Zendo Holiday - Informal Zazen Only
6:00 am – 6:30 pm
Mon, Jan 1, 2024
Times for informal zazen to be announced.
6:00 am – 6:30 pm
Mon, Jan 1, 2024
Times for informal zazen to be announced.
5:40 pm – 6:25 pm
Fri, Jan 5, 2024
BZC schedules a Way-Seeking Mind Talk on the First Friday afternoon of each month. The talk, followed by Q&A, begins at 5:45pm after five minutes of zazen and runs until 6:25pm. Please note, our First Friday afternoon WSM Talks are online only. The zendo is closed for in person Zazen on the First Friday of the month.
10:15 am – 11:15 am
Sat, Jan 6, 2024
8:00 am – 12:00 pm
Sun, Jan 7, 2024
Half-Day Sitting - There will be a half-day sitting at BZC’s zendo on Sunday, January 7, from 8:00 a.m. to noon. We will have five periods of sitting and kinhin, with a water break in the middle. This is a nice, quiet way to begin the day, and all are welcome.
Zazen will be physically distanced, with a capacity of 31 people sitting in the zendo. For the present masks are optional. Please submit your vaccination information to the BZC Office Manager (bzcofficemanager@gmail.com) if you have not done so. Otherwise, bring your proof of vaccination card.
Windows will be open, so dress warmly, according to the weather. A monitor will be at the zendo door, checking the list of vaccination-registered members. Please note that should we experience another wave of Covid, any or all of these protocols will be revised.
Suggested donation is $10.
Sign up by emailing the Director Gary Artim at gartim@gmail.com
10:15 am – 11:15 am
Sat, Jan 13, 2024
Saturday Morning Schedule
All day
Mon, Jan 15, 2024
(except for MLK Program: 8:30‒11:30am)
8:30 am – 11:30 am
Mon, Jan 15, 2024
On Monday, January 15, BZC will
commemorate the Martin Luther King, Jr
holiday with an 8:30‒11:30 morning of zazen,
reflection, and neighborhood service. The
day’s program is still under development, but
our tentative schedule is:
• 8:30‒ 9:00 am — Zazen
• 9:00‒10:00 — Reading the words of Dr.
King and discussion based on his teachings
and those of other teachers of equity and
liberation.
• 10:00 — National Karma Repentance
Ceremony, based on the Bodhisattva
Ceremony. There will be an option to include
personal repentance.
• 10:30 — Participants gather for
neighborhood work: cleaning up the traffic
barrier area on Milvia, and making bag lunches
for our unhoused neighbors.
• 11:15 — Reconvene at BZC for a closing
circle.
6:00 am – 5:30 pm
Sat, Jan 20, 2024
A one-day sesshin on Saturday, January 20, 6:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. led by David Rutschman.
Suggested donation is $35.
Two Oryoki style meals will be served.
You can sign up at the link below:
10:15 am – 11:15 am
Sat, Jan 20, 2024
Saturday Morning Schedule
8:00 am – 8:30 am
Mon, Jan 22, 2024
There will be a student talk in the online zendo right after a shorter period of zazen:
7:30 am: zazen
8:00 am: way-seeking mind talk
What is a "way-seeking mind" talk? See below.
Way-Seeking Mind at Berkeley Zen Center
“Way-Seeking Mind” talks by practitioners at Berkeley Zen Center have been a regular event on Monday mornings for more than thirty years. Each of us came to Zen practice as a seeker, with a spirit of inquiry. Each of us arrives at BZC from our own diverse backgrounds—social, familial, educational, religious, and so on. The idea of our way-seeking mind talks is for students to share how it is that 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 of us is engaged with.
The talks are by invitation, and last about twenty-five minutes, including time for presentation and short question & answer period. For newer students, this is a chance to meet and hear those we are sitting with. Those invited to talk have been sitting steadily at BZC; for them it is an opportunity to tell their story and be seen and heard. One of the teachers or senior students is available for advice in shaping one's talk, should that be useful.
10:15 am – 11:15 am
Sat, Jan 27, 2024
Saturday Morning Schedule
8:00 am – 8:30 am
Mon, Jan 29, 2024
There will be a student talk in the online zendo right after a shorter period of zazen:
7:30 am: zazen
8:00 am: way-seeking mind talk
What is a "way-seeking mind" talk? See below.
Way-Seeking Mind at Berkeley Zen Center
“Way-Seeking Mind” talks by practitioners at Berkeley Zen Center have been a regular event on Monday mornings for more than thirty years. Each of us came to Zen practice as a seeker, with a spirit of inquiry. Each of us arrives at BZC from our own diverse backgrounds—social, familial, educational, religious, and so on. The idea of our way-seeking mind talks is for students to share how it is that 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 of us is engaged with.
The talks are by invitation, and last about twenty-five minutes, including time for presentation and short question & answer period. For newer students, this is a chance to meet and hear those we are sitting with. Those invited to talk have been sitting steadily at BZC; for them it is an opportunity to tell their story and be seen and heard. One of the teachers or senior students is available for advice in shaping one's talk, should that be useful.