Author: Tova Green

Some upcoming study and practice opportunities:

Black Mountain Zen Centre in Belfast launched a 5-week class today (7 p.m. on Mondays in Belfast, 11 a.m. PDT) on the Bodhisattva Vows and the Brahma Viharas taught by their guiding teacher, Ryushin Paul Haller. The classes will be recorded and it’s not too late to sign up. The class description begins with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King: “The formidable challenges in our lives offer the opportunity of education and transformation”. Paul writes, “The first two Bodhisattva vows offer us insights into the education and transformation that Dr King mentions. The other two vows describe the engagement that enacts that teaching. In a practical way we can apply the four Brahma Viharas to our psychological being to enhance our innate caring and help cultivate the sentiments that guide us in caring for all beings. The website link above has more details.

Chapel Hill Zen Center will host an in-person five-day Genzo-e Sesshin (a teaching retreat) with talks twice a day by Shohaku Okumura Roshi offered through Zoom. The dates are September 9 to 14. Space is limited, so if you’re interested CHZC encourages you to sign up now. For more information, use this link. To register, use this one.

The Tassajara Fall Practice Period (September 26 to December 20) led by Green Gulch Farm Abiding Abbess Fu Schroeder, is accepting applications until August 1. “During this practice period we will view Zen practice through the lens of two classic Zen koans: “Does a Dog Have Buddha Nature?” and “Hyakujo and the Fox.” These teaching stories can help to illuminate the two truths about ourselves and the world—the ultimate truth and the relative truth. Understanding and practicing in the light of these truths, the Buddha said, will set us free. For more information click on this link. If you have any questions, you can direct them to Lauren Bouyea, tassdirector@sfzc.org.

And here’s a way to do something that may make a difference: The Berkeley based Election Retreat team is hosting another online Letter Writing Retreat Sunday July 24, 10 am to 1 pm, PST. Forty-two people attended their July 10 retreat and wrote over 800 letters. You can register at this link. “Once again we’ll focus our efforts on Nevada, where a Congressional seat, a Senate seat, and a Governorship are all in play. Once you’ve registered, we’ll email you everything you need to participate, including letters, schedules, chants, etc.”

I’m happy to let you know that Santa Cruz Zen Center has offered to host our next Branching Streams Conference. The dates are September 18 to 21, 2023. We are returning to the pre-Covid timing, meeting on alternate years to the Soto Zen Buddhist Association’s conference, which will be held this September. We have reserved a wonderful retreat center in Santa Cruz, Villa Maria del Mar, overlooking the ocean. Please save the dates!

It’s time to make your annual contribution to Branching Streams if your sangha has not already done so! You can send your contribution electronically or by writing a check to San Francisco Zen Center with the name of your sangha on the memo line and mailing it to 300 Page Street, San Francisco CA 94102, attention Tova Green. Please contact me if you are unable to make a contribution this year.

Sangha News and Events:

Hozan Alan Senauke, Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center (CA), writes, “On Friday night July 9, in the inner room of Shogakuji/Berkeley Zen Center, I was privileged to entrust the dharma to Nanzan Shunki Harald Schoeklmann and Juen Ryushin Friederike Boissevain. Juen and Nanzan are the priests and teachers at Wind und Wolken (Wind and Clouds) Sangha, a Berkeley Zen Center affiliate in Gettorf, northern Germany, and founders of Hospiz im Wohld, also in Gettorf. We are grateful for wonderful support and assistance from Nyokai Laurie Senauke, Shosan Vicki Austin, and the BZC sangha.”

Santa Cruz Zen Center and Monterey Bay Zen Center will have a 10-year memorial gathering for their Abbot Sobun Katherine Thanas. The gathering will take place outdoors at Santa Cruz Zen Center, 113 School Streat, Santa Cruz, on Sunday, July 24th, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and will include a short ceremony, sharing memories, and enjoying each other’s company with snacks and conversation. All are welcome to attend, and it will simultaneously be zoom- cast.

