MAY 12 ONE-DAY SITTING: Our practice period entering ceremony will take place that day at 4 pm. All practice period participants are welcome to come for this ceremony. After you’ve read the sign-up information notice on the bulletin board and signed up for the sitting, please complete a SESSHIN INFORMATION FORM and place it in the sesshin director’s box. (If you completed one for a prior sesshin, there is no need for another one unless information has changed.) If you have any questions, contact the sesshin director, Mary Duryee, maduryee@earthlink.net or 510-872-0507 (before 9 pm). |
UPCOMING WOMEN’S SESSHIN, NOTES FROM WOMEN’S POTLUCK Nineteen women gathered for a potluck lunch this past February at the lovely home of Margret Wotkyns where we enjoyed wonderful food and discussed what we’d like to see in the women’s sesshin scheduled for Sunday, September 23. The women at the potluck wanted someone from the BZC community to lead it and would like a sesshin format that includes time for participants to talk about their lives and their practice and to connect with each other. This might be called a council format. Marie Hopper is serving as women's coordinator and Andrea Thach will be the doshi for the sesshin. The sesshin director and facilitator will be announced closer to the date. Andrea, Marie, Sue Oehser, SusanH, and Laurie Senauke will serve as contact people for your input and questions. Their phone number and emails are in the BZC directory. |
MOUNTAINS & RIVERS BACKPACKING SESSHIN The date of Berkeley Zen Center's next Mountains & Rivers Sesshin has been changed. It was originally scheduled for late July, but it will instead take place two months later: September 27-30. In all other respects it will be the same as originally planned, including the same location (Coast Camp in Point Reyes). If you have questions, please call Ken Knabb at (510) 527-0959 or e-mail him at |
Family Sitting IT-TAKES-A-SANGHA: Announcing a new concept for BZC, a one-day FAMILY SITTING, to be held October 7, for families and friends of families. A day when partners won’t have to choose which one sits zazen while the other sits the children; single parents won’t have to skip sesshin for lack of childcare; and best of all, children of all ages will get to experience Zen Center as a special place to be and to belong. All are invited to join this sitting in support of family practice. Sitting and working together, our grandparent generation and the “aunts and uncles” of the sangha will connect with parents we’ve missed and get acquainted with the next generation. The 9:00 am-4:00 pm schedule will allow full- or half-day sign-ups, with thirty-minute sittings (including ten minutes of zazen in one period for interested older children), plus kinhin, lecture, lunch, work period (involving children), and tea with discussion. Childcare for appropriate age groups will include activities led by sangha members, yet to be identified! Planners Marie Hopper, Laurie Senauke, and Catharine Lucas are looking for volunteers to lead art, music, story-telling, or movement activities. We are still in the planning stages and eager for your input. E-mail questions, suggestions, or offers of help to Marie Hopper at marie_hopper@sbcglobal.net. |