Thanks to generous sangha donations, major work has been completed in 1929 Russell, the apartment above the Community Room. There is now a heat pump and a complete ventilation system, including ducting, registers, and thermostat. None of this existed before. Also, those smelly and noisy gas heaters in the Community Room and apartment above have been removed, and the openings have been dry-walled.
Next on the agenda: we will begin replacing Community Room windows with secure, energy-saving double-paned windows. Since these are quite expensive, we will do a few at a time as our budget allows. Check out the photos below of work accomplished. Huge thank-yous to Greg Denny as Project Manager; to Mary Duryee for her wisdom and guidance throughout; to residents Helen Cheng and Preston Evers for their patience and collaboration during months-long preparation and several weeks of disruption during the actual work; and to Cheryl Gordon for keeping focus and preparing for the windows replacement.

The biennial Branching Streams conference was held in late September, hosted by Santa Cruz Zen Center. This year’s gathering was the best yet, a breathtaking exchange of questions, ideas, and aspirations.
Branching Streams originally started twenty years ago as an opportunity for small temples and sitting group leaders with a strong affiliation with SFZC to share experiences and to support each other. More recently, sanghas with leadership trained in the Suzuki Roshi lineage have been invited to send up to three members of their choosing, including newer practitioners and other community leaders or emerging leaders. This year only Ryushin was able to attend from BZC.
At this conference, Branching Streams adopted an “Open Space” format. Using the topic loosely defined as “Transitions,” anyone of the 60 attendees from 30+ different sanghas could raise a topic for discussion and facilitate it. Together we explored the experience of imagination and art in expressing the Dharma; engaged in an intergenerational discussion of “Why is Tassajara necessary?” (as a prerequisite for becoming a priest); shared our efforts to express “the path of the Bodhisattva” in the world; spontaneously created a ceremony for healing pain around Climate Change; and discussed neurodiversity, making sanghas accessible, aging and medical aid in dying, and much more. Former Santa Cruz poet laureate Danusha Lumiere shared her poetry and helped us write our own; we shared our no-talent talent and ended with a Fall Solstice ceremony. We left not so much with information, but filled with ideas, intimate connection, and newly imagined ways forward to create Zen in America.

Suzuki Roshi’s Japanese Zen has fully manifested its North American identity in its third generation. Perhaps you’ll see your face in the crowd at the next meeting?

Sewing your rakusu in preparation for Lay Ordination and receiving the precepts is an opportunity to deepen your practice and your relationship with the sangha. Each year, sewing-class students engage in the practice of sewing and studying the precepts together. This is how they prepare themselves to receive a rakusu/robe and a dharma name from their teacher. The sangha celebrates and supports these new bodhisattvas, affirming their aspiration for continuous practice.

Sewing classes start in the new year. Classes are open to those who have asked their teacher for permission to participate. If you are interested in participating this year, as soon as possible please speak with Abbot Hozan (in dokusan, by phone, or via Zoom) or one of BZC’s brown-robe teachers or green-rakusu teachers. After you have spoken with your teacher, contact the sewing teacher, Jean Selkirk (sewingteacher.bzc@gmail.com).

BZC Sangha Study Weeks at Tassajara
BZC was fortunate to be able to send two groups for two different weeks to Tassajara. Sangha members joined Tassajara residents for morning and evening zazen periods, meals, and the morning work period. Afternoons were open for studying together and exploring Tassajara. These were rare opportunities to experience the monastery since it was closed to guests as the result of the pandemic.

One group, led by Ryushin Thach and Susan Marvin, attended June 27–July 2 and studied Sojun Roshi’s forthcoming book, Seeing One Thing Through. Also at Tassajara that week were sangha members from Ancient Dragon Zen Gate (Chicago) and Queer Dharma, led by Tova Green and Lisa Hoffman.

The second group, attending September 5‒10, was led by Ikushin Gerry Oliva and Josu Mary Duryee, and studied Hongzhi’s Cultivating the Empty Field, translated by Taigen Dan Leighton. Sangha members from A Single Blade of Grass (Brooklyn) were also at Tassajara during that week. This was also the last week study groups were able to be at Tassajara, as the monastery transitioned into a two-week work period in preparation for the fall practice period.

As the new year approaches, the Board constituency changes. We offer a farewell and many bows of gratitude to our Vice-President Hannah Meara, our long-term Treasurer Laurie Senauke, and our member-at-large Luminous Heart Penelope Thompson. All three have contributed greatly to our sangha. Hannah has researched and initiated green energy practices; Laurie has handled and reported on our budget, overseen the Office Manager, and participated on the Finance Committee for many years; and Luminous Heart has offered her discernment and communication skills to the benefit of all.
      We are happy to welcome Rob Lyons, our current Sesshin Director and former Buildings and Grounds Manager, as incoming Vice-President. Erna Andre will be bringing her unique skills to be our new Treasurer; and former Recording Secretary Jonathan Koltz will be a new member-at-large. We are glad to welcome Simone Brumis as our incoming Recording Secretary.
      And finally, much gratitude to Dan Jackson and Ellen Webb, who will begin their second two-year terms as at-large members.

As in the past, BZC will host a New Year’s Eve celebration consisting of an evening of zazen followed by a bonfire and refreshments on the patio. Details will be finalized closer to the event, but we anticipate zazen in both the zendo and the online zendo. Late in the evening those present can take turns ringing the densho bell for a total of 108 times. At midnight we will chant the Heart Sutra and then gather outside to read and place in the bonfire the names of those who have died this year. Refreshments will be served and good wishes shared all around.
      If you wish to add names to the list, please contact Zendo Manager Preston Evers at prestonevers13@gmail.com.

Sojun Roshi’s new book—Seeing One Thing Through: The Zen Life and Teachings of Sojun Mel Weitsman—is scheduled for publication by Counterpoint Press on December 12. The book, lovingly assembled over the last several years by Sojun with editorial support by Ron Nestor, Kika Hellein, Raghav Bandla, Ryushin Andrea Thach, and other sangha members, features a memoir and a rich collection of edited dharma talks.
      Advance reviews have been very positive. To quote from just one, Joie Szu-Chiao Chen in Buddhadharma writes:

“. . . remarkable wisdom of a humble life of practice. Weitsman’s remembrances are full of charm and told without pretension, and his teachings, too, are without frills, going straight to the point and to the heart.”

Though we won’t have copies of the book here at BZC until December, when they will become available in stores, you can place advance orders at one of the online booksellers. (See the book cover and ordering information on the next page.)
                           

Order from Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-One-Thing-Through-Teachings/dp/1640096191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2OSZAXACCU11C&keywords=seeing+one+thing+through&qid=1697472386&sprefix=seeing+one+thing+through%2Caps%2C198&sr=8-1

Order from Bookshop.org:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/seeing-one-thing-through-the-zen-life-and-teachings-of-sojun-mel-weitsman-mel-weitzman/19866570?ean=9781640096196

3. 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.

4. 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.  For further information please contact Ellen Webb at elweb@sbcglobal.net.

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.