Author: Tova Green

This morning I received a message from Josho Pat Phelan, the guiding teacher of Chapel Hill Zen Center, saying, “I am thinking of you and of California and the West Coast fires and send my deep wish for it to end soon.” I replied, “Thank you for your wishes concerning the wildfires. It’s such a call to do whatever we can to slow climate change.”

For me, slowing climate change is linked to getting out the vote for the November election. Nearly 200 people from sanghas across the country, including Shokuchi Deirdre Carrigan from Brooklyn Zen Center and Chris Fortin from Dharma Heart Zen in Sebastopol, CA participated in an online election retreat organized by many members of Berkeley Zen Center yesterday. This retreat generating over 4,000 letters encouraging people in swing states to vote. The 4 ½ hour retreat included zazen, a dharma talk by Roshi Joan Halifax of Upaya Zen Center, and time to write letters. Thus far this year over 50,000 letters have been generated in these retreats – an example of how, together, we can make a difference. It’s not too late to enroll in the three remaining retreats on September 27, October 4 and 11. Here’s the link to their website: https://www.electionretreat.org/

This Newsette also includes a description of what two sanghas are doing to support a global Buddhist response to feed the hungry, a new video of zazen instruction by Sojun Mel Weitsman, and a study group inspired by A Wild Love for the World, as well as an invitation to a special Zoom class with Jon Voss.

Houston Zen Center writes: “This year, during the global pandemic, it is more important than ever to come together to provide help and support for the many people who suffer food insecurity. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, the founder of Buddhist Global Relief’s Walk to Feed the Hungry, will join HZC’s action to give us encouraging words, as well as guided meditation.

“We invite everyone to participate by registering for this online action. You can also make a video of yourself walking or standing with a sign that supports Buddhist Global Relief. Your efforts and generosity will help with programs that provide direct relief, promote sustainable agriculture, and provide education and right livelihood opportunities for women. To learn more: https://mailchi.mp/houstonzen/walk-to-feed-the-hungry-october-26th-2187372?e=f8dc82556b

Berkeley Zen Center will also be participating in the Walk to Feed the Hungry.
Berkeley Zen Center’s Vice-Abbot Alan Senauke writes: “Sojun Roshi [who is 91 years old] offered a full zazen instruction, with some q&a, at a Friday afternoon talk in the Zendo. We tried to capture it in a high-quality video with good sound. This wonderful documentation of his teaching can be found on our new Berkeley Zen Video YouTube channel, which also features almost all our Saturday talks and classes since we moved onto the Zoom platform. You can browse through the offerings. Meanwhile, here is the link to Sojun’s instruction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBmYlr35mYU

On Saturday night I attended an online conversation between Stephanie Kaza (who spoke at the 2019 Branching Streams Conference) and Joanna Macy, Buddhist activist, teacher, and writer. In the midst of the fires burning in California, Oregon (Stephanie’s home) and Washington, their words on the climate crisis were healing and energizing. Stephanie edited A Wild Love for the World, Joanna Macy and the Work of Our Time, a tribute to Joanna’s decades of work to help us turn our despair into compassionate action. This book is the focus of study for Heart of Compassion sangha in Point Reyes, whose guiding teacher is Jaune Evans.

Here’s a reminder about a special Zoom class offered by Jon Voss this week:
Many sanghas are expanding both the range of Zoom offerings (e.g. beginning to do service and ceremonies on Zoom) and including more sangha members in hosting Zoom events. Here’s a description of a class Jon is offering next week:

Time to add some backup to your online zendo team? This training will go over the basics for using Zoom to host online zendos. We will cover: basic security features, how hosts can set up the zendo when they log on, using recorded bells and other sounds, and a quick intro to breakout groups if time allows. This class will be recorded.

Wednesday, September 16th from 11 to noon Pacific time.
Here’s the Zoom information:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/222402816?pwd=ODVWLzZ5ZUFtREcvS2M3YmkyVnVaUT09
Meeting ID: 222 402 816, Passcode: 057143
This class is in lieu of the regular Wednesday Zoom clinic. If you have any questions, you can email me or Jon, jon@jumpslide.com.

May we all find the words and actions that inspire us to care for ourselves, one another, our sanghas, country, and planet.

I enjoyed seeing many of you at last week’s Soto Zen Buddhist Association Conference.