Santa Cruz Zen Center and Monterey Bay Zen Center will have a 10-year memorial gathering for their Abbot Sobun Katherine Thanas. The gathering will take place outdoors at Santa Cruz Zen Center, 113 School Streat, Santa Cruz, on Sunday, July 24th, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and will include a short ceremony, sharing memories, and enjoying each other’s company with snacks and conversation. All are welcome to attend, and it will simultaneously be zoom- cast.

On June 27,Taigen Leighton, guiding teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Center, shared comments by Konjin Gaelyn Godwin, Abbot of Houston Zen Center, concerning “the end of reproductive rights” along with his own response in an ADZG newsletter.

Richmond (VA) Zen Center’s Difference + Unity Study Group is currently focusing on Asian and Asian American experiences. “Zen Buddhism is a tradition that comes to us from Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese practitioners and the cultures they created to express and transmit the Dharma. Also, an alarming trend of rising anti-Asian violence in the US makes this an urgent inquiry.

They recommend three resources, the PBS five-episode documentary series released in 2020, Asian Americans, which covers the history of Asian and Pacific Islanders’ immigration to and roles in American history and culture; American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War, by Buddhist priest and scholar Duncan Ryukan Williams, and  this 50-minute podcast episode of On Being in which Krista Tippett interviews poet, novelist, and Zen Buddhist, Ocean Vuong.

Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham, WA is participating in the first annual Sacred Earth Fair on July 31st, 2022 at the Center for Spiritual Living. “The fair will include activities, special guests, and informational booths, all focused on how we can come together to honor and protect our precious planet. The fair is offered by the Multifaith Network for Climate Justice (of which RCZC is a member), and co-sponsored by Earth Ministry of Washington and Interfaith Power & Light. The emphasis of the fair is to encourage everyone to view ourselves as allies of the earth, and to view faith traditions as having an important contribution to make, at this important juncture of climate crisis.” Red Cedar’s Wilderness Dharma Program will host an information table and will offer short mindfulness nature walks through the beautiful mature forest surrounding the center.

I find it encouraging to see Zen teachers speaking and writing about some of the divisive issues in the U.S., as well as finding ways to study Zen’s cultural roots, and to encourage sanghas to work with others to care for our planet.

I am happy to welcome a new Branching Streams Sangha, Twining Vines Zen Centre, Katto-An Temple, in Canberra, Australia. This combined Soto Zen/Diamond Sangha temple is led by Neti Mushin Parakh. Neti was ordained as a priest by Kokyo Henkel in 2017 at Santa Cruz Zen Center and received dharma transmission from Kokyo in 2021 She was authorized to teach in the Diamond Sangha lineage by Daniel Terragno Roshi in 2009.

In case you missed this in last week’s Newsette, we have created a Branching Streams list-serve (using Google Groups) that is available to readers of these Newsettes. Jon Voss, who set up the list-serve, says, “You will more easily be able to share resources, request information from other sanghas, and work together on issues of mutual concern. If you would like to join this separate group email list, please sign up here. You do not need a Google account or gmail address to join, any email will work.” If you have any questions, please contact Jon Voss directly.

Ariane Lampe, a member of Akazienzendo in Berlin, wrote that she has successfully raised funds through  a Go-Fund-Me campaign to publish a German translation of Jarvis Master’s book Finding Freedom. Jarvis Masters is a Buddhist practitioner on Death Row in San Quentin, near San Francisco, CA. He recently gave a dharma talk from San Quentin with Lee Klinger Lesser. The recording is available at sfzc.org.

On the Soto Zen Buddhist Association Forum (SZBA’s list-serve) many Branching Streams teachers shared their responses to the Supreme Court’s ruling last week overturning Roe v. Wade.

Reirin Gumbel, guiding teacher of Milwaukee Zen Center, will be joining an interfaith group of clergy at a press conference on July 6 in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Milwaukee to show faith support for reproductive justice. 

In Washington State, the Faith Action Network, an interfaith statewide partnership “striving for a just, compassionate, and sustainable world through community building, education, and courageous public action,” issued a statement in response to the Roe decision.

Please share your thoughts, feelings and/or actions you, or members of your sangha, are considering or planning in the Branching Streams list-serve or send them to me for the next Newsette.

