Category: Newsette

My last Newsette was sent before the Thanksgiving weekend. This was followed by Rohatsu Sesshin here at City Center – and by many sanghas in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and elsewere. Now we are moving toward the winter solstice and end of the year holidays and ceremonies.

There are both mournings and celebrations to share in this Newsette

Our beloved Alan Senauke, Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center, recently began receiving Hospice care at home. For updates about Alan or to leave a message for him and his family, here is the link to his CaringBridge page.

Bamboo in the Wind’s founding and guiding teacher, Val Meiren Szymanski had a Stepping Down Ceremony on December 7. She founded Bamboo in the Wind in Sunnyvale, CA on 9-11-2001. The new contact person for Bamboo in the Wind is board member Rev. Allison Draper.

Twining Vines Zen Centre in Canberra, Australia, celebrated the priest ordination of Jack Wicks on December 2 at the Silver Wattle Quaker Centre at Lake George near Canberra. Guiding teacher Neti Mushin Parekh ordained Jack, whose dharma name is Zenko Chigetsu/ Zen Illumination, Wisdom Moon. Jack writes, “It was on the second day of our Rohatsu Sesshin, attended by our small sangha and numerous kangaroos and other flora and fauna.”

On December 8, 2024, Renee Rausin and Jane Merschen, members of Great Spirit Sangha in San Francisco, received Jukai from Guiding Teacher, Cynthia RyoTan Kear.

To the left is Renee, Kei Shi So Jin, Fierce Protector Nest of Compassion and to the rightis Jane, Myo Shin Shi Do, Luminous Heart/Mind Messenger of the Way.

Zen Heart Sangha in Woodside CA is happy to announce that Alisa Mallari Tu, Shin Do Fu Rei (Heart Path Wind Spirit), received lay precepts from her teacher Jill Kaplan on November 2.

The Soto Zen Buddhist Association is offering its last event in the monthly series Celebrating the Voices of Women in Buddhism, a Full Moon Bodhisattva Ceremony (Ryaku Fusatsu) on Sunday, December 15 2024, from 3:30 to 5PM EST, led by Konjin Gaelyn Godwin, Abbot of Houston Zen Center. To learn more about the event and the series, click here.

I wish you joy and ease in the coming days, and will send another Newsette before the year-end holidays.

In my last Newsette, sent soon after Election Day in the U. S., I shared encouraging words from several guiding teachers and heard from some of you that this was helpful. As always, I welcome your comments about these Newsettes.

At City Center, last week David Zimmerman and I co-hosted two listening circles, one in person and one online. Both were well attended by people who were turning toward sangha to share a range of feelings and responses to the election. Several Branching Streams sanghas provided similar opportunities for members to gather.

In this Newsette we greet a new affiliate and share one sangha’s recent joyful Jukai ceremony. We also note a few Rohatsu sesshins and a three-week residential practice opportunity. You may be interested in the environmental actions two sanghas are engaging in. And SFZC’s City Center is looking for kitchen support as we reopen in January.

Welcome to a new Branching Streams affiliate, Zendo of Boulay in Charente-Maritime, France, near the cities of Saintes, Cognac and Pons. Zendo of Boulay was founded in 1996 by Guiding Teacher Jean Yves Seijo LeClerc. Jean Yves received dharma transmission from Keido Les Kaye in 1996, while practicing at Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center in Mountain View, CA.

Cynthia RyoTan Kear, Guiding Teacher of Great Spirit Sangha in San Francisco, gave Shukke Tokudo (priest ordination) to Betsy Groh on Sunday, Nov 10th. Betsy’s dharma name is Sei Ka Ken Jo, Sacred Fire Manifesting Love and Mercy. Betsy is a long-time meditator and has been a member of GSS for many years. She leads Meditation in Recovery’s monthly Marin meeting. 

Practice opportunities

Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center and Zen Heart Sangha in Mountain View CA will jointly host a two-day Rohatsu sesshin on Friday and Saturday, December 6th and 7th at Kannon Do. “The sesshin will be led by Misha Shungen Merrill, who is a Dharma heir of Les Kaye’s and is Guiding Teacher for the Zen Heart Sangha. The Rohatsu Sesshin will be held from 8 am – 5 pm each day and will include a modified oryoki lunch. This sesshin is appropriate for first timers and experienced practitioners. There is a $10-50 suggested donation/day which includes the cost of lunch, tea and treats. To attend, please sign up using this form.”

