Calendar

2024 BZC Calendar of Events

Weekly Schedule

Mon, Feb 26, 2024

One-Day Sesshin

One-Day Sesshin


Mon, Feb 26, 2024

One-day Sesshin.  Saturday, March 16 from 6:00 AM to 5:30 PM. The priest and speaker will be Hannah Meara.

The deadline to sign up is Noon on Thursday, March 14. 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.  Sesshins in 2024 have been fully subscribed and people have been turned away so sign up soon to guarantee a spot.

SIGN UP BY CLICKING HERE:

The sesshin will also be offered online; sign up using the same link.

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.

Breakfast and Lunch will be served in the zendo using the traditional oryoki form.  To purchase a set of oryoki bowls, check our website for a link. An oryoki refresher class will occur during the second period of zazen.

We will have a short work period, so please bring work clothes you can change into.

The sesshin fee is $35 for in-person attendees.  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, Mark Copithorne at copithorne@hotmail.com.

Way Seeking Mind Talk: Hax Baker

Way Seeking Mind Talk: Hax Baker


Mon, Feb 26, 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.