New Year's Eve

Looking for a quiet and peaceful way to ring in the new year?
Join us at Mid City Zen for our New Year's Eve celebration.
We will begin at 8pm by sharing a meal of noodles...
At 8:30, we will transition into silence and sit Zazen from 8:30 until midnight.  This is an open sitting, which means you may enter or leave at any time.  You may take silent breaks in the kitchen for tea or stretching.  Please be mindful of the silence and the stillness throughout the house and zendo.
Shortly before midnight, we will begin to ring the bell 108 times to transition into the new year.

Feel free to join for whatever parts you would like.  We are happy to offer this as a way to reflect and to relax.  We can let go of the past year, and cultivate our steady open hearts for the year to come...

Visiting Teacher...

Head Teacher at Austin Zen Center, Kosho McCall, will be visiting us this week.  He will be giving the Dharma Talk on Tuesday evening (not Thursday) on 12/27 at 7pm.  Come join us!

New chant books!

I know, it doesn't seem that exciting.  But after many discussions about how our chanting service is going, after passing out cards that may or may not have the correct chants for that day, we are very happy to have a comprehensive book of all the daily sutras!  It contains most of the chants we use at the San Francisco Zen Center, with some changes.  We decided to use the beautiful version of the Metta Sutta that I first heard at Aloka Vihara, our Theravada Bhikkhuni sisters, in San Francisco.  We also added some details on the authors of the various poems and texts along with some Chinese characters.  Koji spent many hours formatting it all, and we spent many weeks discussing with Lauren and Austin "What do we want to chant? And on what days?"

Last night after evening service, we had a brief orientation to formal ceremony.  I think it helped ground people and make it less obscure.  We are realizing that its hard to just get thrown into the ceremony, not sure when to bow, how to bow, when to sit and stand.  Without an assembly of 30 people who know exactly how to do all the details, it could be a little confusing.

So thank you to everyone in the sangha for being willing to try it all out... For just jumping into it, into the unknown.  I hope you enjoy the sutra books...

-reverend m.