Please join us online as we welcome in the new year using east coast times! The event will start at 7:30pm PT and wrap up 9pm PT which is midnight at times square where people in past year’s gathered to watch the crystal ball usher in a new year. Below are our details including how to make the traditional noodles like we served in past years at issan-ji temple/hszc when we could gather in-person—
We wish you all a happy holiday season and hope that despite the difficulties of 2020 you find peace, joy and love alongside good health for you and yours whether you celebrate a winter holiday or do not.
Please note Issan-ji Temple/HSZC will not be online on Saturday December 26th the day after the christian/national holiday, or on Saturday 02 January 2021. We will see you Wednesday the 30th for the next practice opportunity followed by our East Coast timing New Years eve event at 7:30pm through 9pm PT. Our Saturday online events will resume on 09 January 2021, with folks invited to begin gathering at 9:00am.
Daigan began Buddhist practice in 1995 as a Vipassana practitioner, and began to study Zen in 2003 with Ryushin Paul Haller. He received Lay Ordination in 2006 and Priest Ordination in 2011 and lived at San Francisco Zen Center properties a number of years.
His work and practice include many hours devoted to community service as one of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (since 1995) and a volunteer caregiver with Zen Hospice Project (since 2003). He has spoken nationwide on sex, sexuality, queer identity, and gender and has sat on a number of boards of community organizations serving marginalized communities. He has lectured at colleges as well as conferences and is featured in Sex, Sin and Zen by Brad Warner.
Saturday mornings we offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. 9:25 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) and a Dharma talk at ~9:45am, 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.
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.
Saturday mornings we offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. 9:25 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) and a Dharma talk at ~9:45am, 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.
Please join us for the Winter Light Retreat Dec 4-6! The details are here. We also wanted to announce that on Saturday December 5th at 6pm we invite not only our retreat attendees, but all to join us for a Metta service or practice lead by Rev. Myō, our Abbot. It has been a turbulent year for many in 2020 and this is a great opportunity to hold the world in our hearts and generate loving kindness for all.
Please join us for this Metta service during the Winter Light Retreat and the retreat itself as your schedule and life allows.
As we navigate the ongoing pandemic, social and political change, within the Issan-ji temple walls the Hartford Street Zen Center Winter Light Retreat Sesshin will begin Friday, December 4th, including the Rohatsu celebration/ceremony; and concludes on Sunday, December 6th, mid-day. Thursday the 3rd of December evening there will be an orientation as well.
We offer this schedule to join and are sharing the full routine schedule you’ve known in the past and some suggestions for creating your at home sacred Zendo and Buddha hall space. You can apply more retreat time, self directed, using our usual schedule, or follow our in-temple retreat schedule for 2020 and in both cases please join us online when Issan-ji resident students and priests log on.
As always, the Hartford Street Zen Center relies on both your participation, but also your generous donations. We know we aren’t providing space and food this year to the community, but we still humbly request your generosity for this annual event.
Suggested Virtual Attendance is $30 per day – or – an amount of your own choosing.
Login links for virtual attendance: * Thursday night instruction 7:30pm through 8:30pm– click here
* Friday, Saturday 6am through 7amService/Chanting – click here
* Friday, Saturday 10:15am through 11:50amChanting – click here ***Talk will begin at 10:30am***
*Friday, Saturday 6pm through 8:30pmRefuges– click here
* Sunday 6am through 12 noon (6am-7am service, 10:15am to 11:40am preparation and then Bodhi day ceremony, but zoom open whole entire 6am to noon time slot) – click here Chant book pages for Service/Chanting here (updated 12/5/2020 @noon)
Rev. Heather Shoren Iarusso first moved to Tassajara in June 2008 thinking she’d stay for six months. Her spiritual sabbatical morphed into a way of life, residing amid the peace and beauty of the monastic valley for seven years aggregate. Heather was ordained as a Zen Priest in October 2015 by Teah Strozer, who served as the guiding teacher for Brooklyn Zen Center (BZC) for many years. Heather worked at BZC for two years as the Ino (Head of Meditation Hall), program director, communications coordinator, and the interim executive director.
Heather has served in various practice roles at Tassajara including the Ino, Tenzo (Head Cook), Shika (Guest Manager), and the Shuso (Head Student) with their Senior Dharma Teacher Paul Haller. She’s completed twelve, 90-day practice periods at Tassajara and has also participated in meditation intensives with Pema Chodron, Tenshin Reb Anderson Roshi, Shohaku Okumura Roshi, and Shodo Harada Roshi. Heather holds master’s degrees in communications, creative writing, and English literature.
Saturday mornings we offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. 9:25 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) and a Dharma talk at ~9:45am, 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.