This seems like a perfect time to revisit the work of Joanna Macy, and I was happy to receive the news that Upaya Zen Center has rescheduled a micro-training with. Joanna Macy, who is healthy again after a bout with Covid. “She will help guide us in meeting a world on fire. Please join us on July 17th for A SPECIAL AND IMPORTANT INVITATION: Joanna Macy and Our World (Online 2022).” Stephanie Kaza, Wendy Johnson, and Roshi Joan Halifax will join Joanna in this micro-training.”

I appreciate Thich Nhat Hanh’s name for July 4^th – Interdependance Day. May we feel our intercon-nectedness with all beings.

Thanks to the work of Jon Voss, the Branching Streams webmaster, and San Francisco Zen Center’s IT department, as was mentioned a few weeks back, we have created a Branching Streams list-serve (using Google Groups) that will be available to readers of these Newsettes. You will more easily be able to share resources, request information from other sanghas, and work together on issues of mutual concern. If you would like to join this separate group email list, please sign up here. You do not need a Google account or gmail address to join, any email will work. If you have any questions, please contact Jon Voss directly. 

Here are some recent celebrations and mournings:

Austin Zen Center had a Guiding Teacher Installation Ceremony on June 18 for Choro Antonaccio. Choro had moved to Austin from Chapel Hill, NC, several years ago and was Austin Zen Center’s Tanto.

Sojun Mel Weitsman’s funeral was held at Green Gulch Farm on June 25^th. Sojun was both an Abbot of San Francisco Zen Center and the founding teacher and Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center. Many of Sojun Roshi’s deshi (dharma-transmitted students) lead Branching Streams sanghas.

Other news:

Richmond Zen Group (in Virginia) is launching a Women of Dharma Study & Discussion Group, focusing on  the history and teachings of women in the Buddhist tradition. The group is live, and for those who are interested in this topic and don’t live in Richmond, “a resource web page with recommending readings is in the works. A wonderful introduction can be found in this four-part series of talks on the Eihei Koso Hotusganmon and the meaning of ancestors in Zen by Jaune Evans and Chris Fortin, both of whom are teachers in the Everyday Zen sangha. Find the first talk here >>. You can also listen to a talk by Choro Antonaccio, guiding teacher of Austin Zen Center, on the same text here.

Konjin Gaelyn Godwin, Abbot of Houston Zen Center, asked me to share the following: “On June 25, 2-4 pm PDT, the Bay Area Buddhist Association is hosting an important and informative panel discussion with Rev. Dr. Tomon Marr, a Soto Zen Priest and palliative care physician, and Rev. Dr. Carmela Javellana, a Jodo Shinshu priest and psychiatrist. They will address the question: What can we do now for our future? The SDG Goal 3: Good Health and Well Being, from a Buddhist perspective.The event is free.” Here is the link to register.

I am looking forward to Pride weekend, as San Francisco Zen Center will again have a contingent in the parade. We will be joined by sangha members from Hartford Street Zen Center and Berkeley Zen Center. The theme of this year’s parade is Love Will Keep Us Together, an important message for these times!

Some good news:

Bernd Bender, co-founder and guiding teacher of Akazienzendo in Berlin, wrote that the sangha celebrated their 10th anniversary on Saturday, June 11 with a summer party.

Brooklyn Zen Center announced that Dojin Sarah Emerson and Korin Charlie Pokorny are moving this summer to Brooklyn and have offered to support sangha life at BZC’s Boundless Mind Temple.

Inryu Ponce-Barger, guiding teacher of All Beings Zen Sangha in Washington, DC, and Koryu Naomi Knoble shared their account of the April Branching Streams Conference, including a few photos you may not have seen.

If you’re interested in the teachings of Charlotte Joko Beck, Houston Zen Center is offering a live and online class, Ordinary Wonder, on Tuesdays from July 5 to August 2, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Central Time.Ordinary Wonder is the title of a collection of Joko Beck’s essays which focus on how Zen practice is centered in the experience of our daily life. The class will be led by Shindō Neely Atkinson, a long-time member of HZC, who was a long-distance student of Joko from 1994 until 2007.

