2023 BZC Calendar of Events
(revised, 4/26/23; subject to change; see monthly calendar below to confirm. Also note details about whether an event is hybrid, in person only, or online only.)
ASPECTS OF PRACTICE 2023 CALENDAR
Events in September 2023
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Way Seeking Mind Talk: Sherwin Yu
Way Seeking Mind Talk: Sherwin Yu
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Fri, Sep 1, 2023BZC 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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Lecture: Raul Moncayo
Lecture: Raul Moncayo
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Sat, Sep 2, 2023Saturday 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
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Zendo Holiday - Informal Zazen Only
Zendo Holiday - Informal Zazen Only
All day
Mon, Sep 4, 2023In 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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Wednesday Night Drop-in Sitting and Study
Wednesday Night Drop-in Sitting and Study
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Wed, Sep 6, 2023The 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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Lecture: Abbot Hozan
Lecture: Abbot Hozan
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Sat, Sep 9, 2023Special 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.
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Open Discussion
Open Discussion
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Mon, Sep 11, 20237:30 am: zazen
8:00 am: open discussion -
Wednesday Night Drop-in Sitting and Study
Wednesday Night Drop-in Sitting and Study
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Wed, Sep 13, 2023The 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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Lecture: Laurie Senauke
Lecture: Laurie Senauke
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Sat, Sep 16, 2023Saturday 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
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All Sangha Meeting (Online) and Board Nominations
All Sangha Meeting (Online) and Board Nominations
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Sun, Sep 17, 2023An 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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Way Seeking Mind Talk: Charley Ware
Way Seeking Mind Talk: Charley Ware
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Mon, Sep 18, 2023There 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 talkWhat 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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Wednesday Night Drop-in Sitting and Study
Wednesday Night Drop-in Sitting and Study
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Wed, Sep 20, 2023The 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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Class: What is a Good Life
Class: What is a Good Life
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Thu, Sep 21, 2023Berkeley 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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Special Speaker - Rev Ikeda from Japan
Special Speaker - Rev Ikeda from Japan
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Fri, Sep 22, 2023Join 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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One-Day Study Sesshin - Instructions for the Zen Cook
One-Day Study Sesshin - Instructions for the Zen Cook
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Sat, Sep 23, 2023We 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 Center1931 Russell StreetBerkeley, CA 94703Attention: Office Manager, Helen ChengAdditional 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 HozanLecture: Abbot Hozan
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Sat, Sep 23, 2023Sesshin in session at this time.
Only the lecture available via Zoom at: 10:15 AM
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Way Seeking Mind Talk: Zachary Sherman
Way Seeking Mind Talk: Zachary Sherman
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Mon, Sep 25, 2023There 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 talkWhat 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.
-
Wednesday Night Drop-in Sitting and Study
Wednesday Night Drop-in Sitting and Study
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Wed, Sep 27, 2023The 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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Class: What is a Good Life
Class: What is a Good Life
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Thu, Sep 28, 2023Berkeley 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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Lecture: Ellen Webb
Lecture: Ellen Webb
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Sat, Sep 30, 2023Saturday 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