10 am

Shokuchi Deirdre Carrigan trained in Zen at San Francisco Zen Center for 20 years, including four practice periods at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and more than a decade of residential practice at Green Gulch Farm. She was ordained a Soto Zen priest by Tenshin Reb Anderson in 2010 and was Shuso (Head Student) in 2014. At Green Gulch, she served as Tenzo, Guest Program Manager, and Assistant to Tenshin Reb Anderson. Shokuchi studied Iyengar Yoga with Donald Moyer for two decades, and has been teaching yoga since 1988. Since 2002, she has led or co-led Zen and Yoga retreats at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, Green Gulch Farm, The Yoga Room in Berkeley, Yogasana in Brooklyn, New York, and in Ireland. In 2017, she moved to New York City where until recently she served as Tanto, Head of Practice, at Brooklyn Zen Center.

10 am

Konjin Gaelyn Godwin is abbot of Houston Zen Center and Director of the International Division of Soto Zen, North America (a department of Soto Zen Headquarters based in Japan). She received ordination as a Zen Priest in 1991, from Tenshin Reb Anderson, and Dharma Transmission in 2003. She is Dojin’s ordination and dharma transmission teacher.

Mary is the head priest at Clear Water Zendo in Vallejo. A long-time favorite guest speaker at Stone Creek.

May We Gather: A National Buddhist Memorial Ceremony for Asian American Ancestors (www.maywegather.org) is the first national Buddhist memorial service in response to anti-Asian violence. The ceremony will be livestreamed from Higashi Honganji Temple in Los Angeles, which was vandalized earlier this year. The event will be freely broadcast online and will bring together Asian American Buddhists and their allies to heal in community together.

On May 4th, 2021, exactly seven weeks, or forty-nine days, will have passed since the Atlanta shootings claimed the lives of eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, including the 63-year-old Buddhist Yong Ae Yue. In many Buddhist traditions, forty-nine days after death marks an important transition for the bereaved. May We Gather will feature Buddhist chanting and reflections from forty-nine Asian American Buddhist leaders of South, Southeast, and East Asian descent in a communal ritual to honor people who have died from acts of anti-Asian violence in the United States.

The 90-minute-long event will be held on Tuesday, May 4th, 2021 at 4pm PDT (7pm EDT). We welcome Asian American Buddhist temples and organizations as well as allied communities and individuals of all backgrounds to participate in this ceremony by endorsing the gathering, sharing it widely, and watching the livestream on May 4th.

The Dharma of Being Anti-Racist: Accessing Skillful Engagement

Teaching Team:

Core Teachers: Rev. Liên Shutt and Dawn Haney
Facilitation Teachers: Dalila Bothwell, Linda Gonzalez, Korin Charlie Pokorny, Dojin Sarah Emerson

Description:

Would you like to skillfully practice anti-racism? The 8-Fold Path provides ways to enact:

• Wisdom of understanding & thoughts
• Meaningful meditations & practices with effort, mindfulness, & concentration
• Fostering engaged behaviors in speech, action, & livelihood

Inquiring into the causes and conditions that have brought about our collective suffering from racism, this course will offer meditations, reflective writings, mindfulness practices, and interactive exercises to support grounding, settledness, and skillful action. We’ll connect to individual and collective agency as we practice skills for staying in discomfort and resilience.

Open to all who acknowledge systemic racism and are committed to examining the impact of being part of such a structure.

We are committed to a class ratio of 50% BIPOC to 50% white-identified participants.

for more information and to apply click here

Stone Creek Zen Center stands in solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and condemns both the long history of oppression, and the recent waves of violence against AAPI persons. We acknowledge the deep roots of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in Sonoma County,; and the deep roots of Asian American buddhist practice in our community and in the United States.

In alignment with the Bodhisattva Vows, we call on our sangha members and all Zen practitioners who are not Asian American/ Pacific Islander to be on the lookout for, and to interrupt any violence- physical, verbal and otherwise- aimed at anyone in the AAPI community in this time of escalating attacks.