And I’m happy to let you know that we have a new Branching Streams webmaster, Jon Voss, a member of Mid-City Zen in New Orleans. I want to thank Eric Jonas of All Beings Zen Group in Washington, D.C. for his responsiveness and creativity in updating the website.

This Newsette features news from Branching Streams groups in Europe, Mexico, and Columbia. You will read of some challenges groups have faced due to Covid-19 as well as opportunities going online has afforded sanghas.

Djinn Gallager writes: Black Mountain ZC in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is hosting an international weeklong sesshin on the theme Entering the Buddha Way, led by Ryushin Paul Haller. “The sesshin has 62 participants, and we will be sitting together across the world in Ireland and Northern Ireland, the UK, the US, Canada, Thailand, Australia, Slovenia, Greece, Norway and Austria. Ryushin is offering the sesshin by donation to allow as many people as possible to attend, regardless of their finances.”

Akazienzendo in Berlin offers an international evening

Bernd Bender, their guiding teacher, writes: “The zendo was closed from April to the middle of June. Since then we very cautiously reopened and accommodate 14 people to sit, practicing physical distancing. Like in many practice places, most of our events still happen online only.

“Zen in English” started two months ago as a venue for practitioners in Greece to meet with me. (For the past five years I have been traveling to Greece four times a year for short weekend-retreats.) The big surprise of “Zen in English” has been that right from the start people here in Germany also participated and a dream came true: For years we have been trying to find ways for the Athens and the Berlin sanghas to meet, and now it is happening. Then some friends from California joined, and lately Djinn Gallagher in Belfast participated and hosted our last meeting.

It is a very heartwarming experience how in challenging times we can find creative ways to connect and practice together. The meetings happen every Friday, 7.30-9 pm, Central European time. We sit together for 30 minutes and chant the Heart Sutra, usually followed by a brief talk and discussion.”

The Zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/s/3516453359?pwd=bDlaT042OWR0UDJmNmlFOUFVM1VUdz09#success. You are invited to join!

News and request from Montaña de Silencio Comunidad Zen Insight in Medellin, Columbia

Sanriki Jaramillo, their guiding teacher, was participating in the Spring Practice Period at Green Gulch Farm, which ended in mid-March, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He writes, “I returned to Medellín to guide our small community through the quarantine. It has been a time of great uncertainty and limitation. Although we are now close to ending our quarantine (the curve of contagion and death from COVID 19 has begun to diminish significantly in Colombia), the economic impact of the temporary closure of our center has been great. The largest part of our income is comprised of donations and voluntary support from practitioners and visitors, and our monthly income has been reduced by forty percent. In the last six months, we have incurred a large deficit that threatens our future. If we are not able to cover this deficit, we may have to give up our practice center, the house we currently occupy, where a small community of permanent and occasional practitioners live.

Fifteen days ago, we began a fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $20.000.000 Colombian pesos ($5,500 US dollars). The result so far has been encouraging as we have raised 60% of our goal, but we still have a long way to go before we reach it.”

Sanriki asked me to share their current situation in the hope that we might be able to assist them in guaranteeing our economic equilibrium for the rest of the year.

Link to the campaign: https://vaki.co/generosidad

Link to visit their page: http://montanadesilencio.org/

Sergio Stern, leader of Montaña Despierta in Jalapa Mexico writes: “ We just reopened the zendo at Montaña Despierta with limited capacity (8-10 persons) and all the measures of hygiene, some distancing and mask wearing. The rest of the sangha may connect through Zoom. We are also meeting regularly in nature, by a river, to do some walking meditation. We are beginning to feel the full force of the sangha coming back to life after a big blow just when the pandemic started and we had to cancel everything. We were beginning our very first Practice Period in which I was going to be Shuso under the guidance of one of our teachers, Anka Rick Spencer. We couldn’t continue. Many of us, including myself, had our lives completely upended and it was very difficult to give space to the practice and feel the close in-person support that we felt was needed for a Practice Period. But we are back with our once a week sitting group. Gaining in confidence little by little and turning again into that place of refuge for the people in our community, where Eijun Linda Cutts has led many sesshins.

We have a nice web page in English and Spanish with a unique audio library of Dharma talks in Spanish or with translation from the English which makes a special contribution to the Spanish-speaking Dharma world.” www.mdzen.com

Here’s an invitation to join Jon Voss’s weekly Zoom drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 11 a.m. Pacific time if you need Zoom advice, support, or encouragement.