The Soto Zen Buddhist Association is offering a free, four-part series of conversations on Understanding Buddhist Ethics. The series began on Sunday, June 12. The remaining sessions are June 26, July 10 and July 24 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. All will be recorded.

This week we celebrate both a full moon and the summer solstice. I’m enjoying the long days and waking up at dawn instead of in the dark.

May you be well.

June is Pride month, and Market Street in San Francisco is aglow with rainbow flags. Yesterday, Sunday June 5, I celebrated Pride by joining Santa Cruz Zen Center and Ocean Gate Zen Center at an “Out in Our Faith” interfaith service and marched with them in the Santa Cruz Pride Parade. Despite a steady drizzle bordering on a light rain, the streets were lined with people of all ages wearing rainbow shirts and scarves and waving rainbow flags as we walked by. It was joyful – in contrast to the sorrow of so many lives lost through gun violence in recent weeks.

The photo features Ocean Gate Zen Center’s “song-ha” performing at the Out in Our Faith service.

In response to recent events, Taigen Leighton wrote in Ancient Dragon Zen Gate’s June newsetter: “Our Soto Zen meditation and devotional practices and our strong teaching traditions of compassion and insight are more important than ever in our situation today. In last month’s message I spoke of supporting peace in the Ukraine. The courageous Ukrainian people still need and deserve peace. But now, after the horrifying mass murders of Black grandparents in Buffalo, and the mass murder of fourth grade children in Uvalde, Texas, we need to work for peace in the United States…This is not at all about “politics” but about basic human decency and ethics. We must speak out and oppose the purveyors of American mass murder.”

In recognition of the critical importance to the U.S. of the upcoming midterm elections, the Engaged Buddhist Election Retreat group (many are members of Berkeley Zen Center) is once again offering, in partnership with Vote Forward, a series of online letter writing retreats beginning Saturday, June 18 from 1 to 4 p.m. PDT. For more information, please go to the Election Retreat website.

Branching streams is about to launch a list-serve that will be available to readers of these Newsettes. You will more easily be able to share resources, request information from other sanghas, and work together on issues of mutual concern. I am working on the instructions for using the list-serve with Jon Voss, our Branching Streams webmaster, and we will share them with you soon.

Thank you to the sanghas who have sent their annual contributions, which are starting to trickle in. You can make an electronic payment on the Branching Streams website membership page. or send a check payable to San Francisco Zen Center, attention Tova Green, with your sangha’s name on the memo line, 300 Page Street, San Francisco, CA 94102.

Ian Case, Tanto of Brooklyn Zen Center, described his experience at the April Branching Streams Conference in Austin, TX in the BZC newsletter. Click on his comments to read more and to see some photos.

This summer many sanghas are offering sesshins, both indoors and outdoors, in person and online.

Houston Zen Center is offering a 5-day sesshin from Tuesday evening June 21 to Sunday June25, both in-person and via their cloud zendo. Deepen meditation practice and gather the mind during this 5-day intensive meditation practice led by Abbot Gaelyn Godwin and Shuso Sengetsu Tricia McFarlin.

Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham WA is having their annual sesshin on Sammish Island from June 20 to 26. All are welcome to join the sesshin dharma talks by Founding and Guiding teacher Zoketsu Norman Fischer and Guiding Teacher Nomon Tim Burkett by Zoom:
Samish Island Dharma Talks:

If you live in or near Chicago, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate is offering a three-day camping sesshin from July7 to 10 that will combine traditional Zen forms and Dharma teachings within the natural setting provided by Illinois Beach State Park.

As summer solstice approaches, may you find ways to enjoy the longer days, the shade of trees, the bright colors of flowers, and the sweetness of summer fruits.

Many of you probably received the same message I did today from Siobhan Cassidy, Program Director at San Francisco Zen Center:

“Tassajara began this summer season with much optimism and enthusiasm as we once again welcomed guests and students back to the valley. Sadly, we have had to make the very difficult decision this week to closeTassajara for the remainder of the summer. This means your sangha week is now cancelled, I am so sorry to have to deliver this news.

