Author: Tova Green

This Newsette is my New Year’s greeting to you and a tribute to Hozan Alan Senauke.

On New Year’s Eve I joined the Berkeley Zen Center Sangha for zazen and a wellbeing service for BZC’s beloved Abbot Hozan Alan.

Hozan is critically ill, in the ICU at Kaiser in Oakland after cardiac arrest last Thursday. His family has set up a Caring Bridge page at: www.caringbridge.org/visit/alanhozansenauke. You can find daily updates about his condition there and leave messages of support.

I visited Hozan on December 30with my friend Mushim Ikeda. Both of us have known Hozan since the early 90’s, when he was the director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Hozan has been my mentor and friend ever since.

In the waiting room we visited with members of Hozan’s immediate family, his wife Laurie, daughter Silvie, and son Alex, who filled us in on Hozan’s condition.

Mushim and I sat at Alan’s bedside for a while, mostly in silence. Before we left, Mushim recited Santideva’s prayer, the Dalai Lama’s favorite prayer (see below). Friends who had visited before us wrote on the whiteboard in Hozan’s room, to share with his medical team, “Don’t be fooled by appearances – this man has a brilliant mind and a vast heart…Work: Saving all beings. Hobbies: Entertaining all beings (if you don’t know Hozan, he is a musician).”

On January 2, Silvie posted these words from Laurie: “Yesterday I [came upon] a wonderful quote from Joanna Macy that I wanted to share. Just reading that last sentence I can tell I’m in Hozanland. Please join me there.

“This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings.

“Action isn’t a burden to be hoisted up and lugged around on our shoulders. It is something thing we are. The work we have to do can be seen as a kind of coming alive. More than some moral imperative, it’s an awakening to our true nature, a releasing of our gifts.” 

As we begin the New Year, some of us setting intentions for our practice and our lives, I am adopting a practice I learned of from one of my students – to find a word that I’d like to live with and grow into in the coming year. Mine is Spaciousness.

The Dalai Lama said his favorite prayer is this verse by Santideva:

                     For as long as space exists

                     And sentient beings endure,

May I too remain,

To dispel the misery of the world.

Many sanghas have sat Rohatsu sesshin, and are now turning toward the solstice and end-of-year ceremonies.

At City Center we had our last talk in the Buddha Hall until January 2025 (due to renovations to our 300 Page Street Building) on Saturday December 16, when Central Abbot David Zimmerman spoke about Transitions. The 300 Page Street zendo and the Conference Center next door will remain open in 2024 and we will continue having zazen and service, dharma talks, and other programs in those spaces. A small video camera has been installed in the zendo so the sangha can also participate online.

After over ten years of living in my room at 300 Page Street, I’m in the midst of moving to an apartment at 340 Page Street which I will share with a Zen friend. You can send mail to me adding San Francisco Zen Center to 300 Page Street, San Francisco CA 94102 or to 340 Page Street, Apartment 207.

In my last Newsette I mentioned the departing ceremony for five City Center teachers who moved to Enso Village. There was also a departing ceremony at Green Gulch Farm for Emila Heller, Meiya Wender, Mick Sopko, and Sukey Parmalee. All are settling into their new homes in Healdsburg.

A correction to my last Newsette: In describing the Jukai ceremony for Terran Campbell at Stone Willow Zen Center in Spokane, WA, I should have used the pronoun they instead of she. I have apologized to Terran.

Sangha News:

On December 16, Colin Gipson stepped down as guiding teacher of San Antonio Zen Center after a decade of leading the sangha. Choro Antonuccio, guiding teacher of Austin Zen Center described his ceremony: “It was an emotional and loving sendoff for Colin. His final dharma talk theme was “what I have learned while guiding teacher.” It was warm and accessible. There was a mondo with his Dharma entrusted students, and statements from invited visitors. Then everyone present, including on Zoom, was invited to speak if they wished. Several Branching Streams and SFZC teachers were present, including Gaelyn Godwin, Steve Weintraub, Joan Amaral, Linda Galijan, Greg Fain, and Karen de Cotis.

Great Spirit Sangha in San Francisco concluded their 2023 fall practice period with a Shuso inquiry ceremony for Ja’nice Hoobler, Dai Toku Jin Zan (Great Devotion Compassion Mountain). 

Ja’nice and her teacher Cynthia Kear

Two weeks later Guiding Teacher Cynthia Kear gave Jukai to three sangha members: Nancy Hale (I Sho Ji Getsu – Awesome Creativity, Compassion Moon), Dean Paquette (I Kan Ki Raku – Healing Mirror, Vessel of Joy) and Jeff Sunshine (Gen Rai E Shin – Subtle Thunder, Wisdom Heart). 

