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Fri, Sep 1, 2023
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.
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Sat, Sep 2, 2023
Saturday Morning Schedule
All day
Mon, Sep 4, 2023
In honor of Labor Day, there will be no formal program today. Informal zazen only at the following times:
Online: 7:30 am to 8:10 am
In person: noon to 12:30 pm
In person: 5:40 to 6:20 pm
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Wed, Sep 6, 2023
The Wednesday Drop-in group is a weekly event, now in person, that goes from 7:10 to 9:00 PM. It includes a 30-minute period of Zazen meditation and a brief service in the zendo, followed by tea and refreshments and an hour of reading and discussion in the Community Room. The group particularly welcomes newcomers to Zen Buddhist practice and/or new to Berkeley Zen Center. It also provides an opportunity for practitioners to sit and study together on an ongoing basis. We meet every Wednesday except for the five-day Spring Practice Period sesshin(retreat) in June, the annual seven-day Buddha’s Enlightenment sesshin in December and during the two-week interim period during the December holidays. We also maintain a google group to share reading materials we are studying, announce other BZC events and issues related to logistics. The groups is facilitated by a BZC Priest, Ikushin Gerry Oliva. Gerry can be contacted at gryoliva@gmail.com for further information.
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Sat, Sep 9, 2023
Special Schedule for New Member Entering Ceremony
7:35am Work Period*
8:30am Zazen
9:10am Outdoor Kinhin
9:20am New Member Entering Ceremony
10:05am Outdoor Kinhin
10:15am Lecture
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Wed, Sep 13, 2023
The Wednesday Drop-in group is a weekly event, now in person, that goes from 7:10 to 9:00 PM. It includes a 30-minute period of Zazen meditation and a brief service in the zendo, followed by tea and refreshments and an hour of reading and discussion in the Community Room. The group particularly welcomes newcomers to Zen Buddhist practice and/or new to Berkeley Zen Center. It also provides an opportunity for practitioners to sit and study together on an ongoing basis. We meet every Wednesday except for the five-day Spring Practice Period sesshin(retreat) in June, the annual seven-day Buddha’s Enlightenment sesshin in December and during the two-week interim period during the December holidays. We also maintain a google group to share reading materials we are studying, announce other BZC events and issues related to logistics. The groups is facilitated by a BZC Priest, Ikushin Gerry Oliva. Gerry can be contacted at gryoliva@gmail.com for further information.
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Sat, Sep 16, 2023
Saturday Morning Schedule
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Sun, Sep 17, 2023
An all-sangha meeting will be held in the online zendo on Sunday, September 17, at 7:00 p.m., which will include nominations for the BZC Board. Each year the sangha affirms three of its six members-at-large for two-year terms to the BZC Board. Board members may serve a maximum of two consecutive terms. Elections take place in October and the new term starts in January 2024.
This year two of the three members whose first term is ending (Ellen Webb and Dan Jackson) will be running for a second term. Jonathan Koltz will be added to the ballot to serve beginning January 2024 (replacing Penelope Thompson). BZC members will have the opportunity to affirm all three in an online ballot process in October. (The at-large members who are in the middle of their terms are Fulani Offutt, Heather Sarantis, and Rob Walker.)
This year the ballot will also include two proposed new officers to be affirmed by sangha: Rob Lyons has been invited to be the new Vice President (current VP is Hannah Meara) and Erna Andre has been invited to be the new Treasurer (currently Laurie Senauke).
On that ballot, the members will also have the opportunity to affirm the three salaried positions at BZC: Abbot, Office Manager, and Archive and Media Assistant.
This year there will also be a small bylaw change presented to the sangha at the meeting and on the ballot, regarding the eligibility requirements for officers. Stay tuned for details!
If you would like to nominate someone to serve on the Board, please pass their name on to Ellen Webb (BZC Nominations and Elections Committee). We are always interested in potential Board members!
A great deal of care, time, and commitment has been put into the nominating process to make it as fair and unbiased as possible.
All BZC members and friends are invited to attend the sangha meeting. Please join us for this important conversation.
