Election day in the U.S. is a week from today, November 8. Taigen Leighton, guiding teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, IL, wrote in his sangha newsletter:

“PLEASE VOTE, whether in person, in early voting, or by mail. People from many states receive this message. In all those states many key issues related to our bodhisattva values of benefiting all beings and expressing awakening and kindness will be on the ballot. This election will have major impacts for all of us. We value our deep interconnectedness with the natural landscape, now under threat. This election’s results may seriously hamper any appropriate measures to address world-wide climate breakdown…Further, this election will decide the situation of women’s healthcare, and whether local or national politicians will determine doctors’ and women patients’ health decisions… Moreover, amid massive voter suppression and an atmosphere of hate speech and violence, this election will decide whether our right to vote and our nation’s democracy will might continue. This is not hyperbole. This is not a drill. Please vote and support others to vote.”

Many Branching Streams Zen Centers and sanghas are opening to in-person events, including one-day sittings and longer sesshins. Looking ahead to Rohatsu sesshin, here are offerings from sanghas in several regions of the U.S. (this is not a complete list).

Hartford Street Zen Center’s SZC’s Winter Light Retreat is scheduled to begin the evening of Wednesday, November 30 and end mid-day on Sunday, December 4. HSZC is located in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco. “Everyone is welcome to attend (all or in part) but please do let us know by emailing info@hszc.org. A more formal schedule will be posted as we near the start date.” This retreat will be in-person though it’s not residential.

Ashland Zen Center (OR) is offering Rohatsu Sesshin from December 5 to 11. Overnight accommodations are available. Guiding teachers Ramana and Stacey Waymire describe this retreat: “Sesshin means touching-uniting heart-mind.  Rohatsu (‘eighth day of the twelfth month’) is the day the Buddha, sitting upright under the Bodhi Tree, attained enlightenment together with all beings.  Rohatsu sesshin is the cornerstone of our year of practice…

Although we say that Rohatsu is a seven-day sesshin that begins on December 5, Rohatsu actually begins the moment we meet it and say yes. This is your invitation. Say yes and let Rohatsu begin.

Houston Zen Center is hosting an in-person residential Rohatsu Sesshin from December 7 to 12. “Deepen meditation practice and gather the mind during this 5-day intensive meditation practice being held at Auspicious Cloud Retreat Center and led by Abbot Gaelyn Godwin and Rev. Tim Schorre.
Rohatsu means “great cold” and sesshin means “gather the mind.” This is an annual meditation retreat in the cold time of the year, to gather the mind. Historically, it honors Shakyamuni Buddha’s Enlightenment.”

Austin Zen Center will end its Fall Practice Period with Rohatsu Sesshin from December 2 to 9. More information will be available on their website soon.

Brooklyn Zen Center offers an in-person non-residential Rohatsu retreat from December 7 to 11, co-led by Kosen Gregory Snyder, Shingetsu Laura O’Loughlin, Kidō Ian Case, Sarah Dōjin Emerson and Charlie Korin Pokorny, at their Boundless Mind Temple in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

An online sesshin is offered by Two Streams Zen Sanctuary, located in Western MA and Portugal,  “a dedicated practice space for People of Color where the Teachings of the Buddha are made accessible to all who come through our doors seeking Sanity, Community, Healing, and an End to Suffering.” Guiding teachers Ryumon and Anraku write in their newsletter: “Our Virtual Autumn Practice Period continues. We will intensify and deepen our practice with Rohatsu Sesshin starting on Wednesday, 30 November through Wednesday, 7 December. There is a place for you at the table.” To join, please send an email to: twostreamszen@gmail.com.

I will close with these words from Ryumon and Anraku:

May these days be blessed times
of contemplation and practice, together with all beings.

Sejiki is approaching, the time to welcome and feed the hungry ghosts everywhere, including within us. Here’s a photo of Austin Zen Center’s outdoor altar last year, taken by Choro Antonaccio:

This Newsette features several programs highlighting social, racial, and climate justice offered by Branching Streams sanghas and teachers in different locations in the U. S. and Canada.

