Yoshi Shibata
Sunday April 14, 21 and 28
2:30 - 5:00
Learn the fundamentals of Shodo Japanese Calligraphy using traditional ink and brush. Shodo is practiced by common people as well as by Zen and Shinto priests and artists. In Japan there is a saying: A person's writing shows their character. Shodo teaches you how to meditate and express your inner strength in your art and life. In this workshop you will start with the meditation of making ink, then continue on to learn basic strokes using a calligraphy brush. No experience necessary.
Yoshi Shibata has been practicing Shodo since he was five,beginning at a temple
in Japan where he studied calligraphy
and other traditional Japanese arts. He has won
a number ofnational calligraphy competitions.
He has taught classes locally in Santa Cruz,
including workshops at UCSC.
Please Bring:
Fude: Brush, one small, one medium
Sumi: Solid ink stick plus a bottle of pourable ink. (Bottle ink can be purchased from teacher at a discount.)
Hanshi: Special thin calligraphy paper
(Can be purchased at discount from teacher)
Suzuri: Heavy black container for mixing ink
Bunchin: Metal stick to weight down paper during writing. (may bring stones)
For three sessions:
$75 (Sustaining members), $90 (others)
Qi Gong for Emotional Balance
with Nannette Overley
A Six Week Series
Wednesday mornings, February 20, 27, March 6, 13, 20, 27
7:15 am – 8:15 am
at Santa Cruz Zen Center
Qi Gong practice directly experiences the energy in the body, not as good or bad, but fluid and malleable
Learn to support your emotional well being and peace of mind through:
Qi Gong flows, Breath work, Standing postures, Healing sounds, Meditations
As Zen practitioners, we practice mindfulness of emotions, cultivating an intimate and honest relationship with our full range of emotions. We work with afflictive emotions by recognizing them when they arise, and feeling their energy in the body. Qi Gong offers specific energy flows and meditations for transforming harmful emotions by moving, clearing, and transforming them at the energetic level. Much like Zen, Qi Gong energetic work does not rely on the mind to figure out, “correct” or change emotional energy.
For six classes: $42 (sustaining members) $60 (others)
Nannette received lay ordination from Katherine Thanas in 2008, and is an active practitioner at SCZC Warm Jewel Temple. She studied Qi Gong with Lee Holden, and completed his Teacher Certification training in 2012.
Sign up at Santa Cruz Zen Center, 115 School Street, Santa Cruz
or call Nannette at (408) 482-4427
Sunday May 19, 9:00 - 3:30
Much of poetic writing can be seen as a love letter,
not necessarily to a lover, but 
often as a response
to the joy and mystery of lived life. This workshop
will offer writing practice as intimate appreciation of
our response to beauty and as encouragement to
be surprised by what takes shape on the page.
After a period of zazen there will be time for warmup writing followed by discussion of prose and poetry. After this we will spend much of our time outside, enjoying Spring by cultivating close and loving attention to what appears before us, and allowing words to come forth to express what's in our heart. There will be time for sharing, both morning and afternoon, and we invite you to bring a bag lunch.
Bring lots of paper and something to write with and prepare to be surprised. This year we will gather at a rustic retreat location in the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains. Directions will be provided upon registration.
Angie Boissevain is a Soto Zen roshi and Dharma heir of Vanja Palmers. For over thirty years of her practice she served as a teacher and director at Jikoji in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which was founded by her main teacher Kobun Chino Otogawa in 1983.
She studied with him while she was raising three sons, being a wife and writing poetry. She is the inspiration and guiding teacher of Floating Zendo in San Jose. She also leads sesshins at Jikoji and abroad to areas such as Arcata, Hokoj (near Toas, NM) and even Austria and Switzerland.
$55 (Sustaining members), $65 (others) If you are interested in carpooling or need directions, please contact Sally Aguirre at sallyaguirre@gmail.com.
We will begin by exploring the 1700 year old wisdom of East Asian calligraphy as we look at ancient Chinese masterpieces. Then we will engage the heart of the learning and creative process by faithfully copying selected ideographs in different styles. While practicing basic aesthetics and techniques of brushwork, we will notice our own imperfections and inner criticisms that usually keep us from fully enjoying each moment.
Step by step, we will find ways to increase the degree of our enjoyment and serene excitement, which can be applied to mindful healing in everyday life. Using a variety of paper and brushes of different sizes, we will also experiment with artistic interpretation and expressionistic improvisation. No previous experience is needed. Kaz will bring brushes, ink and paper.