Myoshin Kate McCandless, co-guiding teacher of Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver, BC, wrote a brief article about naming their new temple, Bright Stream, which is posted on the Branching Streams website. In discerning the name, she and the sangha learned about temple names as well as local history.

The Soto Zen Buddhist Association is launching Celebrating the Voices of Women in Buddhism; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, a monthly, year-long speaker series in 2024. This series has been planned by the SZBA DEIA committee and will include Dharma talks, panels, and intimate conversation with Buddhist women and teachers. 

The series will start with an all-day in person workshop with Dr. Paula Arai at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley on January 14. The workshop will focus on healing rituals that generate positive change. Registration is now open to all who are interested, including your sangha members. 

This will be my last Newsette of 2023. I wish you and your sanghas light, joy, and connectedness and look forward to being in touch with you again in January 2024.

Tonight, at City Center we will have a ceremony for the five senior members of our community who are leaving for Enso Village this week –Arlene Lueck, Barbara Machtinger, Rosalie Curtis, Susan O’Connell, and Teah Strozer, followed by a celebratory dinner. A second ceremony and celebration will be held at GGF on Dec. 3rd for the four retirees leaving Green Gulch Farm and Temple…Meiya Wender, Emila Heller, Sukey Parmalee, and Mick Sopko.  It reminds me of the importance of ceremonies in marking significant transitions in our lives.

I missed reporting on a Jukai Ceremony that occurred at Stone Willow Zendo in Spokane WA on September 29. Founding teacher Daya Goldschlag gave the precepts to Terran Campbell, who received the Dharma name Onryu Ekai, Gentle Dragon Wisdom Ocean. Daya noted, “Terran is a very long-time practitioner, and it was an honor to do that for them.” Daya received dharma transmission from Teah Strozer in September 2022, along with Ava Stanton, who leads Just Show Up sangha in Santa Monica CA, Shogen Danielson who is on the Teaching Council of Monterey Bay Zen Center, and Heather Iarusso who practices and teaches at San Francisco Zen Center.

A Stepping Down Ceremony for San Antonio Zen Center’s founding and guiding teacher Zenka Colin Gipson will be held at SAZC on December 16. After leading the sangha for ten years, Colin “is excited about practicing in a new way.”

Many Branching Streams Zen centers and sanghas are offering Rohatsu Sesshin varying in length from two to seven days, some in person and some hybrid, some residential and some commuting only. I will mention only a few.

Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center and Zen Heart Sangha in Mountain View and neighboring Menlo Park will jointly host a two-day Rohatsu sesshin at Kannon Do. Misha Shungen Merrill, founding teacher of Zen Heart Sangha, will lead the sesshin. Misha received Dharma transmission from Les Kaye, Kannon Do’s teacher emeritus. This sesshin will be held from 8 am – 5 pm each day, with a modified oryoki lunch. 

Brooklyn Zen Center is offering a five day Rohatsu sesshin December 6 – December 10
Wednesday through Saturday: 8am – 8:30pm EST; Sunday: 6am – 1pm EST with Sarah Dōjin
Emerson, Charlie Korin Pokorny, and Kidō Ian Case in their urban Boundless Mind temple. Partial attendance will be permitted; minimum of three days’ consecutive attendance. More information and registration here.

For the first time since 2019, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate “will hold a five-day Rohatsu sesshin to celebrate Shakyamuni Buddha’s Great Awakening, Wednesday December 6th to Sunday the 10th. All are welcome to attend any one to five days, in person or online.” Hogetsu Laurie Belzer and Taigen Leighton will co-lead the sesshin, focusing on the traditional Soto Zen teaching of meditation on the treasury of radiance. If you plan to attend, please register at https://www.ancientdragon.org/event/five-day-rohatsu-sesshin/ .

The Zen Buddhist Center Black Forest in Germany and Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver BC will also be sitting Rohatsu sesshin.

I will join the City Center sangha in sesshin from December 2 to 9. It will be wonderful to sit with an awareness of all the Zen Centers and sanghas in the Suzuki Roshi lineage and other lineages who will be turning toward silence and stillness at the is time of great suffering in the world. May our practice radiate peace.

This Newsette is following quickly on the heels of the one I sent last Friday. It includes news of dharma transmission, lay entrustment, and priest ordination ceremonies, a recommendation for a recently published book, a message from Alan Senauke regarding a petition for a cease-fire in Gaza, and a poem.

