Join Us For Fall Practice
September Class: What is a Good Life?
On three Thursday evenings—September 21, 28 and October 5—at 7:15pm, Berkeley Zen Center is pleased to host Shaykh Yassir Chadly in dialogue with Abbot Hozan about “a good life” in our respective Sufi and Zen traditions.
Beginners’ Sesshin October 1
Aspects of Practice Period October 14 – November 11
Aspects of Practice calendar of events
Note: Those signing up for Aspects must also sign up separately for the class and the 2 one-day sesshins, which are also open to those not signing up for Aspects. Links to register below:
Aspects Class: Dōgen Zenji’s Genjōkōan – Actualizing the Fundamental Point.
Details and registration form
Aspects Sesshins – October 14 and November 11
Registration form and details coming soon!
Change in Face Mask Policy
If you haven’t already and you want to attend, please send your vax and booster information to the Office Manager – bzcofficemanager@gmail.com – AT LEAST ONE WEEK BEFORE YOU ATTEND (if sooner than that, also bring your vax card and ID with you). You need to send it in by email, even if you have shown your card to the monitor.
IF YOU TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID within two days of being here, please notify the coordinator, Carol Paul, at caroljpaul@yahoo.com.
Many Communities, One Sangha – Sign Up Now for the 2nd Cohort
We are happy to invite all BZC members to participate in the next year of Many Communities, One Sangha, including those who have already taken part in the first session and would like to continue. The program is offered in hybrid form (both online and in person). There is a fee of $150 for new participants, which is the actual cost of the materials. Returning participants are encouraged to provide dana (voluntary donation) for Rhonda’s work with us. No one will be excluded because of inability to pay or donate.
The link to the form to sign up is: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdC9qUrqM1JW4oifgGhdJLS-sTU1NIRaajK2kvhwpKx4duIWw/viewform?usp=sf_link
Abbot’s Message: There’s Joy and Sorrow in the Family Way
In late July, after two years of studying and sewing, Hannah Meara (Kijin Seisho—Resolute Love/Clear Illumination) and Carol Paul (Shiken Seigetsu—Clear Intention/Serene Moon) completed dharma transmission/shiho, marking the maturity of their practice and their position as fully ordained Soto priests. Transmission also acknowledges their years of service to the BZC sangha, and the hope that we will benefit from more years of their practice. I was honored to officiate in these ceremonies with two women I admire. It was a moment of great joy for me, for the sangha, and for Hannah and Carol. I imagine they are still coming down from it all, and it will take some time to understand and absorb what took place.
Late last year Zenshin Greg Fain asked if he might transmit one of his students at BZC—Curtis Fabens (Daishi Zenkai—Great Resolve/Complete Openness). Because I feel that this zendo and community is available to all of Sojun Roshi’s students, I invited Greg to join this transmission group here at his home temple, which he did. Curtis arrived for opening ceremonies on Sunday, July 23. This was our first meeting, but there was an immediate connection for all of us involved in the week of ceremonies. Limited by chronic illness, Curtis got wonderful help from BZC sangha members doing the transmission document calligraphy—copying the ancestor’s names with brush and ink on six-foot pieces of silk. There was joy for all of us—Curtis, Hannah, Carol, Greg, and all the many hands assisting with the successful completion of all three transmissions on Saturday the 29th.
Less than two weeks later we were shaken to learn that Curtis died unexpectedly on Thursday, August 10. We have since learned that he died in his sleep of complications from his serious chronic health issues. The sorrow and loss experienced by his wife Caitlin and young daughter Layla is unimaginable. Our sangha is likewise sorrowed to lose a friend we had just come to know in our close time together.
In an article on dharma transmission, scholar William Bodiford points out the ancestral and family structure of our Zen tradition, expressing the Confucian roots of Zen carried from China to Japan, and now to us in the West. Bodiford’s essay cites the work of another scholar, John Jorgenson, and reflects further:
[Zen] is Confucian because it conforms to traditional Chinese family values. Like any good Confucian family, it has ancestors whom it honors. It honors those ancestors by transmitting their legacy to proper descendants, from generation to generation, who will maintain and carry on their family traditions. We can complete Jorgensen’s explanation by saying that in Zen this process of transmitting a family legacy is given structural form through the ritual of dharma transmission. If we consider Zen dharma transmission as an expression of Chinese social norms for family structure and for the proper behavior of familial heirs, then several key features seem to apply equally to family relationships within secular society and within dharma lineages. (https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Bodiford-transmission-ZenRitual.pdf)
We see this in the ceremonies of dharma transmission, in our lay and priest ordinations, and in the regular chanting of our Soto lineage and women ancestors. And, of course, we feel this in the quality of sangha and the “family way” of our practice, carefully preserved and passed on when new people come to practice with us. Countless times Sojun Roshi shared the family stories of his experience with Suzuki Roshi, his other Japanese teachers, and his dharma sisters and brothers from early days. This was the family legacy he gave us.
Reflecting on the joyous completion of these transmissions and on the piercing loss of our new friend and brother, I realize that just like our life in full, the intimate bonds of spiritual family are marked by joy and sorrow, by gain and loss. This is the nature of things “as it is.” For quite a few of us at BZC, Zen practice continues to unfold over decades. The price of our intimate practice is to bear all that comes our way. We celebrate the arrival of young practitioners who bring energy to the community. We celebrate the milestones of each other’s lives. We do all that we can to help each other through the trials of aging, sickness, and death—the whole catastrophe. We are grateful to have this family way to meet life day by day, moment by moment.
—Hozan Alan Senauke
Note: If you wish to know more about the dharma transmission ceremony and its meaning in our practice tradition, you can listen to my BZC lecture from July 22, where I go into greater detail: https://berkeleyzencenter.org/dharma-talk/on-dharma-transmission. Also, Hannah, Carol, and Curtis together gave a lovely talk about their transmission experience the following week: https://berkeleyzencenter.org/dharma-talk/hannah-meara-carol-paul-curtis-fabens-what-is-dharma-transmission.
IN-PERSON ZAZEN IN GENERAL
If you are interested in attending in person zazen, please send your vax and booster information to the Office Manager – bzcofficemanager@gmail.com – AT LEAST ONE WEEK BEFORE YOU ATTEND (if sooner than that, also bring your vax card and ID with you). You need to send it in by email, even if you have shown your card to the monitor.
IF YOU TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID within two days of being here, please notify the coordinator, Carol Paul, at caroljpaul@yahoo.com.