Valley Streams Zen Sangha

Jukai Ceremony
2021-11-14 13:30 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
The ceremony of Jukai consists in receiving the precepts of the Bodhisattva and, by doing so, takes refuge in the three treasures: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha.

Retreat Night (in person & online)
2021-11-15 19:00 - 21:00 | 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 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (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.

Morning Zazen & Service (in-person and online)
2021-11-18 06:00 - 07:30, 2021-12-02 06:00 - 07:30, 2021-12-09 06:00 - 07:30, 2021-12-16 06:00 - 07:30, 2021-12-23 06:00 - 07:30, 2021-12-30 06:00 - 19:30 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Please join us for early morning silent meditation each Thursday before Study Group meeting. Contact Rollin Ives at twl4148@gmail.com for Zoom login and program information.
Schedule:
5:45-Zoom room opens,
6:00-Zazen,
6:30-Walking Meditation,
6:40-Zazen,
7:10-Service
•Download SFZC Chants in PDF.

Dharma Talk by Nyokai Laurie Senauke (in person & online)
2021-11-22 19:00 - 21:00 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Nyokai Laurie Senauke started formal Zen practice in 1980 at San Francisco Zen Center and lived at Tassajara for three years. In 1989 she married Hozan Alan Senauke, moved to Berkeley Zen Center, and raised their two children. After several years of intense focus on child-rearing, she gradually returned to more involvement in formal practice. She served as head student (shuso) at BZC in 2003 and received lay recognition in 2006. In April 2018, she priest ordained with Daito Steven Weintraub as Kosei Nyokai – Radiant Vow, Suchness Ocean. In Fall 2018 she served as head student at Tassajara. She practices hypnotherapy and has been co-leading “Write What You Don’t Know” retreats at San Francisco Zen Center.
*Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (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.

CLOSED for Thanksgiving Day
2021-11-25 | CA

Rohatsu Sesshin, led by So-On Jim Hare (in person and online)
2021-11-28 19:30 - 20:30 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Welcome and orientation to Rohatsu Sesshin, Nov. 28 – Dec. 5, 2021
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 celebrating Buddha’s awakening, which is our awakening too. This sesshin will be a combination of in-person and online programs. It will last a full week, but we’ll be sitting only morning and evening periods, Sunday – Thursday. Friday will be online only; Saturday we offer a full day of sitting in person at the Dharma Center. We close out the week on Sunday, Dec. 5, with a half-day, in-person program of zazen, a Dharma talk and closing ceremony. For questions, contact So-On Jim Hare, info@valleystreamszen.org.
Rohatsu Sesshin Schedule Register on Eventbrite.com

Rohatsu Sesshin, morning program (online)
2021-11-29 06:00 - 07:30, 2021-11-30 06:00 - 07:30, 2021-12-01 06:00 - 07:30 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Morning Rohatsu schedule, Monday – Wednesday.
6:00 Zazen
6:30 Kinhin
6:40 Zazen
7:10 Service
Full Rohatsu Sesshin Schedule Register on Eventbrite.com
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 will be online only; Saturday we offer a full day of sitting in person at the Dharma Center. We close out the week on Sunday, Dec. 5, with a half-day, in-person program of zazen, a Dharma talk, followed by a closing ceremony.

Dharma Talk by So On Jim Hare (in person & online)
2021-11-29 19:00 - 21:00 | 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. He was priest ordained by Rev. Myo Lahey in 2016.
*Zoom link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (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.

Rohatsu Sesshin, evening program (online)
2021-11-30 17:00 - 21:00, 2021-12-01 17:00 - 21:00, 2021-12-02 17:00 - 21:00 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Evening Rohatsu schedule, Tuesday – Thursday, 5 pm – 8:45 pm.
5:00 Zazen
5:30 Service
Break/Dinner
7:30 Zazen
8:00 Kinhin
8:10 Zazen
8:40 Refuges
Full Rohatsu Sesshin Schedule

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 will be online only; Saturday we offer a full day of sitting in person at the Dharma Center. We close out the week on Sunday, Dec. 5, with a half-day, in-person program of zazen, a Dharma talk, followed by a closing ceremony.

Study Group (in-person & online)
2021-12-02 08:00 - 09:00, 2021-12-09 08:00 - 09:00 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
The Zen Study Group is now meeting at the Dharma Center AND online. The study group is facilitated by Rev. So-On Jim Hare, with readings from ancient and contemporary Mahayana Buddhist & Soto Zen texts and commentaries.

To join the Thursday morning study group, email the coordinator, Rollin Ives, twl4148@gmail.com

Prior to the meeting, download the free Zoom Client for Meetings (13 MB) As you “Wait for the host to start the meeting” click the Test Computer Audio button to make sure you can hear and be heard by others.

