Sejiki Ceremony
2018-10-29 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 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. Treats, tea and conversation after the ceremony. Please bring noise makers and a treat to share.
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.

One-day Sitting - CANCELLED
2018-11-03 09:00 - 17:00
This one-day sitting is cancelled in order to focus on the 3-day Rohatsu Sesshin, scheduled for November 30 – December 2. Please consider giving yourself this special treat of setting aside the concerns of daily life for two and a half days in and giving your attention to your sitting practice and taking care of yourself as you would take care of a guest.

Koan Study, led by Doralee Grindler Katonah
2018-11-05 19:00 - 21:00
Doralee will lead us in an experiential process of working with the different characters in a koan as parts of ourselves. Through sharing these experiences we may become open to something fresh arising. The koan we will work with is “Senjo and Her Soul are Separated“, p. 157 in The Hidden Lamp – Stories from Twenty-five Centuries of Awakened Women. Florence Caplow and Susan Moon, eds. (Wisdom Publications, 2013).
Copies of the koan will be provided.
The transmission of the dharma happens through intimate encounters, between seekers on the path and between students and teachers, to awaken us to our true selves and to relieve our suffering. Koans are stories of such encounters that at first appear opaque or like conundrums that don’t make sense. Koans are meant to come alive to us and meet us exactly where we are blind to our awakening, yet the keys to unlocking the awakening process offered in koans calls upon us to engage these stories beyond our usual ways of thinking.

An evening with Wendy Garling: Stories of Women in the Buddha's Life
2018-11-07 19:00 - 21:00
Stars at Dawn is a retelling of ancient legends of the women in Gautama Buddha’s intimate circle. Lesser-known stories from Sanskrit and Pali sources are for the first time woven into an illuminating, coherent narrative. Interspersed with original insights, fresh interpretations, and bold challenges to the status quo, these stories invite us to open our minds to a new understanding of women’s roles in the Buddha’s life and in early Buddhism. Books will be available for purchase after the lecture.

Wendy Garling has taught women’s spirituality, focusing on Buddhist traditions for more than 20 years. She is a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner and authorized Dharma teacher.
ALSO:
Tea & Conversation with Wendy in the SDC LibraryThursday morning, November 8, 9:00-10:30 am
REGISTER ON EVENTBRITE.COM

Buddhist Women Ancestors - Tea & Conversation with Wendy Garling
2018-11-08 09:00 - 10:30
Join us for tea and conversation with special guest: Wendy Garling, author of Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha’s Life.
Wendy Garling has taught women’s spirituality focusing on Buddhist traditions for more than 20 years. She has a BA from Wellesley College and MA in Sanskrit language and literature from the University of California, Berkeley. A Tibetan Buddhist practitioner and authorized dharma teacher, she took refuge with His Holiness the 16th Karmapa in 1976 and began lifelong studies with His Holiness the Dalai Lama after their first meeting in Dharamsala, India in 1979. At that time she also met the late Venerable Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden who became her principal teacher.

Our study group meets on the third Thursday of every month from 9 am-10:30 am. The group is open to all sanghas and genders – to anyone who is interested in studying the Dharma through the lives and teachings of Buddhist women. Linda Dekker and Susan Farrar will facilitate.
Some resources we use are:

The Hidden Lamp, edited by Florence Caplow & Susan Moon
Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha’s Life, by Wendy Garling
Women of Wisdom, by Lama Tsultrim Allione
Being Bodies: Buddhist Women on the Paradox of Embodiment, edited by Lenore
Friedman & Susan Moon

Vasubandhu's Thirty Verses by So On Jim Hare
2018-11-12 19:00 - 21:00
In fourth-century India one of the great geniuses of Buddhism, Vasubandhu, sought to reconcile the diverse ideas and forms of Buddhism practiced at the time and demonstrate how they could be effectively integrated into a single system. This was the Yogacara movement, and it continues to have great influence in modern Tibetan and Zen Buddhism. Vasubandhu’s “Thirty Verses” lay out a path of practice that integrates the most powerful of Buddhism’s psychological and mystical possibilities: Early Buddhism’s practices for shedding afflictive emotional habits and the Mahayana emphasis on shedding divisive concepts, the path of individual liberation and the path of freeing all beings, the path to nirvana and the path of enlightenment as the very ground of being right now.
This is a continuation of our Fall Practice Period theme on Yogacara, using Ben Connelly’s book, Inside Vasubandhu’s Yogacara: A Practitioner’s Guide for reference.

