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

Everyday Zen—Zen Forms

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

For the Well being and Safe Passage list, contact Barbara Spain