Chapel Hill Zen Center (NC) is offering a December Sesshin from December 6 – 13 led by founding teacher Josho Pat Phelan Roshi. “Sesshin is an intimate way to practice with ourselves and others. We begin sesshin together, sit zazen together, walk together, eat together, and work together. Our practice is supported by the entire universe and each of us is supporting everyone else.” The sesshin day will include zazen beginning at 6 AM, kinhin, a Dharma talk, work period, and oryoki meals. Dokusan with Josho Roshi will also be available.” Here is the link to the registration form; register beforeNovember 27.

Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver BC will hold Rohatsu Sesshin from November 30 to December 7, in person and online. “Please join the Mountain Rain sangha for this seven-day residential retreat, led by co-guiding teachers Myoshin Kate McCandless and Shinmon Michael Newton, in the beautiful natural surroundings of Brew Creek Centre near Whistler.” More information is HERE

Brooklyn Zen Center is offering its first ever Residential Practice Intensive from January 4 to 26, 2025, as they begin their 20^th anniversary year. “This a rare opportunity to study with our root teacher Soshin Teah Strozer, who will lead this three-week intensive with the support of BZC Dharma teacherKosen Gregory Snyder at Ancestral Heart Temple and neighboring Watershed Retreat Center” in Millerton, NY. More info and a registration form is here.

Actions to protect the environment from sanghas in the U.S. and Canada:

Santa Cruz Zen Center’s Earthcare Practice Group offers Quick Actions for the Planet each month. This month they include:: Tell Bank of America to Stop Financing Deforestation. They note that “industries destroying the rainforests — primarily for soy, beef, palm oil and wood products — are financially supported by banks.” To send a message, Sign Here.

The Engaged Buddhist Practice Group atMountain Rain Zen Community (Vancouver, BC, Canada)is hosting (w)righting on November 25 in person and online. “On this day, send a letter or email to defend Vancouver’s Climate Plan. Let’s support each other in practicing right speech, voicing our concerns regarding current social/environmental/climate issues. Let’s find ways to express wisdom and compassion in response to the issues that concern us most deeply.” See website for more example letters..

San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center, which has been closed for renovations during 2024, will reopen in January, 2025. City Center is looking for an experienced cook to come for six months. For more details, please email the City Center Director, Choku Proudfoot at choku.proudfoot@sfzc.org.

May we find support and joy in our sanghas and with friends and family as we navigate this challenging time.

Several Branching Streams teachers sent messages to their sanghas on the day of the November 5 election, and the day after – messages to remind us of the support of sangha and our kinship with all beings.

Eden Kevin Heffernan, guiding teacher of Richmond (VA) Zen, sent on Election Day:

“Whatever may happen today and the following weeks, and well, really, the rest of your life on this vast wild Earth — home, I will remind you now of an outrageous and impossible array of beings, like anteaters, fruit bats, snow leopards, kangaroos, orangutans, amberwing dragonflies, honeybees, garden spiders, magnolias, Venus flytraps, jasmine, Beluga whales, bioluminescent squid, and yes, bioluminescent fungi that play a role in the Wood Wide Web, the network supporting, among other beings, coast redwoods, the forest giants that grow to over 250 ft in height and live two millennia — know that you are as large and deep and ancient as a coast redwood, with your deeply rooted ancestry exponentially branching behind you, your IRL internetwork of kinships and communities, gut microbiomes, living stone infrastructure of bone and bioelectrical mesh of flesh that lights up with sights, sounds, smells, textures, tastes, memories and dreams of this and worlds past, present, and future.”

“When we forget or ignore this kinship, we suffer and cause others to suffer isolation and alienation. When we turn toward and embrace our wholeness, the whole of our wild life, we lighten up and relieve others of their painful delusion of separation. And we can, perhaps, do this with nothing more than a smile. Kinship calls us to kindness.”

This morning, soon after I learned the results of the presidential election, a member of Brooklyn Zen Center shared this message from their co-guiding teacher Sarah Emerson:

“Beloved Sangha,

Here’s what I want to say as a Dharma teacher and as a human being to you this morning:

Keep Healing

Keep uprooting the deep tendrils of domination culture and oppression in ourselves and in society, keep challenging powers that seek to dominate and dehumanize, keep looking closely at what our truest values really are, and keep in the forefront of our awareness and actions how we are all inextricably connected.

Notice what’s happening in your hearts, and bring the full force of all the love you have received and all the love you have to offer and hone it in on any division you find, and illuminate it with the light of the Dharma.

