Dharma Heart Zen
December Sangha News
End-of-year Appeal
The committed, warm-hearted, engaged, and joyful bodhisattva work of Dharma Heart Zen continues in this difficult time in the world. We extend infinite gratitude if you are able to offer a year-end contribution (dana) to support this refuge and vehicle of continuous practice.
Dharma Heart Zen is happy to announce that our sangha is now a 501c3 nonprofit organization. All dana contributed to Dharma Heart Zen during 2024, and in the future, is tax deductible.
Announcements
No Monthly Bag Lunch in December
DHZ will not meet the weeks of December 23 and 30
Sangha meetings resume Tuesday January 7!
Mark Your Calendars
Dharma Heart Zen All-Sangha Meeting, Sunday February 9 2025, 10:00-1:00
Dharma Heart Zen Study and Practice Focus
Zen Forms and Community Building
The greatest talent is to know how to live in harmony with others.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
SCHEDULE:
Weekly Meditation with DHZ for the weeks of December 9 and 16 will focus on Zen Forms and Community Building
DHZ will not meet the weeks of December 23 and 30
Resources:
What is Zen?: Plain Talk for a Beginner’s Mind, by Norman Fischer and Susan Moon
The Next Buddha is the Community, Not an Individual – The Mindfulness Bell, article by Sister Lực Nghiêm in The Mindfulness Bell
Buddha’s Awakening Sesshin ~ December 7 & 8
Zen Forms
This page will be updated weekly with sangha meeting info, announcements, resources, and links to recorded talks
For general information about weekly sittings and other offerings,
see Dharma Heart Zen Offerings
Engaged Buddhism
Practicing in the World
Calypso Orchid
offered by Gretchen Paradis
On Isreal and Palestine
Offered by Judith Linzer from RSJC study group in response to 6th Bodhisattva Precept
This is a rendition of “Do What The Spirit Say Do,” led and introduced by Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock, calling for all of us to remain alert as inspiration can strike whenever.
Click on the image above to be taken to a video posted on facebook.
This is a rendition of “Do What The Spirit Say Do,” led and introduced by Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock, calling for all of us to remain alert as inspiration can strike whenever.
Click on the image above to be taken to a video posted on facebook.
Mushrooms
Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly
Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.
Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.
Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,
Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,
Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We
Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking
Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!
We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,
Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:
We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door
- by Sylvia Plath
offered by Lauren Hansen
Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity
All People are Sacred Across Bars and Borders
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, the Baháʼí faith and many others share a central commitment to the sacredness of every person.
Welcome the refugee.
Treat the stranger as your own.
Compassion knows no borders.
Love has no walls.
For more than twenty years, the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity has been joining hands with people of faith to act on these core beliefs. We defend the humanity of the immigrant and fight for the rights of the incarcerated.
Read more
The Trevor Project - Suicide Prevention for LGBTQ+ Young People
You deserve a welcoming, loving world.
And so do the people you care about. Here you can reach out to a counselor if you’re struggling, find answers and information, and get the tools you need to help someone else.
Honor Their Legacy
In recognition of International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day (11/23), join by celebrating your loved one and helping to build a safer, more inclusive future for LGBTQ+ young people. Through tribute gifts, commemorative funds, or legacy giving, their memory can inspire lasting hope.
Learn more
Trans Lifeline
…A grassroots hotline and grassroots hotline and microgrants 501(c)(3) non-profit organization offering direct emotional and financial support to trans people in crisis – for the trans community, by the trans community.
Learn more
We are in the midst of dramatic change and, with it, profound loss and rising fear. No matter our degree of acceptance, this is our home, now and going forward. We cannot fix this. Our practice can support us not only in being with this trouble, but steadying our minds and opening our hearts to all that is unfolding. From this place, there is so much good and important work to be done.
Join in this journey to cultivate wisdom, connection, and compassionate action.
Learn more and register
Wildland Firefighter Retreat
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
December 28, 2024 - January 3, 2025
The San Francisco Zen Center is offering this mindfulness and practice-based retreat for Wildland Firefighters as a way to give back to the firefighting communities and to support our first responders. Chris is a co-facilitator.
View the flyer
DONATE TO TASSAJARA WILDLAND FIREFIGHTERS RETREAT
Please let Ellen know if you are interested in volunteering in the Tassajara kitchen to support this retreat.
I volunteered to cook for the firefighters last winter and at the last two sangha weeks, I was able to cook in this historic kitchen, where some of my culinary heroes—Ed Brown, Deborah Madison, and Chris Fortin—have prepared food over the years. It was so meaningful to support this wonderful group and to see the power of Buddhist practice at work in the world.
—Ellen Sherron
December 2023 Wildland Firefighter Retreat at Tassajara