Events – Page 14 – Hartford Street Zen Center

August 6, 2014June 3, 2016

Sat, Aug 9th – Full Moon Ceremony!

We’ll have the monthly Full-Moon Ceremony renewal of our Bodhisattva vows this 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. This month according to the Farmer’s Almanac is the Full Red, Green Corn, Sturgeon or Grain Moon. Th ceremony will begin around 11am roughly after the Dharma talk.

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.

August 1, 2014

Study Hour, Thursdays @7:30pm

We bid farewell (for now) to the Book of Serenity at case 100 last night at just under three years of study hour’s study. We will take a break next week, Aug 7th and reconvene on Aug 14th with the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, also called Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra, a Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtra. It dates from no later than the 3rd century ce, based on its earliest Chinese translations, and most likely from the 1st or 2nd centuries ce.

We will use the Robert Thurman as the basic text but reading the other translations and comparing differences is also acceptable. We also just found out about a fourth by our same Book of Serenity Translator, Thomas Cleary you can look into by clicking here appears to only be in e-book version.

Please read the introduction and first chapter to prepare for our first study hour on this text August 14th.

July 25, 2014June 2, 2016

Study hour is moving on to a new text!

We are scheduled to conclude on July 31, 2014 The book of serenity

The next book scheduled is the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, also called Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra, a Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtra. It dates from no later than the 3rd century ce, based on its earliest Chinese translations, and most likely from the 1st or 2nd centuries ce.

In the sūtra the layman and householder Vimalakīrti, who is also, significantly, a model bodhisattva, instructs deities, learned Buddhist arahants, and lay people in all matters concerning the nature of enlightenment and Buddhist truth.

There are multiple translations, we may focus a bit on the Dr Robert Thurman version, but welcome any version to compare the translations.

We can share books for anyone who wants to join in, or feel free to purchase a copy and join us (many are very low cost online). Check our twitter page for any changes in schedule.

July 19, 2014June 3, 2016

26 July, 10:15am – Guest Speaker Jamie Howell

Please join us this upcoming Saturday for guest speaker Kogen Seido Jamie Howell (Wild, Untamed Source – Sincere Way) who began his Zen practice with Joshu Sasaki Roshi in 1979 at the Mount Baldy Zen Center.

In 1983, when he was living in San Francisco and his eldest daughter was diagnosed with leukemia, Jamie began to study with Michael Wenger at the San Francisco Zen Center. He spent the next 28 years raising four children with his wife, working in the music business and later the real estate business while dedicating himself to Zen practice. He now has three grandchildren.

Jamie was a soccer player and coach for over 40 years and still competes in triathlons with the Golden Gate Triathlon Team. He road managed Hot Tuna and Natalie Cole, was the sales manager of Hill and Company, and currently works with his partner Luba Muzichenko at Zephyr Real Estate.

It took Jamie almost 17 years to sew his first rakusu; he received the precepts in a jukai ceremony in 2000. He was chairman of the board of San Francisco Zen Center in 2004 and 2005, and was shuso at City Center in 2006. In 2011, Jamie received lay Dharma Entrustment from Dairyu Michael Wenger.

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 (followed by ceremony if applicable) and then socializing, tea and cookies.

June 23, 2014June 23, 2014

29 Jun; LGBTQI pride festival & parade, SF, 2014!

From our LGBTQI family of SFZC – “Happily, we continue our annual tradition of having a San Francisco Zen Center contingent walking in the Pride Parade. We are going to meet at 300 Page St. and at 9 a.m. we will go together to the Muni and travel to our assigned starting place. If you prefer, you can meet us at our starting place(which almost certainly will be in the Financial District) at 10 a.m. We will send details about the 10 a.m. starting place later in the week. Please join us and celebrate as we cover the world with pride.”

Color the World with Pride

What is the color of pride?
If we were to color the world with pride how would it look?
Sound?
Taste?
Feel?
Would there be space in our hearts and minds for all colors?
Could we come from an understanding that all colors need to be seen so that one color
doesn’t stand out and dominate the others?
Could we learn that colors complement one another?
Could we let the margins between colors go soft and blend the colors, rub them like pastels
and wonder at the range, the subtle gradations that are also part of the rainbow?

When I color my world with pride, I want the 72 Crayolas, not the narrow box of eight.

– Tova Green

June 21, 2014June 19, 2014

LGBTQI – Pride parade & festival: 29, June

SF Zen Center’s Queer Dharma & sangha will be organizing and marching in the San Francisco’s LGBTQI Pride Parade (June 29th). They wanted to extend to Hartford Street Sangha and Friends that you are are warmly welcomed to join in this joyous celebration.

SF Zen Center’s Queer Dharma is in need of volunteers to act as contingent monitors who will monitor the safety of our group of parade participants. This requires a one-hour training prior to the day of the parade. If you are interested in volunteering for the event please email Dan Belsky at ccwork@sfzc.org

June 10, 2014June 3, 2016

Sat. 14 June @11am, Full Moon Ceremony

We’ll have the monthly Full-Moon Ceremony renewal of our Bodhisattva vows this Saturday morning after the Saturday Morning Dharma talk.

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 if applicable and then right to social time, tea and cookies.

June 2, 2014June 3, 2016

Guest Speaker June 7, 2014 Kōnin Cardenas @ 10:15am

Please Join us this Saturday for a Dharma talk offered by Kōnin Cardenas, a nun ordained in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition who began practicing Zen in 1987 and was ordained in 2007.

Kōnin is currently working as a Spiritual Care Counselor for Pathways Hospice in the East Bay area (near San Francisco), and the Dorm Manager for the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley. Also the leader of “Dharma en Español,” a Spanish-language Zen study group at San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) and co-chair of the SFZC Cultural Awareness and Inclusivity Committee and an amateur calligrapher and sumi-e painter, occasionally giving classes in sutra copying. During the past 10 years Kōnin has been primarily engaged in Buddhist monastic practice, inter-faith chaplaincy, non-profit development, and volunteer management. In previous roles she served as a finance professional, Kōnin was a Mortgage Banking Subject Matter Expert, educating residential lenders on reinsurance structures, and a Vice President at a boutique investment bank executing middle-market software mergers and acquisitions with an MBA from University of California, Berkeley and the mother of a wonderful 23-year-old woman.

Her long-term vision is to found a women’s residential center that integrates Buddhist study and zazen with community service and socially-engaged leadership training.