Thank you. [...] Bring it up? I think so. I just need to check in with Marco. Would you go upstairs and check in with Marco? Oh, I would never ask that. That's dangerous question. I forgot you, buddy. Was that Helen's? This is Helen. Bill's here. Laura's here. This is Helen. So it's really a happy life. That's right.

[01:06]

Okay. Yeah. I think it's a big bit. Oh, God. Thank you. Yeah, it's a great instance. It's more complicated. It's this kind of cool stuff. I've definitely learned if I was to comply. Oh, that's it. I don't need that, but if we're doing a hybrid, I would be responsible for physical stuff, like the same type of way. So like setting up a camera, like a camera, like an interview, and stuff, and I was like, hey, you've got to be, [...] we've got to be, we've got to be, we've got [...] to be,

[02:34]

Yeah. [...] I have to say most of the interest of what characters are. What? What? Yeah, I've got to give you a few. What? I'll put in the people's fucking fuck about the sound. Yeah.

[03:35]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. [...] I'll give it to the Chair Nick.

[04:51]

Oh, okay. . [...] Step forward. Thank you. Thank you.

[05:55]

Thank you. [...] Yes, that's true.

[07:08]

Thank you. . [...]

[08:10]

. . . All right. Let's do it.

[09:15]

Thank you. [...]

[10:23]

There's nothing to do with it. This panel. Yeah. Yes.

[17:02]

Okay. Please stand.

[19:19]

Thank you. Thank you.

[22:08]

On this most auspicious day, within the ten directions of three times, we solemnly gather here to rededicate this great Beginner's Mind Temple. Established through the compassionate vow of our founder, Shogaku Shunri Udayo Shou, we entreat birth spirits in protecting devas to come bear witness. Through the unfathomable workings of causes and conditions, May this sacred vessel of Dharma transmission manifest anew, each beam and pillar resonating with wisdom beyond wisdom, each threshold opening to a field of practice realization. May the pure light of our ancestors illuminate this hall and the virtuous spirits of this ground continue their ancient protection. With profound gratitude, we offer this blessing to Buddhas and ancestors whose virtue and merit flow without ceasing. Invoking the radiant protection of venerable Deva Ita, may this temple forever serve as a sanctuary of peace, where the way is practiced without hindrance, where wisdom and compassion flow without ceasing, benefiting all beings throughout space and time, and guiding countless generations to complete liberation.

[24:24]

Let us bow with deepest reverence as we celebrate this moment of great joy. It's perfect with a child.

[28:01]

Oh, oh, oh, oh. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. ... [...]

[29:09]

... [...] Thank you.

[30:35]

Thank you. ... [...] Now here.

[32:04]

This is ... [...] Let that one in my eyes, but not of time. Let that one out to sound. I have a great perception statement for one side. We let that one to know. I think that I need to speak in my mind. But why this would recruit? If I am a follow-up, you need to speak around me. You need to make a difference. You need to speak for me.

[33:05]

All the language speaking, so I never did you put a straw on the beginning. I never forget all the clothes right on the surface of this desk. I'll talk about one phrase. This is a global target. This is global. You get your own power. All the records, you can be water. Be great. All the things, you can be happy. I wasn't at the world. This is a single man. I've heard of both my societies that meet me in this state. Like not my head, where I'm going to get straight, with a shard and sewer about dirt. In a mess of London, there was a spot for the light. Watched its own brother, and the facts were all each time. So, if it were out of the sky, she'd worn a chair with a shallow oblivion, creating the stone in a sink with us, but one went to an exciting world. And a woman would love to bring my mother around to the god, and yet, so fun to let it one call to the grave, and an infinite bird, where it looks over as all the progress. As a people are walking, we stay for a lie down. Wondrous, marriages, past and wide Sacred virtues, clear and bright

[34:33]

Appeal and response, the way is revealed. Seeking your wisdom, we sincerely ask for your attentive concern. On this 22nd day of this second month, we have humbly arrived at the time of completion of our beginner's mind sample renovation. In the presence of this pure assembly, we respectfully invoke the Dharma-protecting deity, Venerable Deva Gita. Having offered light, fragrance, fruits, and sweets, and having chanted the great wisdom, Vyan Wisdom Heart Sutra, and the loving-kindness meditation, we dedicate the great blessings accumulated thereby to the earth's spirit and protecting spirits of this temple, and to all Dharma protecting Devas and benevolent guardians.