Valley Stream Zen Sangha in Sacramento CA is hosting Racial and Social Justice as Dharma Practice: A Multi Sangha Program open to all facilitated by Hoka Chris Fortin and Paravrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah, monthly on Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. PDT.  The next meeting is September 29, 2022.

The Racial and Social Justice as Dharma Practice Group is committed to study, intimate investigation and conversation, and embodied bodhisattva practice to actualize personal and collective freedom for all beings. If you are interested in joining this group please emailchrisfortin@comcast.net or grindkaton@icloud.com. The zoom link is sent out each month.

The Engaged Buddhist Practice committee at Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver B.C. will show the new documentary by Stand.earth, Fracking the Peace on October 27 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. PDT, both in-person at 2016 Wall Street, Vancouver and on Zoom. The Zoom link will be posted to the Events page on the Mountain Rain ZC website. Watch the film trailer.

Abbot Gaelyn Godwin of Houston Zen Center will participate in a nation-wide program sponsored by Buddhist Global Relief On October 29, at their Buddhist Action to Feed Hungry online Dharma gathering, “Creating a More Compassionate World.” “We’ll be featuring speakers from our partner organizations who will share extraordinary stories about the wonderful projects made possible by your generosity—in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Haiti, India, and Uganda. We’ll also be sharing reflections on ways to create a more compassionate world from outstanding Dharma teachers—Joseph Goldstein, Bhante Buddharakkhita, Roshi Gaelyn Godwin, Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Rev. Kiyonobu Kuwahara, and Bhante Saranapala.”

Here is a message from Hozan Alan Senauke, Abbot of Berkeley CA Zen Center: “This was just published at BuddhistDoor Global. Please sign the petition and share this piece widely:”

Please send me news of residential retreats or one-day sittings for next week’s Newsette.

In this Newsette I’ll share some highlights from my road trip to four Zen centers in the Suzuki Roshi lineage in Arcata CA, Ashland OR, Bellingham WA, and Vancouver BC. I also visited Shasta Abbey in Mt. Shasta CA and Great Vow Monastery in Clatskanie OR, spent time with dharma friends in Eugene and Portland, OR, hiked in an old-growth redwood forest, and explored the Oregon Coast on my way back to San Francisco. I traveled over 2,300 in my trusty Honda Fit and was warmly welcomed in every place I visited.

My first stop was Arcata Zen Group, whose founding teacher, Maylie Scott, had been one of my mentors when we were both on the board of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in the 1990’s. The current guiding teacher, Gene Bush, divides his time between Arcata and Santa Cruz Zen Center. Gene was beginning an eleven-day visit to Arcata Zen Group when I arrived. Most events at AZG are both in-person and online. As is true in many Branching Streams sanghas, some sangha members live at a distance, or have health or family issues that make it difficult for them to participate in person. Several people came in person for zazen, Gene’s dharma talk, and an afternoon of temple work, while others joined the first two events online.

Since the zendo has reopened to in-person participation some new practitioners are joining the seasoned sangha members. As is true with many other Zen centers, some members are finding it difficult to make their way back to the zendo in person.

[In addition to the Zendo, there is a building on their property that houses a library, dokusan room, kitchen, and storage space, as well as two apartments that are currently rented to local college students. The grounds include a memorial garden which Marcia Lieberman helped to create when she visited AZG a few years ago, and many apple trees. Apple-picking was one of the work afternoon activities.]

I drove over mountain roads to the town of Mt. Shasta. The snow-capped mountain seemed to float in the sky over the town, and over Shasta Abbey, one of the earliest Soto Zen centers in the U.S., founded by Rev. Jiyu Kennet, an English woman who had studied in Japan in 1970. The current Abbesss, Rev. Master Meian Elbert, gave me a tour, and we sat outside, within view of the magical Mt. Shasta, for tea and a home-made chocolate chip cookie. She fondly remembered Zenkei Blanche Hartman, who had once visited.

