Valley Streams Zen Sangha

Practice Talk by Oscar Balaguer (Hybrid, speaker in person)
2022-08-29 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Senior student and longtime member of Valley Streams Sangha, Oscar was lay ordained by Tenshin Reb Anderson.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Social Identities as a Cause of Suffering (Hybrid)
2022-09-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
A program presented (in-person) by Paravrtti Doralee Grindler-Katonah and Sarah O’Gara in preparation for our September 12th program with Rhonda V. Magee, MA, JD. Our evening will include:

Introduction to Rhonda V. Magee’s concepts of Color-Insight, not Color-Blindness;
Making – not Taking Refuge;
Guided Meditation;
Small Group Reflection.

*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Reflections on Engaged Mindfulness with Rhonda V. Magee (Hybrid)
2022-09-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Rhonda Magee, MA, JD joins us on zoom with reflections on the inner work of confronting social injustice in a time of distress. She is an internationally recognized educator, author, and practice leader, focused on integrating mindfulness into social change. She draws from Buddhist teachings, law and legal history, weaving together storytelling, poetry, analysis and practices. A trained mindfulness teacher, Rhonda Magee demonstrates the merit of embodied meditation.
Professor Magee has dedicated her life to healing and teaching that inspire personal, interpersonal and collective transformation. Professor of Law at University of San Francisco since 2004, her teachings support compassionate conflict engagement and management, holistic problem-solving to alleviate suffering, presence-based leadership and humanizing approaches to education.
This event is co-sponsored with BIPOC Sangha-Sacramento, an affiliate of Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group (SBMG).

The zendo opens at 6:50 pm.
Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977
Tonight’s chant: Zenju Earthlyn Manuel’s “Loving Kindness Meditation – For All Beings”
Donations for Professor Magee may be sent via Paypal to rvmagee@usfca.edu

Exploring the Many Faces of Compassion with Paravrtti Doralee Grindler-Katonah (Hybrid)
2022-09-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Paravrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah serves as Ino, or head of the meditation hall, and president of the Valley Streams Board of Directors. 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.
A Practice Circle: Exploring the Many Faces of Compassion Through Listening Together to our Experiences and Reflections. Rhonda Mcgee wrote: “Compassion is the will, the wherewithal, and the motivation to actually do something to assist in alleviating suffering, whether it’s our own or others. We need compassion that embraces our own suffering – self-compassion. And we need compassion that embraces the suffering of others – other-regarding compassion.”
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk with Rev. Myo Lahey (Hybrid)
2022-09-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Rev. Myo Lahey, our guiding teacher, will join us online via Zoom from Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco, where he is Abbot. He previously served as Practice Leader at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He is a Dharma heir of Tenshin Reb Anderson.

Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk. 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.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk by So'on Jim Hare (Hybrid)
2022-10-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
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.
The Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk. 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.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Way-Seeking Mind Talk with Tony Wallin-Sato (Hybrid)
2022-10-10 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Each of us has come to Zen practice as a seeker, with a spirit of inquiry, from diverse backgrounds. The idea of our way-seeking mind talks is for members to share how it is they came to practice. Each person tells his or her own story in a unique way that often blends autobiography, spiritual biography, and the practice questions engaging each person.
Tony will receive jukai or lay ordination Sunday October 9, 2022 at the Sacramento Dharma Center.
To offer dana to support Valley Streams’ programs and space rental, click here.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Way-Seeking Mind Talk with Dave Jarrell (Hybrid)
2022-10-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Each of us has come to Zen practice as a seeker, with a spirit of inquiry, from diverse backgrounds. The idea of our way-seeking mind talks is for members to share how it is they came to practice. Each person tells his or her own story in a unique way that often blends autobiography, spiritual biography, and the practice questions engaging each person. Dave is a member of Board of Directors and manages the Valley Streams newsletter.
To offer dana to support Valley Streams’ programs and space rental, click here.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk by Meikyo Bob Rosenbaum (Hybrid) (In-person Teacher)
2022-10-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Meikyo Robert Rosenbaum, PhD, received lay entrustment in Soto Zen from Sojun Mel Weitsman. He is also authorized as a senior teacher of the Taoist practice of Dayan (Wild Goose) Qigong in the lineage of Yang Meijun by Master Hui Liu. In addition, he has received denkai in Ordinary Mind Zen from Karen Terzano. Bob teaches Zen and Qigong at the Meadowmind Center in Sacramento.
Bob is the author of several books including Zen and the Heart of Psychotherapy, Walking the Way : 81 Zen Encounters with Tao Te Ching and most recently, That is not your Mind! Zen Reflections on the Sarangama Sutra.
The teacher will join us in the zendo.
To offer dana to Valley Streams for space rental, click here.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Sejiki Ceremony (Hybrid)
2022-10-31 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
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.
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.
Bring bells, cymbals, drums, or other noisemakers to participate in the banishment of the hungry ghosts from the Dharma Hall at the conclusion of the ceremony. Then, stay awhile to share hot cider and a treat.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Monday Night Meditation and Dharma Talk by Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Hybrid)
2022-11-07 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah will present a dharma talk in person at the Dharma Center. She 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 priest ordained in 2019.
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.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk by Rev. Myō Lahey (Hybrid)
2022-11-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Rev. Myō Lahey, Valley Streams’ guiding teacher, joins us online via Zoom from Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco, where he is Abbot. He previously served as Practice Leader at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He is a Dharma heir of Tenshin Reb Anderson.
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.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Way-Seeking Mind Talk with Brendan O'Brian (Hybrid)
2022-11-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Shi Shin Brendan O’Brien has been a member of the Valley Streams community for the past three years. He is also a member of the Hartford Street Zen Sangha in San Francisco. Recently, in October, he received the Bodhisattva precepts from Rev. Myō Lahey and Rev. So’On Jim Hare. Brendan is a student of history at Sacramento State University and works as a civil servant for the State of California.
Each of us has come to Zen practice as a seeker, with a spirit of inquiry, from diverse backgrounds. The idea of our way-seeking mind talks is for members to share how it is they came to practice. Each person tells his or her own story in a unique way that often blends autobiography, spiritual biography, and the practice questions engaging each person.

*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk by Rev. So'on Jim Hare (Hybrid)
2022-11-28 19:00 - 21:00, 2023-01-02 07:00 - 21:00 | 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.
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.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk by Susan Moon (Hybrid - teacher in person)
2022-12-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
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 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Winter Solstice Celebration (Hybrid)
2022-12-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Celebrate the winter solstice with your 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.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008.151977

Relinquishment Ceremony with Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (Hybrid)
2022-12-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Entering a New Year is an auspicious time to “commune with the source” and ask what specific mind habit or pattern is in the way of our enlightenment practice. “Relinquish” means to renounce or surrender something – to let go of your grip on something, to give something up that is no longer needed, to desist from a pattern, to ask what is holding me back, what am I afraid of, and to bring compassion to something that is difficult to change. This is a question to sit with; to allow emptiness to offer a message.
Tonight we will create “Relinquishment Scrolls” with simple art supplies provided to express our Relinquishment Intentions for the year 2023. People on zoom are invited to gather their own art supplies – paper, crayons and pen. After the ceremony you may choose to place your scroll on your home altar or ‘burn’ it in the fire 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.
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.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Retreat Night (Hybrid)
2023-01-09 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 two or three 25-minute periods of zazen, interspersed with walking meditation (called kinhin). Turning the light inward we explore the causes of suffering and what can end it. This invitation is extended to everyone.

*Zoom link for thisprogram: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, led by Sarah O'Gara (Hybrid speaker in person)
2023-01-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Photo: Ralph Abernathy (L), James Forman, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Rev S. L. Douglas, and John Lewis during a protest march to the courthouse on March 17, 1965.
Sarah O’Gara shares how she became a racist; learning these habits of mind from her family and the white supremacist culture into which she was born. She reflects on how her Buddhist practice supports and informs her efforts to live now as an anti-racist. She invites others to share reflections on their own path.
After the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, sangha members Doralee Grindler Katonah and Linda Dekker created a curriculum, arising out of Buddhist practice, to explore an appropriate response to the continuing violence against people of color in America. The first step was “to study the self”, and also the causes and conditions that created and perpetuate a culture of white supremacy, white privilege, and structural racism embedded in our laws. It was with the support of her sangha sisters that Sarah started on this journey. Download class syllabus here: White Privilege and the Dharma
Sarah has been a member of Valley Streams Zen Sangha since 2007 and currently serves on the Board of Directors, the Practice Committee, and the Dōan-ryo.

