Arnold Park Workday This Saturday, May 15

As the Arnold Park residential staff dwindled over the past year, the remaining skeleton crew barely managed to keep themselves fed and to maintain the more important financial and administrative functions. With spring surging now, the back gardens are in need of restoration, and the indoors also need attention.

If you can pitch in, come on Saturday, when we’ll have a workday from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. Pizza and salad will be provided, and there are even rumors of donuts at the morning tea-and-coffee break. If you can’t make it by 9:00, or stay until 1:00, please join us for as long as you’re able.

Here’s a link to Eventbrite where you can let us know if you’re coming and help us get an idea of how many to expect. However, even if you can’t commit yet and aren’t signed up, please do come if you can!

Finding Your Seat

If you’re not coming for the workday Saturday, you’re welcome to log on to Zoom for Finding Your Seat at the usual time, 11 am to noon. If you need the link and password, contact Donna Kowal at 585-224-3587.

The Other Shore

When the Center shut down in March of last year, signs were posted on the front doors of 5 and 7 Arnold Park: “SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE.” Little did we realize then that it would be more than a year, but we’ve now reached that other side (let’s call it “the other shore”). So we’re back to unlocking the front door of the Arnold Park front entrance half an hour before formal sittings. (At other times, that door will be locked, as has been our policy for many years.)

Meanwhile, the entrance building (Link) and zendo areas remain accessible, day and night, to Zen Center members via the back door keypad. If you’re a full member and need the key code, which was changed last summer, contact Dené Redding at dene@rzc.org.

Dharma Talk this Sunday, May 16

John Pulleyn will give a Dharma talk this Sunday, in person, in the zendo. The sitting beforehand starts at 8:30 am, and the talk will follow, beginning just before 9:30. If you can’t be here in the flesh, you can tune in via Zoom or listen on the Center’s Mixlr audio stream. (One note about talks on Zoom: if you have trouble hearing, look for the closed-captioning button your screen, and you’ll be able to turn on live captions, which may help.)

Uprooting Racism May 26 Event: I Am Rohingya Film Screening and Live Discussion

For Uprooting Racism’s exciting May event, we’re hosting a film screening of I Am Rohingya: A Genocide in Four Acts, culminating in a live discussion with director Yusuf Zine (and, we believe, some of the cast). You can screen the film at your convenience; the live discussion will be the evening of Wednesday, May 26, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm EDT, on Zoom.

To receive the unique Zoom meeting info as well as a link to view the film on your own, please register for a free “ticket” through this Eventbrite page.

Buddha’s Birthday and Annual Meeting

More details will follow, but we do know this: we’ll hold our annual meeting on Friday May 28 from 5:30 to 7 pm (Zoom codes to follow), and we’re nailing down plans for our celebration of the Buddha’s birth on Saturday, May 29.