Category Archives: News

Aspects Sesshin October 14 Details and registration form

SIGN UP BY CLICKING HERE:
We invite you to join us for a One-Day Sesshin at Berkeley Zen Center, Saturday, October 14, from 6:00 AM to 5:30 PM. This sesshin will be led by Gerry Oliva, and will open our Fall Aspects of Practice Period.  (Please note the time change:  we will begin at 6:00 AM, and will include breakfast as well as lunch).
1.  Deadline to sign up is Noon on Thursday, October 12.  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: https://forms.gle/QX8JjUcDTSjtuf4k9
2. The sesshin also be offered online; you may sign up using the same link.

3. For all sesshin attendees, proof of vaccination and booster shots are required to participate.  Social distancing protocols will still be observed, but indoor masking is now optional (unless smokey conditions warrant a change).

4. Both breakfast and Lunch will be served in the zendo using a 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.

5. We will have a short work period, so please bring work clothes you can change into.
6. Dokusan will be offered by Gerry Oliva and Laurie Senauke, for both in-person and online participants.
7. The sesshin fee is $25 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, Rob Lyons at robertlyons2305@gmail.com

Aspects of Practice Class Dōgen Zenji's Genjōkōan

The class for our Aspects of Practice Period will be on Dōgen Zenji’s Genjōkōan – Actualizing the Fundamental Point.  This seminal fascicle is Dogen’s instructions about how to bring the spirit of our practice to our everyday lives.  It was written for a lay student in 1233.
The class will be offered on 4 Thursdays, October 19 and 26, November 2 and 9, 7:15 to 8:45, and will be led by 4 teams of Practice Leaders (see below for the Aspects Calendar with details about the leaders).  The class will be hybrid – both in person and online.  Please register using the link below (in addition to registering for Aspects).
Aspects Calendar

Special Guest Speaker from Japan September 22 At 5:45 pm

Welcoming Rev. Kosai Ikeda

Friday, 22 September at 5:45

In person in the zendo and in the BZC Online Zendo 

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.

Please join us on this special occasion.

What is a Good Life? Abbot Hozan in Dialogue with Shayk Yassir Chadly

On three Thursday evenings—September 21, 28 and October 5 at 7:15pm—Berkeley Zen Center is pleased to host Shaykh Yassir Chadly in dialogue with Hozan about “a good life” in our respective Sufi and Zen traditions.

Please register at https://forms.gle/WTS5VK9PFNo9PeSz5

Yassir is a Sufi imam, born in Morocco, ministering to Bay Area Islamic communities for many years. From 2002 to 2017 he taught Islamic and Sufi studies at U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union. Yassir and Hozan have been good friends since the 90s, sharing the music and wisdom of our spiritual paths. Yassir has visited and lectured at BZC several times. His warm-hearted presence is uplifting.

We can accommodate up to 35 people in the zendo itself (vaccination card required), and we will be live-streaming on Zoom as well. The suggested class fee is $30 (or whatever you can afford). For further information, contact class coordinator Ryushin Andrea Thach andrea.thach@gmail.com.

 

 

Beginners’ Sesshin October 1

Please join us for a special sitting that comes around only twice a year. This is an opportunity for new and old practitioners alike to become intimate with beginner’s mind. The sesshin will be led by Laurie Senauke and Susan Marvin. The focus will be on the basics of Suzuki Roshi’s practice: zazen, kinhin, and bowing. New students will receive clear explanations of our sometimes challenging forms, while more experienced students will have a chance to fine-tune their practice.

Here is the link to register (please be sure to read the details below):

https://forms.gle/uC7hnTD6p2GfmAtq8

The sesshin will run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 1. It will be offered in-person only (no online participation). The rhythm of the day will be similar to our regular sesshins, with shorter periods of zazen and some on-the-spot instructions. Please bring your own bag lunch (or you can purchase a lunch nearby).

The fee for this day is $15, 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
If you have questions, please contact the day’s directors, Susan Marvin (lai_hang@yahoo.com) and Laurie Senauke (lauriesenauke@gmail.com).

One-Day Study Sesshin September 23

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.