Everyday Zen founding teacher Norman Fischer gave Dharma Transmission to Flo Rublee and Ruth Ozeki on October 17. Flo’s dharma name is Dai-I JinShin, Great Healer, Deep Faith and Ruth’s is KanShin Do An, Generous Heart, Voice of the Way.

Hannah Sullivan, who practices at Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham WA, received Lay Entrustment from Kathie Fischer on November 5 during a retreat on Samish Island. Her dharma name is SeiU HeiAn, Quiet Rain, Stable Abode.

On Sunday November 12, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, guiding teacher of Still Breathing Zen Sangha and Myokei Caine-Barret, Shonin, Bishop of Nichiren Shu, ordained three priests at Green Gulch Farm. The Zendo was full of loving friends and family, sangha members, and Zen teachers. The new priests are Kaishin Unique Holland, whose new Dharma name is Kaishin Jiso – Ocean Heart, Healing Ancestors; Jozen Tamori Gibson, whose new Dharma name is Jozen Shinmu – Offering Zen, Empty Mind, and MK Abadoo, whose new Dharma name is Ganju Isshin – Wishfulling gem, One heart mind.

Shinshu Roberts, co-guiding teacher of Ocean Gate Zen Center in Santa Cruz CA writes, “I am reading a new book by Rebecca Li, who is transmitted in the Chan lineage of Master sheng Yen and the teacher at Chan dharma Community. The book’s title is Illumination: A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No-Method.  …As a teacher I find her insights helpful… I am recommending this book, which is published by Shambhala in paperback.

Alan Senauke, Abbot of Berkely Zen Center, sent the link to a Change.org petition from American Buddhists asking President Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. He writes, “This is something Bhikkhu Bodhi and I have been working on for the last few days, feeling that compassionate Buddhist voices must be heard.  I recognize some of you might disagree with our call for a ceasefire. I respect your views. I know that some of you have already received this petition through other channels and have signed on.  If appropriate, please sign the petition, add a comment, and share it widely with other members of your community.”

To close, here is a poem posted by Two Streams Zen  in Westhampton, MA, whose guiding teachers are Ryūmon Baldoquin and Catherine Anraku Hondorp:

Summons By Aurora Levins Morales Last night I dreamed ten thousand grandmothers  from the twelve hundred corners of the earth walked out into the gap one breath deep between the bullet and the flesh between the bomb and the family. They told me we cannot wait for governments. There are no peacekeepers boarding planes. There are no leaders who dare to say  every life is precious, so it will have to be us. They said we will cup our hands around each heart. We will sing the earth’s song, the song of water, a song so beautiful that vengeance will turn to weeping, the mourners will embrace, and grief replace every impulse toward harm.   Ten thousand is not enough, they said, so, we have sent this dream, like a flock of doves into the sleep of the world.  Wake up. Put on your shoes.  You who are reading this, I am bringing bandages and a bag of scented guavas from my trees. I think I remember the tune.  Meet me at the corner. Let’s go.

As those of us in the U.S. turn toward Thanksgiving, may we give thanks for everything that supports us in our lives. Wishing you a nourishing Thanksgiving

Last night the City Center Tanto and I held the space for a Healing Circle for residents who wanted to share their thoughts and feelings about the suffering and violence in Gaza and Israel. It was a way of creating a safe enough space to hold a range of experience, pain, and not-knowing.

Many of us are searching for ways to respond, both within our sanghas and in our wider communities, to increasing polarization and difficulty in communicating with others whose views may differ from our own.

Eden Heffernan shared a poem in Richmond Zen Center’s newsletter that points a way to better communication.

The Place Where We Are Right

From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
in the spring.

The place where we are right
is hard and trampled
like a yard.

But doubts and loves
dig up the world
like a mole, a plow,
And a whisper will be heard in the place
where the ruined
house once stood.

–Yehuda Amichai, translation by Stephan Mitchell

This coming Sunday, November 12, at 11:30 a.m. CT,  Houston Zen Center will offer “an opportunity to gather together in peace, to reflect on the causes of the flaming violence in the world, and to make our wishes for peace explicit.  The practice involves sitting together, writing wishes, sewing small garments, and reflecting on loving-kindness, compassion, and peace.  You are welcome to join for all or part of the ceremony.”