“There are many reasons why we’ve come to this decision, including several cases of Covid among the students, maintenance and supply chain problems, as well as severe staffing shortages and other complexities. Because of this, we are simply unable to provide our guests with the high level of care and attention that we want to offer while also taking care of our staff and students.

“This decision was not made lightly nor without much discussion. This is a very sad moment for all of us and we are deeply sorry for how this will affect your plans for the summer. In the middle of this constantly shifting, impermanent world, may you and all living beings everywhere be happy, peaceful, and free from suffering.”

I know that many of you were looking forward to being back at Tassajara with your sangha, had booked plane tickets, and made the necessary arrangements with family members and workplaces in order to go. This is especially disappointing, as Tassajara was closed for the last two summers due to the Covid pandemic. I share your grief, as I was planning to co-lead a LBGTQIA+ sangha week again this summer and a Zen and writing workshop.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to talk about how this is impacting you.

Many of you may also be grieving the shooting of ten African Americans in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York and the shooting of nineteen children and two teachers at an elementary school whose students and faculty are primarily Latinx in Uvalde, Texas.

Two Streams Zen in Western MA is mourning the Buffalo victims of racial violence with a 49-day remembrance. They will have an online community sitting and chanting for 7 consecutive Sundays, beginning May 29 through July 3 from 9 to 10 a.m. EDT. Here is the Zoom link.

At City Center we have had two memorial services this week for those who died in Buffalo and in Uvalde. Please let me know of ways in which you are responding to the cries of our world.

A friend sent me a poem by Kim Stafford today which I find encouraging and will share with you.

Advice from a Raindrop
by Kim Stafford

You think you’re too small
to make a difference? Tell me
about it. You think you’re
helpless, at the mercy of forces
beyond your control? Been there.

Think you’re doomed to disappear,
just one small voice among millions?
That’s no weakness, trust me. That’s
your wild card, your trick, your
implement. They won’t see you coming

until you’re there, in their faces, shining,
festive, expendable, eternal. Sure you’re
small, just one small part of a storm that
changes everything. That’s how you win,
my friend, again and again and again.

Kim Stafford, “Advice from a Raindrop” from Singer Come From Afar. Copyright © 2021 by Kim Stafford.

I rewrote my brief report on the Branching Streams Conference for SFZC’s Sangha News. It was published today with a few photos. It also includes a list of participating sanghas, the members of the Conference Program Committee and the local Austin Logistics Committee and staff who wonderfully supported the conference. We have already begun to discuss the timing and location of our next Conference! Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

I am making my first request of 2022 for your annual contribution to Branching Streams. Here’s the link to the Branching Streams website membership page. You can make an electronic payment on that page (the amount depends on the size of your sangha) or send a check payable to San Francisco Zen Center, with your sangha’s name on the memo line, 300 Page Street, San Francisco, CA 94102.

Some offerings and news that may be of interest to you:

Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago is offering an online seminar by Taigen Leighton, their guiding teacher, on Dogen’s Extensive Record, Eihei Koroku on Saturday, May 21 from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. CDT. Taigen will introduce the text and will discuss selected excerpts from it. For more information, contact info@ancientdragon.org.

On May 28 Austin Zen Center will have a ceremony for Unzan Doshin, Mako Voelkel, upon the occasion of her stepping down as Head Teacher. A reception will follow the ceremony, “an opportunity to express our profound gratitude and well wishes to Mako for her many years of guiding the AZC sangha and strongly supporting practice in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi.”Read  More & Register.

There will be an online Jizo Ceremony for Those Who Have Died on June 5 from 2 to 5 p.m. PDT led by Chris Fortin, Founding and guiding teacher of Dharma Heart Zen in Sonoma County CA and Jennifer Block, Interfaith Minister and Buddhist Chaplain. “Jizo fearlessly shepherds those who are crossing realms: from life into death, from birth into life, from a place of the known into the unknown.  In this ceremony, we will draw upon the power of Jizo as we turn fully towards the deep process of grieving and letting go of loved ones who have died.”

Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver will hold an in-person Mountains and Waters Sesshin July 22 -`29, led by their guiding teachers Michael Newton and Kate McCandless. “After two pandemic year of being unable to practice together in this way, we are happy to offer this retreat again in the beautiful setting of Sea to Sky Retreat Centre, on the shores of Daisy Lake.” Registration details online.

