Join Us Online This Week – Saturday, January 30th, 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m | Winter Ango Practice Period

 

Join Us This Week | Saturday, January 30th, 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Winter Ango Practice Period Shuso Entering Ceremony 10:30 a.m. – 10:50 a.m.   Zazen 10:50 a.m. – 11:20 a.m.   Ceremony 11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.   Zazen                      11:45 a.m.   Four Vows   Eko Ania Mills, Shuso (head student) has been practicing with the Kannon Sangha in Poland since she met Kwong-roshi in the 90s. Later, she practiced as a resident at SMZC. In Summer 2018, Eko served as Shuso for the Summer Ango at Kannon Sangha in Kaciki, Poland. Eko lives outside of Warsaw, Poland with her daughter Maja and works as a Nonviolent Communication and mindfulness trainer. She also enjoys doing pottery in her small basement studio.   Saturday Community Link

Ango Announcement [DOWNLOAD]     |     Commitment Form [DOWNLOAD] Please fill out by clicking on the purple "Fill & Sign" button at the right-hand side in Adobe Acrobat (or by printing and scanning your form). Email your form to the office.

Saturday Intro to Meditation 9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Drop in for meditation instruction, designed for those who are new to Zen or needs brushing up. Taught by Doshin Steven Yoder in Boulder, Colorado.   Intro to Meditation Link

Morning Zazen Reflection Across the World Slipping out of bed in the darkness, reaching for the light, morning zazen. No longer sitting alone with my cat, I have the support of the Sangha. When I found Kwong-roshi, I found my brothers and sisters in the dharma.  And through the wonders of the internet, we sit together. The connection nourishes our practice as we follow our way home. Thank you Sonoma Mountain Zen Center for welcoming the old and the new!

by Toni 'Junho' Weisberg Santa Barbara, CA (SMZC Sangha Member since 2020)   Daily Meditation Schedule 6:30 a.m. – 7:00 a.m.     Morning Zazen 7:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.   Evening Zazen   Please enter the virtual zendo a few minutes early to get settled (seated and logged in before the starting bell).   Join Us Online

Morning Has Broken The singer sang I have tried in my own way to be free Stepping back a step from the open door I watch chickadees juncos sparrows peck away at a scattering of seed and bread scraps tossed where earlier just as the sun began to light the day I pushed aside the new snow they crack the heart make me smile tending to their day as they tend to all days plain simple without rush without reason It is the beginning of the side of winter I like the quiet season the new year just beginning nothing to accomplish nowhere needing to be and after the passing of the darkest night just days ago light now growing Alone standing here breathing this new year cold air watching the quiet morning and quiet myself the morning now clearing the sky taking on its long side of winter blue cold crisp and fine the feathered kind now perched on branches ruffling in the warming light of the winter sun A wind begins rounding off the drifts where earlier I had pushed aside the new snow the little clearing now a shallow bowl Nothing in this world is as beautiful as mind and heart at rest   by Russ 'Jakushin' Flynn, Lafayette, IN

SMZC Sangha Treasure Thank you, Joel Merchant, Honolulu, HI for donating monthly to cover the cost of our Zoom account this year in addition to being our member since April 1999. Thank you, James 'Eisho' Sexton, Salt Spring Island, BC Canada for donating monthly in addition to being our member since March 2009. Thank you, John Churchman, Petaluma, CA for donating monthly in addition to being our member since January 2020.   Poem and artwork by Joan Scott, Vernon, BC Canada (member since April 2020)   SMZC Membership

In order to continue to offer these programs and ensure the future of SMZC, we are asking for your support. Your donation is tax deductible. Sonoma Mountain Zen Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Tax ID #23-7304793   DONATE TO SMZC

6367 Sonoma Mountain Road, Santa Rosa, CA, 95404 (707) 545-8105 Share Via: www.smzc.org

Join Us This Week | Saturday, January 23rd, 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

 

Join Us This Week | Saturday, January 23rd, 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.   Zazen 11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. ​  Dharma Talk by Nyoze Kwong, Vice Abbot of Sonoma Mountain Zen Center BY DONATION ($10 suggested donation)   Saturday Community Link

More Dharma Talk from Roshi: Last Saturday, January 16, Roshi gave his Dharma talk on Zoom at Rinzai-ji in Los Angeles, CA. [Watch Replay]

Morning Zazen Reflection Across the World by Rabbi Daniel J Gigi MA, London, UK (Author on the Ecstatic Kabbalah and exponent of the Hasidic School of Izhbitsa-Radzyn)   I started joining Sonoma Mountain sangha for online morning zazen at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. As sanghas and communities started taking their services online, it was an opportunity to connect with Roshi whose books and insights have played a formative role in my spiritual growth and understanding. The only part of the schedule I could join, however, was the morning zazen, which for me in England is the middle of the day. It has since proven to be a regular feature of my week, punctuating everyday busy-ness within a mindful community and helping me reset for the rest of the day. It has also inspired me to take on a regular sitting practice at other times. Since the summer I have included a sitting first thing in the morning, a habit I can no longer do without. The sitting itself has also created a greater sense of stability in my practice, and my zafu is now in regular use. I live in a tiny apartment with a small family, but that little space, a zafu on a zabuton—the perspective it gives on the room and view from the window—imbues within the place a tangible sense of stillness.

Daily Meditation Schedule 6:30 a.m. – 7:00 a.m.     Morning Zazen 7:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.   Evening Zazen   Please enter the virtual zendo a few minutes early to get settled (seated and logged in before the starting bell).   Join Us Online

Saturday Intro to Meditation 9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Drop in for meditation instruction, designed for those who are new to Zen or needs brushing up. Taught by Doshin Steven Yoder in Boulder, Colorado.   Intro to Meditation Link

Thank you, Jim Sexton (member since 2009), Salt Spring Island, British Columbia Canada for donating monthly in addition to being our member. Photo courtesy of Marian Schmidt. Poem by Joan Scott (member since 2020).   SMZC Membership

In order to continue to offer these programs and ensure the future of SMZC, we are asking for your support. Your donation is tax deductible. Sonoma Mountain Zen Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Tax ID #23-7304793   DONATE TO SMZC

6367 Sonoma Mountain Road, Santa Rosa, CA, 95404 (707) 545-8105 Share Via: www.smzc.org