Calendar

2024 BZC Calendar of Events

Weekly Schedule

Week of Jan 30th

  • Way Seeking Mind Talk: Myosui Erna Andre

    Way Seeking Mind Talk: Myosui Erna Andre


    Mon, Jan 30, 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.

  • Introduction to Zen Class with Abbot Hozan

    Introduction to Zen Class with Abbot Hozan


    Thu, Feb 2, 2023

    Introduction to Zen

    Hozan will offer a five-week Introduction to Zen class on Thursday evenings at 7:15, from January 12 to February 9. This class will explore the history of Zen by way of five pivotal figures in our tradition: Bodhidharma, Huineng, Tungshan, Dogen, and Suzuki Roshi. Each of these figures has left us a living legacy of Zen practice.

    Class materials will be available online and will be sent to the BZC listserve weekly. The main text will be Nelson Foster's classic book, "The Roaring Stream." A pdf of the entire book is  available by downloading from this link: https://terebess.hu/zen/roar.pdf

    Up to 30 people can be seated in person in the zendo,. The class will also be video conferenced and is available through the "Enter Zendo Here" button on the BZC home page.

    Please register here: https://forms.gle/TZb6iCSL7o47J2VY7 (paste into browser)

    For further information, contact class coordinator Ryushin Andrea Thach at andrea.thach@gmail.com. Suggested donation for the class is $50, or whatever you can afford. (She is away 1/11-1/15)

  • Way Seeking Mind Talk: Judith Ragir

    Way Seeking Mind Talk: Judith Ragir


    Fri, Feb 3, 2023

    This talk is a change of pace from our usual First Friday student talks. Byakuren Judith Ragir is a Dharma teacher in the Katagiri Roshi Zen lineage with whom she studied for 17 years. She was instrumental in founding Clouds in Water Zen Center in St. Paul, where she was the Guiding Teacher for nine years and is currently Senior Dharma Teacher Emeritus.

    Judith will speak about some of the themes of her new book, Untangling Karma; Intimate Zen Stories on Healing Trauma, interspersed with stories from the book of her personal journey of healing.

    Healing from trauma can seem daunting at times or even impossible, and yet there are psychological and spiritual guides to help the process of digesting and releasing our pain. Judith suggests that we can balance ourselves through the understanding of the ascending and descending aspects of spirituality.  Using several modalities—Buddhism, 12-step recovery programs, psychotherapy and non-violent communication—and by telling her story, Ragir weaves the possibility of a path of spiritual healing and the alchemy of transformation.

    5:40 pm: zazen
    5:45 pm: way-seeking mind talk

  • Bodhisattva Ceremony

    Bodhisattva Ceremony


    Sat, Feb 4, 2023

    Our monthly Bodhisattva Ceremony (or "full moon" - ryaku fusatsu - ceremony is based on practices going to back to the early days of Buddhism.  During the ceremony we bow and chant the Formless Repentance, Homage to Ancestors, the Four Vows, and the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts (printable version of the ceremony). The bowing and chanting is an offering up of ourselves to Buddha - the awakened nature within each of us.

    In India at the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, the monks would congregate twice a month, at the full moon and the new moon, to make public their shortcomings with respect to the precepts, and to re-avow their intention to practice the Way. We preserve this tradition by scheduling this ceremony on the Saturday nearest the full moon.

     

    Lecture: Abbot Hozan

    Lecture: Abbot Hozan


    Sat, Feb 4, 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