As I was approaching Ashland Zen Center, a sign on the sidewalk advertised “A Little Zen Farm Stand.” Inside was an offering of produce, potted plants, lavender sachets, cards, and other items for sale on the honor system.  Guiding teachers Stacey and Ramana Waymire gave me a tour of the many gardens and buildings. They live on site with their teen-age son and another sangha member, Barbara. Their founding teachers, Harold Little and Patty Krahl, had built the zendo and a small abode where they lived, and which is available now for visitors to rent. Ashland ZC also has two apartments and a bunk room for visiting students and sesshin participants. They welcome Zen students to come and practice at AZC.

The vegetable and flower gardens were extensive, and we enjoyed figs, raspberries, and vegetables that night for dinner. Harold and Patty, long-time Zen practitioners who had met at Tassajara and later practiced at Kannon Do in Mountain View CA, joined us and I shared the history of the Zen Center. One question they asked Branching Streams to explore is the issue of retirement for senior Branching Streams teachers.

After visits with dharma friends in Eugene and Portland and a rest day in Portland, I drove to Bellingham WA, a long stretch on Rt. 5 with many big-rig trucks. I made it a practice to stop and get out of my car at least every two hours, stretch, have a snack.

In Bellingham I visited Red Cedar Zen Community, founded by Norman Fischer and his student Nomon Tim Burnett in 1991. Tim is now the guiding teacher. Red Cedar gave up their rented meeting place during the pandemic and raised funds to buy a new space. Since they began reopening, they have been renting a large space in a Unitarian Church. They store zafus and zabutons in the church and set it up as a Zendo every Thursday. Zazen and Nomon’s dharma talk were also accessed on Zoom.

I returned to Bellingham on my way back from Vancouver to have lunch with Tim, Tanto Chris Burkhart, and sangha member Hannah Sullivan. Hannah took me to see the new property, an office building they are in the process of converting to a Zen center, with an office space upstairs they will rent out. A committee is working on the design of the new space.

I arrived in Vancouver the morning of the Canadian National Holiday, Truth and Reconciliation Day, formerly Indigenous People’s Day. This year the day was also called Orange Shirt Day, to remember the indigenous children who had died in boarding schools. I met Kate McCandless who is co-guiding teacher with her husband Michael Newton, at the site of Mountain Rain Zen Community, a storefront space they rent from an indigenous women’s non-profit. Kate was wearing a vivid orange t-shirt with an indigenous design and the words “Every Child Matters.” We headed for a park to meet sangha members. As we approached the park it seemed that people wearing orange t-shirts were streaming toward the park from all directions. We met up with at least ten sangha members and their friends, as we stood and listened to speakers, drummers, and saw dancers on a raised stage.

Kate and Michael live about an hour’s drive east of the city of Vancouver, in a house with a zendo in the basement, and a large garden in back. The next day, Kate and I led a daylong Zen and poetry workshop attended by eleven sangha members. The day included meditation, listening to poems participants brought with them, writing outdoors, some writing prompts, and listening to one another’s poems in a closing circle. Michael was Tenzo for the day and provided lunch.

Sunday was a practice day at the Vancouver location, with zazen, service, and a dharma talk by Kate on the theme of their Fall Practice Period, the Vimalakirti Sutra. At lunch I met with members of the Engaged Buddhism committee, and then sat in on a Council (board)meeting that was in-person with a few Council members participating by Zoom. Many in leadership roles, including the Ino, Council Chair, and Treasurer are young (from my perspective) and have been practicing at Mountain Rain for several years.

After a rest day in which I visited the Anthropology Museum at the University of British Columbia and had a cello lesson from my teacher, who moved from San Francisco to Vancouver with her family last summer.

On my way back to San Francisco I spent about 24 hours at Great Vow Monastery, enjoying the teaching of Chozen and Hogen Bays, the kindness of sangha members, morning service in which there was some melodic chanting and a harmonium, oryoki breakfast (my first since the pandemic began) and a walk in their Jizo garden, where moss clings to some of the trees and hugs the heads of some Jizos.

