
We Consider How This Food Comes To Us
GGF Residents Discuss Genetically Modified Food
As a continuation of Food Awareness Month at Green Gulch Farm, the Ecosattvas have been discussing something that California voters will vote on at the polls next Tuesday: Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

The Time Has Come to Transform Caregiving – 2013 Contemplative Caregiver Course Registration Opens
Jennifer Block, a Buddhist chaplain and caregiver educator who has made it her life’s work to provide spiritual care to people in crisis, mentoring caregivers and teaching people how to access their innate capacity for caring and healing, joins the San Francisco Zen Center in bringing the Bay Area caregiving community a breakthrough, three-part Contemplative Caregiver Course in 2013.

Featured Photo Oct 31
The Sejiki Ceremony, celebrated at City Center every year on October 31, features pumpkins carved by residents. These pumpkins, from Sejiki 2010, were grown at Green Gulch Farm.

Greens Restaurant on “Check, Please!”
Greens Restaurant at Fort Mason was featured on the October 24, 2012 episode of “Check, Please!.” Host Leslie Sbrocco was joined by reviewers Rabbi Ruth Abush-Magdar, Father Stephen Privett, and Architect Sharmila Badkar.

Bill Viola: Transformation from Within
by Wendy Lewis
Bill Viola, born in 1951, comments “I don’t like the label ‘video artist.’” He describes himself as an artist who “happens to use video because I live in the last part of the twentieth century.” It is helpful to keep this in mind when encountering Viola’s work because video is often associated more with action than it is with atmosphere, image, and sound. The latter are the defining qualities of his videos and video installations.

SFZC Board Election and Bylaw Change
Current SFZC members are invited to participate in two very important decisions for the future of our sangha. First, the approval of the slate of candidates nominated by the Board to fill vacancies on the Board of Directors. Second, the approval of amendments to SFZC bylaws in order to provide for the three-abbess/abbot leadership structure with which we have been experimenting since 2010. To this end, members will soon be receiving a ballot on both of these issues in the mail.

On Hoitsu Suzuki’s Last Day at Eiheiji
Hoitsu Suzuki has been godo, head of training, at Eiheiji in Japan for the last several years. His last day at Eiheiji was October 15. Hoitsu, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi’s son, visits San Francisco Zen Center periodically, often to assist with large ceremonies, such as the Stepping Down and Mountain Seat ceremonies in February 2012.

Akazienzendo Berlin
In August, Bernd Bender wrote from Berlin about the new Zen group in Berlin he has established with Ursula Richard. The group has a web site and a Facebook page.

Seizanji – Sacred Mountain Zen Temple in India
Shindo Gita Gayatri returned to India in June 2012 with a plan to build Seizanji, Sacred Mountain Temple, a Soto Zen Training Center in Thiruvannamalai – South India.