Valley Streams Zen Sangha

Dharma Talk with Rev. So'on Jim Hare (Speaker in person)
2023-04-17 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.
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. Ganbō Berry Crawford (Speaker in person)
2023-04-10 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Rev. Ganbō Berry Crawford will speak on “The Science of Zen.”

Rev. Crawford has been a Zen practitioner since 1992. In the mid 90’s he lived for a year at a Soto Zen monastery and afterwards practiced with Diane Rizzetto in Charlotte Joko Beck’s Ordinary Mind Zen School. He is a fully ordained priest in the Clear Mind Zen school. Ecumenical by nature, he continues his Zen practice in various Zen traditions. At Valley Streams he is a member of the Dōan-ryo, serves as Valley Streams’ webmaster and representative on the Sacramento Dharma Center Board.
He is the host of the Simplicity Zen Podcast (https://simplicityzen.com/) and maintains the Science of Zen website (https://scienceofzen.org/).

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

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

Riding in the Same Boat with All Beings: One-day Sitting led by Rev. Kokyo Henkel (Speaker in person)
2023-04-01 09:00 - 16:30 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
The theme of this sitting is the essay Zenki (the Whole Works),
Zen master Dogen’s vision of realization manifested in both life and death
Guest teacher Kokyo Henkel will lead this one-day retreat, which will include alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation, punctuated by morning and afternoon Dharma talks and discussion. The theme of this retreat is Dogen’s essay Zenki
Kokyo Henkel was ordained as a Zen priest in 1994 by Tenshin Reb Anderson Roshi, receiving the Dharma name Kokyo Yakai (Luminous Owl, Midnight Liberation 光梟夜解). He received Dharma Transmission from Tenshin Roshi in 2010, becoming a lineage-holder authorized to guide others on the path. From 2010 – 2020 Kokyo was teacher at the Santa Cruz Zen Center. He is currently Tanto (Head of Zendo practice) and a Dharma teacher at Green Gulch Farm. He has also been practicing with the Tibetan Dzogchen (“Great Perfection”) Teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche since 2003, in California, Colorado, and Kathmandu.
Register on Eventbrite.

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

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

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 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

Dōan-ryo Rehearsal (In person)
2023-03-04 13:30 - 15:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Dōan-ryo are the group of people who serve the sangha in temple roles including the dōan, the fukudo, the chiden, the jiko, and the kokyo. They meet bi-monthly after the Saturday half-day sit to rehearse for upcoming ceremonies.

Half-Day Sitting led by Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (In person)
2023-03-04 08:30 - 12:30 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
“Communing with the Source, travel the pathways, embrace the territory, and treasure the road.”
Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi
Whether sitting, walk, sitting, standing, or lying down we open wholeheartedly to the Way and Buddha activity happens on its own. Come, sit, and walk together to support each other in continuous practice. The retreat includes periods of zazen (sitting meditation), kinhin (walking meditation), and a dharma talk with a social lunch to follow. Bring your own bag lunch. Hot water and tea are available.
Register on Eventbrite.
For more information contact us at info@valleystreamszen.org. If you have limited or no experience in sitting meditation, please email the teacher at grindkaton@ icloud.com
Rev. Parāvṛtti Doralee Grindler Katonah serves as Ino, or head of the meditation hall at Valley Streams Zen Sangha. She studies 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 Sangha in 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.

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. 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 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

Anti-Racism in our Everyday Lives: Reflections and Conversation (Online)
2023-02-09 16:30 - 18:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
This monthly group, sponsored by Valley Streams, is a continuation of a White Supremacy, White Privilege and the Dharma study group. We meet monthly the 2nd Thursday of the month from 4:30-6:00pm.
Download syllabus here: White Privilege and the Dharma
We share the intention as bodhisattvas to learn how to live an anti-racist way of being both with ourselves and in the world. We each participate from our own place of practice with something we want to share about our learnings/growth/or self-inquiry during the month, from a place of humility and commitment to learn from our actions.

This group is open to new members who share this vision and have had some prior experience studying racism and white privilege. If you are interested in joining the group, contact Doralee Grindler Katonah at grindkaton@icloud.com

Full Moon Ceremony (Hybrid)
2023-02-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
This ceremony is an affirmation of the vow to live for the benefit of all beings. In the Zen tradition we associate the full moon with the ideal of awakening. All are welcome.

