Events

Training in Compassion

with Edmée Danan

Part 1: Compassion Training – A Four Week Course 

May 24, May 31, June 7, June 14 – 1 pm to 2:30 pm

This compassion training is designed to foster connection and support among participants through lively discussions, interactive exercises, guided meditation practices and meaningful activities to try out in your daily life. We will explore techniques to deepen our compassion for others, embrace the vital role of self-compassion, and cultivate a life filled with kindness and openness. This offering is open to Zen practitioners as well as anyone in the community.

Suggested reading:

Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong by Norman Fischer

Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living by Pema Chödrön

Schedule

Week 1: What is compassion?

Understand the difference between sympathy, empathy, and compassion. Learn how to cultivate compassion skills and overcome potential obstacles to compassion.

Week 2: Practicing compassion: Opening our heart to others and to ourselves

Empathy is feeling with another. It can be painful, and excessive empathy can lead to burn out. Compassion is feeling for another: it is empathy plus an active wish to relieve suffering.

Learn how to switch from empathy to compassion, thereby feeling energized and inspired instead of depleted or overwhelmed. Discover the spirit of tonglen (sending and receiving) meditation.

Week 3: Self-compassion 

Having compassion for others starts with having compassion for oneself and treating ourselves as we would our best friend.

Learn how to develop kindness and gentleness towards yourself.

Week 4: Bringing compassion into our daily life

Use inspiring practices to bring compassion into your everyday actions and live your life with joy.

 

Part 2: Practicing compassion in daily life

The compassion training course detailed above will be followed by a three-month workshop series consisting of on-hour meetings. The schedule will be determined after the conclusion of Part 1.

This workshop series is designed to build up connection and support among participants to strengthen our intention to practice bodhicitta – opening our heart to others and to ourselves. We will do this by having conversations and sharing our experiences in a small group. We will use the 59 slogans of lojong  (mind training). This offering is open to anyone with some meditation experience or as a follow up after completion of the four classes of the compassion training.

Suggested reading: 

Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong by Norman Fischer

Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living by Pema Chödrön

———————

Edmée Danan was led to Zen practice after living for three years in an ashram in India. Her first teacher was Robert Aitken Roshi when she lived as a resident of the Diamond Sangha zendo on Maui, Hawaii for two years. After moving to California, she continued practicing with Jakusho Kwong Roshi at the Sonoma Mountain Zen Center until she met Jisho Warner Roshi in 1995, who authorized her to teach in April 2023. As a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, she is interested in determining when it is helpful to consider therapy to support Zen practice. She teaches meditation to both patients and health care professionals.

Events

Half-Day Sitting – Saturday, March 15

Led by Burt Quinn

You are invited to join this half-day sitting suited both for beginning and experienced meditators. There will be alternating periods of zazen (seated meditation, usually thirty-minute periods) and kinhin (walking meditation, usually ten minutes).

If you have questions, please email info@stonecreekzen.org.

Sliding scale donations, all are welcome regardless of resources.

We look forward to practicing together!

Sign Up Here

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 recently received entrustment as a lay Dharma teacher from Jisho Warner.

Events

One-Day Sitting – Tuesday, April 8

This day of practice will be held in silence, with alternating periods of zazen (seated meditation, usually 30-minute periods) and kinhin (walking meditation, usually 10 minutes), and a work period each afternoon. A Dharma talk will be given in the morning and participants will have the opportunity to speak with a teacher (dokusan). 

Note: For participants in the Stone Creek ango (practice period), the one-day sittings on March 22 and April 8 are included in your ango registration, but please do sign up here. If you are not participating in ango, you are still very welcome to join this sitting. 

We will be sitting from 7 am to 5 pm and ask that you plan on attending the entire day. If you do need to leave for part of the day, please receive permission before registering (info@stonecreekzen.org).

This practice day will include breakfast and lunch as well as morning tea and afternoon snacks. During meals, we will be practicing with oryoki – the ancient tradition of eating with the three nested bowls wrapped in cloth. Oryoki sets will be available to borrow if you do not have one, and instruction will be given for those who are new to the practice. 

The day will begin with a short orientation. Please plan on arriving by 6:45 am and on being in your seat ready to start by 6:55 am. 

We look forward to practicing together!

Sign Up Here

Events

One-Day Sitting – Saturday, March 22

This day of practice will be held in silence, with alternating periods of zazen (seated meditation, usually 30-minute periods) and kinhin (walking meditation, usually 10 minutes), and a work period each afternoon. A Dharma talk will be given in the morning and participants will have the opportunity to speak with a teacher (dokusan). 

Note: For participants in the Stone Creek ango (practice period), the one-day sittings on March 22 and April 8 are included in your Ango registration, but please do sign up here.  If you are not participating in ango, you are still very welcome to join this sitting. 

We will be sitting from 7 am to 5 pm and ask that you plan on attending the entire day. If you do need to leave for part of the day, please receive permission before registering (info@stonecreekzen.org).

This practice day will include breakfast and lunch as well as morning tea and afternoon snacks. During meals, we will be practicing with oryoki – the ancient tradition of eating with the three nested bowls wrapped in cloth. Oryoki sets will be available to borrow if you do not have one, and instruction will be given for those who are new to the practice. 

The day will begin with a short orientation. Please plan on arriving by 6:45 am and on being in your seat ready to start by 6:55 am. 

We look forward to practicing together!