I drove home along the Oregon Coast, stopping to follow a trail to a 500 year old Sitka Spruce and walk on a sandy beach with the nearby lighthouse hidden in dense fog.

I returned from my journey to Vancouver yesterday, having driven over 2,500 miles. In addition to practicing with Branching Streams sanghas in Arcata CA, Ashland OR, Bellingham WA, and Vancouver BC, I visited Shasta Abbey, Great Vow Monastery, and dharma friends in Eureka CA and Eugene and Portland OR. I walked in redwood forests and on sandy beaches. 

Meanwhile, last week City Center launched our Fall Practice Period, led by Abbots Ed Sattizahn and David Zimmerman. On returning to work today, I learned of celebrations at Suzuki Roshi’s home temple in Japan, and the loss of Black Mountain Zen Centre’s space in Belfast, Northern Ireland due to a fire. I also received October newsletters from many sanghas and saw that two articles related to Branching Streams I’d written for SFZC’s Sangha News had been posted in my absence.

In order to keep this Newsette to a reasonable length, as well as to take some time to reflect on what I learned on my journey, this week’s Newsette will focus on the Rinsoin ceremonies, the Belfast fire, and will include links to my two Sangha News blogs. I’ll report on my journey in next week’s Newsette.

Rinsoin Ceremonies

Here is a message from Taiga Ito at the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center office in San Francisco: “This year is 550th Anniversary of Rinsoin in Yaezu, Japan, along with the 50th anniversary of Suzuki Roshi’s passing away. They will have celebration events and ceremonies on October 22 and 23. 

Regarding this wonderful occasion, our office is planning to send flowers and a celebration telegram on behalf of sanghas or teachers who wish to celebrate. The cost for the flowers and telegram are $100 each, and you could send either both flowers and a telegram, or only one of them.

※Please return your reply to this mail by October 15^th; (please do not be late). 

Instructions:

Flowers= we will put your name or your Sangha’s name with the flowers, so please send the name you would like to send with the flowers.

Telegram= send your message of up to 25 words and your name. We will translate and send it.

Please made your payment to Soto Zen Buddhism International Center and send the check to our office, 1691 Laguna Street, San Francisco, CA 9411, tel. 415-567-7686.”

On October 3 a fire broke out in the building that housed Black Mountain Zen Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland. All of the Zen Centre’s cushions, instruments, art work, and other belongings were destroyed. Djinn Gallagher, the abiding priest, started a Go-Fund-Me campaign to raise funds to recreate the Zendo in a new space. For photos and some words from Djinn, see their FaceBook page.

Ryan Wong, the Director of Brooklyn Zen Center, just published his first novel, Which Side Are You On. I interviewed Ryan for SFZC’s Sangha News. Here’s a link to the interview. I highly recommend the novel. 

Here’s the link to my interview with Alan Senauke about his becoming the second Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center and his reflections on his engaged Buddhist path.

As we turn toward the Autumn Equinox later this week, I am preparing to venture out on a road trip to Vancouver. This is a trip I envisioned in 2020, before the Covid pandemic. I will be visiting Branching Streams sanghas, starting with Arcata Zen Group in Northern California, and ending with Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver. I look forward to doing a morning of practice with Ashland Zen Center and to seeing the new home of Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham, WA. I will also be visiting Shasta Abbey and Great Vow Monastery, places I’ve heard so much about and never seen.

When I began serving as the Branching Streams liaison in early 2019, my predecessor Steve Weintraub encouraged me to visit Branching Streams groups, and this has been one of the most rewarding parts of my role. I visited many of the Bay Area groups that first year, as well as Zen Centers in Seattle, Milwaukee, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, New York, and Rome and Belfast in Europe . At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 I was visiting the three Branching Streams Zen Centers in Texas.

Now that many Zen groups who lost their practice places during the pandemic are finding new homes, and sanghas that were meeting entirely on Zoom are reopening to in-person practice, it is possible to visit again.

