind turbine wings. No newspapers or mail, limited broadband, but we always have rumors. We’ve brought a member and her 2 dogs into the temple for refuge from the cold.The lack of hot showers was a challenge, but we are very grateful for all we have.”

Colin Gipson, San Antonio Zen Center’s guiding teacher, wrote: “Thank you very much for asking, and for your concern. We received around 3 1/2 inches of snow here at SAZC and so far have been very lucky in that we haven’t lost power or heat at the Zen Center. We are supposed to receive freezing rain tonight, but it begins warming tomorrow and the overall situation will improve rapidly over the next few days.”

The extreme cold and severe winter weather experience in much of the U.S. and in parts of Canada is related to the climate crisis, as Kritee Kanko, a Zen priest and climate scientist/activist posted on the SZBA Forum today. I will include a small part of her post in this Newsette and attach the rest to this Newsette.

“Dear fellow dharma teachers, Zen/Ecodharma enthusiasts and faith leaders, 

Yesterday I was moved to tears several times while listening to two indigenous women speak of Line 3 and repeatedly ask people to stand by their side as they put their bodies on the line to stop this pipeline in Minnesota. This issue is right at the intersection of facing the climate crisis and justice for indigenous people (especially women who are leading this effort). While Biden has put a stop on the Keystone pipeline, Enbridge’s Line 3 and other pipelines are continuing to put sacred indigenous sites, bodies of indigenous women, hundreds of waterlands where they grow their food and the Mississippi river in danger.” Kritee discusses the climate impacts of the Line 3 pipeline, its impact on indigenous communities, resources to better inform ourselves, and actions we can take in her letter.

On another note, Josho Pat Phelan, guiding teacher of Chapel Hill Zen Center, invites you to participate in a Zoom workshop with Kokyo Henkel, Questioning Our Assumptions about the World: Vasubandhu’s Twenty Verses on Mere Cognizance on Saturday, March 27, 10:30-3:30 EST
Although Vasubanhu’s 30 Verses is more well-known, his 20 Verses offers another interesting angle on Yogacara. In this short workshop, Kokyo will focus on just a few verses and go into them deeply. To register, please contact info@chzc.org by Wednesday, March 24. After registering, the Zoom link and reading materials will be sent to you. The suggested donation is $20-$50. Donations can be made electronically through MoonClerk at: https://app.moonclerk.com/pay/4yi5tx1i14xf. Please indicate “Workshop Donation.”

You are invited to join Jon Voss’s Zoom Clinic tomorrow, Wednesday, February 10^th, from 11 a.m. to 12 PST. Here’s the Zoom link or Meeting ID: 222 402 816, Passcode: 057143.

Jon and I are still working on the Branching Streams Website to make it more user-friendly and current. We will also be correcting all the links that are not functioning.

I am also working with a staff member of the SFZC Communications Department on a new format for these Newsettes. I hope this will improve the aesthetics of the Newsette and make it easier to include photos.

I hope that those of you who are in the grips of winter storms stay safe and warm. Thank you to all of you for being part of this interconnected network of sanghas. May we continue to find ways to support one another’s practice.

This week contains a number of holidays you may be celebrating – Bodhidharma’s Birthday, the Chinese lunar New Year on the 13^th, and Valentine’s day on the 14^th. And, in the U.S. it’s Black History Month. While the northeast, Midwest and Pacific Northwest of the U.S. are blanketed in snow, in the Bay Area of California plum trees and camellias are beginning to blossom.

Regarding Black History Month, Chapel Hill Zen Center’s newsletter featured a number of events that might be of interest to other sanghas, as they are all online. 

Brooklyn Zen Center’s co-guiding teacher Kosen Gregory Snyder is offering an 8-week online Socially Engaged Buddhism class starting February 19. Class dates: Fridays 2/19, 2/26, 3/5, 3/12, 3/26, 4/2, 4/9, 4/16. Class time: 7 to 8:30 pm EST. This class will explore some of the tenets, movements, leading figures, and issues central to what has come to be known as socially engaged Buddhism. In addition to exploring how these movements initially responded to the colonial and wartime contexts from which they often emerged, the course examines the critiques that engaged Buddhism offers current social and economic realities, as well as Buddhism’s own institutions and practices.

