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 […]
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 […]
The Zen Study Group meets at the Dharma Center AND on Zoom. 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
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 […]
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 […]
The Zen Study Group meets at the Dharma Center AND on Zoom. 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
"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 […]
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 […]
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
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 […]
The Zen Study Group meets at the Dharma Center AND on Zoom. 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
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. […]
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 […]
The Zen Study Group meets at the Dharma Center AND on Zoom. 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
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 […]
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 […]
The Zen Study Group meets at the Dharma Center AND on Zoom. 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
Family Sangha - Last Sunday of the Month 10:00am - 12:00 pm One of the many dilemmas that parents face is how to hand down their spiritual values and practice to their children. We are fortunate that the Sacramento Dharma Center is now hosting a Family Sangha! Meeting on the last Sunday of the month […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Zen Study Group meets at the Dharma Center AND on Zoom. 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
"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 […]