I will take to the road on Friday, September 23^rd, in my Honda Fit. I am preparing for the many hours of driving by taking the AARP Driver Safety online class and pouring over maps to check distances between destinations and decide where to stop for rest breaks.

I look forward to connecting with the teachers, sangha members, and dharma friends I will meet on my journey. I’ll pack my watercolors and journal and hope to find a number of ways to report back. I’ll return on October 9thand will send my next Newsette soon after.

Although it’s still early September, the Autumn Equinox will soon be here. With the full moon this coming weekend, we can enjoy the beauty of moonlight and the cooler night air, as many parts of California, the U.S., and the world are experiencing temperatures above 100 degrees.

In the midst of concerns about one another and our planet, I invite you to take a moment to view the images on the website Collecting Fog, by Jaune Evans, founding teacher of Heart of Compassion Sangha in Pt. Reyes, CA. Collecting Fog is also the title of an exhibit of Jaune’s work at Commonweal Gallery in Bolinas, CA from September 12 to November 4. There will be an opening reception on September 18 from 3 to 5 p.m. PDT.

Djinn Gallagher writes from Black Mountain Zen Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, “our much-loved teacher Paul Haller will be visiting Belfast from Thursday, September 8 to Sunday, September 18, and there will be many joyful opportunities to experience his wisdom, good humour and insight. We are offering two workshops, plus a zazenkai, the Sunday morning programme, and lots of online and in-person events. He will also lead an in-person sesshin in Slovenia after his time in Belfast.” Here is the link for dates and times.

Many teachers and sanghas are engaging with social justice issues as well as environmental concerns. I’m including a few of their offerings in this Newsette.

Members of Branching Streams Zen Center, from Brattleboro, VT to Bellingham, WA, are joining with other socially engaged Buddhists to support voter turnout in this fall’s elections. If this is of interest to you, the Buddhist Election Retreat Organizing Committee is organizing four online letter writing retreats this fall. 

Kannon Do Zen Meditation Center is holding a two-day in person interactive and experiential workshop on Right Use of Power (RUP) facilitated by Tenku Ruff on September 10 and 11 from 11 a.m. to 4:30p.m. PDT each day, outdoors at Kannon Do. RUP, developed by Cedar Barstow, is also known as “ethics of the heart.”

Reirin Gumbel, guiding teacher of Milwaukee Zen Center, writes: “Many Zen centers are aware of the state of the death penalty in this country and have protested against it. Right now, executions are on the rise again, and there is a lot we can do about it. Please follow this link and watch the one-minute video!”

Reirin will be giving the dharma talk at Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, IL . as part of the Sunday morning program on October 2 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. CST.

I am sharing again these workshops offered by Valley Streams Zen Sangha in Sacramento, CA. They are co-sponsoring two events with the BIPOC Sangha Sacramento featuring Rhonda Magee, author of The Inner Work of Racial Justice. The first program, Meditation for People of Color, is September 11 at 4:15 p.m. PDT (online only) and is for BIPOC. The second event on September 12 at 7 p.m. PDT is for everyone and is both in person and online (Rhonda Magee will be online).Her topic is “Reflections on Engaged Mindfulness and Social Justice Work.” For more information, see the attached flyer.

Lee Klinger Lesser brings her training in Sensory Awareness and Zen practice together with her concerns about our planet in a nine-month journey of engagement and responsiveness beginning in September: “Relying on Sensory Awareness, Mindfulness and Meditation Practice to Nurture and Sustain Our Ongoing Response to the Climate Crisis.” See the attached flyer for more information.

There are some wonderful practice opportunities coming up, including opportunities for residential practice in Ashland OR and in forested land north of New York City.

