Category: News

William Ralph Emerson  — A Nation’s Strength —

What makes a nation’s pillars high
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng
And its foundations strong

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.

And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly…
They build a nation’s pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

Hozan Alan Senauke is abbot of Berkeley Zen Center. He received Dharma Transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman at Tassajara in 1998. As an engaged Buddhist activist, Hozan founded Clear View Project in 2007, developing Buddhist-based resources for social change in Asia and the US. He works closely with the International Network of Engaged Buddhists, is past president of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, and serves on the faculty of Upaya Zen Center’s chaplaincy program. Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than 50 years.

Hozan is author of The Bodhisattva’s Embrace: Dispatches From Engaged Buddhism’s Front Lines and Turning Words: Transformative Encounters With Buddhist Teachers.

Join us for zazen (seated meditation), with the talk to follow, we offer in-person distanced attendance; We also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. there’s an early session at 6:30am and then the more popular 9:30 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) for 40 minutes and a Dharma talk at 10:30am, followed by Q&A as well as an opportunity to check in and see how you are doing, followed by a ceremony if applicable, then tea and cookies in person after that. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering 

And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.

As SF kicks off its festivities we hope that you had/have an opportunity to get out or in your own way, celebrate our community, the progress we’ve made and reflect on the hard work and efforts so many made to get us to this point in history. Still more progress to go but a good time to reflect and embrace the joy of acceptance at each step we travel.

Our old friend Felipe Melizalde and his partner are coming to San Francisco next month, between 14 and 19 July. They’re looking for a place to stay for those few days, a non-trivial task in this increasingly expensive city. If someone in our Sangha might be able to offer them a place to lay their heads, please let me know as soon as you can at info@hszc.org. Thank you in advance, and gasshō…🙏 -myō

LGBTQ+ Pride Month is a month, typically June, dedicated to celebration and commemoration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) pride, observed in the Western world. Pride Month began after the Stonewall riots, a series of gay liberation protests in 1969, and has since spread outside of the United States. Modern-day Pride Month both honors the movement for LGBTQ+ rights and celebrates LGBTQ+ culture.

HSZC came out of the Gay Buddhist Club in response to the feelings of some in the community that their needs were not adequately addressed at SFZC, City Center. The first meetings were held at City Center but soon relocated to the Hartford Street house, which had been in use as a Tibetan Buddhist center since 1973, where the group hosted such speakers as Allen Ginsburg, Ram Dass, and Baker Roshi. On December 8, 1981, the day of Buddha’s enlightenment, a ceremony took place to inaugurate the new zendo in the basement, and the Hartford Street Zen Center began to take form.

We continue still to stand for the LGBTQ+ community and our allies through our ongoing evolution of societal views of our lives.

Rev. Renshin Bunce is a California native, born in Marin County and raised in Southern California. In midlife, yearning for a peaceful mind, she began meditating, and met her teacher Myogen Steve Stücky in January of 1994. She made jukai (took her lay vows) with Myogen at Dharma Eye Zen Center in 1996, was priest ordained by Zenkei Blanche Hartman at San Francisco Zen Center in 2003, served as Shuso (head student) with Myogen at Tassajara in 2008, and received dharma transmission from him at Tassajara in April of 2013. Renshin lived at Zen Center for seven years, and then began training as a chaplain. She moved out of Zen Center in 2008 and worked as a hospice chaplain from 2010 until retiring in 2022. She has written two books, Entering the Monastery, a record of her time at Zen Center, which was published in 2008; and Love and Fear, reflections on chaplaincy, which was published in 2020.

Join us for zazen (seated meditation), with the talk to follow, we offer in-person distanced attendance; We also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. there’s an early session at 6:30am and then the more popular 9:30 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) for 40 minutes and a Dharma talk at 10:30am, followed by Q&A as well as an opportunity to check in and see how you are doing, followed by a ceremony if applicable, then tea and cookies in person after that. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering 

And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.

Rev. Daigan Gaither began Buddhist practice in 1995 in the Vipassana (Insight) tradition, and then began to study Zen in 2003 with Ryushin Paul Haller Roshi. He received Lay Ordination in 2006 where he was given the name Daigan or “Great Vow”, and received Priest Ordination in July 2011. Daigan speaks internationally on a variety of topics particularly around gender, sexuality, social justice and their intersections with the Dharma.

He has a BA in Philosophy and Religion from San Francisco State University, and an MA in Buddhist Studies from the Graduate Theological Union and the Institute of Buddhist Studies.

Join us for zazen (seated meditation), with the talk to follow, we offer in-person distanced attendance; We also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. there’s an early session at 6:30am and then the more popular 9:30 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) for 40 minutes and a Dharma talk at 10:30am, followed by Q&A as well as an opportunity to check in and see how you are doing, followed by a ceremony if applicable, then tea and cookies in person after that. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering 

And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.

Thank you for joining us through the April series of guest speakers, we will return to most weeks being offered by our Abbot – Rev. Myo Lahey and more occasional guest speakers.

Deep gratitude to all our guests who come and offer words through their life experience of the dharma! —/gassho\—

Please join us for our public offerings!

Updates to our scheduled routines, ceremonies or guest speaker announcements here.