In last week’s Newsette, Fushin Susan Schoenbohm, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate board member, was searching for other sanghas who have created what ADZG is calling a Sangha Care Committee, which checks in with sangha members in need of assistance and sees what others can do to help. Many sanghas replied. Here are some of the responses she received:

Jill Kakushin Kaplan of Zen Heart Sangha in Woodside, CA, wrote : “Our sangha has for many years had what we call a “Dana Steward”. This person takes care of anyone in need by organizing members to support them, especially in times of illness or death in the family. Additionally, we recently created a position for another Sangha member to explore and share community resources during Covid-19, such as health updates, food banks, social security assistance etc. (what we’re calling our “Resource Steward”).

Tricia Teater, guiding teacher at Udumbara Zen Sangha in Evanston, IL noted, “At the first of the year.  we sent out a survey,  gathered/updated members phone numbers, and have a Board member available to field calls and connect as necessary. The latest example: snow removal – we hooked up someone who could with someone who needed. 

Laurie Senauke and Liz Weitsman are the point people for Berkeley Zen Center’s Sangha Support which has been going on for about 25 years.

Gene Bush sent a document the Santa Cruz Zen Center Board adopted in 2014 when they established the position of Sangha Support Leader, which Gene was the first to fill. This document is attached.

Austin Zen Center has developed an online Mutual Aid Project. Here’s the description: Have a need/ask/request (anything from running an errand to needing someone to talk with to borrowing a book – anything!) – or perhaps something to offer (an old zafu or a book that might be of interest or extra cookies from all the stress baking you are doing)? – post them in our Mutual Aid channel, now on our AZC Chat (Discord) Server! Read more.. Austin Zen Center’s Mutual Aid Project is based on an article in Vox.com

So many of us have lost loved ones during the last year. If you or members of your sangha are grieving, this four week Jizo Practice Group, Journeying Through Grief and Change with Fearlessness is being offered by San Francisco Zen Center. This group, co-led by Hoka Chris Fortin, teacher at Everyday Zen, Dojin Sarah Emerson co-guiding teacher of Stone Creek Zendo, and chaplain Jennifer Block will meet on Thursdays, February 18 – March 11. “In this time of difficulty and uncertainty, the archetype of Jizo Bodhisattva, an embodiment of fearlessness and great persistence, is a profound resource. In this group, we will deepen our capacity to meet personal and collective grief with the qualities of Jizo Bodhisattva.” 

Jon Voss’s Zoom Clinic is available this Wednesday, February 10^th, from 11 a.m. to 12 PST. Here’s the Zoom link or Meeting ID: 222 402 816, Passcode: 057143.

I wish you good health, fortitude, and joy in the coming week.

I am still feeling the joy of yesterday’s Mountain Seat Ceremony at Berkeley Zen Center. Among over 350 Zoom participants I noted teachers and members from nearly thirty Branching Streams sanghas, from coast to coast in the U.S., as well as from Canada and Italy. 

A request from Fushin Susan Schoenbohm, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate board member, who writes: “We are starting here what we are calling a Sangha Care Committee, which checks in with sangha members who might be in need of some kind of assistance and sees what we can do to help.” Susan is looking for other sanghas that have such committees, “to learn about what their “mission” statement might be, and some best practices that might guide us going forward.” Please let both Susan and me know if you have such a committee or program/practice in your sangha. Her email address is s.schoenbohm@gmail.com.

Jon Voss will be offering an intermediate/advanced Zoom Clinic on Wednesday, February 3rd, from 11 to 12 PST. Here’s the Zoom link or Meeting ID: 222 402 816, Passcode: 057143.

In the midst of winter several sanghas are beginning or have recently begun Winter Practice Periods and other programs that are all available online.

Ava Stanton, guiding teacher of Just Show Up Sangha notes:  We are starting a Practice Period , Yasodhara’s Path, on Friday, February 5th.  Information about our online Practice Period is at The Just Show Up Zen Sangha Blog or  https://justshowupzensangha.com/new-blog-1

Chapel Hill Zen Center and Richmond Zen and are collaborating on a monthlong Winter Practice Intensive, Sunday, January 31 through Sunday, February 28, 2021 Via Zoom co-led by their guiding teachers Josho Pat Phelan and Eden Heffernan. This is an innovative model for sharing teachers and teachings that other centers may wish to explore. In addition to zazen, the intensive includes Dharma talks, Way-seeking Mind talks, group Dharma discussions, and weekly teas.