Kazuaki Tanahashi, born and trained in Japan, is an artist, writer, and peace worker. As a painter and calligrapher, Kaz hashad solo exhibitions of his brushwork, performed, and taught worldwide. He has created a genre of one-stroke paintings and multi-color Zen circles. As a calligrapher in East Asian style, he creates works of large single ideographs. For more information: www.brushmind.net.
To register: Contact the office at 831-457-0206 and mail your check to: Santa Cruz Zen Center, 113 School St., Santa Cruz 95060
OR
Write your name on the sign-up sheet at the zendo and put your check in the donation box.
Fee is due upon registration
$85 (Sustaining members), $95 (others)
We will provided a vegetarian lunch 12:00 - 1:30
Materials: one long paperweight, or two small for the top of paper (stones will do)
Zen of Cloth Workshop: Sitting with Hope, Sitting with Cloth
with Edie Brown
Sunday, July 28th
10:00 am – 4:30 pm
at Santa Cruz Zen Center
We will be hand-stitching 7-inch squares of cloth. The Zen of Cloth Workshop activities
will include chanting, journaling, stitching in silence, kinhin (walking meditation), and
some discussion. The emphasis will be on studying the mind and what arises during the
day. Both Zen practitioners and non-practitioners are welcome. No sewing experience
is needed. We will have a short (half-hour) lunch break.
Edie Brown has worked with cloth since the 1970's and with dyeing and surface design since 1996, completing a mastery in surface design program with Jane Dunnewold in 2011. She first exhibited her work in 2003 and was included in the Surface Design Association Review 2007. Edie is also a registered nurse with a Master's Degree in Public Health. As "branching streams flow in the darkness", she continues to explore the intersections of working in healthcare systems, practicing Zen, and speaking in cloth. Compelled to go deeper and be challenged further, her journey continues in the effort to discover visual language for invisible concepts and to think spatially as well as spaciously about fiber.
What you need to bring:
Participants need to bring scissors, thread, needle, and a journal for writing.
Cloth and some threads will be provided.
Participants may choose to bring their own cloth (7 inch squares) that has particular meaning for them. If you choose to bring your own cloth, it can be silk, wool, cotton, or polyester, thick, thin, transparent or highly textured.
Please bring your lunch.
$55 (sustaining members) $65 (others)
Sign up at Santa Cruz Zen Center, 115 School Street, Santa Cruz
Evening of Aug. 30. All day Aug.31 and Sept. 1
Carving stone is a relationship of exposing secrets and accepting boundaries. The stone surrenders to the touch when honoring its strengths. The self surrenders to the vision when exposing its attachments. Over one weekend we will learn how to carve, shape,
sand and polish a soft stone. In doing so we will face our appre-
hensions and release our creativity by irrevocably changing an object that has existed for millions of years and, in moments, hours and days, change it for millions of years to come.
Carving stone came late to Michael. His introduction was in a workshop with similar focus as "Stone and Self", to uncover aspects of the self while exposing the beauty of stone. For the past couple of years he has benefited from mentoring by another local carver and annually attends the California Sculptors Symposium. Michael has been a member of the Santa Cruz Zen Center since 2003 and an instructor at various post secondary schools since '81. He participated in 2012 Open Studios. His sculptures can be viewed at www.bashista.com
$110 (Sustaining members), $130 (others) Includes one 20 - 25 lb stone and use of tools. Class size limited to 6. Please provide your lunch.
Ceremonial Tea:
Mindful Practice
with Gerow Reece
Sunday series September 8, 15, 22 1:30 - 5:00
This will be a time of sharing together the way host and guests function as one in giving and receiving. The process of sharing tea enables some moments to become illuminated. Yet it is clearly grounded in the ordinary stuff of objects, liquids, setting and other people.
The class will begin with holding and looking at tea bowls, getting a feeling for them. From there we'll consider the powdered tea, the whisk and then the several other essential elements. Next we'll put them all together in their ceremonial mode and see how that "works"-- internally and externally.
Gerow's appreciation of the tea ceremony has been fostered by his time spent in Kyoto and carried on to the mountains of Santa Cruz, where he resided at the Jikoji Zen Center for the last four years. He occasionally teaches the way of tea as well as brush calligraphy.
Sustaining members $75 Others $90