This absolutely does not mean we shouldn’t be angry (I’m really angry), or despairing, or numb or fearful. These and many other feelings are all legitimate responses to violence. And the question we can ask ourselves is how we can feel into the support of one another, feel the ground of the Sangha, and illuminate our anger, fear, despair, numbness, and anything else with the light of how we’re ALL in this together. Let the Dharma be our collective compass to finding a different way forward than more division and more despair and more violence.

There is a lot coming, and a lot already here, that we will need to be ready and able to show up for.

Don’t give up Bodhisattvas!
Every ounce of love we drop into this mess matters.”

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel posted in her newsletter on Substack, “To Have and To Hold Each Other. Our shared suffering is less than one degree from each other. Our shared liberation must be the same. No matter who won this 2024 presidential election, twenty-four years into a new millennium, there is something that we all must do more than ever. We must keep faith in those around us. We must relish and cherish the relationships of family and friends no matter their human flaws. It doesn’t mean we have to suffer other’s suffering but the way to our liberation is to forge, with our heat, all that is broken in this country into a kind of freedom we never imagined we had the power to shape. I say this because it is only us that we have and only us who will need to stand at the doors to protect our free communities, free spaces, free loved ones, and more—not as protectors of people only but protectors of what has always been sacred and that is life itself. We must value all life even in the middle of all life not being valued.” To read her entire message, go to the link above.

On another note, San Antonio Zen Center writes, “It is with great gratitude that we officially install our new guiding teacher, Rev. Karen De Cotis, at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 16. We will also celebrate and offer reflections on the 20-year anniversary of the San Antonio Zen Center.”

Their message includes these words of Thich Nhat Hanh: “Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world.

Norman Fischer, founding teacher of Everyday Zen Foundation, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, will be reading twice this week, today (Wednesday) and Saturday, from his new book of poetry, Through a Window. The readings will take place in the New York area and will also be streamed on Zoom.

Wednesday’s reading, from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. PT, with Farnoosh Fathi and Ryan Lee Wong, will also include a conversation on Zen, poetics, and Eihei Dogen’s “grandmotherly” mind. On Saturday, Norman will share the podium with the New York Neo-Futurists, an ensemble whose high-energy work fuses elements of poetry, game, and performance art.” [It may be too late to register to view this event online.]

On Saturday, November 9 from 2 to 5:30 PT, Norman will participate in a reading, “Norman Fischer and the New York Neo-Futurists.” You can Join on Zoom.

Today, Norman sent this message to the Everyday Zen sangha:

“An invitation to pay close attention to your life your breath your daily tasks and relationships, not to be baited into confusion and despair. You are alive in a world that’s everywhere alive, pay attention to this. And to kindness. And watch the government and society in which you live just as carefully, listening for the rhythm underneath the jagged melody. Build counter-movements and strengthen counter-movements that already exist. Every day.” To see the rest of Norman’s message, click here. He ends with a poem:

Day after day.
Would that words knew how, what to feel 
To do 
Would that the heart on the sleeve 
Turn inside out with the terrible news clean fabric 
Soldier on, those parts of the body in whose darkness 
Sanity resides Kindness as natural as wind 
Blows through to some shaft of light 
In which the truth scrolls show scraps and clear hints 
Of what’s to come 
That’s never as imagined 
Humans have their many foibles fear elicits 
But the body marches forward ever 
Forward and round and round
This too passes 
And passing refreshes 
Every new moment’s a promise That being human matters 
On a green and greening earth… And the trees hold steady

May our teachers’ words inspire us to continue our practice, love and encourage one another, and stand up for what we most care about.

Kaishin Victory Matsui, the director of Ancestral Heart Monastery in Millerton NY, connected to Brooklyn Zen Center, sent this photo of the view from their garden.

Two Streams Zen in Western MA posted a quote from the late historian Howard Zinn that speaks to this time in our country and the world:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places – and there are so many – when people behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in another direction.

“The future is an infinite succession of presents and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

Reirin Gumbel, guiding teacher of Milwaukee Zen Center in the battleground state of Wisconsin, has been hosting an Election Retreat. She writes, “The Election Retreat is a vibrant group of Zen people, mostly from Berkeley, CA, but also from Chicago and locally…People meditate, eat, work, and go out together to canvas for the election. Almost every day, there is a dharma talk given by Taigen Dan Leighton, Zenshin Florence Caplow, Hozan Alan Senauke, Greg Fain or myself.” Reirin is also preparing to be a poll chaplain for the November 5election.

On September 22, Reirin gave the precepts to three students: Eli Lu, Fragrant Breeze,Field of Virtue; Fay Akindes, Clear Lake, Supreme Peace; and Meg Lucks, Brilliant Moon, Circle of the Way.