Inryu Ponce-Barger, guiding teacher of All Beings Zen Sangha in Washington, DC, was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal in a review of an exhibit called “Mind over Matter: Zen in Medieval Japan” at the Freer Gallery of Art. Inryu was invited to write commentaries from her perspective as a Zen priest, on some of the works of art displayed in the exhibit.

May you be supported by our shared practice and by the colors of leafing trees and blossoming buds.

I returned from the Branching Streams Conference over a week ago, and it has been difficult to write this Newsette, to convey the richness of the experience of being together with forty of you in person at a spacious retreat center near Austin, Texas. Several people who attended the Conference did write about it in their sangha newsletters and I will quote several of them.

I want to thank Austin Zen Center for hosting the conference, and for the generous and warm-hearted support of spiritual leaders Mako Voelkel and Choro Antonaccio, the AZC staff, residents, board members,  and wider sangha for attending to the myriad details and hosting a reception at Austin Zen Center after the Conference.

During the Conference, SFZC’s City Center Abiding Abbot announced that Mako will become the next City Center Abiding Abbot in spring of 2023. All three of SFZC’s Abbatial leaders will change at that time, as David will move to the position of Central Abbot, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler will become the Green Gulch Farm Abiding Abbot, and Ed Sattizahn and Fu Schroeder will step down after many years of service.

The basic facts: there were 40 participants from 20 Branching Streams sanghas from all corners of the U.S., Vancouver, and Berlin. The Conference theme, Healing Relationships, was intended to provide opportunities to connect with ourselves, one another, and our planet after two challenging years.

Quoting Eden Kevin Heffernan, leader of the Richmond VA Zen Group, “In addition to spending time with old and new friends from other Zen sanghas in our Suzuki Roshi lineage, the program included three powerful workshops: Healing Circles, introduced by Jaune Evans, The Work That Reconnects led by Stephanie Kaza, and From Deep Places, a writing with Naomi Shihab Nye. We learned a lot and were vivified by everyone who attended.”

Upon returning to Brattleboro, Vermont, Hakusho Ostlund wrote: “With the Brattleboro Zen Center the newest Sangha represented at the conference, I was eager to learn more about how other Zen centers have established themselves in their communities, how they handle administrative responsibilities and leadership structures, what their physical zendos are like, how they’ve navigated the pandemic, etc, etc. Though the program for the conference had been well crafted by the planning committee, it was always the relationships and strengthening of supportive networks that attracted me to attend. I have to confess that the joy I experienced of practicing with old Dharma friends and meeting new ones (especially after two years of limited physical contact with other practitioners) was such that I neglected to seek answers to many of the questions that I arrived with. What is the best place to buy a mokugyo (wooden drum) from? I’ll be connecting with the people I was with in the weeks and months ahead to try to find the answer to my questions.

“Other than the heart-to-heart connections, what was moving to me was to get to experience how many others are making efforts such as ours, establishing and caring for a community of Zen practitioners, training in forms and ceremonies, and extending the realm of practice and care beyond the realms of the temple. Though all Sanghas faced unique challenges during the pandemic (several lost their physical spaces of practice), my sense was of a vitality of practice as new and creative ways for practicing together have emerged.”

Reirin Gumbel, guiding teacher of Milwaukee Zen Center, wrote: “This year’s theme, Healing Relationships, seemed to be poignant for our time of enforced separation and estrangement on many levels. The Branching Streams  program committee and the Austin Zen Center local logistics committee had been spending many hours over the last two years to finally come together again in person and enjoy live workshops that were heartwarming,  enlightening and fun, and to experience the intimacy of sangha again every morning and evening during zazen and service.”

Inryu Ponce-Barger, guiding teacher of All Beings Zen Center in Washington, DC compiled a Gatha from words of participants, which she read during  the closing portion of the conference.

May we together with All Beings

Cultivate broad view

Reaffirm connection

Remember the beauty of the sound we make together

Look after our new friends and old friends

Keep the vitality we feel

and be encouraged for the benefit of All Beings in the Ten Directions.