Houston Zen Center is offering a program for meditators who want to enter Zen deeply, to investigate the mind of daily life: Entering the Path of Practice (EPP), an advanced program of guided exploration, study and training. Zen Priests Tim Schorre and Royce Johnson will lead the program. Entering the Path of Practice is organized as three eight-week-long modules, each module emphasizing one of the three treasures: BUDDHA (great teachers and practitioners of the Way), DHARMA (teachings and practice) and SANGHA (the community of practitioners).Registration ends on February 7^th.

Some upcoming dharma talks that may be of interest:

Austin Zen Center is hosting Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, founding teacher of Still Breathing  Zen group on Saturday, February 13^th at 10 am Central Time. The talk is titled, “The Deepest Peace in the Midst of Chaos.” Zenju’s most recent book, the Deepest Peace, Contemplations from a Season of Stillness, was published in December, 2020.

On Sunday February 21st , from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Central Time, as part of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate’s series of Black women guest teachers, Breeshia Wade will speak. Breeshia from lived in Chicago and practiced at Ancient Dragon’s temple or at their Hyde Park group. Breeshia now lives in Los Angeles and works as a hospice chaplain. She has written a powerful new book coming out later this month, Grieving While Black: An Antiracist Take on Oppression and Sorrow.  

Wishing you all good health and sustained energy as we enter a new month.

I hope you are doing well in this time of midwinter. I have been feeling more hopeful in these early days of our new U.S. national leadership. I  appreciated last week’s inaugural ceremonies for their inclusivity, messages of compassion, and calls for both unity and accountability going forward.

Today I’m writing about a few offerings coming up in the next two weeks.

First, here is an invitation from Berkeley Zen Center’s board president, Mary Duryee, for the Mountain Seat Ceremony of Hozan Alan Senaukeon Sunday, January 31^st at 3 p.m PST.

Jon Voss will be offering his first Zoom Clinic of 2021 for those newer to Zoom on Wednesday, January 27th, from 11 to 12 PST. He will offer an intermediate/advanced Zoom clinic on Wednesday, February 3rd at the same time. Here’s the Zoom link or Meeting ID: 222 402 816, Passcode: 057143.

Marcia Lieberman, who has visited and taught at many Branching Streams groups in the U.S., will be teaching an online class through San Francisco Zen Center called Favorite Pages. The class starts on February 1^st and is based on the haiku collection A White Tea Bowl—100 haiku from 100 years of life by Mitsu Suzuki. The book was translated by Kate McCandless, co-guiding teacher of Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver, BC, Canada. This link will take you to the SFZC website for more information and registration. 

Here’s a reminder that Branching Streams is co-sponsoring a daylong workshop on February 7^th called “Living my Practice Wholeheartedly: Whiteness, Race and the Bodhisattva Vow,” led by Crystal Johnson, Sarah Emerson, Chris Fortin, and myself. The flyer is attached. This workshop will be a benefit for the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, CA.  Please share the flyer with your sanghas!

More sanghas are launching online winter practice periods, offering one-day sittings, and a range of  classes, as outdoor activities are limited due to the weather. I will report on some of these events in my next Newsette.

I will leave you with the words of the inaugural poet, Amanda Gorman:

I am writing this Newsette at the end of a weekend of celebrating the life and teachings of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and on the cusp of the U.S. presidential inauguration – which I hope will begin a period of change in the direction of a more equitable and just government in this country.

It’s good to see many of you participating in this year’s Green Gulch Farm January Intensive, which Tenshin Reb Anderson is offering online. He’s teaching the Lotus Sutra and the ‘Great Assembly’ consists of over 200 participants, including many from Europe.

As we move on in 2021, you may enjoy watching a video of photographs from Branching Streams sanghas’ experiences in 2020. The video was compiled by Teresa Bouza (a member of Kannon Do in Mountain View, CA). It expresses many of the 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows of last year. 

Branching Streams is co-sponsoring a daylong workshop on February 7^th called “Living my Practice Wholeheartedly: Whiteness, Race and the Bodhisattva Vow,” led by Crystal Johnson, Sarah Emerson, Chris Fortin, and myself. The flyer is attached. Like “Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership” which Branching Streams offered in 2020, this workshop will be a benefit for the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, CA.  Please share the flyer with your sanghas!

I’m repeating last week’s Website and Zoom news: As we head into 2021 Branching Streams webmaster Jon Voss and I are redesigning and restructuring the website. Many of the links on the website, especially on the Resources page are not working and we will replace them soon.

