Dharma Talk by Rev. Mary Mocine (Speaker in-person)
2023-08-07 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
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.

Dharma Talk with Rev. Kainei Edward Espé Brown (Speaker in-person)
2023-08-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Edward Espe Brown found his way to Zen practice in 1965 and dove in whole-heartedly. He was the first head cook, or tenzo, at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He was priest ordained by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in 1971 who gave him the dharma name Jusan Kainei (Longevity Mountain, Peaceful Sea).
Rev. Brown helped found Greens Restaurant in San Francisco and has written several cookbooks including The Complete Tassajara Cookbook, and Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings. He edited Not Always So, a collection of Suzuki Roshi’s lectures. In 2018 he published No Recipe: Cooking as a Spiritual Practice, a book about finding our own way in the kitchen – and in life. One of Rev. Brown’s students, Danny Parker, compiled 30 years of his dharma teachings in The Most Important Point, published in 2019.
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 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 for this program.

Retreat Night (Hybrid)
2023-08-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
On Retreat Night we offer an opportunity to settle into your meditation practice with three 25-minute periods of zazen (sitting meditation), interspersed with kinhin (walking meditation). Turning the light inward we explore the causes of suffering and what can end it. This invitation is extended to everyone.
Click here for zoom link to program.

Dharma Talk by Rev. Renshin Bunce (Speaker on Zoom)
2023-08-28 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
Rev. Renshin Bunce was lay ordained by Myogen Steve Stucky in 1996, and priest ordained by Zenkei Blanche Hartman at San Francisco Zen Center in 2003. She served as Shuso (head student) with Myogen at Tassajara in 2008 and received dharma transmission from him in April of 2013. After completing the Sati Center’s Buddhist chaplaincy training and residency in 2010, she worked as a hospice chaplain until retiring in 2022. She has been affiliated with Norman Fischer and Everyday Zen since 2012.
Rev. Bunce has two books, Entering the Monastery, a record of her time at Zen Center, which was published in 2008; and Love and Fear, reflections on chaplaincy, which was published in 2020. She is a photographer. See flickr to view her images. Rev. Bunce also assists Zen students in the sewing of Buddha’s robe.
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 welcome to join in the zendo or on zoom.
*Click here for Zoom link.