Dharma Talk by Lama Yeshe Jinpa
2018-11-19 19:00 - 21:00
Lama Yeshe Jinpa is the spiritual director and resident teacher of Lion’s Roar Dharma Center in Sacramento. In 1995, Lama Jinpa received direct heart/mind transmission from Geshe Gyatso, after 25 years of Dharma practice and study. He is one of the few western lamas recognized within the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan or Vajrayana Buddhism, the lineage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Dharma Talk by Rev. Myo Lahey
2018-11-26 19:00 - 21:00
Rev. Myo Lahey is Abbot at Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco and our guiding teacher. He has previously served as Practice Leader at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He is a Dharma heir of Tenshin Reb Anderson.
Rev. Myo is available for individual practice discussion by appointment prior to our Monday evening program. Please email info@valleystreamszen.org

3-Day Rohatsu Sesshin
2018-11-30 09:00 - 2018-12-02 12:00
“…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 its true activity.” ~Suzuki Roshi
This multi-day, non-residential retreat is an opportunity to set aside the concerns of daily life for two and a half days, giving all your attention to your sitting practice and taking care of yourself as you would take care of a guest. The schedule will include sitting and walking meditation, breaks and Dharma talks. Vegetarian meals will be served in a modified oryoki-style for lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday. Oryoki is the traditional 3-bowl way of serving and eating meals together in silence.
Schedule: Friday & Saturday, 9 am – 9 pm.; Sunday, 9 am – noon.
Cost: $60 for full sesshin; $30 per full day; $15 per half day (scholarships available)
Register on a Monday night with So-On Jim Hare.

Impressions from Sesshin - Panel Presentation
2018-12-03 19:00 - 21:00

Retreat Night
2018-12-10 19:00 - 21:00
Retreat Night offers an opportunity to settle into your meditation practice with three 25-minute periods of zazen, interspersed with walking meditation (kinhin). Turning the light inward, we explore the causes of suffering and what ends it. This invitation is extended to everyone.

Potluck Supper with Susan Moon
2018-12-17 17:30 - 18:30
You are invited to share a meal with the sangha prior to our evening sit and Dharma talk.

Dharma Talk by Susan Moon
2018-12-17 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. Her most recent book is The Hidden Lamp: Stories from 25 Centuries of Awakened Women.
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.

CLOSED - Christmas Holiday
2018-12-24 19:00 - 21:00

Winter Celebration & Refreshments
2018-12-31 19:00 - 21:00
Welcome the new year by celebrating the treasure of sangha with your sangha!
Please bring a finger food offering, and poetry, story, or music to share (if you wish).

Study Group
2019-01-03 08:00 - 09:00
Study is one of the pillars of Zen practice. Please join us every Thursday morning for our ongoing study group to discuss ancient and contemporary texts.

Facilitated by Rev. So’on Jim Hare.
Current text: TBA
Contact Rollin Ives (twl4148@gmail.com) for details.

Practice Circle on "Resolution and Vow"
2019-01-07 19:00 - 21:00
led by So On Jim Hare

Introduction to Zen Meditation
2019-01-14 18:00 - 18:40, 2019-02-11 18:00 - 18:40
For those who are new to Zen meditation, we offer this 40-minute introduction to our forms of practice on the second Monday every month.

Dharma Talk by Rev. Mary Mocine (by recording)
2019-01-14 19:00 - 21:00
Due to family illness, Rev. Mary Mocine will not be able to attend as planned. However, we will be able to hear her teaching on Death and Dying by listening to a recording made on January 13th at SBMG. She recommends reading this article in advance of listening to her talk.
Reverend Mary Mocine, is 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.