Wishing you all good health and resilience (the topic of a talk I’m giving at Monterey Zen Center) this week.

One of the gifts of this challenging time is the ease with which we can visit distant sanghas, hear their dharma talks, take part in their classes, one-day sittings, sesshins, and ceremonies. I am currently participating in a study group offered by Houston Zen Center and will be co-teaching a class at Mid-City Zen in New Orleans this fall – with no travel needed.

As I mentioned in a recent Newsette, Brooklyn Zen Center decided not to renew the lease on their Brooklyn home of many years. Laura O’Laughlin, (Laura and Greg Snyder are the guiding teachers) describes their process of grieving and celebration: “We have been going through a month-long process with the sangha of grieving our city temple (about two years ago BZC purchased land outside the city). We have had a few zoom evenings of recollection and the BIPOC community made a short video and another sangha member made a longer video .Folks in the city are visiting the space in small groups and next week Greg and I will do a ceremony to close the space. It has been such a powerful, beautiful practice space and our sangha grew substantially in that space, especially with the kitchen. Kitchen practice is still happening once a week until the end, creating soups and food for protestors and those in need.”

Laura also shared a 30 minute video. She describes it as “a beautiful and generous offering to our community, capturing our practice in our Brooklyn temple. It includes snippets of teachers’ talks at BZC and chanting.” Here’s the link: https://vimeo.com/450607102 password snowy2328.

I’ve signed up for a second election retreat. It’s not too late if you’d like to join other Buddhists in September or October for four hours of practice (zazen and a dharma talk) and letter writing to encourage people in swing states to register and vote. On September 13th you can join members of Houston Zen Center, San Francisco Zen Center, and Upaya Zen Center. Roshi Joan Halifax will give the dharma talk that day. Here’s the link for information about these election retreats: https://mailchi.mp/1325076a5ced/september-october-retreats?e=d3485a4663

Douglas Floyd, Board Chair of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, and I are working on a survey we will be sending you soon to learn how Branching Streams Zen Centers and sanghas have been affected by Covid-19 — what decisions you’re making about your practice spaces, how you’re offering the dharma, how your membership and finances may have changed. I’ve received many questions about what sanghas are thinking about renewing leases, reopening, amplifying online offerings, surviving financially. We will be able to share the survey results on our website.

Branching Streams is in search of a new Webmaster. After several years of maintaining the Branching Streams website, our wonderful webmaster, Eric Jonas, of All Beings Zen in Washington, DC, needs to pass on the baton. Please let me know if you or someone in your sangha would like to be our next webmaster.

Here’s an invitation to join Jon Voss’s weekly Zoom drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 11 a.m. Pacific time if you need Zoom advice, support, or encouragement.

May you find ways to nourish yourselves and to connect with others this week. I hope to see some of you at the Soto Zen Buddhist Association Conference September 3rd and 4th.

This has been a challenging week for those of us in California, with over 600 wildfires flaring all around the state, many of them close to practice centers and homes of sangha members and causing poor air quality in the Bay Area and beyond. In addition, a tropical storms is on its way to the Gulf Coast, endangering communities in Louisiana and Texas. Such vivid reminders of the climate crisis are impossible to ignore.

Many sanghas have been addressing this issue for several years. Climate justice was a theme of the 2018 Branching Streams Conference, which included a wonderful presentation by Stephanie Kaza on systems theory and the climate crisis. Given the pandemics of Covid-19 and the heightened awareness of racial injustice, the precarious state of our planet may have moved to a “back burner.” Please let me know if your sangha is involved in climate justice actions or study and I will include that in the next Newsette.

As the days grow shorter, even in places that are still experiencing the heat of summer, signs of autumn are unmistakable. School is starting, for most students, from pre-school to college, online. Ancient Dragon Zen Gate’s senior students host a Zen group for students at the University of Chicago, which was recently featured in a Tricycle article, “Buddhists on Campus”.

Many sanghas are planning Fall Practice Periods, some starting as soon as September. Mountain Rain Zen Centre in Vancouver is opening its Fall Practice period with a weekend retreat and will be opening its zendo for up to ten sangha members at a time, physically distanced, as well as offering the retreat online. Guiding teachers Michael Newton and Kate McCandless carefully worked on a zendo reopening plan.