Meeting ID: 83295648686 (the same each week)
At 7:50 am, join the meeting at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83295648686

**From your telephone, tap once: +16699006833,,83295648686# US (San Jose)
OR
Call 669 900 6833 (San Jose). At the prompt, enter 83295648686
Use these controls: *9 = Raise hand; *6 = mute/unmute

Rohatsu Sesshin, One-Day Sitting (online)
2021-12-03 06:00 - 21:00 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
One-Day Sitting – ONLINE – 6 am – 8:45 pm
The Zoom link and schedule will be sent to those who have registered at Eventbrite.com.
Full Rohatsu Sesshin Schedule

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 will be online only; Saturday we offer a full day of sitting in person at the Dharma Center. We close out the week on Sunday, Dec. 5, with a half-day, in-person program of zazen, a Dharma talk, followed by a closing ceremony.

Rohatsu Sesshin, One-Day Sitting (in person)
2021-12-04 09:00 - 17:00 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
One-Day Sitting – in person – 9 am – 5 pm
This sitting will be in person at the Dharma Center and will not be offered on Zoom. The schedule will be sent to all who have registered at Eventbrite.com
• Please remember to bring a lunch.
Full Rohatsu Sesshin Schedule
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 will be online only; Saturday we offer a full day of sitting in person at the Dharma Center. We close out the week on Sunday, Dec. 5, with a half-day, in-person program of zazen, a Dharma talk, and closing ceremony.

Rohatsu Sesshin, Half-day sitting & Closing Ceremony (in person)
2021-12-05 09:00 - 12:00 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Half-Day Sitting and Buddha’s Enlightenment Ceremony

This sitting will be in person at the Dharma Center. It will not be offered on Zoom. The schedule for the day will be sent to all who have registered at Eventbrite.com
Full Rohatsu Sesshin Schedule

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 will be online only; Saturday we offer a full day of sitting in person at the Dharma Center. We close out the week on Sunday, Dec. 5, with a half-day, in-person program of zazen, a Dharma talk, and closing ceremony.

Dharma Talk on Patience by Paravrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (in person & online)
2021-12-06 19:00 - 21:00 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
What my quirky coffee pot taught me about patience and what this has to do with Buddha’s Awakening —
According to Norman Fischer, “Patience (Kshanti paramita) is the most important of all the bodhisattva practices because without it all the others will eventually fail.” In this world of polarization, pandemic fears and terrible realities, shocking racial injustice and violence, impatience easily takes over. Through the practice of patience we can transform our impatience – yet what does this mean exactly? We will together look freshly at the paramita of patience in light of Buddha’s gift of the dharma.
Paravrtti 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 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977

Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (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.

Introduction to Zen Meditation (in person)
2021-12-13 18:00 - 18:40 | 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.
•Meets in the Library at the Sacramento Dharma Center.
Sign up for Weekly Emails to receive current program information.

Dharma Talk by Susan Moon (in person & online)
2021-12-13 19:00 - 21:00 | 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

Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (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.

Winter Solstice Celebration (in person and online)
2021-12-20 19:00 - 21:00 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Welcome the new year by celebrating the treasure of sangha with your sangha friends. This will be an evening of sharing poetry, stories, and music.

Our Monday night programs begin with zazen (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.

Relinquishment Ceremony, led by Paravrtti Doralee Grindler Katonah (in-person & online)
2021-12-27 19:00 - 21:00 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
We are entering a New Year – 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 2022. 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.
Paravrtti 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.

Way-seeking Mind Talk by Cody Miller (in-person & online)
2022-01-03 19:00 - 21:00 | 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 that each is engaged with.

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.

Meeting ID for Monday Evenings: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82008151977
Prior to the meeting, download the free Zoom Client for Meetings (13 MB) As you Wait for the host to start the meeting click the Test Computer Audio button to make sure you can hear and be heard by others.
Download the chants in PDF.
At 6:50 pm, join the meeting.
The program will begin at 7pm with this approximate schedule: 30 minute sitting; 5 minute chant; announcements; then a 30-40 minute Talk/Discussion.

*To join by telephone (audio only):

Dial 669 900 6833 (San Jose) and follow voice prompts for entering the Meeting ID and password.
Phone Controls: *9 = Raise hand; *6 = Mute/unmute

Morning Zazen & Service (in-person and online)
2022-01-06 06:00 - 07:30 | 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826, United States
Please join us for early morning silent meditation each Thursday before Study Group meeting. Contact Rollin Ives at twl4148@gmail.com for Zoom login and program information.
Schedule:
5:45-Zoom room opens
6:00-Zazen
6:30-Walking Meditation
6:40-Zazen
7:10-Service
•Download SFZC Chants in PDF.