Program Inspired by Martin Luther King
2019-01-21 19:00 - 21:00
led by Doralee Grindler Katonah.

Dharma Talk by Rev. Myo Lahey
2019-01-28 19:00 - 21:00, 2019-02-25 19:00 - 21:00
Rev. Myo Lahey is Abbot at Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco and our guiding teacher. He has previously served as Practice Leader at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He is a Dharma heir of Tenshin Reb Anderson. Rev. Myo is available for individual practice discussion by appointment prior to our evening program.

Jizo Ceremony - For Loved Ones Who Have Died and Other Losses
2019-02-02 13:00 - 16:00
Jizo is the beloved Great Bodhisattva found within many Buddhist traditions, who carries us across the threshold of death and loss and safely accompanies us through the ‘hell zones’ of deep suffering.
Especially honored in Japan, Jizo (also known as ‘Earth Store’ or ‘Earth Womb’) brings to us the qualities of courage, fearlessness, and tenderness needed to enter into our experiences of grief and loss and to open our hearts to the mystery of life and death.
This will be a sacred time for us to come together to acknowledge and remember the death of someone dear to us or another kind of significant loss, whether recent or from long ago. We will take refuge in the safe container of our shared presence with each other for the sake of our healing.
We will be introduced to this ceremony by our facilitators and then in silence we will create hand-made offerings for our loved ones. In a ceremony of remembrance we will honor their lives and our relationship with them. We will complete the ceremony with a processional into our garden to offer prayer flag messages for the dying and for ourselves as we continue to live our lives.
In this sacred space we will together turn towards the complexity of grief and discover the strength that arises when we embrace our interconnectedness with all beings.
Everyone is welcome and there is no fee. Donations offered will be given to the Susan Orr Memorial Garden.
Registration will be at Eventbrite.com
For further information contact: Doralee Grindler Katonah at grindkaton@icloud.com
This ceremony has been brought to us from Japan by Yvonne Rand and Jan Chosen-Bays and transmitted to Chris Forten and Sarah Emerson (all transmitted Zen Priests). Doralee Grindler Katonah will lead, assisted by So On Jim Hare. Doralee has received two years of training in preparation for guiding this ceremony.

Inquiry into the Nature of Socially Engaged Buddhism
2019-02-04 19:00 - 21:00
Two Evenings of Inquiry into the Nature of Socially Engaged Buddhism
February 4th and 11th
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.
Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now.
You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
-The Talmud
On this first evening, three Sangha members will offer brief accounts of the ways they are working locally to influence social and political choices. Our assumption is that many sangha members are doing this, whether through voting, volunteer activities, or personal consumption choices. We will follow with a discussion centered around these three questions:
1. Do you ever suffer – physically, psychologically, emotionally, or spiritually – from political, social, economic, or environmental conditions affecting you and others? If so, what do you do about it?
2. Do the terms “engaged Buddhism” and “activism” evoke positive, negative, or neutral sensations/ feeling tones for you?
3. Is engaged Buddhism part of your practice? If so, does it include activism?
We encourage you to prepare a list of the ‘socially conscious’ activities that engage you. Even if you do not consider these activities to be engaged Buddhism we invite everyone to individually and anonymously provide a written list at the first meeting on February 4. The lists will be compiled and presented by on February 11.

What goes on the list? Everything. You might wish to note that you have used your own cup and lid when buying tea at Starbucks for the past five years, and since you buy five cups a week, that means you have eliminated 1,300 plastic cup lids from entering the environment. Or perhaps you always carry a reusable water bottle now, or your own reusable straw. Or you have been driving a hybrid or an electric car for the past year. Or maybe you are working with a group on prison and criminal justice reforms. Or you are involved in lobbying for better health care. Or you do pro bono legal work for immigrant families. Or you invest in funds that put money only into companies that are aligned with social justice and environmental principles. Or you marched on MLK day, or in solidarity with women’s rights, LGBT rights, or with Black Lives Matter. Or … you get the idea. List it all. Because there is probably a lot there.