Seattle Soto Zen’s guiding teacher Allison Tait writes, “I am receiving support from the teachers both Bellingham and Vancouver to offer an [online] Seattle practice period! SSZ has only ever had a shuso one time before, so the Sangha is very excited.” This inter-sangha support and cooperation is happening more easily with Zoom.

In case you missed it, I’m mentioning again Thomas Bruner’s Fundraising for Buddhists class, offered by Houston Zen Center, three sessions beginning September 1st. For a description or to register, go to: https://houstonzen.org/events-calendar/2020/9/1-september-fundraising-for-buddhists

Jon Voss continues to generously offer his weekly Zoom drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 11 a.m. Pacific time.

May you, your loved one, and all beings be healthy and safe.

In 1963, in the summer before I graduated from college, I spent three weeks in a voter registration project in Greensboro, North Carolina, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee. I joined a group of about 20 Black and white college students. We were housed in the basement of a Black church and went door-to-door to encourage African-Americans to register to vote. I have never forgotten how precious and precarious is the right to vote. Getting out the vote continues to be of vital importance.

In recent years many Zen Buddhist practitioners have organized election sesshins in swing states. This year, leaders and members of sanghas across the country are participating in online election retreats. Individual and groups of sangha members can participate in these letter-writing efforts to get out the vote. You can find more information at https://www.electionretreat.org/

In response to the climate crisis, the Shogaku Zen Institute is offering a 13-week course in Eco-Dharma, beginning September 10th, led by David Loy and Kritee (Kanko). Some questions the course will address include:

• How can we respond urgently and effectively to the ongoing climate emergency and the larger ecological crisis—and stay sane doing it?
• How do we understand the interconnection of environmental degradation with colonialism, racism and neoliberal economics?
• What contemplative/spiritual principles and perspectives can help us forge a response to our ecological predicament?

For more information, here’s the link.

In case you missed it, I’m mentioning again Thomas Bruner’s Fundraising for Buddhists class, offered by Houston Zen Center, three sessions beginning September 1st. For a description or to register, go to: https://houstonzen.org/events-calendar/2020/9/1-september-fundraising-for-buddhists

Jon Voss continues to generously offer his weekly Zoom drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 11 a.m. Pacific time.

I’d like to end with words from the late John Lewis, in a statement he wrote just before he died in July, “When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.”

Several sanghas are finding creative ways to practice together outdoors, physically distanced. This image is from Richmond, VA Zen Center, at Sheilds Lake:

If you’d like to know more, please go to: https://www.richmondzen.org/boundless-zendo

Houston Zen Center is offering a second series of Fundraising for Buddhists led by Thomas Bruner, as the first one filled. The next series will be September 1, 8, and 15.

Jon Voss will be hosting the Wednesday Zoom weekly drop-in clinics, at 11 a.m. Pacific time.

This continues to be a time of great hardship for many people in the U.S. and around the world. May we find ways to share our practice in ever-widening circles.

This morning, August 4th, after online zazen, Abbot David Zimmerman was doshi for the monthly Suzuki Roshi memorial we recently resumed online at San Francisco Zen Center. He made the offerings of tea, rice, and sweet water at the Kaisando altar and the kokyo led us (we were muted) in chanting the Harmony of Difference and Equality. I thought of all of you, with gratitude for the many expressions of practice you are offering around the U.S. and in many other countries.

I am wondering what your experience is, offering services and ceremonies. What innovations have you experimented with? I read on the Soto Zen Buddhist Association listserve about a jukai ceremony at Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham, WA led by guiding teacher Nomon Tim Burnett. It was physically distanced, outside on a deck, with two preceptors, one ordainee, one support person, everyone masked and pretty much maintaining the 6′. They broadcast the ceremony live on Zoom; about 50 people participated. Tim thought it worked “surprisingly well.”

Houston Zen Center is planning an outdoor Bodhisattva Precepts giving ceremony for September. Abbot Gaelyn Godwin commented about this in the SZBA listserve: “September might be cool enough in Houston, and we might have calmed down in the pandemic mode, to allow us to have an outdoor spacious ceremony for 6 new Bodhisattvas and a widely-spaced community.”

