Hartford Street Zen Center | Issan-ji temple
A Sōtō Zen temple for the LGBTQ+ community, friends and allies in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood
20 years at Issan-ji temple (HSZC) in a few days, and a recent anniversary having you just a few years shy from 40 years since Priest Ordination!
Interested in walking in the SF LGBTQ+ Pride Parade with fellow Zen Practitioners with or without HSZC gear on? Please visit here for details.
We have been kindly invited to join the SFZC parade contingent of the SF LGBT+ Parade Sunday, June 26th 2022, Historically it has been acceptable if you wish, to wear an HSZC/Issan-ji temple t-shirt to promote our temple too if you own any from the past few designs that have been developed.
Please both join us this month @ Issan-ji to continue to be a part of one of the world’s only and longest running Buddhist spaces with a particular focus as it was founded and still is primarily attended and funded for and by the LGBT+ community & walk in the parade.
Here are details if you wish to join the march/walk and if you intend to go or can serve as a safety monitor please let us know so we can let SFZC organizers know.
As of now, below are the full details on the march/parade we have and more to come, also please for more and to notify SFZC email: tetsugen.keido@yahoo.com (Keido) to get updates and he can advise SFZC of your attendance.
“We will gather at 300 Page Street at 9:30 a.m. and take Muni together to the spot assigned to our contingent. If people prefer to meet us there, I will send our contingent number and meet-up location once we receive that information. We’ll have a truck for those who’d like to ride rather than walk and will be decorating the truck while we wait to begin marching. The theme of this year’s parade is Love Will Keep Us Together. Some of us will be wearing robes or other Zen clothing, others of us will be dressing creatively. You are welcome to create banners. Here’s a link to the parade website. We’ll need some volunteers to be contingent monitors (for safety); SF Pride provides a brief online training for that role.”
A special happy pride month as we still continue to crawl out of the pandemic. There is an opportunity for Issan-ji/HSZC Sangha to march/walk in the Pride Parade the last Sunday of June with sfzc. More details to come.
Otherwise and in addition, have a very joy-filled month celebrating who you are and who you love and the progress our community has made since these events began and the many years prior.
Hobu Beata Chapman has practiced Zen with chronic nerve pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for 23 years. She studied with Katherine Thanas at Santa Cruz Zen Center and with Darlene Cohen until her untimely death, and received Dharma transmission from Tony Patchell in 2013. Beata also helped Hartford Street Zen Center with its’ council process for several years and is a great friend of Issan-ji Temple.
Beata continues the Suffering & Delight groups for people with chronic pain that Darlene founded around 15 years ago, and teaches an online S&D group she began for people not able to attend in person. For more information about Beata’s work with chronic pain, you can see sufferinganddelight.net. Beata is an organizational consultant currently doing corporate leadership training and assisting health care organizations to develop compliance systems. She recently started a zazen group in San Mateo (PenZen.net).
Saturday mornings we offer in-person distanced attendance and continued zoom alternative or for those far from the temple.
You are invited to join us in person or the Zoom meeting for meditation (zazen) any time starting at 9 a.m. for socializing and to check-in on how you are doing. Zazen begins at 9:30 a.m. followed by the Dharma talk at 10:30am am, followed by Q&A as well as an another opportunity to check in and see how you are doing and for those in person followed by treats and tea.
Please join us for a Dharma talk by Rev. Tim, priest-ordained in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki-rōshi, and who is a longtime leader in the Bay Area Recovery community, as well as a skilled instructor in the practice of sewing Buddhist Dharma robes. Born in Utah and raised in London, Gengyoko Tim Wicks studied fine art at San Francisco State University and received his MFA with distinction from California College of Arts and Crafts. He studied for four years with Spirit Rock teacher Eugene Cash and was a steering committee member of the Insight Meditation Community of San Francisco.
Saturday mornings we offer in-person distanced attendance and continued zoom alternative or for those far from the temple.
You are invited to join us in person or the Zoom meeting for meditation (zazen) any time starting at 9 a.m. for socializing and to check-in on how you are doing. Zazen begins at 9:30 a.m. followed by the Dharma talk at 10:30am am, followed by Q&A as well as an another opportunity to check in and see how you are doing and for those in person followed by treats and tea.
