News and upcoming events: Summer 2024
Founder’s Day ceremony and celebration: July 13
On Saturday, July 13, we're celebrating the one-year anniversary of our temple opening with a ceremony and celebration. Join us in person at Sensouji, or online at our regular Zoom link.
We'll have the ceremony at 11:30 am, followed by a potluck lunch celebration. If you're planning to attend in person, please sign up so we know how many to expect, and add a comment with what you’re planning to bring for lunch.
Even if you’ve already signed up, please go back to the signup page and add a comment with what you’re bringing, since we hadn’t asked before. This will help us make sure everyone gets a good lunch.
One of the ceremonies will be for those who have passed away in the last year. If you have names of people you’d like to be read out loud, you can email them to us ahead of time, or bring them with you on Saturday.
Community reading group: Friday mornings
Some of our sangha members are getting together on Friday mornings to explore Opening the Hand of Thought by Uchiyama Roshi. We’ll read a small section together and discuss it.
Join us each Friday at 10:15am Atlantic time (9:15 Eastern; 6:15 Pacific; 15:15 CET; 18:45 IST) at our regular Zoom link (passcode = vow). Our thanks to Eric Newnum for organizing.
3-day retreat: September 13-15
We’re hosting a 3-day retreat from Friday, September 13 to Sunday, September 15 at Gittens Lodge in Manganese Mines, Nova Scotia (part of NSCC). You can join us in person or online.
We’ll have more details (like the exact schedule) once we get closer to the date, and we’ll also work out carpool arrangements from Halifax. The cost to attend in person will be $75 to cover space rental and food, but please let us know if the cost is a barrier for you and we can cover it for you.
If you want to attend in person, please sign up to help us with our planning.
We need your help for a sewing project
Our temple, Sensouji, has been officially registered with Soto Zen headquarters in Japan after our temple opening ceremony last year. We’ve started planning for two other ceremonies to happen in June 2025—Shinsan-shiki (Mountain Seat Ceremony, where Koun will be officially installed as abbot of the temple) and hossen-shiki (Dharma Combat Ceremony).
We have lots of preparations to make for next year, and part of that involves our sangha coming together to sew a robe. If you’re interested in sewing, please send us an email to let us know.
It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, or what your previous sewing experience is. We’ll put together kits with materials and instructions and mail them to you, and then sew the pieces together in Halifax when we have them back.