Roshi’s CoronaCast

In Amala-sensei’s online sesshin last week, most participants had to negotiate some accommodation to the schedule of others they live with, and now have been negotiating the transition back to full-on household life. Roshi addresses both of these challenges in this week’s coronacast: August 5, 2020.

Black Lives Matter Book Discussion

It’s not too late to sign up for the Zoom discussions of Ruth King’s Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out (Sounds True: 2018). The first meeting will focus on the book’s introduction. Please email Donna Kowal at donna@rzc.org by the end of today, Thursday, August 6, if you’re interested in participating. For more information, see Black Lives Matter Book Discussion.

Police Accountability Board Alliance

As is explained on the City of Rochester’s website, “the Rochester City Council established a civilian-controlled process to fairly investigate and make determinations respecting complaints of misconduct involving sworn Officers of the Rochester Police Department. The Police Accountability Board is the mechanism to investigate such complaints and to review Rochester Police Department patterns, practices, policies and procedures.” Under the ordinance establishing the Board, “the Police Accountability Board Alliance [is] a group of community organizations that nominate community members to be appointed by City Council to the Police Accountability Board.”

The Zen Center recently became a formal supporter organization for the Alliance. Our two official representatives to that Alliance are Andy McClain and James Thompson. You can share your input on what you see as future Alliance priorities with James (jimbojimbolaya@gmail.com) or Andy (flowtin@yahoo.com). The Alliance will be holding a virtual retreat on August 15 and September 6, 1-5 pm both days, so now is the time if you want to voice your recommendations.

Finding Your Seat: Saturday, August 8, 11:00 am to noon. More information here.

Tolling of the Temple Bell: Saturday, August 8, 10:02 pm

To commemorate 75 years of the world’s being free from nuclear warfare, the Center and other faith organizations will be ringing bells for 75 seconds on Saturday, August 8, at 10:02 PM EDT. This time corresponds to the time 75 years ago when an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. There will be simultaneous ceremonies in the United States and Japan – a ringing of bells – corresponding to the actual time of the bombing.

Teisho: Roshi will give teisho this Sunday, August 9, starting just before 9:30 am. You can tune in via Zoom (and join the 8:30 sitting beforehand if you wish), or you can listen in to the audio stream (https://www.rzc.org/library/streaming-audio/).