[35:41]

May their radiant light shine ever brighter, their virtues immeasurable as the ocean. May this temple be a sanctuary of peace, the way practiced without hindrance. May there be unity in this land, harmony among all nations, and may the merit of this offering benefit all be. Amen. It is. It is.

[36:42]

It is. So welcome again.

[38:44]

Thank you very much for being here today on this especially occasion where we are not only so-called reopening, even though, as Marco said, we never actually close, but rededicating the temple and rededicating our practice to the benefit of all beings. For those of you who might know me, my name is Tenzin David Zimmerman. I have been a resident here for 25 years, and I currently serve in the role of central abbots. and uh thank you so much for being here so what we're going to do now in a moment is offer a few remarks by people who have contributed to this particular temple the idea behind this particular project was to create a more welcoming spiritual home zen center has owned this building since 1969 we first moved in here And it's been a wonderful refuge, as Maka was saying, a practice place. And Beginners of Mind Temple is your temple.

[39:46]

It's your spiritual home. And we want you to feel that that is true, to come here, engage with your practice, be nourished by your practice, be nourished by the Buddha, the Dharma. and the Sangha, each and every one of you, this family of being that we are together. And of course, you know, as with every family, there's often a few times there are little challenges in families, and we do our best to work it out together. But that's the spirit of our practice, meeting and supporting each other. And so it took altogether 14 months for this project. It's not done, as you may have heard. Actually, there was a little bit of fib. We're not done with the renovation. We still have doors in the bookstore and the office and sprinklers to put in some of the guest rooms. So it will continue here and there, but we're very happy to be back together in this. space and be able to celebrate our time together and and also i just want to acknowledge again the tremendous effort that the both the residential and the maha sangha the wider community made to maintain the practice during this last

[40:56]

14 months. We were a little bit like roaming Zendos. Whenever we had a particular event that we couldn't do in the Zendo for whatever reason, we'd go down to the Unity Church down the street, we'd go to the Art Center on Haight Street, and just did whatever we could, a conference center next door, to maintain a practice. And so thank you to everyone who was so flexible and patient with us over this past year and being able to. offer the Dharma, offer refuge in whatever space we manifested in this very moment, which is really the true heart of practice. Your very being is the place of refuge. Your very heart-mind is the place of refuge, and that never goes away. We might sometimes forget about it, but it never goes away. So, right here, right now. So... Okay, so a number of people who share a little bit about the history of this project, the vision, the goals, how we went about the process of updating 100-year-old Julia Morgan Jewell, and the tremendous effort that was made to support the community.

[42:15]

So first I want to welcome Renzo Ed Sarasan, who is our senior Dharma teacher. He's a former abbot of San Francisco Zen Center. He was very, very, very pivotal in making this project happen. So please welcome Ed. Thank you, David, and thank you all for being here today. As I stand here, my heart is just filled with appreciation for all the hands and warm hearts that made this possible. Beginning with Suzuki Roshi, who brought a band of students here in 1970 and opened this building in January, I was just talking with a fellow Dharma friend of mine how we both met him in 1970. And it set the course of our practice from that point on. So he is the founding father of this temple. And for 55 years, we have practiced here thanks to that.

[43:19]

About 16 years ago, the board of directors recognized that all three of our temples needed facility upgrades. And so a Widening the Circle capital campaign was launched. $17 million was raised. And as part of that, master plans were done for all three temples. We did a lot of work at Green Gulch. We built a retreat center at Tassajara. And when the master plan was done for this building, it became clear that we were going to need to do a much more extensive remodel than we originally thought. We thought originally we would just spend about a million dollars fixing the dilapidated restrooms. But we had this master plan and we interviewed people in the neighborhood. We interviewed residents. It was extensively done. And we thought, well, this is an opportunity to really make a difference with this building. So we launched another capital campaign for $9 million. And this was in 2016.

