Dharma Talk by Rev. So'on Jim Hare (Speaker in Person)
2023-11-06 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-03-11 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-05-06 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Rev. So’on Jim Hare serves as Tanto, or head of practice. He lived in the San Francisco Zen Center community from 1980 to 1984 and was lay ordained by Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1985. He served as Head Student at Green Gulch Farm during the spring 2002 practice period, and was priest ordained by Rev. Myo Lahey in 2016.
*Zoom link to program
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Dharma Talk by Rev. Myō Lahey (Speaker on Zoom)
2023-11-13 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-01-29 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-03-04 19:00 - 21:00
Rev. Myō Lahey is Abbot at Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco and Valley Streams’ guiding teacher. He previously served as the monastic Prior (Tantō) at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Rev. Lahey is a Dharma heir of Tenshin Reb Anderson.
Raised in an observant Roman Catholic home, Myō was drawn to religion and spirituality at an early age and found Zen Buddhism in his teens. Rev. Myō began sitting practice in 1969 while still in high school, and attended zazen-kai at Haiku Zendō in Los Altos, which had recently been established and which hosted Suzuki-roshi from time to time.
*Zoom link to program
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. We invite 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 in the zendo or online via Zoom.

Dharma Talk by Susan Moon (Speaker on Zoom)
2023-11-20 19:00 - 21:00
Susan Moon is a writer, editor, and lay teacher in the Soto Zen tradition. She is the author of a number of books about Buddhism, including the humor book The Life and Letters of Tofu Roshi and This Is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity. For many years she was the editor of Turning Wheel, the journal of socially engaged Buddhism. Her short stories and essays have been published widely.
Sue has been a Zen student since 1976, practicing in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi at Berkeley Zen Center, Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery, Green Gulch Farm, and now with Zoketsu Norman Fischer’s Everyday Zen sangha. She received “entrustment” as a lay teacher in 2005.
*Zoom link to program
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Practice Circle guided by Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Speaker in Person)
2023-12-04 19:00 - 21:00
DRINKING FROM THE WELL-SPRING OF LIFE
WHERE SUFFERING AND ENLIGHTENMENT MEET
Come participate in the Practice Circle and listen to and share ways in which your Practice Life offers self-care and well-being for living fully in this ‘world on fire’.
Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah serves as Ino, or head of the meditation hall. She studied in the Soto Zen lineage with Sojun Diane Martin, founder and guiding teacher of Udumbara Zen Center in Illinois and Rev. Val Szymanski, Head Priest of Bamboo in the Wind Zen Center in Sunnyvale, California. She was lay ordained in 2008 and priest ordained in 2019. She served as head student for the Spring practice period at Bamboo in the Wind Zen Sangha in May 2022. She offers Practice Interviews upon request.
Our 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. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us.
*Chant for all beings
*Zoom link to program

Dharma Talk by Ryuko Laura Burges (Speaker on Zoom)
2023-12-11 19:00 - 21:00
Ryuko Laura Burges, a lay entrusted dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, teaches classes, lectures, and leads retreats in Northern California. She received monastic training at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and is in long-term recovery. Laura co-founded the Sangha in Recovery Program at the San Francisco Zen Center and is the abiding teacher at Lenox House Meditation Group in Oakland. Shambhala Publications offers her Buddhist children’s books, Buddhist Stories for Kids and Zen for Kids. Her most recent book from Shambhala is The Zen Way of Recovery: An Illuminated Path Out of the Darkness of Addiction. Laura lives in San Francisco.
Laura Burges has recently published a new book, The Zen Way of Recovery, which reflects her long experience working with people in recovery. In her Dharma talk at Valley Streams she will offer a teaching based on this line from the Hokyo Zanmai, the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi: “When erroneous imaginations cease, the acquiescent mind realizes itself.” She writes: “When we loosen the grip of our self-created suffering, our flowing, flexible, Big Mind is able to shine forth. Perhaps our most pervasive erroneous imagination is, ‘I am alone, a stranded individual in my own tiny boat.’ Actually, we are deeply connected to all things and all beings.”
*Zoom link to program
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Winter Solstice Celebration (Hybrid)
2023-12-18 19:00 - 21:00
Celebrate the winter solstice with sangha friends.
After a 35-minute meditation and service, we will gather to entertain each other on this long winter night with instruments, song, favorite poetry new and old, stories and skits. Bring your creativity and share your hidden talents. Bring a treat to share after the entertainment.
We offer a Well-Being Ceremony on the third Monday of every month to remember friends, family, neighbors, pets and people of the world who are ill, facing a recent loss, or struggling with some difficulty in their lives. Please send the names of those you wish to be remembered to: Parāvrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Ino@valleystreamszen.org) by the Sunday evening prior.
Zoom link to program
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Relinquishment Ceremony led by Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Hybrid)
2024-01-08 19:00 - 21:00
We are entering a New Year – an auspicious time to ‘commune with the “source”‘ and deepen our Practice life. Our practice of relinquishment is our practice of liberation.
A RELINQUISHMENT CEREMONY invites us to receive a message from our Buddha Nature, after asking: ‘what life pattern or habit do I need to be released, something that I hold onto tightly, something no longer needed in my life, a need to detach from what constricts me, each for the sake of our enlightenment, for sustaining our growth as bodhisattvas‘.
This evening, after sitting together in silence, we will each consider this question and make a scroll that expresses our Relinquishment Vow. Paper, and drawing utensils will be provided.
There will be time to share and reflect upon our drawings. You may take your scroll home for your altar or find a ritual time to burn your scroll, a symbol of letting go.
REMEMBER – Letting go is a vast teaching. When we let go we lift our burdens; we open into this amazing interdependent field of being where possibilities for liberation are always arising.
People coming on zoom will bring their own paper and drawing utensils. For questions contact: Ino@valleystreamszen.org
Rev. Parāvrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah serves as Ino, or head of the meditation hall. She studied in the Soto Zen lineage with Sojun Diane Martin in Illinois and Rev. Val Szymanski in California. She was priest ordained in 2019 by Sojun Diane Martin.
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.
*Zoom link to program

