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Affirmation of Welcome
Walking the path of liberation, we express our intimate connection with all beings.
Welcoming diversity, here at Berkeley Zen Center the practice of zazen
is available to people of every race, nationality, class, gender, sexual orientation,
age, and physical ability. May all beings realize their true nature.

Zazen (meditation)
Instruction and Orientation

is held in the Zendo on Saturdays
from 8:45 - 9:30 a.m.

Weekly Wednesday
Night Drop-In Group;
All are welcome.

Schedule:
7:20 p.m. Zazen
8:00 p.m. Service
8:10 – 9:00 p.m. Tea & Discussion

20's and 30's Dharma Group

Sojun Roshi invites students in their 20s and 30s to join him once a month for a short period of zazen and open discussion about Zen, Buddhism, the teachings, meditation, and/or your own practice. Selected Buddhist texts may also be discussed.

Meetings are held in the zendo on a Saturday after lecture at 11:30 a.m. Upcoming meeting dates are April 28th, May 26th, and June 30th. For more information contact Peter Overton, peterovrtn@gmail.com

No photography in the Zendo, please
We ask that all visitors and members turn off their cell phones in the zendo. If you areinterested incapturing the beauty of our zendo on camera, please make arrangementswith the Zendo Manager, Tamar Enoch tlxenoch@earthlink.net. Thank you.

BZC is a Scent Free Environment

Berkeley Zen Center Documentary
Now Available

Old Plum Mountain: The Berkeley Zen Center, Life Inside the Gate tells the story of the Berkeley Zen Center, one of the oldest, self-sustaining, lay practice centers in the nation.
Click here view the trailer and purchase the DVD

NOTES

SPRING PRACTICE PERIOD
Our annual spring practice period will begin with a one-day sitting starting at 5:00 am on Saturday, May 12 and last through the Shuso Ceremony on Sunday, June 24. Sojun Roshi invites everyone to increase their commitment to practice during this period while still minding their obligations outside the gate. Kisen Hoshin Marie Hopper—Radiant Spring/Dharma Heart—will be shuso this year, sharing the abbot’s seat and setting an example for us all. Sue Oehser will serve as benji, assisting the shuso.

There will be a Friday night class with Sojun Roshi studying Dogen Zenji’s key fascicle, Genjokoan. For a detailed practice period schedule, see the bulletin board shelf. Practice period applications are available on the main bulletin board shelf; please fill one out and return it to the shuso’s box on the community room porch by Monday, May 7.

Remember that, besides signing up for practice period and turning in a registration form, you need to sign up separately for a number of the individual practice period events. See the bulletin board for these sign-up sheets. See practice period events.

THE RAFFLE SUB-COMMITTEE NEEDS YOU!
We are planning on gathering many scintillating raffle prizes for the fall fundraising party and would love your help.

Here are three different ways you can participate:
1. Ask a business that you frequent (restaurant, body worker, pet sitter, handy person, etc.) whether they would be willing to donate a gift certificate. Who knows? They may gain another regular client.
2. Buy an item that you find interesting or useful (for instance, last year people bought emergency wind-up radios) and donate it in-kind to the raffle.
3. Consider sharing a brief story about yourself (500 words or less) for the Compendium of Little Known Facts about BZC Members that we will be compiling as a raffle prize. (Deadline July 1 for stories.)

Thanks for participating. You can contact Veronica Reilly at very23@gmail.com or Christy Calame at cccalame@earthlink.net to discuss any of these suggestions or another creative idea of your own.

New Book by Raul Denkei Moncayo
Routledge has just published a new book by BZC's Raul Denkei Moncayo: The Emptiness of Oedipus. Identification and Non-identification in Lacanian Psychoanalysis.

Raul will donate two copies to the library in case anyone in the sangha is interested.

Men's Shelter Dinner Still a Hit
BZC has a crew that cooks and serves Friday night dinner at the Berkeley Men's Shelter twice a month, every month- and we've been doing it for over 15 years! Lance Shows heads things up on the second Friday of the month and Laurie Senauke is the tenzo on the fourth Friday. Every time they do this, they need two or three volunteers to be assistant cooks, four more people to serve the food and clean up the shelter kitchen at the end of the meal, a shopper, and someone to provide dessert. It's satisfying work, and more help is always needed. Please consider adding your name to the sign-up sheet on the BZC bulletin board. The food offerings to help the homeless are, like offerings in the zendo, an opportunity to give to something larger than oneself. For more information, contact Lance at lanceshows@pacbel.net, or Laurie at alan@kushiki.org.

MAY
Sittings & Event Listings

Half-day Sitting
Sunday, 5/6
8 am - noon

Practice Period Opens- One-day Sesshin
Saturday, 5/12

Kidzendo
Saturday, 5/19

 

JUNE
Sittings & Event Listings

Practice Period Dinner and Skit Night
Saturday, 6/2

Half-day Sitting
Sunday, 6/3
8 am - noon

Kidzendo
Saturday, 6/16

Lay Ordination/
Zaike Tokudo

Saturday, 6/16
3 pm

Five-day Sesshin
Wednesday - Sunday
6/20-24

Shuso Hossen, Practice Period Ends
Sunday, 6/24, 3:30 pm