In the online Zoom Clinic with Jon Voss, Douglas Floyd from Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago and others have been learning how to record bells to use in zazen and services. If you want to expand the doanryo for services or ceremonies, your sangha members are welcome to join our weekly drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 11am Pacific time.

How are students sewing rakusus in your sanghas, given social distancing? Zen Center North Shore in Beverly, Massachusetts, whose guiding teacher is Joan Amaral, will be hosting their annual sewing retreat online. It will be led by Hogetsu Laurie Belzer from Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, who, prior to Covid-19 would spend a week in Massachusetts.

The members of Centro Zen l’Arco in Rome Italy are sitting sesshin online this week with their Abbot, Dario Girolami. Those participating in the sesshin Zoomed in to Eijun Linda Cutts’s Sunday Green Gulch dharma talk this week, as Eijun Cutts is Dario’s teacher. I had attended Dario’s Mountain Seat Ceremony in Rome last year and was happy to see the familiar faces of many sangha members who hosted me the week I was there.

Looking toward the Fall, some centers are planning practice periods or ongoing classes. Please let me know if you’re planning activities that you’d like other sanghas to know about.

I’m continually inspired to hear of the connections and collaborations between sanghas, amplified by the ability to visit another sangha without getting in a car or a plane.

May you be nourished by Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha – the whole wide world.

It’s past mid-summer and many sanghas are finding creative ways to practice together out-of-doors.

This Newsette includes glimpses of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate’s Camping Sesshin and an outdoor work-day at Milwaukee Zen Center. If you have found ways to practice in nature, please share your experiences.

This Newsette also contains an update about the launch of Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership last weekend and a workshop next weekend with Paula Arai offered by Kannon Do in Mountain View CA.

This is an excerpt from a longer article with photos that will be posted soon on the Branching Streams website: “Since 2016, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago has held an annual three-day Camping Sesshin that combines traditional Zen forms and Dharma teachings within the natural setting provided by Illinois Beach State Park, writes Senior Student Eishin Nancy Easton. “Our sesshin takes place in a sheltered, open-air environment, and opportunities for tent camping are available for overnight participants. Daily Dharma talks, discussions, communal meals and nature walks are offered by our co-leaders Eishin Nancy Easton and Gyoshin Laurel Ross, and other senior students under the guidance of Guiding Dharma Teacher Taigen Dan Leighton. This sesshin offers us an opportunity to bring our practice to an encounter with the natural world, without venturing far from home.

“For Ancient Dragon as a non-residential, urban practice center, Camping Sesshin brings a welcome opportunity to practice together in an extended way, as participants bring their own tents and camp overnight in the land surrounding our tent zendo. Pre-dawn zazen on the shore of Lake Michigan is one of the highlights, along with our extended walking meditation along a trail that precedes the morning’s Dharma talk.

“During the COVID pandemic this year, we have not been able to occupy our zendo, and have similarly not felt that it was safe to offer this practice due to the hazards of communal food preparation. However, plans are currently in the works to offer a half-day or all-day sitting in this format, with participants bringing their own bag lunch. Our spacious tent zendo can easily accommodate 6-8 socially distanced participants, and the outdoor setting adds to our physical safety.

Reirin Gumbel, Guiding Teacher of Milwaukee Zen Center writes about a recent sangha work-day: “Sangha members worked on projects individually and brought their own lunches and water. The work was mostly outdoors, weeding and repair, a couple of members cleaned the basement, and one person with a truck took various items to Goodwill and to the dump. It was lovely to see everyone in person, though at a distance.”

Kannon Do Zen Center is offering a workshop, The Healing Power of Everyday Activities in the Time of Covid-19, on Saturday, August 1st led by Dr.Paula Arai, author of Women Living Zen and Bringing Zen Home. You can find more information at: https://kannondo.org/event/summer-workshop-with-paula-arai/

Branching Streams launched our first online course on Saturday, Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership, led by Crystal Johnson. 107 participants from 29 different sanghas in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. enrolled in the course. Thanks to Jon Voss of Mid-City Zen and Teresa Bouza for their technical support.

Jon’s Zoom Clinic helped Teresa and me learn how to manage security and create breakout groups on Zoom. All are welcome to join our weekly drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 11am Pacific time.