Dharma Talk by Rev. Liên Shutt (Speaker on Zoom)
2024-01-15 19:00 - 21:00
Rev. Liên Shutt (she/they) is the author of Home Is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path and a priest lineage holder in the Shunryu Suzuki tradition. Born to a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she received her meditation training in the Insight and Soto Zen traditions in the United States, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. She was a founding member of the Buddhists of Color in 1998 and currently is the guiding teacher of Access to Zen, an inclusive, anti-oppression sangha and nonprofit in the San Francisco Bay Area. She lives on Oblone land, currently called San Francisco, with her partner, exploring waterways and forests as often as they can. Visit AccessToZen.org for ways to connect and practice together.
We offer a Well-Being Ceremony on the third Monday of every month to remember friends, family, neighbors, pets and people of the world who are ill, facing a recent loss, or struggling with some difficulty in their lives. Please send the names of those you wish to be remembered to: Parāvrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Ino@valleystreamszen.org) by the Sunday evening prior.
*Zoom link to program
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Full Moon Ceremony (Hybrid)
2024-01-22 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-03-25 19:00 - 21:00
The Full Moon Ceremony acknowledges the karma created by our intentional actions, and reminds us to renew our commitment to the ethical conduct expressed as the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts. These are guiding principles for our daily conduct in the world. This ceremony is rooted in a ritual from pre-Buddhist India. To prepare for the ceremony there are two 25 minutes meditation periods separated by 10 minutes of walking meditation. All are welcome to participate.
*Full Moon Ceremony Chants
*Zoom link to program

Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Dharma Talk by Rev. Taiga Ito (Speaker in Person)
2024-02-05 19:00 - 21:00
Our guest, Rev. Taiga Ito, trained at Daihonzan Sojiji, one of the head monasteries of Soto Shu (Soto Zen in Japan). In 2016, Taiga Ito became Kokusaifukyoshi (international teacher of Soto Shu). He served as secretary of the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center between 2016 and 2018, and has served as its Assistant Director since 2019.
*Zoom link to program
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. We invite 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 in the zendo or online via Zoom.

Interview with Tim Burkett by Berry Crawford (Speaker in Person)
2024-02-12 19:00 - 21:00
Since 2021, Valley Streams sangha member Berry Crawford has been recording interviews with Zen teachers and practitioners for his Simplicity Zen Podcast. This evening’s program will feature a recorded interview with Tim Burkett.
Tim Burkett is Zen priest, Zen teacher and retired licensed Ph.D. psychologist. Tim was the Guiding Teacher of Minnesota Zen Meditation Center from 2002-2019 and the retired CEO of one of Minnesota’s largest non-profit mental health agencies, People Incorporated. He was among Suzuki Roshi’s and Katagiri Roshi’s first students and received dharma transmission from Sekijun Karen Sunna in the Katagiri lineage in 2000. He is the author of “Enlightenment Is an Accident: Ancient Wisdom and Simple Practices to Make You Accident Prone” published by Shambhala in 2023.
*Zoom link to program
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. We invite 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 in the zendo or online via Zoom.