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
Full Moon Program Chant Card

Hidden in the Moonlight: One-day sitting, led by Rev. So'on Jim Hare (In person)
2023-02-04 08:30 - 16:30 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
“Hiding a heron in the moonlight” is a line from the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, a Zen poem written in 9th century China. The phrase (and the whole poem) describes the activity of a person practicing the Buddha Way, merging the particular and the universal. This is the everyday and consequential affair of Zen practice.
Our day will include sitting and walking meditation, a Dharma talk and discussion period, and silent bag lunch. Please bring your own lunch.
This event is in-person. Register on Eventbrite.
If you have questions about this retreat, please contact the retreat leader, So’on Jim Hare, at info@valleystreamszen.org

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

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

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.

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

There is no "you" to say "I" - Half-day Retreat Led by Rev. So'on Jim Hare (In-person)
2023-01-07 08:30 - 12:30 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
“What we call ‘I’ is just a swing door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no ‘I,’ no world, no mind nor body: just a swing door.” – Shunryu Suzuki roshi
Our morning will entail alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation, Dharma talk, and end with a chanting service. Please bring some previous meditation experience and, if you like, a bag lunch – there will be a social lunch following the sitting.
If this will be your first half-day sitting or you have questions, please contact us through our website or at 916-456-7752.
To register go to Eventbrite.

Morning Zazen and Service (Hybrid)
2023-01-05 06:00 - 07:30 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Join us for two periods of zazen (seated meditation) and kinhin (walking meditation), or just the first or second second meditation periods, as your schedule allows.
6:00 am – Zazen (sitting meditation)
6:30 am – Kinhin (walking meditation)
6:40 am – Zazen
7:10 am – Morning Service
Please arrive a few minutes before the beginning of each period to t ake your seat in the zendo or, if arriving via zoom, to allow the AV person time to admit you. If you arrive on zoom after the beginning of the sit, the AV person will not admit latecomers until the beginning of the next period. Stay for a cup of tea after service if you join in person.
Click here for zoom meeting link.
To download chants used in the morning service, visit the San Francisco Zen Center website.
To offer dana to support building rental expenses, click on our Paypal link.

Dharma Talk by Rev. So'on Jim Hare (Hybrid)
2023-01-02 07:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States

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

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

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

Introduction to Zen Meditation (In Person Only)
2022-12-12 18:00 - 18:40 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
On the second Monday of each month, we offer a 40-minute introduction to Zen practice. We focus on the art of sitting meditation, with emphasis on posture, breath and mental focus. This is for new meditators and those wishing to refresh their practice of meditative immersion.
Following the instruction the Valley Streams Zen Sangha meets for a 30-minute meditation in the Dharma Hall followed by a 10-minute service and Dharma talk. You are invited to stay for these events after the instruction.
* Meets in the Library at Sacramento Dharma Center.
Sign up for Weekly Emails to receive current program information.

Full Moon Ceremony (Hybrid)
2022-12-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
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. Texts for the chants are distributed during the ceremony or available here: *Full Moon Ceremony Chants

To prepare for the ceremony there are two 25 minutes meditation periods separated by 10 minutes of walking meditation. All are welcome to participate.

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

Rohatsu Sesshin Half-Day Sitting and Buddha's Enlightenment Ceremony (In-person)
2022-12-04 08:30 - 12:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Half-day Sitting – in person – 8:30 am – 12 noon.
Today concludes the seven days of intensive practice with a half-day sitting and the Buddha’s Enlightenment Ceremony.
We will gather after the ceremony to share a buffet lunch.
Register for the week-long program on Eventbrite.

Rohatsu Sesshin Full Day Sitting (In-person)
2022-12-02 08:30 - 21:00 | Sacramento Dharma Center, Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Full-Day Sitting – in person – 8:30 am – 8:45 pm
This sitting will be in person at the Dharma Center and will not be offered on Zoom. Traditional oryoki meals will be served at noon and for the “medicine meal” in the evening.
This traditional week of intensified practice celebrates the enlightenment of our original teacher in India, Shakyamuni Buddha. Rohatsu sesshin is a time for bringing light into the dark time of the year and for celebrating Buddha’s awakening, which is our awakening too. This sesshin is a combination of in-person and online. It will last a full week, but we’ll be sitting only morning and evening periods, Sunday – Thursday. Friday and Saturday we offer a full day of sitting in person at the Dharma Center. We close out the week on Sunday, Dec. 4, with a half-day, in-person program of zazen, a Dharma talk, and closing ceremony.
See Eventbrite to register.
