Topic: "PRACTICING WITH THE PRECEPTS - We Vow, We Receive, Giving Arises" Experiential exercise will be offered during discussion. 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 […]
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. Zoom link to […]
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, […]
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 […]
On April 14, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a march to a government building in Birmingham, Alabama to protest the city’s ongoing refusal to eliminate segregation, including the denial of the voter rights of Black people. He was arrested during this march and placed in solitary confinement. During this dark time in jail, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Bruce Fortin was ordained a Zen priest in 1977 at the San Francisco Zen Center. He is the founder and has been the guiding teacher at the Occidental Laguna Sangha in Sebastopol for twenty years. He has taught meditation in prisons, to Veterans, was the director of Hospice program in Sonoma country for many years, […]
Topic: Keep your eyes closely on the boat and see that the boat moves - a call to deepen our practice lives in this time of crisis. 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 […]