This year’s Summer Solstice was celebrated on Sunday, June 21st, after the Sunday talk. The weather was perfect for doing it on the patio. People brought beautiful poems and we chanted the Harmony of Difference and Equality.

In the Dharma World there is no increase, no decrease, no coming, no going, no beginning, no ending.
Out of infinite compassion, Buddha appeared in this transient world and continuously conveyed the unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect Dharma.

On this day of the summer Solstice, as we enter into the turning of the year from spring to summer, we have gathered on the zendo patio and have offered flowers, fragrance, light and words of the season.

We offer this merit to our original teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha, all bodhisattva-mahasattvas, our hreat Japanese ancestor Eihei Dogen, and to our founders, Shogaku Shunryu Daiosho and Dainin Katagiri Daiosho.

May our practice in this new season shine and flower into big mind, joyful mind and compassionate mind for ourselves and all beings.