Mar 162020
 

Dear Sangha Friends:

We are now holding our 10:00 am Saturday sangha meetings as hybrid, both in-person and online, via Zoom videoconferencing. If you are already on our sangha listserv and have received previous email messages from the sangha, you will receive information each Tuesday before a Saturday meeting, giving instructions on how to connect online with the sangha meeting, and the Tucson Community Meditation Center address for attending meetings in-person. If you are not on the sangha listserv, but would like to receive these emails, please request to be added through the “contact us” feature of this website.

I will also continue to provide bimonthly (First and Third Saturday) dharma talk recordings as well as other virtual supports for our sangha practice. So, the rest of this message is to give you information on where to find those dharma talks and other material.

After each dharma talk, a recording of the talk will be uploaded to the “Dharma Talks” page of our sangha website. From the home page of this sangha website (where you are now reading this notice), at https://upayatucson.org , move your cursor on the horizontal menu bar and click on “Resources.” This will pull down a sub-menu. From this sub-menu, click on “Dharma Talks.” Then, scroll down to the section labeled “Dharma Talks from 2024,” and click on the recording (organized by talk date and title). As you will see, you can also listen to any of the previous dharma talks given during our regular Saturday sangha meetings and some visiting teacher retreats, as well as video recordings of a few non-sangha talks I have given. Also note that on the “Resources” pull-down on the homepage menu bar, you will find sitting and walking meditation instructions, and the chants that we do at our Saturday meetings. You can use these resources to help in maintaining your at home meditation practice. The “Resources” portion of our sangha website also provides a “Getting Started” section in which I have provided an annotated listing of Zen and other Buddhist books that you might find useful in supporting your practice.

May you all be safe and free from suffering. Please care for your health and that of others by observing all Centers for Disease Control and other governmental instructions and recommendations to minimize infection risk for yourself and others.

Sensei Al Genkai Kaszniak

Mar 162020
 
Dear Sangha Friends:

Sensei Al and the entire Steering Committee of the Upaya Sangha of Tucson are carefully tracking the Coronavirus, COVID-19 situation as it develops, and will be instituting infection mitigation measures at all or our regular meetings and other sangha events. We wish to do all that we can to safeguard everyone’s health and safety.

The personal safety precautions recommended by the World Health Organization include:

  • Washing your hands for 20 seconds and using at least 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer
  • Covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, using flexed elbow or tissue and discarding used tissue immediately into a closed bin
  • Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with hands.

In both our regular meeting space in the new TCMC building, and at other venues that we may utilize for larger sangha events, we will be making efforts to keep surfaces, doorknobs, light switches, etc. as clean and disinfected as we manage. We also recommend that, during this period of concern about infection risk, you consider greeting other sangha participants with hands in gassho and a bow, rather than our more familiar handshakes and hugs.

We encourage you to stay at home or to leave the practice space if you are feeling any flu-like symptoms.

We will inform you by email and posting on our website of any changes that may be necessary or additional information as the situation unfolds.

Wishing all of you good health and peace,

Sensei Al Genkai Kaszniak

Mar 052020
 
Dear Sangha Friends:

Sensei Al and the entire Steering Committee of the Upaya Sangha of Tucson are carefully tracking the Coronavirus, COVID-19 situation as it develops, and will be instituting infection mitigation measures at all or our regular meetings and other sangha events. We wish to do all that we can to safeguard everyone’s health and safety.

The personal safety precautions recommended by the World Health Organization include:

  • Washing your hands for 20 seconds and using at least 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer
  • Covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, using flexed elbow or tissue and discarding used tissue immediately into a closed bin
  • Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with hands.

In both our regular meeting space in the new TCMC building, and at other venues that we may utilize for larger sangha events, we will be making efforts to keep surfaces, doorknobs, light switches, etc. as clean and disinfected as we manage. We also recommend that, during this period of concern about infection risk, you consider greeting other sangha participants with hands in gassho and a bow, rather than our more familiar handshakes and hugs.

We encourage you to stay at home or to leave the practice space if you are feeling any flu-like symptoms.

We will inform you by email and posting on our website of any changes that may be necessary or additional information as the situation unfolds.

Wishing all of you good health and peace,

Sensei Al Genkai Kaszniak

Mar 032020
 

Dear friends,

 

For those joining us this Saturday, March 7th, for our first Saturday of the month Upaya Sangha of Tucson meeting, we will meet from 10:00 am to noon, and our meeting will include brief sutra chanting, sitting meditation (Zazen), and a brief tea break. After this, we will have an interactive time with a special guest.

 

Note new meeting location: We will meet at the new Tucson Community Meditation Center (TCMC) building, 1147 N. Howard Blvd., one block North of Speedway, just East of the Loft Theater, on the West side of the street. We meet there the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month. There are plenty of zafus (meditation cushions) and chairs.

 

Also Note: Please do not park in the dirt area to the South of the building. This is the private property of the house next door.  A nice family with children live there and play in their front lot. There is ample street parking nearby, and a small number of spaces behind (West) the building for those with limited mobility. Please enter from the rear (West) of the building.

 

Please help us to accommodate our members who are chemically sensitive to fragrances or other scented products. Thank you for not wearing perfume, aftershave, or similar products.

Also, please don’t forget to regularly check the Community Page of this Sangha Website for new announcements.

 

Thanks.