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Mon, Sep 18, 2023
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.
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Wed, Sep 20, 2023
The Wednesday Drop-in group is a weekly event, now in person, that goes from 7:10 to 9:00 PM. It includes a 30-minute period of Zazen meditation and a brief service in the zendo, followed by tea and refreshments and an hour of reading and discussion in the Community Room. The group particularly welcomes newcomers to Zen Buddhist practice and/or new to Berkeley Zen Center. It also provides an opportunity for practitioners to sit and study together on an ongoing basis. We meet every Wednesday except for the five-day Spring Practice Period sesshin(retreat) in June, the annual seven-day Buddha’s Enlightenment sesshin in December and during the two-week interim period during the December holidays. We also maintain a google group to share reading materials we are studying, announce other BZC events and issues related to logistics. The groups is facilitated by a BZC Priest, Ikushin Gerry Oliva. Gerry can be contacted at gryoliva@gmail.com for further information.
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Thu, Sep 21, 2023
Berkeley Zen Center is pleased to host Shaykh Yassir Chadly for a 3-session dialogue with Abbot Hozan about “a good life” in our respective Sufi and Zen traditions.
Please register at https://forms.gle/WTS5VK9PFNo9PeSz5
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Fri, Sep 22, 2023
Join us as we welcome a special guest from Soto headquarters in Japan: Rev. Kosai Ikeda.
In person in the zendo and at the BZC zendo Zoom link
BZC welcomes Rev. Kosai Ikeda offering a dharma talk on “Practicing the Buddha Way Wherever and Whenever.” Rev. Ikeda comes to us as a “special dispensation teacher” from Soto Zen headquarters in Japan. He graduated from College of San Mateo, trained at Eiheiji, and is currently abbot of Kenryu-ji temple in Yamagata prefecture.
For the last fifteen years he has been serving as a Buddhist chaplain of the local correctional facility, helping inmates with their rehabilitation and re-entry programs. Rev. Ikeda has also been teaching kendo, the way of the sword, to high school students in his region. He writes:
It is a great honor for me to visit temples overseas for the first time on behalf of the head priest of Soto Zen school in Japan. I hope you will kindly accept me as a sangha friend who shares the same aspiration. I will certainly do my very best to share my talk in English but, admittedly, it would take our mutual effort, patience, imagination, open mind, and kindness to share the deep meaning of the talk. I hope we can make the most of this opportunity as a practice opportunity for each other and learn from each other.
This talk will be in a hybrid format—in-person in the zendo and available on Zoom. Please join us on this special occasion.
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Sat, Sep 23, 2023
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Sat, Sep 23, 2023
Sesshin in session at this time.
Only the lecture available via Zoom at: 10:15 AM
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Mon, Sep 25, 2023
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.
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Wed, Sep 27, 2023
The Wednesday Drop-in group is a weekly event, now in person, that goes from 7:10 to 9:00 PM. It includes a 30-minute period of Zazen meditation and a brief service in the zendo, followed by tea and refreshments and an hour of reading and discussion in the Community Room. The group particularly welcomes newcomers to Zen Buddhist practice and/or new to Berkeley Zen Center. It also provides an opportunity for practitioners to sit and study together on an ongoing basis. We meet every Wednesday except for the five-day Spring Practice Period sesshin(retreat) in June, the annual seven-day Buddha’s Enlightenment sesshin in December and during the two-week interim period during the December holidays. We also maintain a google group to share reading materials we are studying, announce other BZC events and issues related to logistics. The groups is facilitated by a BZC Priest, Ikushin Gerry Oliva. Gerry can be contacted at gryoliva@gmail.com for further information.
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Thu, Sep 28, 2023
Berkeley Zen Center is pleased to host Shaykh Yassir Chadly for a 3-session dialogue with Abbot Hozan about “a good life” in our respective Sufi and Zen traditions.
Please register at https://forms.gle/WTS5VK9PFNo9PeSz5
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Sat, Sep 30, 2023
Saturday Morning Schedule