Some programs that are nourishing in other ways include:

Bamboo in the Wind in Sunnyvale CA is holding their Fall Japanese Ceremonial Tea
offerings on Sunday, November 19, 2023.  “This tea ceremony is performed by Tea Masters, one trained and certified in Japan and the other in the US. There are time slots available at 11:00am and 1:00pm.  We limit 6 guests per time slot.  So, for those interested, please register ASAP by emailing val@bamboointhewind.org   

Brooklyn Zen Center is offering a BIPOC Workshop: Sitting with Ancestors on Sunday, November 12, 1:30 – 4pm EST. “Join us for an afternoon workshop on practices centered around ancestry led by two long-term students at BZC (Adriane Rozier and Ryan Lee Wong). “Ancestry” includes Buddhist ancestors, blood ancestors, and chosen ancestors. This workshop is open to all BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) participants. More information and registration here.”

Looking ahead to December, several sanghas are planning Rohatsu sesshins in person. Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago’s sesshin will be hybrid.

Taigen Leighton writes: “For the first time since 2019, we will hold a five-day Rohatsu Sesshin to celebrate Shakyamuni Buddha’s Great Awakening, Wednesday December 6th to Sunday the 10th. All are welcome to attend any one up to five days, in person or online. Hogetsu Laurie Belzer and I will co-lead the sesshin, focusing on the traditional Soto Zen teaching of meditation on the treasury of radiance. If you plan to attend, please register at https://www.ancientdragon.org/event/five-day-rohatsu-sesshin/ .

Thank you for all you do to support your communities in this challenging time.

This is a liminal time of year.  There is a heightened awareness of those who have died in our Zen communities in the past year, as well as those dying in mass shootings and in armed conflicts around the world, most recently in Palestine and Israel.

Many sanghas are hosting Sejiki ceremonies this week. Austin Zen Center describes the ceremony in their newsletter: “All are welcome at Sejiki, a traditional, annual Japanese Zen Buddhist ceremony honoring our ancestors. This is one of the most important Sōtō Zen Buddhist observances of the year, a time to remember and call forth the spirit realm by making offerings of food to ancestors and any ‘hungry ghosts’ (including our own neglected or unsatisfied body-mind states).” Both Austin Zen Center and Chapel Hill Zen Center invite those who come to bring shelf-stable food items for their local food banks.

Houston Zen Center calls their Sejiki ceremony “Bringing Peace to the Departed.” They include beloved animals in the list of names read during the ceremony

Those of you living in the San Francisco Bay Area may be interested in joining Berkeley Zen Center’s second year of racial justice training called Many Communities One Sangha. The training features five sessions with Rhonda Magee and begins on November 5. For more information, see the attached flyer or email Karen Sundheim, ksundheim@gmail.com.

Buddhist Global Relief’s online Dharma gathering “Creating a World That Works for Everyone”  will be held on October 28 from 1 to 3 p.m. EST. Hosted by BGR founder and chair Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, the event will include Dharma reflections, guided meditation, and chanting, along with presentations from our partners about a few of BGR’s inspiring projects to relieve world hunger.

I am in the midst of reading a novel that I highly recommend,  Make the Dark Night Shine by Alan Lessik, a San Francisco Zen Center student now living in Berlin. Although the novel was inspired by a relative of Alan’s named Nina Uchida, it draws from Alan’s Zen training and research into gay culture and history in the decades between the two World Wars. Alan gave a reading at City Center last week and will be reading at Santa Cruz Zen Center on November 1.

An invitation from Tassajara:  Volunteer as a cook, kitchen crew member, or tenzo (head of kitchen) at Tassajarato support the 2023 Firefighter Retreat!  Contact zmcdirector@sfzc.org if you are able to volunteer from December 28th – January 6th. 

May all hungry ghosts be nourished in the coming days.

I returned home from visits to four Zen Centers in Germany and Switzerland two days ago. This morning my zazen was full of images of people and places I visited and a feeling of great gratitude for our shared practice. I will write more about my trip in a future Newsette.

During my time in Europe (October 1 – 17) the conflict in Israel/Palestine erupted. I am following several news sources and am, as you may be as well, very concerned as more and more lives are severed in Gaza and Israel. Several Branching Streams teachers have shared their thoughts, concerns, resources, and actions.

Hozan Alan Senauke, Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center, wrote, “At Berkeley Zen Center we are planning to have an open council later this week, and we are also looking for good channels to direct aid to those who are experiencing loss. I would love to know what is happening in your sangha around Israel and Gaza. Here is a statement I wrote after consulting with BZC’s priests and senior students. If this is useful to any of you, please use all or parts of it for your own communities. Note that there are valuable resources in the link to Nonviolence International.”

