Recurrent
- Three Saturdays: January 17, 24, 31 |9:30 AM–12:30 PM ET
Register by January 15 at 11:59 PM ET
Scholarship requests due by January 8 at 11:59 PM ETIn the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.
—Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
Join us for a three-week class for newcomers to Zen practice. The class will be led by Boundless Mind Temple’s guiding teachers, Sarah and Charlie Senseis, and senior student Kristen Davis. It offers students a basic understanding of and orientation towards Zen meditation, practice, and the particular flavor of Zen practice at Brooklyn Zen Center. We invite you to join whether you are totally new to meditation, have practiced in other Buddhist traditions, or want an overview of the different forms and practices at our temple.
Each class will take place Saturday morning, and have two parts—one with just the class members, and then a second part that integrates with the Sangha community, and includes Dharma Talks and practices geared toward the Beginner’s Mind students.
Schedule: 9:00 AM–12:30 PM
Class dates: January 17, 24, 31
Class topics:
Please register (below) by January 15. Requests for pricing exemptions are due January 8. See more info on Equitable Pricing below.
Image: Sui Chanshi, The Pilgrimage of Sudhana, Ming dynasty (1368–1644), ink and gold on blue paper. Freer Gallery of Art, CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain).
About the instructors:
Sarah Dōjin Emerson’s formal practice in Soto Zen began in 1996. She lived and trained at Tassajara Zen Mountain center and other sites of the San Francisco Zen Center from 1997-2007. She received Dharma Transmission from Abbott Konjin Gaelyn Godwin of the Houston Zen Center in 2015. She has a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, and has worked in the fields of mental health and pastoral care with children and adults. She experiences Bodhisattva Zen practice as deeply supportive to inquiring into, challenging and transforming systems of oppression, particularly racial inequities and the harm they cause within convert Buddhist sanghas, and in U.S. society generally. Sarah has also worked for many years in grief support- clinically, ritually and in community- specializing in child loss. She lives with her partner, Charlie Pokorny (who is also a Soto Zen Buddhist priest), their children (who are her most profound and constant teachers) and numerous pets in Brooklyn, NY.
Charlie Korin Pokorny (he/they) grew up in Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago. Charlie received a masters in religious studies, focusing on Zen, from Stanford in 1994. He has been teaching graduate courses at the Institute of Buddhist Studies since 2011, including classes on Buddhist thought, history and practice, with a focus on traditions of East Asia and especially Zen. Charlie was ordained as a priest by Reb Anderson in 1999 and received dharma transmission in 2018. He practiced as a resident at Tassajara and Green Gulch Farm and studied koans with Daniel Terragno. Together with his wife, Sarah Emerson, they served as head priests at Stone Creek Zen Center 2014-2022. They were then invited to become teachers at the Brooklyn Zen Center and moved with their children to Brooklyn in 2022.
Kristen Davis has been a member of the Brooklyn Zen Center sangha since 2011. She received the precepts in 2017 from her root teacher, Teah Strozer. Kristen has served in many practice roles: Ino at Boundless Mind Temple (Carroll Street) 2017-2020; Jisha to Sensei Laura O’Loughlin 2020-2022; Shika at Boundless Mind Temple (Christ Church) 2022-2023; and then Ino again at Boundless Mind Temple (Christ Church) 2023-2025. She has also co-facilitated BZC’s Parent Practice Group since 2020.
Kristen has been teaching Yoga and Alexander Technique since 1995. She was the owner and director of Yogasana Center in Brooklyn from 2003-2017. She is currently the Administrative Director at Brooklyn Zen Center,
At BZC, we are committed to making our classes, workshops, and retreats accessible to all. To support this, we offer an equitable pricing model based on a sliding scale, reflecting our intention to move towards equity within our sangha and acknowledge historical contexts of wealth.
Determining Your Rate: Please refer to our Equitable Pricing Model to find the registration rate that best fits your circumstances.
Financial Assistance: No one will be turned away due to financial constraints. If you are unable to pay the lowest rate, please use this form to request a pricing exemption. Note that exemption requests are due at least one week prior to the event start date unless stated otherwise.
Questions? If you have any questions or concerns about registration, please contact us at info@brooklynzen.org.
Boundless Mind Temple is located in the Parish House of Christ Church Cobble Hill, next to 326 Clinton Street. Enter the driveway on Clinton, go past the scaffolding, and through the double doors. There are two flights of stairs leading to the center, located on the second floor. The closest subway stop is the F/G at Bergen Street.
BZC relies on donations to sustain its spaces, teachers, and staff. Make a gift on our website, via PayPal through paypal@brooklynzen.org or Venmo. You can also support a dharma teacher or practice leader here. Or, consider becoming a Member to support us year-round!
We ask that all participants be fully vaccinated and boosted. Masks are optional. Please see the BZC Covid Protocol for more information.
To request a refund for this program you must notify BZC in writing at least 2 days before the beginning of the program. This supports the organizing effort involved in managing registrations and cancellations. To request a refund, please email info@brooklynzen.org