Author: TetsuGen KeiDo

Please have a safe and enjoyable holiday. In the USA we tend to pair the Sejiki ceremony (unlike the timing in Japan) with this holiday, for Issan-ji temple this year we will feed the hungry ghosts at a future date. Please have a spooky good time this weekend and join us as often as possible.

Here is a fun video on the history of Halloween and its evolution and sources that became the holiday we know today.

Save the date; Arrange the time off from daily home, work and market life:

evening of December 2nd through December 5th mid-day

For the 2021 retreat we will be offering a hybrid of the 2020 Winter Light Retreat which was reduced sittings for zoom attendance (with a provided guide and full schedule to build the full retreat and home zendo space, at home), combined with in person attendance – for fully vaccinated individuals- and more sittings.

We will have zoom presence for remote attendance similar to last year. We are finalizing the schedule and offerings that will be included. We will communicate more details and your options and ways to join by mid-November 2021.

We hope you will join us for this rare annual event to remove yourself from daily life and get a more robust and deep practice opportunity.

Stay tuned in email for another announcement in a few weeks and on hszc.org or our facebook page for more info. 

Suggested Attendance is $40 per day – or – an amount of your own choosing, or you can afford.

Peter was ordained by Richard Baker in 1975 and practiced at Zen Center in San Francisco, Tassajara and Green Gulch, returning to the market place in 1983 to establish a construction company and support his family. Prior to his arrival at Zen Center in 1972, he was practicing the solitary path of unguided meditation and rough carpentry in Zuni, New Mexico, Boston, Massachusetts, and Custer, South Dakota. He joined the Everyday Zen Community in 2001, and was the first Bay Area Shuso.

Since receiving transmission from Norman in 2011, He has been exploring the challenges and opportunities that poses, with the intention to extend his practice and support to others.

A few years ago he discovered an old Basque boarding house in the old North End of Boise, Idaho. He renovated one of the existing units and extended the new space up into the attic level, which required the removal of the roof and sagging rafters and reinforcing the existing structure. The new attic Zendo and guest space is light and warm, with a view to the south which includes several old church spires and part of the city center. Boise has several Buddhist groups, and he has connected with the Floating Cloud Sangha, who now have a place to meet, study and hold half day sittings, called The 7th Street Zendo. They can be located on the web at 7thStreetZendo.org

In San Francisco, located less than three blocks from Zen Center, he and others created The Oak Street Zendo, which offers a daily morning schedule, as well as classes and half day sittings on a semi regular basis, since it’s dedication in January 2015.  The power and engagement of group sitting and study has formed the core of his activity, both within and without the Everyday Zen practice calendar. On the web, they are located at OakStreetZendo.org.

Join us for zazen (seated meditation), with the talk to follow, we offer in-person distanced attendance for those vaccinated fully + 2 weeks; We also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. 9:30 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) for 40 minutes and a Dharma talk at 10:25am, followed by Q&A as well as an opportunity to check in and see how you are doing. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering.

Masking requirements will be eased on October 15, as COVID-19 cases recede San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed and the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) announced that so long as case and hospitalization rates remain stable or decline, indoor masking requirements will be lifted on October 15 in certain, limited settings.

This includes places where stable cohorts of fully vaccinated individuals gather, and where other safety measures are followed.

These settings include religious gatherings, offices, gyms, and fitness centers, employee commuter vehicles, and indoor college classes or other organized gatherings of individuals who meet regularly, not exceeding 100 people.

Daruma-san, a round red-colored doll, is known as a good-luck talisman associated with temples and shrines.

The good fortune associated with Bodhidharma (Daruma) comes from the legend that no matter how many times Bodhidharma fell down he would always get up.

In the areas where silk worms are cultivated, there is a custom of painting in one of the eyes on the Daruma doll if the worms produce much silk thread in spring and painting in the other one of Daruma’s eyes if the worms produced much silk thread in autumn.

Bodhidharma, the inspiration for the Daruma doll, was originally one of the ancestral teachers of The Soto Zen School. He was the first Ancestors of Zen in China and also known as Bodai Daruma Daishi.

The red Daruma doll seen throughout Japan was originally modeled on this great teacher who sat facing a wall unflinchingly for nine years and lived to the old age of 150.

Bodhidharma died on October 5th and this is the date on which his death is generally commemorated. Early autumn is the harvest time in Japan and also the time when the autumn silkworm is cultivated. For this reason, this ceremony includes our feeling of gratitude to Bodhidharma as well as a prayer for a good harvest in the next year. There is also the wish expressed that those who participate in the ceremony will enjoy a long life.

Please join us Saturday for this memorial after the Dharma talk, to join visit here

We will thank our dear founder of our temple, little Zen community and space and remember him for those who knew him. after the talk on Saturday.

Please join us

Master Dōgen (1200-1253 C.E.) brought the Sōtō branch of Zen Buddhism to Japan after his 1223 visit to China. Master Keizan (1268-1325 C.E) initiated the great social development of the Sōtō sect throughout Japan. Thanks in large part to these individuals, Sōtō Zen Buddhism has gained great popularity in Japan and throughout the world.

For the lay believers of Sōtō-shu, it can be said that Dōgen Zenji and Keizan Zenji are, in terms of their faith, like father and mother.

By the Eastern calendar, Dōgen Zenji died on August 28, 1253 at the age of 53 and Keizan Zenji died on August 15, 1325 at the age of 58. According to the Western calendar, both of these dates fall on September 29th. On this day, a ceremony called Ryosoki is respectfully held at Sōto-shu temples to honor these two important ancestors.

Click here for details to join us