News from Tassajara Zen Mountain Center: The application for the 2025 Winter Practice Period, led by Eijun Linda Cutts, from January 7 to April 2, is online, with a deadline of Nov 20th.

 Summer 2025 Applications are also now open! Director Ashley Ng writes, “We are looking for volunteers to help with the summer guest season, especially volunteers with kitchen experience or trade skills. We will have visiting teachers in residence throughout the summer, and as usual, there will be weekly dharma talks, offered by visiting and resident teachers.” Please email zmcdirector@sfzc.org if you have any questions.

The Soto Zen Buddhist Associate is offering two more events in this year’s series Celebrating the Voices of Women in Buddhism. The first isThroughout the Body, Hands and Eyes: Compassion and Bodhisattva Activism on November 9, and the Finale event is on December 15, Full Moon Bodhisattva Ceremony (Ryaku Fusatsu). Both events are online via Zoom, with a sliding scale of $10 -$15 (no one turned away for lack of funds) and open to all.

May you have ease of well being in this uncertain time.

On Sunday, many SFZC residents attended the 90^th anniversary ceremony of Sokoji in Japantown. Konjin Gaelyn Godwin, the Director of Soto Zen Buddhism International Center, and Abbot of Houston Zen Center describes Sokoji as “the temple from which hundreds of North American temples emerged after Shunryu Suzuki arrived to serve as their Abbot in 1959. The celebration was deeply moving, beautiful, elegant.”

Welcome to a new Branching Streams affiliate, Facing the Mountain Zen Group in Reno, NV. Founding and guiding teacher, Shinzan Sekibu Alice Tulloch received dharma transmission from Baika Andrea Heaton in 2018. Facing the Mountain has have had a physical location in Reno since 2014, and offers both in person and online zazen and other practice events.

As Election Day in the U.S. now less than two weeks away, many sanghas are responding to the intensity and uncertainty of this time by offering ongoing or Election Day vigils or sittings

Guiding teacher Koshin Steven Tierney writes, “Oceans Compassion Sangha (San Francisco) and friends have been sitting together for Peace and Justice in response to the world in which we live online on Tuesdays at 7:00 a.m. and Thursdays at 5:00 p.m. PDT. The format is 25 minutes of Zazen followed by a poem or verse on peace read by somebody different each time. Here is the Zoom link.

On Election Day, Steven will join me to co-host Election Day Zazen at San Francisco Zen Center, in person in the Conference Center at 308 Page Street from 4 to 8:30 p.m.

Zen Center North Shore’s (MA) Guiding Teacher Joan Amaral, writes: “we’re holding an Election Day sesshin on ZenZoom as a way to encourage grounding and connection at a particularly anxious time for many. You can log on at any time from 6am-11pm – the whole time the polls are open East-West. We’ll be sitting half-hour periods of zazen and walking five minutes in between. There will be breaks at 7:30am, 12:30pm and 5:30pm for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with chanting before each meal. But otherwise, just sitting. Sitting with it all, with ourselves and with each other.”

So’on Jim Hare, the guiding teacher of Valley Streams Zen Sangha in Sacramento, CA wrote an article, “Funding the Future,” describing the way his sangha is investing funds in a Community Foundation to provide support for future teachers after Jim retires. He offered to make it available to other Branching Streams sanghas. It’s posted on the website.

Here’s a correction to my last newsette: Dharma Heart Sangha (not Heart of Compassion Sangha) in Cotati CA began their Fall Practice Period this week, focusing on Training in Compassion, the Practice of Lojong, studying Norman Fischer’s book.

Two more programs in the SZBA’s 2024 series, Celebrating the Voices of Women in Buddhism, are coming up – on Sunday October 27.Receiving the Marrow by Bowing; and in November,  Throughout the Body, Hands and Eyes: Compassion and Bodhisattva Activism. All events are online via Zoom, and open to all on a sliding scale donation.

Autumn is unmistakably here, even in San Francisco. The air is crisper, and pumpkins and skeletons are appearing on the steps of houses in our neighborhood. Many Zen Centers have embarked on Fall Practice Periods. All have themes which can support practice in the uncertain and stressful time in which we’re living. Here are a few of the offerings:

The Fall Practice Period at Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver BC focuses on “The Flower Garland (Avatamsaka) Sutra, which offers us a path inspired by the vision of Indra’s Net, a boundless net, with a jewel at each node, or intersection, which reflects every other jewel. …We will explore the richness of this text along with contemporary teachings that bring this vision into the twenty-first century.”