This will be a brief Newsette, as I have only a few items to share with you – all things occurring on the coming weekend. A dharma friend shared a term this morning that resonates with me: “caution fatigue.” With the spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths in 40 states, the need for physical distancing and wearing masks continues.

The Branching Streams Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership course begins on Saturday July 25th. One hundred participants from sanghas in many states, Canada, and the U.K. have registered. Dana for participating in the course raised over $10,000 for the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland CA.

Crystal Johnson, who will be teaching the course, gave a dharma talk at SF Zen Center on Saturday July 18th which I recommend. Here’s a link to the dharma talk archives, where you can find a video of her talk.

Royce Johnson, a priest at Houston Zen Center, will be leading a one-day sitting that same day. You can learn more about it here.

And San Francisco Zen Center is offering an online retreat with Rev. angel Kyodo Williams and Abbess Furyu Schroeder on Radical Dharma from Friday the 24th at 7p.m. to Sunday the 26th at 4p.m.

Jon Voss’s Zoom clinic continues: All are welcome to join our weekly drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 11am Pacific time.

May you all be healthy and strong – and finding ways to enjoy summer despite “caution fatigue.”

As we reach mid-summer, sheltering in place continues in many states, not in others, as the Covid-19 virus continues to take lives and wreak economic havoc. I hear that some sanghas are exploring what it would take to be able to meet in person, and others are wrestling with hard decisions about whether to renew leases or have already decided not to do so.

This Newsette contains updates about the Branching Streams Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership course, new dates for the Fundraising Class Houston Zen Center is hosting led by Thomas Bruner, some words from the Brooklyn Zen Center’s board regarding closing their Brooklyn center, recommendations for new books by Marcia Lieberman and Pamela Weiss, and a reminder about Jon Voss’s weekly Zoom Clinic.

We were able to admit everyone who applied, including those on the waiting list, to Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership. There are about 100 people enrolled in the course. I think this speaks to the heightened awareness of systemic racism in the U.S. and throughout the world and a …

Fundraising for Buddhists: From Hesitance to Confidence! Taught by Thomas Bruner, this workshop will be hosted by Houston Zen Center. For more information, contact info@houstonzen.org. New dates: Tuesdays, August 11, 25, 6 – 8 pm.

Brooklyn Zen Center’s board sent a letter to their sangha describing the process they went through to reach a decision to close their city temple. The board wrote: “We realize that this may be painful news to hear. Our temple on Carroll Street has been our spiritual home for over a decade. Please stay tuned for emails and announcements about opportunities for dialogue and ritual that will allow us to express our collective grief and appreciation around the loss of this space. Please know that we are committed to a Zen practice space in Brooklyn. Once we have more clarity regarding a post-pandemic New York City, we will assess what makes sense at that time regarding a space. In the meantime, we will be wrapping the virtual sangha around Ancestral Heart and supporting our community from the monastery.”

I was saddened to hear this news, as you may be if you’ve visited Brooklyn Zen Center – and I know that other centers, particularly those that rent spaces, are grappling with questions of whether they can afford to keep paying rent on spaces they are currently unable to occupy due to the pandemic.

New books: Your sangha may have had a summer visit from Marcia Lieberman, a San Francisco-based member of Presidio Hill Sangha. Marcia’s many skills include writing, gardening, and photography. You will soon find a letter from Marcia on the Branching Streams website, with a link to order her new book, Clean Slate, Images from Dogen’s Garden, published by Goff Books.

Pamela Weiss, a dharma heir of Teah Strozer, former guiding teacher at Brooklyn Zen Center, gave a riveting dharma talk at City Center last Saturday on themes from her book published today by North Atlantic Books, ­A Bigger Sky, Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism.

Although both books are available at Amazon, you may want to order them through your local bookseller.

Jon Voss, our Zoom wizard, says “All are welcome to join our weekly drop-in clinics, Wednesdays at 11am Pacific time. These weekly clinics are designed as open workshops in which participants bring any questions or problems they are facing, as well as their own ideas and expertise for what is working in their own sangha. We share resources we’ve discovered during the week, try out different methods, do hands-on training, and generally provide a place for mutual support. If you need the meeting password, please contact Jon Voss.”

I’ll end this Newsette with lines we chant in the SFZC Online Zendo every morning after the robe chant: May all be healthy and strong. May all have ease and joy in their lives and be free from suffering.

With deep bows,

Tova