January 12, 2018
Introducing Open Zen Community

A Branching Streams sangha profile, introducing one of the many sanghas affiliated with San Francisco Zen Center in the Branching Streams network.

Open Zen Community is a small and dedicated Sangha of lay practitioners in the San Francisco Bay Area. All of us work full-time as part of our practice.

We meet online each evening to chant the refuges together at 8:25 pm and meet online for zazen and service at 9 am on Saturdays and Sundays. We sit together body-to-body for a half-day sitting every second Sunday and have zazen, kinhin, and a Dharma talk on the fourth Sunday of each month at 3 pm. Our specific emphasis is “awakening where you are, as you are” and we examine the question of the meaning of awakening in lay American life often. All are welcome to join in this dynamic practice of everyday life.

 

Features, For Mary Watson

Remembering Mary Watson

I want to invite us to be with Mary's spirit, because she really embodied compassion. When Blanche gave her the precepts, she gave her the name, Eyes of Compassion, Nurturing Teacher, and that's what Mary was.