Dharma Heart Sangha, in Cotati CA began their Fall Practice Period this week, focusing on Training in Compassion, the Practice of Lojong, studying Norman Fischer’s book.

Brooklyn Zen Center’s Fall Practice Period began on 9/11. The sangha is exploring the relationship between Zen practice and ways of healing, referring to work by Dr. Paula Arai.

This week Austin Zen Center (TX) launched its Fall Practice Period, on the theme “We Could be Heroes and Enter the Mind of Buddha,” inspired by Tenshin Reb Anderson’s book on the paramitas, Entering the Mind of Buddha.

Preparations have begun at several Branching Streams sanghas for Sejiki and a ceremony to feed the hungry ghosts, sometimes combined with Halloween

Mountain Rain describes it: “In this ceremony we will make food offerings to the hungry ghost realm within ourselves and in the world. Costumes and masks are welcome, so that the hungry ghosts will not be too intimidated to join us. We will have a Food Bank basket at the zendo, for donations.”

Santa Cruz (CA) Zen Center’s description is: “The Sejiki ceremony has two purposes: First, we remember people close to us who have died. And second, we invite the Hungry Ghosts of ourselves to be fed, fully welcomed, and fully nourished.”

Other sangha news:

Catherine Gammon, guiding teacher of Neighborhood Zen in Pittsburgh PA, writes about a Jukai ceremony in September: “The preceptor was Korin Charlie Pokorny, who came from Brooklyn Zen Center to lead the jukai retreat and perform the ceremony — and was stricken with covid as soon as he got off the train!” Details and photos are here —https://neighborhoodzen.substack.com/p/jukai-photos. The “five newborn bodhisattvas” are Jodi Reeves –Kiko Yugen, Playful Tiger, Courageous Manifestation; Brent Nakamoto –Meikan Yugetsu, Bright Mirror, Courageous Moon; Britt Davis–Kigen Yuryu, Returning to the Source, Courageous Dragon; Varun Ravindran –Koji Yukan, Luminous Word, Courageous Investigation, and Westri Stalder –Dokai Yuzan, Servant of the Way, Courageous Mountain.

Houston Zen Center is offering a class on Preparing for Your Own Death on November 9 and 10, taught by Abbot Gaelyn Godwin and guest professionals. “An essential part of spiritual practice is to face the fact of our inevitable death and prepare for it. The classes include Buddhist meditations on death, writing advance directives, learning about the biological facts of death, and learning about palliative care and hospice.”

Long time member of Brooklyn Zen Center, Camille Shigetsu Goodison, has recently published an article in Tricycle entitled, “Letting in the Ancestors: Reckoning with her return to life outside the monastery, a Zen student finds solace in calling upon her ancestors.” It is a very moving and powerful self-reflection. You can read it here or download the PDF here. Camille presently serves as co-ino (head of the meditation hall) for BZC’s Boundless Mind Temple,where she’s been a member for over ten years.

With Richard Baker Roshi recently stepping down as Dharma Sangha (Black Forest, Germany and Crestone, CO) Abbot and Head Teacher, this time of transition marks a new beginning for him. To acknowledge and honor this turning point, several events are planned, including his teaching a six-day class on Attentionality.

From the Soto Zen Buddhist Association: We are pleased to announce three events coming this fall: October’s Hearing Younger Women’s Voices, Receiving the Marrow by Bowing; and November’s Throughout the Body, Hands and Eyes: Compassion and Bodhisattva Activism.

All events are online, fees are on a sliding scale (no one turned away for lack of funds), and are open to all. They focus on the voices of women in Buddhism, offering unique perspectives and an opportunity to continue the discussion on Celebrating the Voices of Women in Buddhism.

May you enjoy the colors and tastes of Autumn.

I am writing from Chicago, where I’m visiting Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, after a brief visit to Milwaukee Zen Center. The two centers will be co-hosting the 2025 Branching Streams Conference from September 15 to 18 at Loyola University Recreation and Ecology Center. I’ve been meeting with guiding teachers Kogetsu Laurie Belzer (in Chicago) and Reirin Gumbel (in Milwaukee) and members of their sanghas to begin forming the local committee that will work with me on logistics for the Gathering.

This trip followed quickly on the heels of a trip to the East Coast to attend the Soto Zen Buddhist Association meeting at Pendle Hill, near Philadelphia. While on the East Coast I visited Ancestral Heart Monastery in Millerton NY, connected with Brooklyn Zen Center, and Richmond VA Zen Center. These will be the last sangha visits I will make outside the Bay Area in 2024.

