Reverend Mary Mocine is Abbess of Clear Water Zendo. She trained at San Francisco and Berkeley Zen Centers, and at Tassajara Zen Monastery. She was priest ordained by Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1994 and received dharma transmission from him in 2005.  She also studied with Jikai Myo-ōn Yvonne Rand,  former Abbess Zenkei Blanche Hartman and former Abbots Zoketsu Norman Fischer and Tenshin Reb Anderson of the San Francisco Zen Center.

Rev. Mocine graduated from Hastings College of the Law in 1971. In 1988 she became interested in Zen Buddhism and took three months off in 1989 to spend time in intensive residential practice at Green Gulch Farms never returning to the practice of law.

In 1998 Rev. Mocine formed a meditation group in Vallejo California. The group grew and Clear Water Zendo was formally opened in January of 2000. The name of the zendo, Clear Water, comes from a poem by Zen Master Dogen, “The Point of Zazen.”

Realization, neither general nor particular,
is effort without desire.
Clear water all the way to the bottom;
a fish swims like a fish.
Vast sky transparent throughout;
a bird flies like a bird.

The Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, practice circle or retreat night. There are no membership requirements to participate. Donations to support the room rental, visits by teachers, and other sangha activities. Valley Streams Zen Sangha is dedicated to the study of Buddha’s teaching and the practice of meditation. Newcomers and experienced Zen students alike are invited to join us.

Click for zoom link to this program.