Calendar

2024 BZC Calendar of Events

Weekly Schedule

Events in September 2023

  • Way Seeking Mind Talk: Sherwin Yu

    Way Seeking Mind Talk: Sherwin Yu


    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.

     

  • Lecture: Raul Moncayo

    Lecture: Raul Moncayo


    Sat, Sep 2, 2023

    Saturday Morning Schedule

    • Zendo opens:       8:30 am
    • Zazen:                      8:40 – 9:20
    • Service:                   9:20 – 9:30
    • Kinhin/break       9:30  – 9:40
    • Zazen:                      9:40 – 10:10
    • Lecture:                  10:15 – 11:15
  • Zendo Holiday - Informal Zazen Only

    Zendo Holiday - Informal Zazen Only

    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

  • Lecture: Abbot Hozan

    Lecture: Abbot Hozan


    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

    • *It is helpful for the Work Leader if you arrive by 7:30am. This allows time to arrange for duties to be assigned.

     

  • Open Discussion

    Open Discussion


    Mon, Sep 11, 2023

    7:30 am: zazen
    8:00 am: open discussion

  • Lecture: Laurie Senauke

    Lecture: Laurie Senauke


    Sat, Sep 16, 2023

    Saturday Morning Schedule

    • Temple cleaning:  7:35 – 8:10 (in person)
    • Zazen:                        8:30 – 9:10
    • Service:                      9:10 – 9:30
    • Kinhin:                       9:30  – 9:40
    • Zazen:                        9:40 – 10:10
    • Kinhin/break         10:10 – 10:15
    • Lecture:                   10:15 – 11:15

     

  • All Sangha Meeting (Online) and Board Nominations

    All Sangha Meeting (Online) and Board Nominations


    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.

  • Way Seeking Mind Talk: Charley Ware

    Way Seeking Mind Talk: Charley Ware


    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.

  • Class: What is a Good Life

    Class: What is a Good Life


    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

    Details

  • Special Speaker - Rev Ikeda from Japan

    Special Speaker - Rev Ikeda from Japan


    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.

  • One-Day Study Sesshin - Instructions for the Zen Cook

    One-Day Study Sesshin - Instructions for the Zen Cook


    Sat, Sep 23, 2023

    We invite you to join us for a One-Day Study Sesshin at Berkeley Zen Center, Saturday, September 23, from 7:50 AM to 5:30 PM. This study sesshin will be led by Hozan Alan Senauke, and will focus on Dogen’s Tenzo Kyokun/ Instructions to the Cook.
    1.  Deadline to sign up is Noon on Thursday, September 21.  In-person attendance will be limited to 33 people.  Those who sign up after we reach the 33-person limit will be placed on a waiting list.
    SIGN UP BY CLICKING HERE:
    PLEASE NOTE: THIS SESSHIN WILL NOT BE OFFERED ONLINE.
    For all sesshin attendees, proof of vaccination and booster shots are required to participate.  Indoor masking is now optional, but social distancing protocols will still be observed.
    Lunch will be served outdoors at tables in the courtyard, using a modified oryoki form.  There will be an instruction in eating oryoki during the 2nd period of zazen that day; a set of oryoki bowls to purchase will be available at that time.
    We will have a short work period, so please bring work clothes you can change into.
    Neither dokusan nor practice discussion will be offered during this study sesshin.
    The sesshin fee is $25 for in-person attendees (or whatever you can afford).  You may pay online, or you can send a check to BZC at:

     

    Berkeley Zen Center
    1931 Russell Street
    Berkeley, CA 94703
    Attention:  Office Manager, Helen Cheng
    Additional donations may be made at https://berkeleyzencenter.org/support-bzc/.
    If you have questions, please contact the Sesshin Director, Rob Lyons at dharmawork@yahoo.com.
    Lecture: Abbot Hozan

    Lecture: Abbot Hozan


    Sat, Sep 23, 2023

    Sesshin in session at this time.

    Only the lecture available via Zoom at: 10:15 AM

  • Way Seeking Mind Talk: Zachary Sherman

    Way Seeking Mind Talk: Zachary Sherman


    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.

  • Class: What is a Good Life

    Class: What is a Good Life


    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

    Details

  • Lecture: Ellen Webb

    Lecture: Ellen Webb


    Sat, Sep 30, 2023

    Saturday Morning Schedule

    • Temple cleaning:  7:35 – 8:10 (in person)
    • Zazen:                        8:30 – 9:10
    • Service:                      9:10 – 9:30
    • Kinhin:                       9:30  – 9:40
    • Zazen:                        9:40 – 10:10
    • Kinhin/break         10:10 – 10:15
    • Lecture:                   10:15 – 11:15