Interview with Paul Discoe

In a short Zoom chat on August 15, I asked Zengyu Paul Discoe if he had further comments to make after his BZC lecture ten days earlier. During that lecture Paul talked about his work as a temple and gate builder and his work in Japanese carpentry, as well as how he came to BZC and how he is doing in his retirement. His book Zen Architecture: The Building Process as Practice is available at our book table on Saturdays.
      In our chat Paul reviewed some of his life and work. When BZC started out on Dwight Way, Paul ran the center during Sojun’s time as shuso at Tassajara. His family had three industrial acres in Oakland. Paul housed a sangha of his own on that land, but eventually had to sell the acreage due to lack of money and energy.
      He lives with his wife Brenda in Oakland near Mills College, where they have a large vegetable garden. He also teaches via Zoom at Taigen Leighton’s Ancient Dragon Zen Gate center in Chicago.
      Paul’s teacher is Tenshin Reb Anderson at Green Gulch Farm. He is invigorated by his attendance in an ongoing class on The Flower Ornament Sutra. Paul has fatigue and mobility problems and asked Tenshin what he should do in retirement. Tenshin told him to sit by the road and talk to people. Not so many people

walk by his garden in Oakland, and BZC looks like a good place to sit and practice. We are delighted to have him with us.
      I asked Paul what he thought would be important to carry Buddhism forward. He has studied the precepts most intently the last few years and thinks they are the main thing Buddhism has to contribute to society. Precepts shape society and are an asset to society—the Eightfold Path, including right livelihood, addresses racial discrimination as well as social and economic injustice. He believes that Buddhist precepts offer a new paradigm beyond socialism and capitalism. They allow us to be one with our neighbors, and are more relevant than the focus on being as safe as possible or making the most money. Paul pondered the question of enforcing the precepts in society. If precepts or laws are broken in our society, someone might lose money. In Russia, someone might be shot. What enforces precepts in a Buddha Land?
      Paul mentioned Case 86 in the Blue Cliff Record: “The Temple Gate, the Kitchen, and Light,” which he says is most beautiful to him. The Gate is our entry to practice. The Gate focuses our attention and helps us carry out our vow to practice. If we stay for a while we have to eat as well as breathe. So the Kitchen is the power house. The Tenzo’s role is most basic. To breathe, to sit, to practice, it is necessary to eat.
      And that reminded him that it was time to cook dinner, so we stopped the discussion there.
                                                          —Sue Oehser

Sejiki—Feeding the Hungry Ghosts

On Saturday, October 28, BZC will again celebrate Sejiki, a traditional Soto Zen ceremony, calling forth and feeding hungry ghosts, spirits of the departed, and hungry ghosts within each of us. Weather permitting, the ceremony will take place outside in the courtyard with an altar filled with fruit, cakes, and other food offerings for the ghosts.  Children are welcome and participate with adults in making loud clashing sounds with noise-makers (some are provided, and you can also bring your own) so that hungry ghosts know they are very welcome. Children and adults are welcome to wear Halloween costumes (or not). Abbot Hozan will lead the ceremony with welcoming music and words.
      At this ceremony we will also read the names of all those who have died since last year’s ceremony. Please send names you wish to be included to Hannah Meara at hmeara@gmail.com.
      The talk and ceremony will start in the zendo at 10:15 a.m. All are welcome to join the work circle at 7:45 to help set up the altar.

Sangha Work Day

On Sunday, October 22, we will be having a Sangha Work Day. The day will open with coffee and pastries at 8:00 a.m., then zazen from 8:15 to 8:40 and work circle at 8:45, with work starting at 9:00. Lunch will be provided by our tenzos from noon until work circle at 12:45 p.m., and we’ll wind up with informal zazen 3:45‒4:00.
      If you would like to join us (or if you have any questions), please contact Greg Denny (greg@techsperience.org or 510- 402-8282). Please also let him know which of the following categories of work you are able to participate in: cleaning; gardening; painting; and simple carpentry or building-related tasks (possibly using tools like drills or saws). Some work may get you dirty. Dress appropriately.

Dharma Transmissions

On Friday evening, July 28, we completed the joyous ceremonies of Dharma Transmission (Shiho) with Hannah Meara (Kijin Seisho— Resolute Love/Clear Illumination) and Carol Paul (Shiken Seigetsu—Clear Intention/Serene Moon). On the same occasion Zenshin Greg  Fain completed these ceremonies with Curtis Fabens (Daishi Zenkai—Great Resolve/ Complete Openness).
Transmission recognizes the maturity of their practice as Soto Zen priests, acknowl­edging their enlightened activity within the sangha. During a week of intensive work and ceremonies, we were supported and literally nourished by dharma sisters and brothers. Bows of gratitude to Shosan Victoria Austin, Nyokai Laurie Senauke, Jean Selkirk, Judith Putnam, John Busch, Susan Marvin, Penelope Luminous Heart Thompson, Liz Horowitz, Preston Evers, Ross Blum, Helen Cheng, Sue Dunlap, and more. Thank you all.
(For more details about these cere­monies, and about the meaning of Dharma Transmis­sion, please see Abbot Hozan’s longer article at the end of this newsletter.)

Carol, Hozan, Hannah