Ashland (OR) Zen Center is pleased to announce openings for student residencies or guest retreats. “Ashland Zen Center is an intimate Soto Zen Buddhist community. “Our sangha is a community of householders from throughout the region including laypeople and priests, led by transmitted Soto Zen Buddhist teachers, two of whom are in residence. The residential sangha is three to ten people. Ashland Zen Center has private and shared housing on an acre of cultivated grounds and gardens at the edge of the small, mountain town of Ashland, Oregon.” For more information about staying at Ashland Zen Center visit https://www.ashlandzencenter.org/guest-retreats-student-residencies/

Kosen Gregory Snyder will be leading the first month-long Brooklyn Zen Center intensive Practice Period at Ancestral Heart. Leadership will also include Shingetsu Laura O’Loughlin in the role of supporting dharma teacher and Kidō Ian Case in the role of tanto. Ancestral Heart Zen Temple will partner with their neighbors at The Watershed Center, located on a 73-acre farm adjacent to hundreds of state forest, two hours north of New York City, to offer this practice opportunity. Participants will follow an intensive monastic schedule, eat oryoki meals, sit multiple periods of zazen each day, and engage in communal work and ritual life. Here’s a link and description: https://brooklynzen.org/events/event/january-residential-practice-period/

In the near future, here are a few programs that may interest you:

Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham WA will hold a one day sitting, Opening to Joy, on Saturday August 27 from 7a.m. to 3 p.m. PDT, led by Shudo Chris Burkhart and visiting teacher Sensei Amy Diller. This will be both in person and by Zoom.

Valley Streams Zen Sangha in Sacramento CA is co-sponsoring two events with the BIPOC Sangha Sacramento featuring Rhonda Magee, author of The Inner Work of Racial Justice. The first program, Meditation for People of Color, is September 11 at 4:15 p.m. PDT (online only) and is for BIPOC. The second event on September 12 at 7 p.m. PDT is for everyone and is both in person and online (Rhonda Magee will be online).Her topic is “Reflections on Engaged Mindfulness and Social Justice work.” Rhonda inspires us to look deeply inside ourselves and to change how we think, act and live together in a conflicted world. For more information, see the attached flyer.

There are still some openings in the in-person Genzo-e retreat led by Shohaku Okumura Roshi at Chapel Hill Zen Center from September 9 to 14. Here’s the link for more information.

 Many Sanghas are finding ways to practice in natural settings during these summer months. I found it encouraging to read about the two sesshins described below, one that already took place and the other scheduled for September.

Myoshin Kate McCandless and Shinmon Michael Newton, guiding teachers of Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver B.C. wrote, “Recently twenty-two of us practiced at Sea to Sky Retreat Centre for our first full-week Mountains and Waters sesshin, and experienced the elements, the plant and animal inhabitants of that beautiful environment in a very direct way. Each morning and afternoon we had a period of outdoor practice, meditating while sitting, standing, walking, and lying down in the forest, present and awake to the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures around us, and our body/mind responses to them. The koans of mountains, waters, and the great earth from the old Chinese Zen masters, Dogen Zenji and contemporary poets resonated strongly and supported us to go beyond the habitual contracted view of self vs. everything-else.” 

Seattle Soto Zen is holding an in-person five-day Fall Sesshin September 16 to 21 co-led by SSZ’s Kanshin Allison Tait and Red Cedar Zen Community’s Shudo Chris Burkhart, at Camp Indianola on Puget Sound. Logistic details and registration are available on the SSZ calendar. Due to COVID protocols, space is limited to 20 total participants. The 2022 Indianola sesshin will be the first opportunity for many months for the Seattle Soto Zen sangha to join their heart-minds together under the same roof and practice intensively as a community.

On another note, here is an invitation from Jan Chozen Bays at Great Vow Monastery in Oregon to participate in a five-week online course called Healthy Boundaries. This course provides Buddhist leaders with the tools and knowledge to understand the importance of healthy boundaries in spiritual communities and to critically discern the complexities of boundaries, power, and vulnerability in spiritual teacher-student relationships. The course also addresses practices for responding to misconduct by spiritual teachers as well as the importance of self-care and peer support as preventive measures. The course is being offered three times in 2022 and 2023: October 17-November 18, 2022, and January 9-February 10 and March 6 – April 7, 2023. You can register through www.buddhist healthy boundaries.org.