Please read Why Did Six Asian Women Have to Die in Order to be Seen? by Butterfly Tony Pham

Online Memorial honoring victims of Atlanta murders and all AAPI targeted violence on May 4th, 4pm (the 49th day following the shootings): https://www.maywegather.org/ (see posting on our main sight as well for more information)

Take a free online Bystander Intervention Training with Hollaback! (recommended in article above by Butterfly Tony Pham)

Or enroll in The Dharma of being Anti-racist (Dojin Sarah and Korin Charlie of Stone Creek are on the teaching team, so please reach out with questions)

There are also  many efforts in our community to stand in solidarity and here are some ways to support those efforts and get involved:

Asian American Alliance of Marin- resources page 

Anti Asian Violence Resources- national 

The Wechat project

Four Thursdays: February 18, 25, March 4, 11, 4:30 – 6:30 pm PT

Led By Dōjin Sarah Emerson, Chris Fortin and Jenifer Block

In this time of difficulty and uncertainty, the archetype of Jizo Bodhisattva, an embodiment of fearlessness and great persistence, is a profound resource. Jizo vows to walk into the fires of suffering, and to accompany all beings across to the safety and equanimity of awakening.

Calling forth this spirit of creative and wholehearted engagement, we will deepen and stabilize our capacity to meet personal grief and loss and the collective grief of the global pandemic, racial violence and inequities, climate catastrophe, economic instability, societal and communal uncertainties.

The event is offered to deepen the qualities of Jizo Bodhisattva: unconditional love, great commitment, and unshakable fearlessness, in our practice and in the world. Our hope is that this offering will cultivate our individual and collective capacity to accept and engage with what is painful and difficult.

Jizo Practice Group

Our final session will be a Jizo Ceremony in which we bear witness to each other’s grief and loss and dedicate our efforts to the healing of our communities and in the world.  All are welcome, especially those in need of compassion, healing, and solace from the many losses, uncertainty and changes of these times.This is a unique opportunity to begin or deepen your bodhisattva practice. Together we will explore the meaning and power of Jizo Bodhisattva.  Meetings will include dharma talks, relevant reading, discussion, creative expression, as well as supporting one another in navigating the tricky places. We will introduce creative practices to nurture the qualities of Jizo: optimism, compassion, courage, and peace. We will study the Wheel of Life, and Jizo’s role in opening the doors of practice in the six realms of transmigration: gods, jealous gods, hungry ghosts, hell-beings, animals, and humans.

Advance registration required, this is not a drop-in group.

Offered through San Francisco Zen Center:

for more information and to register click here

The ango this year will be online through zoom.
The theme of the ango will be “The Eightfold Path We Walk Together.”

• The Sunday talks on March 14 – April 4 will be on the topic of the ango.
• The ango study group will meet on Wednesday evenings, March 10 – April 7, 6:00 to 8:00 (possibly ending earlier on some evenings). During these meetings, participants are invited to offer brief (5-10 minute) presentations  to express and share their own understandings, experiences and living applications of one or more folds of the Eightfold Path. We particularly invite developing connections between the Eightfold Path and contemporary issues including social justice, living in the pandemic and the climate crisis.
• We plan to hold an ango practice day combined with the Sunday offering on March 21, 9:15 am – 3:00 pm.

The Eightfold Path is a classic exposition of the 4th Noble Truth of the Path (the 4 Noble Truths are the truths of suffering, the cause of suffering, freedom from suffering, and the path).

The Eightfold Path consists of:
1. Skillful View (or Understanding)
2. Skillful Intention (or Resolve or Vow)
3. Skillful Speech (or Conversation)
4. Skillful Action (or Conduct)
5. Skillful Livelihood (or Integration)
6. Skillful Effort (or Energy)
7. Skillful Mindfulness (or Recollection of Teachings)
8. Skillful Concentration (or Meditation)

There are a number of books which discuss the Eightfold Path. We would like to recommend the following as our base text:

The Eightfold Path edited by Jikyo Cheryl Wolfer (Temple Ground Press). It is a compilation of commentaries on each fold by contemporary woman Zen teachers.

The ango will be led by Dojin and Korin.

Suggested donation for Ango: members $110, non-members $150, if you’re having financial hardship, please email (see below),                no one turned away for lack of funds

Please sign up by sending an email to stonecreek@sonic.net