This is our first one-day sitting at the Sacramento Dharma Center! Fall study period participants should make a special effort to attend, as this is the sole opportunity to "sit long" during the study period. Of course everyone is welcome. This gentle one-day sitting will include a work period and exercise period. We will have […]
This is our first one-day sitting of the new year. This gentle one-day sitting will include a work period and formal tea in the afternoon if enough people attend. The day will include a Dharma talk by Practice Leader Jim Hare. Everyone is welcome. Register for the sitting. *Please note our one-day sittings are now held […]
We sometimes call zazen “choiceless awareness.” This means that in zazen we don’t attempt to regulate what comes into awareness; we just let what arises arise. We let our feelings be our feelings and our thoughts be our thoughts. Not making any choices about what comes into awareness, we also don’t manipulate our breath, we […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
"...when we practice zazen, it is not that big mind is actually controlling small mind, but simply that when small mind becomes calm, big mind starts it true activity." ~Suzuki Roshi For the first time Valley Streams Zen is offering a multi-day, non-residential retreat. This is an opportunity to set aside the concerns of daily […]
"Outwardly still while inwardly moving, like a tethered colt or a trapped rat, the ancient sages pitied them and bestowed the teachings." - Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi "Traps and snares can never reach it." - Eihei Dogen, Fukanzazengi The traps and snares of thinking and feeling often seem to block the way of […]