Valley Streams Zen Sangha

CLOSED FOR MEMORIAL DAY
2017-05-29 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States

One-day Sitting with Rev. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
2017-06-03 09:00 - 17:00
Visiting teacher, Rev. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, of Still Breathing Zen Meditation Center in Oakland, will lead our meditation and offer dharma talks during this special one-day sitting. Rev. Zenju was ordained by Zenkei Blanche Hartman Roshi and received dharma transmission in January 2016. As an author and ordained Soto Zen Buddhist priest, she combines Zen meditation, intuitive knowing, and indigenous wisdom in a path of liberation.
Her teaching theme for the day will be Shinzo: Ever Intimate. The term Shinzo refers to the practice of not rejecting either delusion or enlightenment; being “ever intimate” with the experience that comes our way. Register here.

Way-Seeking Mind Talk by Stephen Streed
2017-06-05 19:00 - 21:00

Retreat Night
2017-06-12 19:00 - 21:00
Retreat night consists of three 25-minute sitting periods with walking meditation in between – a time to sit quietly with no interruptions.

Half-day Sitting
2017-07-01 08:30 - 12:30
Please join us for our bi-monthly half-day sitting. At the conclusion of the sitting, we will enjoy a social lunch together, so please bring a bag lunch.

Haiku Poetry Night
2017-07-03 19:00 - 21:00
Sangha member, Linda Dekker, will lead us in an evening of reading and writing haiku poetry.

SDC Interdependence Day Ice Cream Social
2017-07-08 14:00 - 16:00
Join SDC for its Second Annual Interdependence Day party, Saturday, July 8, 2017, from 2 to 4 p.m. A celebration of our donors, volunteers, and the greater Sangha that makes our existence possible! Enjoy some ice cream and shaved ice, take part in our raffle, and listen to some far out music as we mark the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love!
Register

Buddha's Teachings on Social & Communal Harmony
2017-07-10 19:00 - 21:00
Several sangha practice leaders will present Buddha’s Teachings on Social & Communal Harmony after studying with Hozan Alan Senauke, of Berkeley Zen Center.

Dharma Talk by Rev. Kyosho Valorie Beer
2017-07-17 19:00 - 21:00
Rev. Kyosho Valorie Beer is an itinerant teacher for SF Zen Center’s Branching Streams sanghas. She received dharma transmission from Edward Brown in 2013. In addition to leading retreats, Valorie is a teacher for sewing Buddha’s Robe, sutra copying, practicing with aging, and writing as a spiritual practice.

Way-Seeking Mind Talk by Patti Mitchell
2017-07-31 19:00 - 21:00
The ‘way-seeking-mind talk’, gives a sangha member the opportunity to tell dharma friends the story of how we came to Zen practice. It usually emphasizes two aspects – the suffering and the fortuitous circumstances that brought us here.

What We Can Trust: a One-day Zen Sitting
2017-08-05 09:00 - 17:00
Zazen surfaces our “mind of clover,” a pliant mind, a flexibile mind, a mind like clouds and water. This mind that is not “our” mind, but rather one that comes to us as a gift of practice. Informed by that mind we are inspired to be kind, to be flexible with others, to bend like bamboo in the wind. This is a mind we can really trust and it’s not ours and it’s not not ours. Together we will spend a day entrusting ourselves to the mind of clover, the awakening spirit of buddha. The sitting will be lead by Rev. So On Jim Hare, Practice Leader of Valley Streams Zen Sangha. Please bring a bag lunch. If this is your first time practicing with us or your first one-day sitting, please call Jim at 916-456-7752 so you can learn more about the day. $20 Register at Eventbrite.com.

Way-Seeking Mind Talk by Raphael Calix
2017-08-14 19:00 - 21:00

A Glimpse of Buddhism in China
2017-08-19 19:00
In April 2017, Jim Hare traveled with a group of Western pilgrims to visit (and stay in) Buddhist monasteries in Zhejiang Province, south of Shanghai. Jim will present a thematic slide show and narrative, touching on devotional practices, the Bodhisattva Guanyin, T’ien T’ung Ssu (the monastery where Eihei Dogen met his teacher), and the T’ang era poet Han Shan.

Zazen, Tea & Treats
2017-08-28 19:00 - 21:00
After meditation & service, join us for tea and conversation. Taking care of the Sangha is a treasure to appreciate along with Buddha and Dharma.

CLOSED - NO SATURDAY SITTING
2017-09-02 09:00 - 13:00
Enjoy Labor Day weekend with family and friends.

CLOSED FOR LABOR DAY
2017-09-04 19:00 - 21:00
Please enjoy the holiday with family and friends! We will start up again on Monday, September 11.

Practice Circle: Appreciative Inquiry
2017-09-11 19:00 - 21:00
Led by sangha members who learned this method of sharing at the 2017 Branching Streams Network conference in Chicago.

Retreat Night
2017-09-25 19:00 - 21:00
Retreat night consists of three 25-minute sitting periods with walking meditation in between. All are welcome.

