Berkeley Zen Center September-October 2017 Newsletter
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Berkeley Zen Center September-October 2017 Newsletter Study Sesshin: September 2 Hozan Sensei will lead this year’s one-day BZC SCHEDULE study sesshin on Saturday, September 2, from 5:00 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. As the summer winds September down, this day will provide a quiet and reflective respite. It will include zazen, oryoki Study Sesshin Saturday, 9/2 meals for breakfast and lunch, soji, and two Zendo Holiday study and discussion sessions on Dongshan’s Monday, 9/4 Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi (Hokyo Zammai). Founders’ Ceremonies Dongshan’s profound teaching echoes the Tuesday, 9/5, 6:20pm Wednesday, 9/6, 6:40am nondual wisdom of the Sandokai with bright, Bodhisattva Ceremony poetic images. Imbedded in the poem is Saturday, 9/9, 9:40am Dongshan’s “Five Ranks,” mapping our Half-Day Sitting perceptions of the relative and absolute. Sunday, 9/10 Reading materials will be available on the New Member Entering Ceremony Monday, 9/11, 6:25am bulletin board shelf in advance of the sesshin. The materials can also be accessed on the BZC Sangha Potluck & Board Nominations Tuesday, 9/12, 6:30pm website (go to www.berkeleyzencenter.org, Priest Ordination click “Calendar” and then “September 2”). Saturday, 9/23, 3:00pm The fee is $35, and should be paid in 50th Anniversary Dinner Celebration advance. Please leave payment marked “Study Saturday, 9/30, 6:00pm Sesshin” in the laundry room mail slot. For October more information, contact sesshin director Carol Paul at [email protected] or 510- Founders’ Ceremonies Tuesday, 10/3, 6:20pm 206-5051. The sign-up sheet is posted on the Wednesday, 10/4, 6:40am bulletin board. Open Aspects of Practice Sitting Saturday, 10/7 Bodhisattva Ceremony Saturday, 10/7, 9:40am Affirmation of Welcome Jizo Ceremony Walking the path of liberation, we express Saturday, 10/14, 1:00-2:30pm our intimate connection with all beings. Welcoming diversity, here at Berkeley Zen Half-Day Sitting Center the practice of zazen is available to Sunday, 10/15 people of every race, nationality, class, gender, sexual Sangha Work Day orientation, age, and physical ability. May all beings realize Sunday, 10/29 their true nature. Berkeley Zen Center 1931 Russell Street, Berkeley, CA 94703 www.berkeleyzencenter.org 510.845.2403 50th Anniversary Party! participant is strongly encouraged to meet It’s BZC’s 50th anniversary of accomplishing with Hozan Sensei or a practice leader at least nothing! We will be celebrating this (non) once during Aspects. Your interest, support, accomplishment with a dinner party on and encouragement can be of help to the whole Saturday, September 30, 6:00 p.m., at the Jack sangha. For further details, please look London Aquatic Center, 115 Embarcadero in carefully at the zendo events bulletin board. Oakland. If you have not RSVP’d to your Evite Aspects of Practice will begin with a one- sent out in June, please take a moment to do so. day sesshin on Saturday, October 7, and end If you no longer have that invitation (or you with a one-day sesshin on Saturday, November never received one), contact Carol Paul at 4. For information on either sesshin, please [email protected] or 510-206-5051. We contact the sesshin director, Ken Powelson, at hope to see everyone there, including people [email protected]. from all periods, past and present, of BZC’s half-century of “nothing special” practice. Dharma Hikes: If you wish help getting there, contact Gary A New BZC Practice Experience Artim at [email protected]. If you are coming For all sangha members and friends who love from out of town and would like to arrange a being outdoors, these hikes will provide an place to stay while you are here, contact Ken opportunity to explore some aspects of the Powelson at [email protected]. Dharma while enjoying leisurely paced hikes BZC is offering this event for free; and dana in some beautiful Bay Area parks. Two dharma is greatly appreciated. hikes have been scheduled for this fall (see below) and will be led by Jake Van Akkeren, Aspects of Practice who is an experienced Sierra Club hike leader October 7 through November 4, 2017 and also a senior student at BZC. The hikes We invite you to join the 2017 Aspects of will include opportunity for silent walking and Practice period—four weeks of practice, a lunchtime dharma discussion, as well as renewal, study, and discussion led by Hozan allowing time for social interaction. In order to Alan Senauke and BZC practice leaders. facilitate discussion, group size will be limited Aspects of Practice has traditionally to no more than twelve people. encouraged newer students