Dear Friends,

I think you’d relish the spirit of the Berkeley Zen Center’s meditation hall.  Enter the airy hall through the garden, place cushions in the communal setting, bow to place, bow to room, sit in peace.  Roshi Mel Weitsman rings the temple bowl, offers brief encouraging guidance, we begin what could already have begun – breathing, focus, awareness, communion, peace – repeat.  Forty minutes.  The bell concludes the practice.  We bow to practice and practitioners.

Roshi Mel’s death at age 91 was recently announced.  He founded the Berkeley Zen Center under the guidance of Sunryu Suzuki (Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind) and served there 53 years – emphasizing the practice, offering its questions, encouraging practitioners to find their answers.  His legacy is the many he taught how to keep returning to the path of attention and peace. 

Thank you, Roshi,
Pastor Jack