Hartford Street Zen Center | Issan-ji temple
A Sōtō Zen temple for the LGBTQ+ community, friends and allies in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood
Or as we like to joke in Buddhist company, Interdependence day! Although there is an actual day for this day in the Fall that is internationally recognized.
Please continue to have enjoyable and safe holidays and remember HSZC will be closed Friday, July 4, Saturday the 5, and following Sunday as usual, July 6th.
We want to wish all our friends, families and communities the happiest of pride weekends as they occur around the world this month and beyond. May you be safe, happy, healthy and enjoy the celebrations!
And we would like to let you know due to pride events and July 4th (USA independence day), we will be just open next week July 1,2,3 & then back to regular posted schedule on July 7th. (closed Jun 29th, 30th and Jul 4th, 5th and 6th)
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
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
The summer solstice occurs when the tilt of a planet’s semi-axis, in either the northern or the southern hemisphere, is most inclined toward the star (sun) that it orbits. Earth’s maximum axial tilt toward the sun is 23° 26′. This happens twice each year, at which times the sun reaches its highest position in the sky as seen from the north or the south pole.
The summer solstice occurs during a hemisphere’s summer. This is northern solstice in the northern hemisphere and the southern solstice in the southern hemisphere. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the summer solstice occurs some time between December 20 and December 23 each year in the southern hemisphere and between June 20 and June 22 in the northern hemisphere.
When on a geographic pole, the sun reaches its greatest height, the moment of solstice, it can be noon only along that longitude which at that moment lies in the direction of the sun from the pole. For other longitudes, it is not noon. Noon has either passed or has yet to come. Hence the notion of a solstice day is useful. The term is colloquially used like midsummer to refer to the day on which solstice occurs. The summer solstice day has the longest period of daylight – except in the polar regions, where daylight is continuous, from a few days to six months around the summer solstice.
Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied among cultures, but most recognize the event in some way with holidays, festivals, and rituals around that time with themes of religion or fertility. A great day to visit a Zen Center!
Solstice is derived from the Latin words sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).