Our annual ango or practice period is an opportunity to support each other in deepening our practice. The theme for the ango will be the precepts and ethics. Study groups will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 6:00 – 7:30 pm for five weeks (February 26 – March 27). The practice days will be Friday March 1, 7 am – 3 pm, and Tuesday March 26, noon – 5 pm.
Our monthly introduction to Zen practice. Instruction in zazen and a chance to get to know the center. No pre-registration, no fee. Just come. 11 am – noon. Please note the time change as this used to be offered on Saturdays at 9 am.
We also are happy to now be able to offer this class by appointment, if this time does not work for your schedule. Please contact us if you are interested in scheduling a different time.
Zazen is wholehearted sitting, dropping off thoughts and views and returning to life here and now, over and over.
6:30 – 8:00 pm
(The announcement that the workshop would begin at 6 pm last Sunday was a mistake!)
We will explore the Zen tradition of writing death poems at the beginning of the year, a practice that can be profound, humorous and full of life! We will read and discuss some traditional poems and engage in writing and sharing some of our own.
(The calligraphy above is “Death” by Hakuin)
5:45 pm
Everyone is invited to participate in this ritual of affirming our practice of the bodhisattva precepts. The ceremony is as appropriate for those of you who have not received the precepts, as it is deeply relevant for those renewing their commitment.
10 am
Come ring in the new year on the zendo bell and send off your old, tired regrets and delusions. The ceremony will be followed by a pot-luck lunch. Bring a dish to share.
6:00 – 8:00 pm
All people are raised with cultural conditioning around race. If we were raised in the U.S., and especially if we identify as “white” or “European-descended,” our conditioning tends to include a value for colorblindness, which can make it difficult for to acknowledge, let alone investigate, our racial biases. This book group is intended to expand our racial literacy, as Micheal Eric Dyson puts it, to develop a more intimate understanding together of racial oppression and the suffering it causes across color lines in the U.S., and to engage this as our practice in Zen of turning towards suffering as the gate of awakening and liberation.
Pre-registration for the group is requested each month, so that everyone can have the page assignments, articles, and to consider the agreements before each meeting.
To register, or for more information please email:
Facilitated by: Hoka Chris Fortin and Dojin Sarah Emerson
The two teachers facilitating the group identify as white, U.S. citizens, and Zen Buddhist priests. We understand the limitations of our experiences in relation to race, and strive to bring cultural humility to our facilitation of these groups.
Next Meeting: Sunday February 17, 6:00-8:00.
Book: The 57 Bus by Dashka Slate.
January 2019 book: White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo.
December 2018 book: Kindred by Octavia Butler.
Wed. November 29 6-8pm
The book for November will be Unaccompanied by Javier Zamora.
Wed. October 24, 6-8
Book: Mindful of Race by Ruth King
Wed. September 26, 6-8
Book: summer reading (see below)
Summer Reading:For July and August, we are suggesting three books: one non-fiction, one fiction, and one Dharma and Race specific.
For the Summer Reading, we are asking that everyone read at least one book…and all three if possible
The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
Now and then a book comes along that might in time touch the public and educate social commentators, policymakers, and politicians about a glaring wrong that we have been living with that we also somehow don’t know how to face. The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness…is such a work.” -The New York Review of Books
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Puliter Prize winner for fiction in 1986.A New York Times survey of writers and literary critics ranked it the best work of American fiction from 1981 to 2006. This novel looks at the family of Sethe in the aftermath of escaping slavery.
Radical Dharma, by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Lama Rod Owens, and Dr. Jasmine Syedullah
Igniting a long-overdue dialogue about how the legacy of racial injustice and white supremacy plays out in society at large and Buddhist communities in particular, this urgent call to action outlines a new dharma that takes into account the ways that racism and privilege prevent our collective awakening.
Previous Months:
-June: When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrice Khan-Cullors and asha bandale
-May: Homegoing by Ya’a Gyasi
-April: So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
-March: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward and instead of an article, we are asking members to watch the film “I Am Not Your Negro” (available through PBS and streaming through Amazon)
- February: Waking Up White by Peggy Irving
It was decided by the January group that going forward we will read one book per month, so beginning in Feb. and going forward we will read the whole book for each meeting.
-January: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
-December 13: Tears We Cannot Stop: a Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson pages 123-end
article: “We’re Still Here”
-November/December: Tears We Cannot Stop: a Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson
November 8: pages 1-123
and article: “Waking Up to Whiteness” by Greg Snyder
https://www.lionsroar.com/waking-up-to-whiteness/
A day to appreciate the people dear to us who have died, celebrate their lives and mourn our loss. Bring a photo or memento to put on the altar. Please arrive by 10 am for zazen, with the ceremony at 10:30 am.
Edmee and Burt are hosting a weekly gathering that will offer zazen and discussion open to anyone interested. Drop ins are welcome.
When: Tuesday 6:30 to-7:45 pm
Schedule
6:30 to 6:55 pm Zazen, silent meditation practice
7:00 to 7:45 pm Informal discussion
Please accept our invitation and “come as you are” to participate in an informal conversation about the impact of meditation practice in our lives: from Zen Buddhism to any other traditions. We will explore how to stay curious and open when confronted with the stress of daily life and work.
If you have any question, please send us an email:
Burt Quinn: burtquinn8@gmail.com
Edmee: edmeedanan@comcast.net
10 am
Mary has practiced at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, Canada, and San Francisco Zen Center. A carpenter by trade, Mary was ordained as a priest in 2010 by Arlene Lueck and Myogen Steve Stücky.
Handcrafted treasures and gifts
Buddhas and Spiritual Practice Supplies
Silent auction
Delectable homemade jams and treats
Buddha’s Attic rummage sale
Books and antiques
RAFFLE ITEMS
At the Masonic Center
373 North Main Street, Sebastopol – just across from the Safeway
For more information: 707.829.1129 or stonecreek@sonic.net
A benefit for Stone Creek Zen Center