Saturday Dokusan Tomorrow, March 23 (Dhara-sensei)

Saturday-morning dokusan was instituted to accommodate members who are unable to attend the regular dokusans held during the week. To participate, take a seat on the left side of the Arnold Park zendo, near the Kannon Room, any time before 10:00 am. An announcement will be made before dokusan begins.

As John-sensei is leaving for a week-long vacation tomorrow, Dhara-sensei will offer dokusan instead. And speaking of dokusan …

Dokusan Schedule Next Week

At Arnold Park, there will still be two opportunities for dokusan next week, both offered by Dhara-sensei: Monday night and Wednesday morning. (No dokusan on Thursday evening.)

At Chapin Mill, there will be no dokusan on Monday evening, since Sensei will be at Arnold Park. However, there will be the usual Thursday morning dokusan there. You can refer to our new online calendar (mentioned below) if you’re not sure.

Dharma Talk by Ven. Trueman Taylor, Sunday, March 24

The next Dharma talk will be offered by Trueman as part of the 8:30 am sitting this Sunday, March 24. You may join us in-person in the zendo at Arnold Park or on Zoom.

Now Playing on Zoom …

On most Tuesday evenings, an encouragement talk is given at Arnold Park, and we’re now experimenting with sharing a recording of that talk during the Wednesday evening Zoom sitting.

The talks run about 5 minutes and are given by a teacher or senior student during a round of zazen. If you’d like to join us for Wednesday evening sittings on Zoom, contact Jissai for the codes.

New Online Calendar

The long overdue makeover of our online calendar is finished! You may now view the new calendar by week, by month, or as a daily agenda, and it’s easy to see whether activities are in-person, online, or both. Bonus: You can also more easily copy individual sittings and Sangha events to your personal online calendar. Check out the new calendar at https://www.rzc.org/calendar/ 

New Sunday Morning Sittings at Chapin Mill

For Batavia (or Buffalo)-area Sangha who would like to sit with others but can’t make the drive to Rochester, we invite you to Sunday morning sittings at Chapin Mill. The schedule is the same as Arnold Park’s, and after kinhin, there will be a live audio broadcast of the chanting service and teisho (or talk) given at Arnold Park.

Our plan is to try this out for a couple months to see if Batavia-area Sangha take advantage of it. Of course, everyone is also welcome to socialize and have tea in the dining room afterwards. For questions, contact Tom Kowal.

The Mill House Beehive

For about 20 years at Chapin Mill, there has been a honeybee hive inside the third-floor wall of the Mill House. We have peacefully coexisted with the bees this whole time, with only the occasional incursion of bees flying around indoors or honey dripping from the window trim. The Mill House, however, is about to undergo major (and much needed) exterior repair and renovation.

Knowing that both the honeybees and the contractors would be at risk during the renovation, finding a solution for the welfare of all was in order. With the help of a Sangha member who used to keep bees himself, we hired a husband-and-wife beekeeper team, Christine and Wayne Wilkins, who also specialize in the safe removal and relocation of hives. They arrived at 8:30 am on Saturday morning and didn’t finish until 6:00 pm, carefully removing the hive and placing the sections of honeycomb – and the bees – into hive frames and boxes. The bees will now continue their lives an hour and a half drive east of Chapin Mill, in North Rose, New York.

You can learn more about the whole fascinating process in this amazing 20-minute video.