Dharma Talk by Berry Crawford (Speaker in Person)
2024-02-19 19:00 - 21:00
Since 2021, Valley Streams sangha member Berry Crawford has been recording interviews with Zen teachers and practitioners for his Simplicity Zen Podcast. This time Berry will talk about what he has learned in the process of creating the podcast.
We offer a Well-Being Ceremony on the third Monday of every month to remember friends, family, neighbors, pets and people of the world who are ill, facing a recent loss, or struggling with some difficulty in their lives. Please send the names of those you wish to be remembered to: Parāvrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Ino@valleystreamszen.org) by the Sunday evening prior.
*Zoom link to program
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Dharma Talk by Shōku Kathy Early (Speaker on Zoom)
2024-02-26 19:00 - 21:00
Guest teacher Shōku Kathy Early came to zen practice in 1994 through classes with Tenshin Reb Anderson at the Yoga Room in Berkeley while working as a semiconductor engineer in Silicon Valley. She then practiced for several years with Keido Les Kaye at Kannon Do Zen Center in Mountain View, after which she trained at San Francisco Zen Center for 16 years. She was priest ordained by Tenshin Anderson in 2005. Shōku also spent a year and a half in residence at Toshoji International Training Monastery, in Okayama, Japan, including four angos (90 day training periods).
*Zoom link to program
Our 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. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us in-person or on zoom.

Talk on "Climate change and the Dharma" by Oscar Balaguer and Diana Cassady (Speaker in Person)
2024-03-18 19:00 - 21:00
How do we think about something so big and inexorable as climate change? How should we live with that in the background of our lives? How do we face and practice with it? Oscar Balaguer and Diana Cassady will explore these big questions in their Dharma talk.
Senior student and longtime member of Valley Streams Sangha, Oscar Balaguer was lay ordained by Tenshin Reb Anderson. Diana Cassady practices with Sacramento Insight Meditation (SIM). She leads Third Act Sacramento (for climate activists over 60) and is currently head of SDC’s Climate Sangha.
We offer a Well-Being Ceremony on the third Monday of every month to remember friends, family, neighbors, pets and people of the world who are ill, facing a recent loss, or struggling with some difficulty in their lives. Please send the names of those you wish to be remembered to: Parāvrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Ino@valleystreamszen.org) by the Sunday evening prior.
*Zoom link to program
Our 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. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us in-person or on zoom.

Dharma Talk by Rev. Mary Mocine (Speaker in Person)
2024-04-01 19:00 - 21:00
Reverend Mary Mocine, former abbess of Clear Water Zendo, trained at San Francisco Zen Center, Berkeley Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain 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 do intensive residential practice at Green Gulch Farm, after which she never returned to practicing law.
In 1998 Rev. Mocine formed a meditation group in Vallejo California. The group grew and Clear Water Zendo was formally opened in January 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.

*Zoom link to program
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit, please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Dharma Talk by Rev. So’on Jim Hare (Speaker in Person)
2024-04-08 19:00 - 21:00

Dharma Talk by Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah and WaDen Eido Barbara Baccei (Speaker in Person)
2024-04-15 19:00 - 21:00
Embodying our Wild Feminine Spirits – a framing of our first women’s retreat and more.
Led by Paravrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (in Person) with commentary by WaDen Eido Barbara Baccei, Sensai (on Zoom).
Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah serves as Ino, or head of the meditation hall. She studied in the Soto Zen lineage with Sojun Diane Martin, founder and guiding teacher of Udumbara Zen Center in Illinois and Rev. Val Szymanski, Head Priest of Bamboo in the Wind Zen Center in Sunnyvale, California. She was lay ordained in 2008 and priest ordained in 2019. She served as head student for the Spring practice period at Bamboo in the Wind Zen Sangha in May 2022. She offers Practice Interviews upon request.
WaDen Eido Barbara Baccei, an ordained Soto Zen Teacher, received Lay Entrustment from Kyōshō Valorie Beer Roshi. She is also a Soto Zen sewing teacher lineage holder of Suzuki Roshi. An alignment-focused yoga teacher, she is a graduate of the Berkeley Yoga Room Teacher Training. A contemplative artist and book artist, she works on paper and fabric embellished with findings from the natural world.
We offer a Well-Being Ceremony on the third Monday of every month to remember friends, family, neighbors, pets and people of the world who are ill, facing a recent loss, or struggling with some difficulty in their lives. Please send the names of those you wish to be remembered to: Parāvrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Ino@valleystreamszen.org) by the Sunday evening prior.
*Zoom link to program
Our 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. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us.

Retreat Night (Hybrid)
2024-04-22 19:00 - 21:00
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.
If you are new to meditation or just exploring the idea, the Introduction to Meditation Class on the second Monday of the month is recommended before attempting an extended evening retreat.
*Zoom link to program
Our 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. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us.