Jon Voss will be offering a Zoom Clinic for those newer to Zoom on Wednesday, January 27th, from 11 to 12 PST and an intermediate-advanced Zoom clinic on Wednesday, February 3rd at the same time. Here’s the Zoom link (Meeting ID: 222 402 816, Passcode: 057143)

May we all stay healthy and strong as we meet the changes of 2021.

The year 2021 has begun with a mix of celebration and grieving.

I began writing this Newsette early last week and as the week went on it grew increasingly more difficult to write. There’s much to share with you.

At San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center we processed to all the alters on the morning of January 1st^t and held our first in-person service since the pandemic began on the roof of 300 Page Street. Six days later, we rang the bonsho bell 108 times after we learned that Sojun Mel Weitsman had just died.

I offer my condolences to those of you who are dharma heirs or dharma grandchildren of Sojun Roshi, as well as to all of us who were encouraged by his presence and teaching. Barbara Wenger (photographer, community organizer and wife of Dairyu Michael Wenger, who leads Dragons Leap sangha in San Francisco) created a beautiful photo tribute to Sojun. Barbara is happy to share it with you. Here’s the link.

Last Wednesday we learned the results of the senate races in Georgia, in which the first African-American senator was elected in that state, a victory that was the result of much hard work to get out the vote. You may have participated in letter writing, online phone banking, or donating funds to turn the two senate seats from red to blue.

That same day, a mob who believed the presidential election had been stolen stormed the Capitol while the House and Senate were beginning the process of affirming electoral college votes to finalize the election of Biden and Harris. The light touch afforded the mob as they desecrated the Capitol differed painfully from the severe response to Black Lives Matters protesters last summer.

As teachers and sangha leaders how have you addressed these events with sangha members? Please let me know if you’ve had community discussions, offered dharma talks, written statements, participated in interfaith vigils or taken other actions that you’d like other sanghas to know about.

San Francisco Zen Center and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association are both preparing statements.

On another note, last week I received newsletters from many sanghas summing up the challenges and positive aspects of 2020. Here are a few quotes:

Abbot Gaelyn Godwin of Houston Zen Center looked back at 2020 “with appreciation and gratitude for the ways in which the sangha met the pandemic, racial injustice, continued offering teachings virtually, created ceremonies that were safe, and celebrated the births of three children of sangha members.”

Eden Heffernan, guiding teacher of Richmond VA Zen Center wrote: “In responding to the changes demanded by an invisible pathogen, and at times all too visible sociopathology, the Richmond Zen sangha has been an inspiration and support. Together, and with others, we created new ways to practice together in Zoom, at Byrd Park, and in the Ekoji garden. We have maintained our community and even welcomed new members. Via Zoom, we were fortunate to join in with others across the country and around the world to hear teachings of Dogen Zenji illuminated by Shohaku Okumura Roshi. We also participated in study groups led by Chapel Hill. We engaged in an exploration of race, privilege, and bias with many other Branching Streams sangha members. We found that “virtual” can still be intimate; although distanced we can connect.”

Taigen Leighton noted, “Ancient Dragon Zen Gate enters the New Year cast loose from our storefront home in North Center Chicago. Now we are a homeless sangha floating among Dharma realms in the adventure of how to express the awakening way and help to respond appropriately to suffering in our new-normal world. Vaccines pose hope for an end to the Covid pandemic sometime this year. Our society still faces the pandemics of systemic racism and a failed justice system, economic distress for many, as well as climate breakdown. We continue to sit upright amid the complexities and stresses of our world and our own lives.” 

Someone recently said to Joan Amaral, guiding teacher of Zen Center North Shore, “In this year of isolation, I’m amazed at how close I’ve come to feel with members of ZCNS. Thank you for helping to override the limited dimensions of a Zoom screen to break through to humanity!”

Laura O’Loughlin, co-guiding teacher of Brooklyn Zen Center comments: “In this year of change, loss and profound reckoning, we emerge as a community intact, resilient, and more committed than ever to our Bodhisattva vow of living from the wisdom of love and all that it requests of us.”

Website and Zoom news: As we head into 2021 Branching Streams webmaster Jon Voss and I are redesigning and restructuring the website. We will welcome your feedback when its further along.

Jon Voss will be offering a Zoom Clinic for those newer to Zoom on Wednesday, January 27th, from 11 to 12 PST and an intermediate-advanced Zoom clinic on Wednesday, February 4^th at the same time. Here’s the Zoom link: Meeting ID: 222 402 816, Passcode: 057143 or https://us02web.zoom.us/j/222402816?pwd=ODVWLzZ5ZUFtREcvS2M3YmkyVnVaUT09

I look forward to connecting with you in as many ways as possible as 2021 unfolds.

