Dharma Heart Zen
March Sangha News
Preregister for DHZ Sangha Week at Tassajara
More information
DHZ All-Day Sitting
Sunday, March 22
9:00am-4:00pm PST
More information
Announcements
Dharma Heart Zen Study and Practice Focus
Vasubandu’s
Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only
Resources:
Thirty Verses on Conciousness Only, from a Practitioner’s Guide Inside Vasubandhu’s Yogacara
Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara, A Practitioner’s Guide, by Ben Connelly
Understanding Our Mind, by Thich Nhat Hanh
Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen, by Shunryu Suzuki
Dharma Talks on Yogacara
For general information about Dharma Heart Zen
see Dharma Heart Zen Offerings
Practice News
Bed Head Zen
This new offering meets at 6:15 am Monday through Friday, using the Zoom Zendo link. We sit for 30 minutes, chant (currently Zenju's Chant for All Beings (have your own copy please) and dedicate merit.
—Kristen Sorensen and Shalaby
Writing the Ordinary
with Nancy Dougherty and Elise TurnerWe’re starting a new monthly writing group called Writing the Ordinary. This is a chance to explore the everyday moments of life through words and silence from a Zen perspective.
Each gathering will begin with a short meditation, then we’ll read prompts, poems, or other texts to inspire our own writing.
There’s no need for experience—just bring a sense of curiosity about what is seen, observed, heard, or felt in a day.
When: First Monday of the month, 4:00-5:30 pm (no July meeting)
Where: Elise's home in Sebastopol (we’ll email address upon rsvps)
rsvp: Nancy: ncaversd@gmail.com or Elise: elise.october@gmail.com
Limit 8 participants per meeting
Please rsvp: first-come, first-served
~ Nancy Cavers Dougherty
poetrywebsite: ncdpoetry.com
Heaven is in Truckee: orchpress.com
Jizos for Peace
Hello Everyone:
Springtime rising all around us brings a strong presence of Jizo Earth Bodhisattva to my senses and heart. The strength and healing that is here bringing resilience and hope to carry on. Chris' recent teachings on the seeds of our storehouse consciousness also brings us the spirit of Jizo.
May we continue watering seeds of compassion, as we honor all the children who have perished in Gaza and Israel since October of 2023. The next gatherings are listed below, please join us!
March 19: 1:30 - 4 pm, my home (maybe outside!)
March 25: 10 - 12:30 pm, my home
April 3: 1:30 - 4 pm Sebastopol Center for the Arts
Let me know if you would like to sign up for any of these dates and you can invite friends from the community to join the Sebastopol Center for the Arts gatherings which is also listed on their website.
—In gratitude, Cherie Goodwin Lippard
How Equanimity Powers Love
True equanimity, says Kaira Jewel Lingo, is not in any way detached or uncaring—it’s inclusive, and loving, and the foundation for spiritual courage.
Suzuki Roshi at Tassajara
David Chadwick, born in 1945, was the author of Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunyru Suzuki, Thank You and OK: An American Zen Failure in Japan, and Tassajara Stories, and contributor and editor for several others. David Chadwick describes the early days of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and the ways which Suzuki Roshi related to the American mind. He also traced the teachings, doings, and influence of Suzuki’s community through his cuke.com website. He died peacefully this week. We will miss him.
Family Practice:
The Dharma Wheel of the YearThe Dharma Wheel is often used to show the interrelated practices of The Eightfold Path —teachings given by the Buddha for living a life of liberation. The SFZC Family Sangha held the first meeting of 2026 in the yurt at Green Gulch with the theme of “Land as Dharma Teacher,” sprinkled with invitations to consider what aimlessness (apranahitta), non-striving, and trusting in buddha-nature and the light within feels like in this season.
The Wheel of the Year borrows from Celtic and neopagan traditions. It includes the winter and summer solstices, the spring and fall equinoxes, and the subtle changes between the seasons. We are in Imbolc now, the season of plum blossoms gently awakening in their own time, midway between winter and spring.
By creating this combined image of The Dharma Wheel of the Year, we are asking:
How can we honor our relationship with our oldest ancestors, the wondrously turning seasons that include all of our relatives — the earth and air, rivers and mountains, bears and blackberries, salmon and sea otters?
Can we take up the Eightfold Path in order to live in right relationship with all of our relatives and ancestors, known and unknown?
Can our families give and receive support by reclaiming memory of place, season, and history?
We hope this will also support ongoing acknowledgement and engagement that respects the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, still here, actively caring for the land through their ancestral traditions. We trust that our homes are locations of collective liberation — and that together we can remember the sacred, interconnected world.
A new Family Practice webpage to share more about offerings is coming soon.
Engaged Buddhism:
Practicing in the World
Resources and ways to engage and help
Responding with Clarity and Compassion
Dharma Heart Zen is curating a list of resources and engaged actions to help us respond with bodhisattva hearts and minds to the suffering and chaos that is unfolding in our government and in the world.
Visit the Engaged Buddhism page and join in as you can. It is updated regularly.
Visit the Solidarity With Our Migrant Neighbors page for resources related to the Sonoma County Sanctuary Coalition.
Sanctuary Coalition to receive American Civil Liberties Union Defend Democracy Award!
March 17, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Finely Community Center, Santa Rosa
March 25, 5:00-6:00 pm
Old Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa
Bring Your Candle
Oranized by the Faith Leaders Work Group of the Sonoma County Sanctuary Coalition
for more information, contact office@srchristchurch.org
Faith Vigil for Solidarity (Ongoing)