Dharma Talk by Hoka Chris Fortin (Speaker on Zoom)
2024-04-29 19:00 - 21:00
This evening we welcome guest teacher, Chris Fortin, a Soto Zen teacher who began practicing Buddhism in 1976 while living at the San Francisco Zen Center. After many years of practice she received Dharma Transmission from Zoketsu Norman Fischer of Everyday Zen, in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.

Chris founded Dharma Heart Zen to share the path of wholehearted living and awakening with others. She leads the Dharma Heart Zen Sangha in Cotati and the Woman’s Lotus Sangha in Sebastopol. She is a senior teacher in the Everyday Zen community and leads workshops at SFZC. She is guiding teacher of Sky Island Zen in Tucson, Arizona and leads retreats in ancient Aravaipa Canyon. She was the co- founder of Veterans PATH (formerly Honoring the Path of the Warrior), offering retreats and meditation and mindfulness practices for returning veterans. She offers Jizo Bodhisattva trainings and ceremonies for those who have lost children, loved ones and those who are grieving the pain and suffering of the world. Chris is actively engaged in the dharma of social and racial justice and the climate crisis. She co-leads a monthly Racial Literacy and Dharma Group and serves on the Soto Zen Buddhist Association’s Diversity Equity, Inclusion, & Accessibility (DEIA) Committee.

*Zoom link to program
Our 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. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us.

Practice Talk by Shokan Clem Spring (Speaker in Person)
2024-05-13 19:00 - 21:00
Shokan Clem Spring is in his second rotation at Head Doan for Valley Streams Zen. He received Jukai (lay precepts) with Rev. Myō Lahey in 2010 and Shukke Tokudo (priest ordination) with Rev. Kyosho Valorie Beer in 2023. Preparatory to ordination, he completed two practice periods at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center and he has recently returned from his first post-ordination practice period, again at Green Gulch Farm.
*Zoom link to program
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Full Moon Ceremony (Hybrid)
2024-05-20 19:00 - 21:00
The Full Moon Ceremony acknowledges the karma created by our intentional actions, and reminds us to renew our commitment to the ethical conduct expressed as the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts. These are guiding principles for our daily conduct in the world. This ceremony is rooted in a ritual from pre-Buddhist India. To prepare for the ceremony there are two 25 minutes meditation periods separated by 10 minutes of walking meditation. All are welcome to participate.
*Full Moon Ceremony Chants
*Zoom link to program

We offer a Well-Being Ceremony on the third Monday of every month to remember friends, family, neighbors, pets and people of the world who are ill, facing a recent loss, or struggling with some difficulty in their lives. Please send the names of those you wish to be remembered to: Parāvrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Ino@valleystreamszen.org) by the Sunday evening prior.
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Dharma Discussion by Rev. So'on Jim Hare (Speaker in Person)
2024-06-03 19:00 - 21:00

Dharma Talk by Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Speaker in Person)
2024-06-10 19:00 - 21:00
“For it is like a massive fire – turning away and touching are both wrong.” – Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi.
Come explore our practice lives embracing the truth that ‘a fire runs through all things’.
Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah serves as Ino, or head of the meditation hall. She studied in the Soto Zen lineage with Sojun Diane Martin, founder and guiding teacher of Udumbara Zen Center in Illinois and Rev. Val Szymanski, Head Priest of Bamboo in the Wind Zen Center in Sunnyvale, California. She was lay ordained in 2008 and priest ordained in 2019. She served as head student for the Spring practice period at Bamboo in the Wind Zen Sangha in May 2022. She offers Practice Interviews upon request.
*Zoom link to program
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Dharma Talk by Rev. Mary Mocine (Speaker in Person)
2024-06-17 19:00 - 21:00
Reverend Mary Mocine, former abbess of Clear Water Zendo, trained at San Francisco Zen Center, Berkeley Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain 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 do intensive residential practice at Green Gulch Farm, after which she never returned to practicing law.
In 1998 Rev. Mocine formed a meditation group in Vallejo California. The group grew and Clear Water Zendo was formally opened in January 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.

*Zoom link to program
We offer a Well-Being Ceremony on the third Monday of every month to remember friends, family, neighbors, pets and people of the world who are ill, facing a recent loss, or struggling with some difficulty in their lives. Please send the names of those you wish to be remembered to: Parāvrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Ino@valleystreamszen.org) by the Sunday evening prior.
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk, group discussion, or practice circle. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit, please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.

Retreat Night (Hybrid)
2024-06-24 19:00 - 21:00
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.
If you are new to meditation or just exploring the idea, the Introduction to Meditation Class on the second Monday of the month is recommended before attempting an extended evening retreat.
*Zoom link to program
Our 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. We invite 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. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us. If this is your first visit please arrive at least 15 minutes early for a brief orientation.
