19 July Guest Speaker – Renshin Bunce!

Renshin Bunce was a resident of SF Zen Center from 2001 to 2008, first for three years at Tassajara and then for four more years at City Center. She has helped hundreds of students sew their rakusus in Untitledthe SFZC sewing room, where she currently leads a class with Tim Wicks every other Saturday afternoon.

She is a great caring support in the process of the sewing of Buddha’s robe (rakusu) and a tremendous good humor and a very warm heart. She is also known for her photographs, and her page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/renshin/ has been called “The Zen Center Yearbook.”

Ren made jukai with Myogen Steve Stücky in 1996, when he gave her the name Renshin Jiko (Lotus Heart/Mind, Boundless Compassion); was priest ordained with Zenkei Blanche Hartman in 2003; was Shuso with Myogen-roshi at Tassajara in 2008; and received Dharma Transmission from him in 2013. She lives on the Peninsula, where she works as a hospice chaplain.

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.

 

12 June – 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.40

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 Thunder, Hay or Buck Moon.

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.

Happy Independence day (USA’s) on July 4th!

p1953_buddhaflagsOr 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.

 

Happy LGBTQI Pride & July 4th right after/ Schedule changes

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!3

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)

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

400px-San_Francisco_Pride_Parade_2012-3From 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

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

21 June – Summer Solstice

jpg-BuddhaPaint231x400The 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).

(Wikipedia)