Practice Talk by Shuji Cody Miller (Hybrid speaker in person)
2023-01-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Shuji Cody Miller began practice in the Soto Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki at the San Francisco Zen Center in 2015. He was lay ordained in 2016 through Anshin Rosalie Curtis and began practicing with the Valley Streams Zen Sangha in 2020. When not working at the clinic as a Doctor of Chiropractic, he loves spending time hiking in nature with his wife and son.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk by Rev. Taiga Ito (Speaker In-person)
2023-01-30 19:00 - 21:00 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
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.
Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (sitting meditation) followed by a devotional service and dharma talk. There are no membership requirements to participate. We invite newcomers and experienced Zen students to join us in person or on zoom.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk by Shōku Kathy Early (Speaker on Zoom)
2023-02-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
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).
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.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk by Rev. So'on Jim Hare (Speaker in person)
2023-02-20 19:00 - 21:00 | 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.
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 the zendo or on zoom.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk by Hoka Chris Fortin (Speaker on Zoom)
2023-02-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
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 for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk by Rev. Myō Lahey (Speaker on Zoom)
2023-03-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Rev. Myō Lahey, Valley Streams’ guiding teacher, joins us online via Zoom from Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco, where he is Abbot. He previously served as Practice Leader at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He is a Dharma heir of Tenshin Reb Anderson.
Our Monday night programs are hybrid beginning 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.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Way-Seeking Mind Talk with Jody Ansell (Speaker in person)
2023-03-13 08:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Jody Ansell started meditating in 2008 with One Drop Rinzai Zen’s Water Moon Sangha. She has been sitting with Valley Streams since 2014. She is retired, a hiking and biking enthusiast, and a poet. Jody serves on the Valley Streams Board of Directors.
Each of us has come to Zen practice as a seeker, with a spirit of inquiry, from diverse backgrounds. The idea of our way-seeking mind talks is for members to share how it is they came to practice. Each person tells his or her own story in a unique way that often blends autobiography, spiritual biography, and the practice questions engaging each person.

*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Dharma Talk with Rev. So'on Jim Hare (Speaker In-person)
2023-03-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States

Dharma Talk with Rev. Mary Mocine (Speaker In person)
2023-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Joining us this evening is Reverend Mary Mocine, abbess of Clear Water Zendo in Vallejo. She was trained at San Francisco and Berkeley Zen Centers, and Tassajara Zen Monastery. She was ordained in 1994 by Sojun Mel Weitsman, former Abbot of San Francisco Zen Center and continuing Abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. Reverend Mocine has also trained with Abbess Zenkei Blanche Hartman and former Abbots Zoketsu Norman Fischer and Tenshin Reb Anderson of the San Francisco Zen Center. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman in May 2005.
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 on the zendo or online.
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Short Practice Night and Memorial Service (Hybrid)
2023-04-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
This evening’s practice will be zazen (sitting mediation), kinhin (walking meditation), zazen, followed by a memorial service for Kyoji Linda Dekker. Linda passed from this life at 10 p.m. Sunday night after a long illness, surrounded by friends and family. She was a founder of Valley Streams Zen Sangha and a founder of the Sacramento Dharma Center. She served on the Boards of SBMG, Valley Streams, and the Dharma Center and incorporated all three organizations as nonprofits. Linda served on the Sacramento Dharma Center Board for over 8 years, through the entire process of inception, fundraising and locating the Wissemann Drive property we now occupy. She also served on the SDC Art and Design Committee, helping to transform the building into the pleasing aesthetic we have today. In addition to all of this, Linda served as the first office manager of the Sacramento Dharma Center, stepping down in 2022 when her illness made it unfeasible to continue. Linda’s service throughout was offered from her great spirit of giving and devotion to the Dharma.
In her practice life, Linda became a student of Tenshin Reb Anderson in the late 1990’s and practiced with him in residence at Green Gulch Farm 2001-2002. She served as Ino (head of the meditation hall) from 2015 – 2018.
Chant: Dai HI Shin Dharani
*Zoom link for this program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977
