Dharma talk for Feb 18, 2024 by Sessei Meg Levie Practicing The Way With Intimacy
All posts by stonecreek
Finding Our Way: Stories of Women in the Early Buddhist Sangha
Dharma talk for Feb 11, 2024 by Pamela Weiss Finding Our Way: Stories of Women in the Early Buddhist Sangha
Shining Your Light Inward
Dharma talk for Feb 4, 2024 by Jesse Brunette Shining Your Light Inward
Just Sitting and Sawaki Roshi
Dharma talk for Jan 28, 2024 by Jisho Warner Just Sitting and Sawaki Roshi
Right Speaking, Right Listening, Refraining From Slander
Dharma talk for Jan 21, 2024 by Sessei Meg Levie Right Speaking, Right Listening Refraining From Slander
Repentance in a World on Fire
Dharma talk for Jan 14, 2024 by Jisho Warner Repentance in a World on Fire
Embodied Practice
Dharma talk for Jan 14, 2024 by Myosho Ginny Matthews Embodied Practice
World On Fire
Dharma talk for Dec 31, 2023 by Jisho Warner World On Fire
Timely Wisdom
Nov 8
The Power of Storytelling in Troubling Times
A Conversation with Dharma Teachers
Paula Arai and Sokaku Kathie Fischer
A Benefit for Stone Creek Zen Center
Sunday, November 8, 2026 | 3:00 – 7:00 PM
Glaser Center | 547 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA
3:00-4:00: Doors open for tea and cookies, Stone Creek store, silent auction, and conversation.
4:00-6:00: Main Event
6:00-7:00: Mingling, book signing, Stone Creek store, closing of silent auction.
Paula Arai
(Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies, Harvard University) holds the Eshinni & Kakushinni Professor of Women and Buddhist Studies chair at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California. She is author of Women Living Zen; Bringing Zen Home; Painting Enlightenment; The Little Book of Zen Healing; and Of Mud & Lotuses: Dreaming the Lives of Buddhist Women. She also co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice. Under the tutelage of Aoyama Shundō Rōshi, she did Zen training at the Aichi Senmon Nisōdō nunnery in Nagoya, Japan. Steeped in ethnographic research, she takes an embodied approach to her work and finds poetic immersive storytelling a potent medium for conveying the experiences of transformative healing she researches. An active public speaker, Arai also leads workshops on healing rituals. Website: Zenhealing.org
Sokaku Kathie Fischer
began practicing Zen in 1971 with Sojun Mel Weitsman at the Berkeley Zen Center. She was ordained a Zen priest at San Francisco Zen Center in 1980 by Zentatsu Richard Baker, and continued residential practice at Zen Center for 15 more years. Kathie also studied and practiced with Maurine Stuart MyoOn Roshi. She received Dharma transmission from Sojun Weitsman in 2011 while in the midst of her 28-year career as a school teacher in Mill Valley. Since retiring from teaching science to adolescents she has turned her attention to studying and teaching Dharma. Kathie and her husband Norman are parents of adult twin sons and grandparents of three children.
Sponsorship Opportunities
We invite both businesses and individuals to partner with Stone Creek Zen Center in bringing this special event to life. Your sponsorship directly supports our mission of cultivating mindfulness, community, and compassion—while offering meaningful visibility and recognition among our sangha and wider community. All sponsors will receive 2 tickets to the event, be recognized on our website, in our newsletter, on our printed program and at the event.
To learn more, discuss how your support can make an impact, or pay via check, please contact admin@stonecreekzen.org
Your contribution at any level supports Stone Creek Zen Center to continue to be resource for clarity and compassion and a refuge of peace for people in Sonoma County and beyond.
Unable to attend but would like to donate?
Make a gift here: DONATE
Fall Study Group
Sept 16-Oct 21
Shoaku Makusa – Refraining from Evil
Fall Book Study Group with Burt Togen Quinn
Wednesdays, Sept 16 – Oct 21, 6:00 – 7:30pm
In person at Stone Creek Zen Center.
We will be examining Dogen’s fascicle “Shoaku Makusa” or “Refraining from Evil” in the book Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom: Three Fascicles from Shobogenzo with Commentary by Kosho Uchiyama
The world is on fire! Given these times of profound civil and environmental unrest, let us look at Dogen Zenji’s view of this situation and how we might negotiate this catastrophe for the benefit of all beings.
We recommend that all participants read the text before the start of the class on September 16.
Burt Quinn is a long-term Zen practitioner whose journey started in 1970 at the Berkeley Zen Center and moved through Sonoma Mountain Zen Center in the 90s, till he finally settled down at Stone Creek Zen Center in 2011. He received entrustment as a lay Dharma teacher from Jisho Warner.