to root their Zen Our first hike will in Redwood Regional practice. It also includes the wider BZC Park, Sunday, September 24, carpooling from community who wish to refresh themselves BZC at 9:00 a.m. and arriving back around 3:00 and make a sustainable commitment to p.m. Our second hike will be in Briones practice. Regional Park, Sunday, October 22, carpooling This year we will draw from Suzuki Roshi’s from BZC at 9:15 a.m. and arriving back Not Always So. Practice leaders will lecture on around 4:00 p.m. For more information, or to Saturdays, lead Monday morning discussions, make reservations, please contact Jake at and offer a class on four successive Thursdays. [email protected]. All of these events are open to everyone. In If enough interest is shown in this type of addition, there will be informal teas and activity, more dharma hikes will be scheduled regular practice discussion. Each sangha for 2018. Page 2 September-October 2017 BZC Newsletter Words of Appreciation from the completely streamlined and codified policies Board President and procedures and put together a highly In the past few months there has been some functional and enthusiastic team, which significant changing of the guard regarding became known as the Building Committee. He those involved in BZC administration. pushed for doing as much as we could with First, after ably serving as Office Manager volunteers, and he himself always made it a for three years, Tamar Enoch has stepped point to pitch in on sangha work days, even down from that important position. During her memorably breaking his arm during one tenure as OM, Tamar worked long hours first volunteer stint while doing seismic retrofitting with Treasurer Paul Farber and then with on the community room porch. He worked Paul’s successor, Walter Kieser, to develop and closely with our Finance and Development implement an updated and streamlined Committees to oversee a five-year plan to accounting system. This was a huge project address the needs of aging (and in some cases and took a lot of extra work and dedication to failing) BZC buildings and infrastructure. make it happen. Tamar worked hand in hand After a two-year break from the Board, with both Paul and Walter to develop realistic Walter was recruited by Sojun to serve as budgets, and she went far beyond her job Treasurer during a particularly difficult description to search for ways to eliminate administrative time. As Treasurer, Walter waste at BZC and to save the sangha money— worked closely with Tamar as Office Manager thousands of dollars in fact. Tamar has also to overhaul and literally reboot the accounting worked closely with her successor, Bruce system. One reason BZC continues to be in Coughran, to facilitate a seamless transition. excellent financial shape is certainly We wish Tamar the best in her new endeavors, attributable to Walter’s expertise, diligence, and we are pleased to have Bruce on board as and care while serving as Treasurer. our new OM. Finally, he continues to make himself After serving as Treasurer for the past two available for consultation to Laurie now that and a quarter years, Walter has left his position she has become our acting Treasurer. We to relocate to Sonoma County, where he has extend great appreciation to Walter for his recently built a new home in the town of many years of service and his extraordinary Geyserville. The Board has approved Laurie contributions to the BZC community, and wish Senauke to serve as acting Treasurer until her him much joy and peace in his new home. name can be placed on the October ballot for Sangha confirmation. Nominations for the BZC Board Walter’s service on the Board goes back many years. He served as Recording Secretary Every year the sangha elects three of six in 2005, as a Member-at-Large from 2006-2012, members-at-large to terms of two years to the and as Treasurer from 2015 into 2017, thus BZC Board. There is a two-term limit. Elections being on the Board in one capacity or another take place in October and the new term starts for over eight years. in January 2018. The Board will present its Walter was also Project Manager during a three nominees at the all-sangha meeting on time when multiple problems with BZC’s Tuesday evening, September 12. Other buildings were manifesting. In this role he nominations can be made by sangha members Page 3 September-October 2017 BZC Newsletter at that time from the floor. Two current Caregiver Support Meeting members-at-large who are now serving their Are you helping a loved one with health first term, Katy Guimond and Mary Beth challenges or to do things that they used to do Lamb, have agreed to be Board nominees for a for themselves? Many in our sangha are doing second term.