Author: TetsuGen KeiDo

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Jan 7, 2017 – Jukai lay initiation ceremony @11am

Two of our dear and beloved Sangha members will have a Jukai (lay initiation) receiving of precepts ceremony immediately following the Saturday morning Dharma talk. This public ceremony is to celebrate and formally mark a practitioner receiving the sixteen Bodhisattva precepts (3 refuges, 3 pure precepts, 10 essential precepts) and vowing to work to live their life in accordance with these precepts.

Please join us for this wonderful event to celebrate Ben and Richard’s vows, renew our own, to congratulate Richard, Ben and all on the Soto Zen path!

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New Year 2017! join us Dec 31! starting at 7:30pm

Join us for an evening event kicking off at 7:30pm Dec 31 and taking us into 12am Jan 1 2017! please note: we will be closed on Jan 31st until ~7pm.

IMG_1981There’ll be some soji or traditional New Year’s temple cleaning, a light snack , zazen (seated meditation), striking our large bell 108 times, a burning ceremony of things to leave behind in 2016, and finally a toast to the new year.

Please note: There won’t be the regularly scheduled zendo events on the 31st… and we will be closed the 1st of January (We will additionally observe Chinese new year and goals set with a new Daruma, as we have been the past few years along with joss offerings to those beyond our visible realm for the year of the Rooster early February).

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Sat, Dec 17 @10:15am; Guest Speaker Koshin, Steven Tierney

Please join us for a Dharma talk Next Saturday by Ko Shin Steven Tierney, Ed.D. CAS who is Professor of Counseling Psychology and

Untitled-22221Chair of the Community Mental Health Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. A certified addiction specialist, he is the Co- Founder of the San Francisco Mindfulness Foundation, providing relapse prevention and mindfulness- based services to individuals and families. Steven has been studying and practicing Buddhism for more than 20 years and was ordained by Michael Wenger on January 6, 2013. Steven’s commitment is to a community based Buddhism and he has spent the last ten years extending Buddha’s teachings to those living with addictions, in recovery and those facing serious health and mental health challenges.

Every Saturday we offer early morning zazen (seated meditation), morning service, a brief drop-in meditation instruction at 8:30 am. And again zazen at 9:25 am. We wrap up with a Dharma talk at 10:15 am and then socializing,  tea and cookies.

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26 November – Guest Speaker Sensei Elaine Donlin @ 10:15am

Sensei Elaine Donlin is a fourth-generation San Franciscan native and is so very grateful to be living in the city she loves. She was raised Catholic, attending 12 years of Catholic school, and made a conscious decision to leave the church—at 17 years of age—after struggling with Church doctrine around homosexuality, birth control, and female clergy.

15450584185_ba6a585ac9_k-2Elaine discovered Buddhism through a comparative religion course in college and thus began a 30-year journey of practice in a variety of traditions. Her home is in Jodo Shinshu, a Pure Land Buddhist tradition.  Since 2008 she has been teaching “Essentials of Buddhism” courses at Buddhist Church of San Francisco (BCSF) serves at several Buddhist Church locations and serves as the Buddhist Community Clergy Chaplain for several SF hospitals. Elaine is an ordained priest serving the Resident Minister at BCSF.

Every Saturday we offer early morning zazen (seated meditation), morning service, a brief drop-in meditation instruction at 8:30 am. And again zazen at 9:25 am. We are offered a dharma talk at 10:15 am followed by tea and cookies.