Author: TetsuGen KeiDo

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26 September Full Moon Ceremony

full moon ceremony – saturday, Sept 26 @11am: Harvest Moon 2015 –  is a big event! It brings the nearest Supermoon of the year and a total lunar eclipse that will be visible across North America!harvest_moon

This year, the Full Moon is a “perigee” Moon—which means that the day the Full Moon rises happens to also coincide with the day when the Moon is nearest to Earth in its orbit.

A recent popular tern for a “perigee” full Moon is a “Supermoon.”  A bit catchier, perhaps?September’s Supermoon is ALSO the nearest Supermoon of the entire year. It will appear as the largest and brightest Moon of the year.When this happens, there are some physical effects, such as elevated tides.

Further, the year’s BEST lunar eclipse for North America unfolds on the 27th! Totality begins at 10:11 P.M. (ET) and ends at 11:24 P.M. (ET). See this Eclipse page for more information. This full moon’s name is attributed to Native Americans because it marked when corn was supposed to be harvested. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice the chief Indian staples are now ready for gathering.

This is thus our renewal of our Bodhisattva vows this upcoming Saturday morning after the Saturday Morning Dharma talk.

The ceremony takes about a half-hour and involves some thirty full prostrations, but simple standing bows are also all right if prostrations are too strenuous. All are welcome to join in this ceremony/celebration.

Every Saturday we offer early morning zazen (seated meditation), morning service, a brief drop-in meditation instruction at 8:30am. And again zazen at 9:25 am. We wrap up with a dharma talk at 10:15am followed by ceremony when applicable and then right to social time, tea and cookies. Please join us!

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19 Sept @10:15am – Guest Speaker Anshi Daigi, Zachary Smith

Saturday, Sept 19 @ 10:15am – Guest speaker: sticker375x360, has been practicing since 1993. He took jukai in 1995 and was shuso in 2007 under Abbot Paul Haller, who ordained him as a priest in 2014. He currently directs North Mountain Zendo, a zazenkai group in North Beach.

In addition to his involvement with Zen, Zachary is a husband and father (of 4), an engineer, a musician, a bike fanatic, and an avid but mediocre poet. He may be the only person in the history of Zen in the West to have interrupted a residential practice period to tour with a rock band.

Every Saturday we offer early morning zazen (seated meditation), 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 followed by tea and cookies. Please join us!

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12 September 2015 – Guest Speaker, Peter van der Sterre @10:15am

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 21establish a construction company and support his family. Prior to his arrival at Zen Center in 1971, he was practicing the solitary path of unguided meditation and rough carpentry in Zuni New Mexico, Bolton Mass. and Custer South Dakota. In addition to the exquisite geography, his practice in those years was influenced by his extended family, good friends and the work of Castenada, Gurdieff and Ouspensky. He was Shuso with Everyday Zen in San Francisco two years ago this past October.

His live/work history with Zen Center began with kitchen practice of the “getting to know you” school, followed by stone wall building at Tassajara, with tours in the treasury, carpentry and kitchen realms. His strongest associations with teachers during that period were Jerry Fuller, Issan Dorsey, Darlene Cohen and Okusan, who taught tea ceremony (one of the most durable influences from that era.)

His current commitment to Everyday Zen involves him with an ever-widening circle of friends from weekly classes and monthly sittings. The great bonding seems to occur with practice periods and sesshins, both in California and Mexico. In a wider sense, he states his practice includes bay swimming, residential construction and development, and cooking for family and friends. His immediate family includes my two sons: Max, a dancer in New York; and Sam, his younger brother, the word wizard.

Every Saturday we offer early morning zazen (seated meditation), morning service, a brief drop-in meditation instruction at 8:30am. And again zazen at 9:25 am. We wrap up with a dharma talk at 10:15am followed by ceremony when applicable and then right to social time, tea and cookies.

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29 August @11am, full moon ceremony

saturday, Aug 29 @11am –  full harvest or corn moon. the fishing tribes are harvest-moongiven credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. a few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. it was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon

This is our renewal of our Bodhisattva vows this upcoming Saturday morning after the Saturday Morning Dharma talk.

The ceremony takes about a half-hour and involves some thirty full prostrations, but simple standing bows are also all right if prostrations are too strenuous. All are welcome to join in this ceremony/celebration.

Every Saturday we offer early morning zazen (seated meditation), morning service, a brief drop-in meditation instruction at 8:30am. And again zazen at 9:25 am. We wrap up with a dharma talk at 10:15am followed by ceremony when applicable and then right to social time, tea and cookies. Please join us as this only will occur once in a blue moon!