I’m writing on the day of the Winter Solstice, feeling hope. Now the days grow longer and the nights shorten. The coming year will bring greater availability of Covid-19 vaccines, and the inauguration of new leaders in the United States.

In this time of holidays for people of many faith traditions, some sanghas are having online holiday parties, solstice ceremonies, or New Year’s zazen and bell-ringing. We may be feeling both grief and gratitude as this year comes to an end.

Berkeley Zen Center’s beloved Founding Teacher, Sojun Mel Weitsman, has been receiving hospice care at home for about a week. You can get updates and leave messages for him on the Caringbridge website (you may have to set up an account in order to do so).  

And, at this time, Berkeley Zen Center sangha members are preparing for the Mountain Seat Ceremony of Alan Senauke on December 28^th (now postponed, please stay tuned for updates).

I’m ending this Newsette with great appreciation for each of you, for all the ways you have faced the difficulties of this year and supported and nourished your sanghas.

My next Newsette will be sent early in January, 2021.

I returned to work on Monday after City Center’s Rohatsu Sesshin feeling grounded and refreshed. The sesshin marked the end of our Fall Practice Period led by Abbots Tenzen David Zimmerman and Rinso Ed Sattizahn, with Shuso Sozan Diego Miglioli. We had SFZC’s first online Buddha’s Enlightenment ceremony on Saturday morning. I was amazed at the joy I felt during the ceremony even though only our Abbot David was circumambulating the Buddha Hall to the sound of the taiko drum and chanting of the maka hannya haramitta shin gyo (prerecorded). That afternoon we had our first online Shuso ceremony I was happy to see several Branching Streams teachers among the former Shusos who attended the ceremony.

Many Branching Streams sanghas sat sesshin last week for one, three, five, or seven days, celebrating Buddha’s enlightenment. Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco had a Metta service/practice led by their Abbot Myō Lahey during their three-day Winter Light retreat. They wrote, “It has been a turbulent year for many in 2020 and this is a great opportunity to hold the world in our hearts and generate loving kindness for all.”

Two Streams Zen in western Massachusetts, whose guiding teachers are Ryūmon H Baldoquín and Catherine Anraku Hondorp, sat Rohatsu virtually every morning from December 1^st to 8^th. On the last night, as is traditional, they kept the online zendo open through the night for informal sitting.

Looking forward to the solstice and New Year’s, Zen Center North Shore in Beverly, MA, whose guiding teacher is Joan Amaral, will have an online Winter Solstice Art and Music Party: In celebration of the year turning toward the light again. Their invitation is: “Come gather on ZenZoom Sunday, December 20th, from 4 to 6 PM ET, for our online Winter Solstice Art & Music Party! We anticipate a beautiful evening of poetry readings, stories, musical performances, artistic gestures, and anything (nearly anything) else that can be shared on Zoom.”

Brooklyn Zen Center will have their 14^th annual New Year’s Eve Celebration and Sit Thursday, December 31, 10 pm – Friday, January 1, 12:30 am EST. They write: “Please join us for this intimate celebration of community and collective practice, in what is the longest running BZC celebration – we have been doing it since 2005! This year, the New Year’s Eve Celebration and Sit will be offered online and with a reduced schedule.”

There will be a virtual Jukai ceremony at Zen Center North Shore this Saturday December 12^th at 2 p.m. ET for two sangha members. One of the ordinands, Emily Dashowitz, writes, “We will each accept the 16 bodhisattva precepts as our chosen way of life. These precepts will be given to us by our guiding teacher, as hers were given to her. Together we will take refuge in the Three Treasures and acknowledge the full line of ancestors who have brought us here, sustaining us along the way with their wisdom and care.
“It has been a unique challenge to plan for this intimate ceremony, in this particular year. Like a river, there have been so many twists, juts, jagged edges, depths and shallows. Yet a river never loses its course and never has to worry about whether it will reach the sea. Our ceremony may be hosted virtually, but the heart of awakening, moral and ethical conduct, and care for all beings will be transmitted. That it is occurring is the true gift.”

There are many true gifts of this season, despite the loss of in-person meetings and ceremonies many of us are feeling.

Warmest greetings to each and all of you. Please cherish yourselves.