Please join us for our annual retreat starting this Thursday details are here
27 November Guest Speaker – Rev. Daigan Gaither
Please join us for a way seeking mind talk offered by Rev. Daigan Gaither.
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. 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.
Join us for zazen (seated meditation), with the talk to follow, we offer in-person distanced attendance for those vaccinated fully + 2 weeks; We also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. 9:30 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) for 40 minutes and a Dharma talk at 10:25am, 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.
Thanksgiving Day
Over the river, and through the wood,
To grandfather’s house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh
Through the white and drifted snow.
Over the river, and through the wood—
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes
And bites the nose
As over the ground we go.
Over the river, and through the wood,
To have a first-rate play.
Hear the bells ring
“Ting-a-ling-ding”,
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!
Over the river, and through the wood
Trot fast, my dapple-gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting-hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.
Over the river, and through the wood,
And straight through the barn-yard gate.
We seem to go
Extremely slow,—
It is so hard to wait!
Over the river and through the wood—
Now grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin-pie!
2021 Winter Light Retreat schedule
Please visit here for the schedule and added info.
Links to the zoom times and online chant book to use during retreat is forthcoming.
Suggested Attendance is $40 per day – or – an amount of your own choosing, or you can afford.
Happy Halloween!
Please have a safe and enjoyable holiday. In the USA we tend to pair the Sejiki ceremony (unlike the timing in Japan) with this holiday, for Issan-ji temple this year we will feed the hungry ghosts at a future date. Please have a spooky good time this weekend and join us as often as possible.
Here is a fun video on the history of Halloween and its evolution and sources that became the holiday we know today.
Schedule your time! Dec 2nd thru Dec 5 2021
Save the date; Arrange the time off from daily home, work and market life:
evening of December 2nd through December 5th mid-day
For the 2021 retreat we will be offering a hybrid of the 2020 Winter Light Retreat which was reduced sittings for zoom attendance (with a provided guide and full schedule to build the full retreat and home zendo space, at home), combined with in person attendance – for fully vaccinated individuals- and more sittings.
We will have zoom presence for remote attendance similar to last year. We are finalizing the schedule and offerings that will be included. We will communicate more details and your options and ways to join by mid-November 2021.
We hope you will join us for this rare annual event to remove yourself from daily life and get a more robust and deep practice opportunity.
Stay tuned in email for another announcement in a few weeks and on hszc.org or our facebook page for more info.
Suggested Attendance is $40 per day – or – an amount of your own choosing, or you can afford.
Guest Speaker: Sat. 10/16 –Rev. Peter Van Der Sterre
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.
Join us for zazen (seated meditation), with the talk to follow, we offer in-person distanced attendance for those vaccinated fully + 2 weeks; We also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. 9:30 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) for 40 minutes and a Dharma talk at 10:25am, 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.
– Oct 15 2021 – mask update
Masking requirements will be eased on October 15, as COVID-19 cases recede San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed and the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) announced that so long as case and hospitalization rates remain stable or decline, indoor masking requirements will be lifted on October 15 in certain, limited settings.
This includes places where stable cohorts of fully vaccinated individuals gather, and where other safety measures are followed.
These settings include religious gatherings, offices, gyms, and fitness centers, employee commuter vehicles, and indoor college classes or other organized gatherings of individuals who meet regularly, not exceeding 100 people.