Sign Up Here

Events

Ango – Sunday, March 16th – Wednesday, April 16

led by Head Priest Sessei Meg Levie, Abiding Teacher Jisho Warner, and Senior Teacher Annette JoE’ Lille with Shuso (Head Student) Barton Stone

ABOUT ANGO
Ango, or practice period, is a time of deepening and intensifying our commitment to practice, through zazen, study, and sharing the Dharma together. Each year at Stone Creek, we gather during this time for weekly evening groups, two full practice days, Sunday morning programs, and a Dharma Inquiry Ceremony for the shuso. There also are opportunities to meet one-on-one with a teacher and have tea with the shuso.

Sign Up Here

ANGO THEME

This year, our theme will be One Bright Pearl.

In the light of perfect wisdom, the entire world is One Bright Pearl. 

Where is it to be found? We will search for it together.

We will be focusing on the text “Song of Awakening,” which is in our sutra book. (Copy here)

The recommended references for ango are:

Commentary on the Song of Awakening by Kōdō Sawaki Roshi. It can be ordered through the University of Hawaii Press, and two copies also will be on reserve in the library. 

Yung-chia’s Song of Enlightenment, translated by Red Pine, with helpful footnotes. It is a small chapbook and can be ordered from the publisher, Empty Bowl Press (https://www.emptybowl.org/). We will have two copies on reserve, and ten copies available for purchase at $9 (the publisher’s price).

Other resources include:

Sword of Wisdom: A Commentary on the Song of Enlightenment by Chan Master Sheng Yen, which will also be on reserve.

One Bright Pearl [Ikka Myōju], in Eihei Dogen’s Shobogenzo, available in several collections of Dogen’s writings, also on reserve.

ANGO EVENTS

Ango also includes two one-day sittings (included in your registration), one-on-one meetings with a teacher, tea with the shuso, daily zazen, and study.

All events will be held in person at Stone Creek. Sunday Dharma talks will be available via Zoom and recorded as usual.

Weekday Evening Groups

– 5 Wednesday evening meetings 

The weekday evening groups provide an opportunity for participants to learn from one another and to make an offering to the group of how they understand and are working with the practice and teachings.

March 19 & 26, April 2, 9, 16 – 6:30 – 8pm

Daily Zazen

Everyone participating in ango is asked to commit to regular zazen practice (joining the early weekday morning zazen offering online or in person, or on your own, five days a week).

Dokusan and tea with the shuso

Everyone participating in ango also is asked to meet for dokusan (practice discussion) with one of the teachers, and if possible for tea with the shuso.

Sunday Dharma talks: March 16, 23, 30 & April 6, 13

The Sunday program includes the whole sangha, and the talks will be on the ango theme. They will be held both in person and online.

One-day Sittings

–  Saturday, March 22, 7 am – 5 pm     Sign Up Here

–  Tuesday, April 8, 7 am – 5 pm             Sign Up Here

**Registration for the one-day sittings is included in the ango fee, but you will need to register separately to confirm that you are attending.**
The one-day sittings are also open to the whole sangha.

If you have any questions, please reach out to info@stonecreekzen.org.

We look forward to entering this time of dedicated practice together!

 

 

 

Events

Guest Speaker: Rev. Myogen Kathryn Stark – Sunday, March 9

We look forward to welcoming Rev. Myogen Kathryn Stark, MA, MDiv., to Stone Creek on March 9 as our guest speaker. A Dharma heir in the Suzuki Roshi lineage, Kathryn has been practicing in the Soto Zen tradition since 1990 and is the founder of Sonoma Valley Zen.

She received priest ordination in 2003 from Santa Cruz Zen Center Abbess Sobun Katherine Thanas and Dharma transmission in 2013 from Shosan Victoria Austin, Dharma teacher at San Francisco Zen Center. She holds Master of Arts and Master of Divinity degrees in Buddhist studies with a specialty in Buddhist chaplaincy from the Graduate Theological Union and Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley. For the past 14 years, she has worked full-time as a hospice chaplain and is currently working at Providence Memorial Hospice in Santa Rosa. In 2016 she started Sonoma Valley Zen, which she has been the guiding teacher for. She feels it is a honor and a privilege to mentor and encourage others who wish to study and practice the Bodhisattva Way in the tradition of Soto Zen.

Events

Yoga with Corina – Wednesday Mornings 9:30-11:00

Ongoing Yoga Classes

Wednesday 9:30 – 11:00am
In Person and Online

Corina Stoicescu teaches classes in the Viniyoga tradition that focuses on meeting the unique condition of the individual. Using breath centric movement and pose adaptations, she helps students find integrity in all the poses. Classes are accommodating to a large variety of people and designed so students learn about their own bodies and minds and how the tools of yoga can serve them.

Every month when possible, she offers a series where students can experience the cumulative effect of going deeper in a particular subject.

Please, purchase a ticket before coming to class.

Register Here

Corina Stoicescu first started teaching yoga in 2005. After a bicycle accident, she discovered Viniyoga and and used Buddhism to help heal her body and heart. She is certified as both a 300 hour Viniyoga Wellness Instructor and 500 hour Viniyoga teacher. In 2020, she completed 1000 hour Yoga Therapy training and is certified by the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). Yoga therapy can address specific health and healing needs like preparing for surgery, post surgery care, osteoporosis, digestive issues, Parkinson’s, allergies, trauma, etc. using through the full spectrum of yoga tools. She has been practicing meditation and daily life mindfulness practice since 2002 and uses both the Buddhist and Yogic understanding to inform her perspective.

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