On these visits, I have been warmly welcomed and found it inspiring to practice with each sangha and to meet with teachers, board members, and sangha members. I gave dharma talks in Millerton and Ancient Dragon and spoke informally about the role of Branching Streams. At the SZBA Conference, Patrick …, the guiding teacher of Santa Cruz Zen Center, and Kate McCandless, co-guiding teacher of Mountain Rain Zen Community joined me to co-facilitate a discussion on how we can welcome more young people to our sanghas.

Several sanghas have recently held Jukai ceremonies. Congratulations to the new Bodhisattvas and their teachers!

In September, Karen de Kotis (third from the left) was the preceptor for a Jukai ceremony for five students at Bozeman Zen Group (MT). Their names (from left to right) are: Ryan Erickson – Yusho Kanjaku, Courageous life, Perfect Nirvana; Jack Pearson – Seigaku Seido, Sincere Study, Clear Path; Doug Beaudoin – Daiki Seisho, Great Veneration, True Vow, Marilia Librandi – Seishin Myogen, Pure Heart, Subtle Source, and Sean Tillotson – Jushin Keijo. Tender Heart, Joyous Samadhi.

Bozeman Zen Group also held its first sesshin, with Karen and visiting teacher Nomon Tim Burnett from Red Cedar Zen Community (Bellingham, WA) co- leading. On October 20^th, the Bozeman sangha will hold a formal stepping down ceremony for Karen prior to her departure to San Antonio Zen Center, where she will be the new guiding teacher.

On Sunday September 22, Taigen Leighton and Hogetsu Laurie Belzer led a jukai ceremony at Ancient Dragon Zen Gate for four dragons, Chris Cadman, Compassionate Melody, Sage Mountain; Jikyokū, Tettsuzan, Mike Evans, Bamboo Sound, True Dragon; Chikuon Shōryū, Simone Salis (Radiant Path, Gate of Determination: Kōdō Shimon, and Kerstin Schaars (Abiding in Light, Following the Stream; Jūkō Zuiryū.

At Richmond (VA) Zen on September 29 Josho Pat Phelen, Abbot of Chapel Hill Zen Center, was the preceptor for a Jukai ceremony for Blythe King, Poke Keishin and Indranil Bagchi, Kakushin Hokki.

From left to right: guiding teacher Eden Heffernan, guiding teacher at Richmond Zen, Blythe King, Indranil Bagchi, Josho Pat Phelan, and Zenki Batson, Vice Abbot of Chapel Hill Zen Center

Renshin Bunce, guiding teacher of Beginner’s Mind Zen in Eureka CA, priest ordained Marie Ferreboeuf (Sei Kyo Ji Shin, True Mirror Compassion Heart) on September 28^th..in Eureka CA. Renshin noted that “the ceremony was a true group effort.”

It’s not too late to register for Hearing Younger Women’s Voiceson October 17 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. PDT,the October offering in the Soto Zen Buddhist Association’s yearlong series, Celebrating the Voices of Women in Buddhism. The series continues through December.

May you and your sangha thrive, in the midst of a stressful time for our countries and the planet.

I returned a week ago from several days of ceremonies at the Zen Buddhist Center Black Forest (ZBZS) in Germany. About 250 current and former students, family members and friends from many countries, joined the ZBZS staff and volunteers to honor the leadership of Zentatsu Richard Baker as he stepped down from his position as Abbot, and to support Tatsudo Nicole Badden in her Mountain Seat ceremony, as she became the new Abbot.

A highlight of the ceremony for me was seeing Richard Baker give Nicole Baden the kotsu he had been given by Suzuki Roshi decades ago…warm hand to warm hand.

Several people from San Francisco Zen Center, past and present, attended, including David Zimmerman, Furyu Schroeder, Victoria Austin, Norman and Kathie Fischer, and David Chadwick. Our presence was greatly appreciated.

SAVE THE DATES: the 2025 Branching Streams Gathering will be co-sponsored by Chicago-based Ancient Dragon Zen Center and Milwaukee Zen Center from Monday, September 15 to Thursday, September 18, 2025. The venue will be Loyola University’s Retreat and Ecology Center in Woodstock, IL, about an hour from Chicago’s O’Hare airport. We will share more information as plans develop.

Jon Voss, the Branching Streams webmaster, and I recently refreshed the Resources section of the Branching Streams Website. We updated and added some information, and grouped resources by categories to make them easier to find.