"Perfection of Wisdom Sutras" talk by Doralee Grindler Katonah
2017-10-02 19:00 - 21:00
The theme for our Fall Study Period is the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, or Prajñāpāramitā, mother of all Buddhas. Prajñāpāramitā refers to the perfected way of seeing the nature of reality, as well as to a particular body of sutras and to the personification of the concept in the Bodhisattva known as the “Great Mother”.
Doralee’s Handouts: Suggestions for Practicing with the Prajnaparamita Sutra
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary
translated by Edward Conze (complete text)

One-day Zen Sitting: Fostering the Mirror Awareness
2017-10-07 09:00 - 17:00
In our Soto Zen-style one-day sittings we engage with alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation, Dharma talks, and silent bag lunch (please bring your own). If this is your first one-day sitting, please speak with Practice Leader Jim Hare (916-456-7752) prior to signing up.
Sitting all day brings forth the great mirror awareness in us. It interrupts our common habit of comparing ourselves to others and fosters trust in ourselves, as we are. The receptive awareness of zazen is extolled and celebrated in Zen poetry and literature. As the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi says, “it acts as a guide for beings; its use removes all pains.”
Please join us for a day of sitting and singing the silent song of the precious mirror awareness. REGISTER

Practice Circle led by Doralee Grindler Katonah
2017-10-09 19:00 - 21:00
Practice Circle on the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, or Prajñāpāramitā. Tonight we will discuss how we have practiced with Doralee’s handouts during the past week.
Doralee’s Handouts: Suggestions for Practicing with the Prajnaparamita Sutra
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary
translated by Edward Conze (complete text)

Dharma Talk by So On Jim Hare
2017-10-16 19:00 - 21:00
On Maka Hanna Haramitsu, or The Perfection of Wisdom, the second book of the Shōbōgenzō by Eihei Dōgen.

Buddhist Women Ancestors
2017-10-19 09:00 - 10:30
You are invited to join a new study group that will meet on the third Thursday of every month from 9 am-10:30 am. The group is open to all sanghas and genders – to anyone who is interested in studying the Dharma through the lives and teachings of Buddhist women. Linda Dekker and Susan Farrar will facilitate.
Some resources we will use are:
The Hidden Lamp, edited by Florence Caplow & Susan Moon
Stars at Dawn; Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha’s Life, by Wendy Garling
Women of Wisdom, by Lama Tsultrim Allione
Being Bodies; Buddhist Women on the Paradox of Embodiment, edited by Lenore
Friedman & Susan Moon

Sangha Annual Meeting & Potluck Brunch
2017-10-22 10:00 - 13:00
This is a once-a-year opportunity to meet your sangha friends, new board members and get the news about Valley Streams Zen Sangha. All members, along with their family & friends are warmly invited to attend.
Please let us know by email or in person, what food offering, and how many people you will bring. Drinks and utensils will be provided.
Sunday, Oct. 22, 10 am – 1 pm at the Dharma Center

Dharma Talk by Rev. Myo Lahey
2017-10-23 19:00 - 21:00
We welcome our guiding teacher from Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco.

Meditation & Talk with Robert Rosenbaum at SBMG
2017-10-29 19:00 - 21:00
Robert “Meikyo Onzen” Rosenbaum started Zen practice around 1971 with Joshu Sasaki Roshi, after which he studied with Omori Roshi in Japan.

Around 1987 he began practice at Berkeley Zen Center with Sojun Mel Weitsman
Around 2005, he was shuso at BZC
Around 2009, he received formal lay entrustment to teach Soto Zen from Sojun Mel Weitsman and was a founding member of Lay Zen Teachers Association
2012-2014, he was residing teacher at Meadowmont Sangha in Arnold/Sonora
2009-present: Robert has given lectures and workshops on various topics at SF Zen Center, Tassajara, and Houston Zen Center
2014-present, invited teacher leading sesshins at Clifton Hill Sangha (Melbourne, Australia); Ordinary Mind Sangha in Tampere/Lammi, Finland
books:
Zen and the Heart of Psychotherapy (1999)
Walking the Way: 81 Zen Encounters with the Tao Te Ching (2014)
What’s Wrong with Mindfulness (and what isn’t): Zen Perspectives (2016; co-edited with Barry Magid)

Sejiki Ceremony
2017-10-30 19:00 - 21:00
Our Sejiki or food-offering, ceremony is an opportunity to call forth the spirits of those who have passed this way before, offering them solace and acknowledging our ongoing connection to them. Treats, tea and conversation after the ceremony. Please bring noise makers and a treat to share.
If you would like the name of a loved one who has died during the past year, recited in the ceremony, please send the full name of that person (and pronunciation) to info@valleystreamszen.org.

Half-day Sitting
2017-11-04 09:00 - 13:00
Our November 4th half-day sitting will be followed by a modified Oryoki (3-bowl) lunch at noon. This will help orient us to the meal practice that we will use for our mini-Rohatsu sesshin that’s coming up December 1-3. So, if you are planning to attend November 4th, you don’t need to bring a lunch; it will be provided. Everyone is welcome.
If this is your first sitting with Valley Streams Zen, please call Jim at 916-456-7752 before registering.

Sacramento Dharma Center's One-Year Anniversary Celebration
2017-11-05 13:30 - 16:00
Please join us as we take a look back at how far we’ve come in our first year. We’ll get an “Envisioning” update from Lynelle and Steve McNiel that will help us chart future uses of our building and grounds. Enjoy some treats, drinks, and socializing too.
SDC President Susan Orr’s words are as fitting now as they were a year ago:

“I am so moved by the way we have been co-creating this home for the Dharma. It feels to be a particularly auspicious moment – celebrating our harmonious intentions when our country is so fraught with conflict. May what we do truly benefit the end of suffering for all.”

One Mind: a cinematic meditation
2017-11-06 19:00 - 21:00
One Mind is an intimate portrait of life inside one of China’s most respected & austere monastic communities. Eschewing talking-head interviews and the authority of a narrative voice, audiences can expect an immersion into the textures and sounds of life in a traditional Zen (Chan) monastic community in Southern China.
(2016; Edward A. Burger; filmed in Jiangxi Province, China; 81 mins.; Mandarin with English subtitles)