Taigen Leighton, guiding teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, IL, writes: “Please consider signing this petition to Congress for a ceasefire. After you sign, there is a link to messages to your own House and Senate representatives.  Please share this with others.”

 From the organization Demand Progress: 13 House Democrats have now introduced legislation to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Now is the time to take action. Sign the petition: Demand an immediate ceasefire!

There are two groundbreaking articles by Branching Streams sangha members I highly recommend. Anlor Davin, founder and priest of Autsit in the San Francisco Bay Area, wrote an article, “The Joy of Low Stimulation,” in a recent Lion’s Roar feature “On the Spectrum, On the Path.”

River Shannon’s article, “My Foxy Body, Engaging with Trans Identity through the teachings of the Buddha,” was published in Tricycle on October 3^rd. River is a member of Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver B.C.  

River, whose dharma name is Myōsen (Shining River), and Yuki David Burke, who practices with Calgary Soto Zen and Mountain Rain Zen, were ordained as priests by Mountain Rain’s guiding teachers Myoshin Kate McCandless and Shinmon Michael Newton on October 15.

On October 14, Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center in Mountain View celebrated the priest ordination of Anna Breckenridge, by her teacher Les Kaye. Her dharma name is Kigen Tokushin (radiant field, sincere heart).

The Tassajara Winter Practice Period (1/10 – 4/4, 2024) will be led by Paul Haller, teaching on The Practice of Awakening. First month option: This Tassajara practice period will offer an opportunity for practitioners to attend the first month only, 1/10 – 2/7/2024 [dates TBC], to include sangha members who would appreciate the opportunity to participate in the forms of a traditional ango but aren’t able to take three months away from their lives or work.For the first month there will be an emphasis on training in the Zen monastic forms and to illustrate the role they play in the practice of awakening. The prerequisite for participating in the first month of the practice period will be to have sat at least one traditional seven-day sesshin. The deadline for applications is December 9, however applying as soon as possible helps Tassajara with the logistics of planning for the practice period; priority of acceptance will be given to those who apply early. Use this link for more information about the practice period.

I’d like to end this Newsette with a quote from an Eko written by Jaune Evans, senior teacher at Everyday Zen and founding teacher of Heart of Compassion in Pt. Reyes CA, for a ceremony she led at Everyday Zen on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, October 9.

“…in these times of worldwide pain and grief, climate catastrophe, insatiable greed, hunger, injustice and war,

May we offer our gratitude for how Indigenous traditional knowledge and sacred teachings

Are so critically important for the survival and resilience of our whole Mother Earth

How Their Original Instructions are so alive today —

So infused with generosity and respect, teaching how to live in peace and generosity,

Courageously saving All Beings, sustaining joy and laughter, in spite of history,

destruction and violence, broken treaties and heavy odds.”

I am writing just before leaving on a journey to visit two Branching Streams Zen Centers in Germany – Akazienzendo in Berlin and the Zen Buddhist Center Black Forest – and two centers in Switzerland, Felsentor and Zendo am Fluss in Lucerne. I will be leaving for the airport in less than two hours, so this Newsette will be briefer than most.

The week before this, about sixty teachers, board members and sangha members met in Santa Cruz for the 2023 Branching Streams Gathering. We experimented with a new format, Open Space, in which breakout groups were generated by participants.  Jon Voss, who led us in this process, commented, “It helped us to better understand some of the themes that are alive for the people and the sanghas who were there. We hope our time together opened a door to continue to explore these themes across the Branching Streams.” We will post more information and some photos on the Branching Streams website in the near future.

Montana de Silencia in Medellin, Colombia, will have their first priest ordination in late March 2024. Jiryu Rutschmann-Byler, the guiding teacher for the sangha, will be the officiant, along with his student Sanriki Juan Felipe Jaramillo, who will receive dharma transmission at Green Gulch Farm this fall. They have gathered most of what will be given to the ordinands and are looking for two priest oryoki sets. If you know of anyone who has priest bowls, isn’t using them, and would like to pass them on, please let Jiryu know at ggfabbot@sfzc.org.

Rev. Doralee Grindler Katonah, a teacher at Valley Streams Sangha in Sacramento, wrote a piece about a Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Alabama in which she and seven other Zen students participated. Her writing is an introduction to a slide show by fellow participant Bob Andrews. I will post her article and a link to the slideshow when I return.

Please forgive any errors or omissions in this Newsette, which was written hastily, wanting to connect with all of you in between the Gathering and my journey.