Montaña de Silencio in Medallin, Colombia had their first Jukai ceremony in their new country location. Jiryu Rutschman-Byler gave the precepts to his student Brenda Zambrano, supported by founding teacher Sanriki Jaramillo. Brenda’s dharma name is Shogan Koichi, Voto Radiante, Imperturbable Unidad.

In my last Newsette I welcomed Saltspring Island Zen Circle as a new affiliate. Here is an amendment to what I wrote: The sangha’s founding teacher, Peter Levitt, gave Lay Entrustment to Simon Rompre and Judy Daylen in 2023.  Judy Daylen is currently serving as the sangha’s guiding teacher.

Santa Cruz Zen Center’s Earth Care Practice Group is meeting weeklyto do voter outreach. “As an expression of caring for the Earth and social justice, we are writing letters to increase voter participation throughVote Forward. This is a non-partisan effort supporting less-likely voters to vote more often. We have been having a wonderful time writing and chatting with each other and strengthening our connections. It has been beautiful to see the Sangha House serve as a community center; people have been inviting friends and our Buddha-field is expanding.”

The recently released film about Red Pine will be available to screen at home or with your sangha from September 20 to 29. Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver, BC shared this description in their newsletter: Dancing with the Dead Red Pine and the Art of Translation is a film about Port Townsend’s Bill Porter, who goes by the pen name Red Pine. The film follows Bill’s adventures as a child of a bank robber, raised in a gilded household, who turned his back on American devotion to materialism and went off to live in monasteries and mountains in Taiwan. He pursued a fascination with Buddhism and poetry and traveled to remote regions of China to rediscover an ancient tradition of mountain hermits vital to Chinese culture.” HERE is the link to view the film.

The October Soto Zen Buddhist Association offering in the Voices of Women in Buddhism series will be a panel, Hearing the Voices of Younger Women on October 19 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. EDT. The panel features Blythe King who practices at Richmond Zen, Heather Martin who practices at San Antonio Zen Center, and Zenki Kathleen Batson from Chapel Hill Zen Center. I will be the moderator.

I’ll be traveling from September 19 to 30, to attend the Soto Zen Buddhist Conference at Pendle Hill, near Philadelphia PA. I look forward to seeing some of you there. Before the Conference I will visit Brooklyn Zen Center’s Ancestral Heart Temple in Millerton, NY, and after SZBA I will head to Richmond Zen in VA for a few days.

I wish you good health and virya (joyful energy) as we turn towards the Autumn equinox.

I am preparing to travel to Germany, with SFZC’s Central Abbot David Zimmerman, to attend ceremonies at Zen Buddhist Center Black Forest (ZBZS) from September 5 to 8. Zentatsu Richard Baker will be stepping down as Abbot, and Tatsudo Nicole Baden will climb the Mountain Seat to become the new Abbot. Hoitsu Suzuki (Shunryu Suzuki’s son) will be participating in the ceremony.

Tatsudo Nicole Baden will also become the Abbot of sister temple Crestone Mountain Zen Center in Crestone, Colorado. ZBZS became a Branching Streams affiliate in 2023 and now the Crestone temple is also an affiliate. Both Baker Roshi and Abbot Nicole Baden will teach at the two centers, though Baker Roshi will primarily be in Crestone, while Nicole Baden will split her time between the two centers.

Welcome to another new affiliate, Salt Spring Zen Circle, on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada. The new guiding teacher, Judy Daylen, is a long-time member of the sangha who has practiced at Green Gulch Farm and with Tenshin Reb Anderson and Zoketsu Norman Fisher. She received Lay Entrustment from Salt Spring Zen Circle’s founding teacher Peter Levitt in 2023.

Beloved teachers Greg Fain and Linda Galijan have spent the last several months as visiting teachers at San Antonio Zen Center (TX), which was transitioning between teachers after founding teacher Colin Gipson stepped down in December 2023. The new SAZC guiding teacher, Karen deKotis, has moved to San Antonio from Bozeman, MT and will begin leading the sangha. There will be a Chosan ceremony and farewell lunch for Greg and Linda on August 24 just before they move on to Berkeley Zen Center for the Fall, supporting Alan and Laurie Senauke and the BZC sangha as visiting teachers.

In April I visited Montaña de Silencio in Medellin, Columbia, whose founding and guiding teacher is Sanriki Jaramillo. Sanriki was Shuso for the Fall 2023 practice period at Green Gulch Farm and received dharma transmission from Jiryu Rutschman-Byler in December 2023. During my two weeks with the Montaña de Silencio sangha I experienced the dedication to practice of Sanriki and the sangha. They have begun a crowd-funding campaign to finance their relocation to a rural area near Medellin. If you would like to contribute, here is the link to the crowdfunding site.

