Saturday Dokusan with John-sensei, December 2

Dokusan is occasionally offered on Saturday mornings to accommodate members who can’t attend regular sittings with dokusan 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.

Zen 101, Saturday, December 2, 11:00 am

Are you curious about how and why we do prostrations? Want to know more about chanting? Any Zen terminology you still don’t understand? Zen 101 is a free program to help you become more familiar with the various outward forms of Zen practice. Questions are encouraged, so don’t hesitate to tell us what you’d like to know or practice doing.

You’re also invited to attend the informal sitting in the zendo at noon, followed by lunch at 12:30.

To sign up, contact Trueman by 3:30 Friday, so we have a head count for the program and lunch. If you can’t make it in person, it will also be broadcast on Zoom. Contact Jissai for the codes.

Teisho by John-sensei, Sunday, December 3

At 8:30 am in the Arnold Park zendo, we’ll have one extended round of sitting with a bell at the half-way point for a posture change, followed by kinhin, a short chanting service, and then John-sensei’s teisho. All will be broadcast on Zoom.

Other Activities

Buddha’s Enlightenment Ceremony, Thursday, December 7

On Thursday evening, Dhara-sensei will lead the annual ceremony that commemorates the Buddha’s Great Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, complete with sutra reading, chanting, and warm rice milk in the candle-lit dining room.

The sitting begins at 7:00 pm, and the ceremony will follow at 8:00. You’re invited to join us in the zendo at Arnold Park or online. For Zoom access, contact Jissai.

YouTube Update

Within a couple of hours of making the request, we met our goal of more than 1K subscribers to our YouTube channel. Thanks to all who subscribed! We’re still ironing out the wrinkles, but we’ll soon experiment with streaming daily sittings on YouTube instead of Mixlr. Zoom sittings will remain the same.

One of the benefits of signing up is subscribers are notified when new videos are added to the channel. About a week ago two videos from pre-pandemic Sangha Entertainment Nights were added to a playlist. For a good laugh, check out the latest videos here.