The February 4 session will include two brief presentations by Oscar Balaguer and Rollin Ives. In preparation, Oscar and Rollin invite you to read this article, “Stand Against Suffering, A Call to Action by Buddhist Teachers.” The article, signed by more than 140 Buddhist leaders, was published in Lion’s Roar on August 21, 2017.
Additional reading: “What’s Buddhist about Socially Engaged Buddhism?” by David Loy.

Both sessions will be facilitated by So On Jim Hare.

Inquiry into the Nature of Socially Engaged Buddhism
2019-02-11 19:00 - 21:00
Two Evenings of Inquiry into the Nature of Socially Engaged Buddhism
February 4th and 11th
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.
Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now.
You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
-The Talmud

The February 11 session is envisioned as a deeper dive into a sort of data-driven snapshot of the depth and breadth of the VSZS community’s already on-going socially engaged Buddhist practices. Even if you do not consider these activities to be engaged Buddhism we invite everyone to individually and anonymously provide a written list at the first meeting on February 4. The lists will be compiled and presented by on February 11.

Your written lists are responses to these three questions:
1. Do you ever suffer – physically, psychologically, emotionally, or spiritually – from political, social, economic, or environmental conditions affecting you and others? If so, what do you do about it?
2. Do the terms “engaged Buddhism” and “activism” evoke positive, negative, or neutral sensations/feeling tones for you?
3. Is engaged Buddhism part of your practice? If so, does it include activism?

What goes on the list? Everything. You might wish to note that you have used your own cup and lid when buying tea at Starbucks for the past five years, and since you buy five cups a week, that means you have eliminated 1,300 plastic cup lids from entering the environment. Or, perhaps you always carry a reusable water bottle now, or your own reusable straw. Or, you have been driving a hybrid or an electric car for the past year. Or, maybe you are working with a group on prison and criminal justice reforms. Or, you are involved in lobbying for better health care. Or, you do pro bono legal work for immigrant families. Or, you invest in funds that put money only into companies that are aligned with social justice and environmental principles. Or, you marched on MLK day, or in solidarity with women’s rights, LGBT rights, or with Black Lives Matter. Or … you get the idea. List it all. Because there is probably a lot there.

Suggested reading:

“Stand Against Suffering, A Call to Action by Buddhist Teachers.”, signed by more than 140 Buddhist leaders; published in Lion’s Roar on August 21, 2017.
“What’s Buddhist about Socially Engaged Buddhism?” by David Loy.

“There is no magic formula to be involved. The solutions are not to be found, they are to be worked out together.” – David Loy

Full Moon Ceremony
2019-02-18 19:00 - 21:00
This ceremony reminds us that enlightenment is enacted with Bodhisattva precepts, which are recited in a call and response format during the ceremony. We enter the ceremony following two periods of zazen interspersed with walking meditation. Whole-heartedly we celebrate the whole moon. Everyone is invited to participate.

One-day Sitting, led by So On Jim Hare
2019-03-02 09:00 - 17:00
“I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing;
wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing;
there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”
~ T.S. Elliot
With this sitting, we will celebrate Dogen’s practice/realization, something that Elliot intuitively describes in his poem. Everyone is invited to join this day of sitting and walking meditation. There will be a Dharma talk and silent bag lunch (please bring your own lunch).
REGISTER ON EVENTBRITE.COM
Questions? Email So On Jim Hare at info@valleystreamszen.org

Practice Talk by John Wark
2019-03-04 19:00 - 21:00

Memorial Service to celebrate Mary Reilly
2019-03-09 11:00 - 15:00
Mary Reilly, long-time member and leader of SBMG and the Sacramento Dharma Center community, will be honored and remembered by her many friends and family. Mary taught meditation to children and teachers in public schools; she loved nature, especially the Sandhill Cranes; she was friendly and generous to all and a talented organizerl. Mary passed away suddenly on February 27.