Brooklyn Zen Center is offering a six-session class, Writing to Study the Self, meeting Sundays, 3–5:00 PM EST, every two weeks: September 8, 22, October 6, 20, November 3, 17. More info and registration here. “How might the practice of writing allow us to look deeply at our personality, karma, history, and social conditioning—a sustained engagement in studying the self? Participants will be offered craft talks, prompts, and practices to look deeply at the self. Sessions will feature guest teachers Chenxing Han, Ruth Ozeki, Norman Fischer and Jenny Xie, along with BZC practice leaders in a non-dual exploration of dharma and writing. This course is open to all, whether new to writing, or those with a long-term writing practice.”

The Sati Center for Buddhist Studies is accepting applications for its yearlong Buddhist Chaplaincy Training programs that start in September. “There are two programs – an in-person one for folks who can make it to the monthly workshops in Redwood City, CA; and an online program for those living further afield. Both programs deliver the same level of training and are suitable for those wishing to engage in spiritual care on a voluntary basis, or as the first step in a professional trajectory. The program is also a wonderful way to engage dharma practice in the world, and to develop facilitation skills in other areas, as well as in one’s own sangha. It can also be a rich parallel track for priests in training.” To apply, use this link, or contact Vanessa at bct@sati.org for more information.

I have found some of the speeches at the Democratic National Convention this week uplifting, and am motivated to continue writing postcards to get out the vote in swing states.

Several months ago, I sent a Survey regarding Branching Streams Teacher Support to teachers and/or board members of about 75 sanghas. The Report is now ready (attached). We will also make it available on the Branching Streams website. Great appreciation to Jon Voss of Mid City Zen in New Orleans and Douglas Floyd of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate for the many hours they spent crafting the survey and summarizing the results. We hope you will find it useful and welcome your comments. Does the report raise any questions for you? Are there other resources you feel you need?

I began writing this Newsette last week, but was unable to finish it until today. Last Tuesday on August 6 at City Center we held a service to remember those who died in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 59 years ago. I remembered going to those cities in 2005 with the Jizos for Peace Pilgrimage led by Chozen and Hogen Bays from Great Vow Monastery in Oregon. We brought 270,00 images of Jizo in the form of prayer flags, origami, and clay Jizos, one for each person who died in the first year after the bombs were dropped. As wars are being waged and tension is high in our country and around the world, may we all find ways to work for peace.

During Dharma Heart Zen’s (Cotati, CA) Sangha Week at Tassajara, their guiding teacher, Chris Fortin, led a Jizo Bodhisattva Ceremony for Those Who have Died and for the Well Being of the Earth and her many Beings. Participants adorned the Jizo statue with hand-sewn garments and messages for our planet as well as loved ones who have died. (photo by Chris Fortin)

Dharma Heart Zen also held a Jukai Ceremony during their Sangha Week at Tassajara. Chris wrote, “Because it was too hot (104 degrees) to do it at the Suzuki Roshi Memorial, as they had planned, they were given permission to hold the ceremony on the central lawn.” Yael Raff Peskin received the dharma name KanJin DoI, Compassion Stream Awakened.

Photo by Richard Owens

Chris noted that a member of the sangha, Priest Joni Ejo Goldsmith, ordained by Toni Patchell, guiding teacher of Russian River Zendo, died peacefully on Friday July 26 .

Houston Zen Center will hold a traditional Buddhist Funeral Ceremony for Louise Dreyfus, a Lay Entrusted Dharma Teacher and co-founder of Houston Zen Center, on Saturday August 32 from 11 to 1 p.m. CDT.  This ceremony marks the culmination of the traditional ceremonies to protect and guide Louise after her passing on January 6, 2024.

Welcome to a new affiliate! Dharma Coast Sangha in Cocoa Beach FL (near Orlando), is led by founding and guiding teacher Danny Parker, who received dharma transmission from Edward Brown in 2023. In addition to his sangha.in Cocoa Beach, Danny leads sitting groups in Milan, Italy and Linz,Austria.

And an invitation from Val Szymanski, guiding teacher of Bamboo in the Wind, in Sunnyvale, CA to attend a Nonviolent Communication session on August 20 at 8:15 p.m. in person at 690 W. Fremont Avenue #4 in Sunnyvale. For online participation, email val@bamboointhewind.org.

I recently changed the quote below my email signature to Dogen’s words: “Kind speech can turn the destiny of a nation.”