[44:23]

And we spent some time looking at all kinds of different ways of remodeling it. We were going to connect this to 308. We were going to extend the Zendo underneath the courtyard. But in the end, we came up with exactly the design we've done, which was both, I think, just the right touch for this building and also affordable. So we were going to have it finished by 2022. three years ago and celebrate the 100th year anniversary of this building which Julia Morgan, the architect, built in 1922. But the pandemic came along and we were busy trying to raise money to survive during the pandemic and we put on hold raising money for this project. And this is where I want to make a special thanks to the Stillwater Foundation, who was the cornerstone donor to the $9 million campaign. We called them up and said, we need to accelerate this fundraising because it's getting more expensive each year.

[45:27]

It's delayed. And they came through with a wonderful matching grant, which inspired us to finish the fundraising and get this temple. completely remodeled. So a special thanks to the Stillwater Foundation for their long-term support of Zen Center and this temple. So I would go into the goals of our remodel project, but I'm going to turn that over to Helen Degenhardt, who has for 40 years been an architect and friend for Zen Center. She's done magnificent work at Tassara, Green Gulch, Green's Restaurant, and this project, this building, wouldn't have gotten to where it is without her constant effort and support. Thank you, Helen. Does this work? Thank you, Ed. That way? Oh, now I can hear myself, yes.

[46:27]

So my role on this wonderful undertaking was the Beginner's Mind Temple. was to be the owner's representative. Generally, on a large construction project like this, there's three main stakeholders. There's the owner, there's the architect, and the contractor, or as we in the field call it, the OAC. I happen to be on this one, I happen to be the O. There were others, but I was the point person. And before, I want to point out a few more of the highlights which Marco touched upon. I just wanted to say what an absolute joy this was, this project was to work on for me. It was an incredible team. It was an incredible team effort. I think David or Marco pointed to, oh yeah, that's right, at the very beginning we had these sessions with everybody.

[47:31]

Well, what are our values? What are our goals? In my entire 40-plus year career as an architect, I've never experienced anything like this. And that's really due to everybody on the team. They say it takes a village. It does. It takes hundreds of people, hundreds of hands, thousands of hands to do this. And I'm grateful for everyone's contribution to this. Ed mentioned and Marco just very quickly sort of touched on them. There were five major goals. One is the welcoming center. I think you've all had a chance to walk around to improve the relationship between the larger sangha and the residents. It was accessibility of the entire building, which we now have with a lift and a chairlift. Some of you might have had some experience with the residents' bathrooms, 100 years old, with the original wooden partitions.

[48:33]

So those are all renovated, beautiful, light, and clean. The Zendo improved, or actually not even improved, but we have a new heating ventilation system and upgraded acoustics. And the fifth goal is... mostly invisible but probably equally if not more important was addressing and improving, upgrading infrastructure, key infrastructures like fire alarm systems and so forth. The renovation also dealt with some deferred maintenance and there's a lot of cosmetics. I don't know whether you can see that but it's like a little bit of a facelift, you know, smoothing out a few wrinkles here and there. I would like to add a sixth goal, and that was the formalizing of a permit that Zen Center now can rent out five of the resident rooms as a hotel so people can actually stay here, and that's an important source of revenue.

[49:38]

And maybe last or not least, sort of a fun fact, if you look at the courtyard, if you've ever looked at the fountain, it was really leaning. So the fountain is level now. So that was a high point of the project. And I think, Bill, you're next. I'll hand it back to you, David. But thank you. Thank you, Helen. I'd like to welcome Bill Bondi now, Studio Bondi, who was a main architect and major source of lots of care. Thank you. I do want to say how honored I am in my team to have been able to do this. I've been connected in many ways with the Zen Center since 1981 when I first arrived in San Francisco.

[50:38]

I want to acknowledge the people who did the heavy lifting on this project for my office, which is my partner, Laura Rambin, who will be speaking in a moment, and Scott Larson, who was here for all the problems that might have been unsolvable, but we solved them with his care as we tore into this building. In 1922, Julia Morgan and her engineers, her architecture team, and I would say her great journeyman builders built this building for Emmanuel's sisterhood. It was formed in order to provide a welcoming, safe home for single Jewish women, probably most of whom were immigrants. I read that 70% of them spoke Yiddish when they got here. It was a place for community, reflection, personal growth, and really an introduction into the world of San Francisco for these young women. The building's done in what we'd call a classical revival style.

[51:41]

It really has, in Julia's fashion, a lot of Beaux Arts and arts and crafts movement. touches to it it has beautiful actually I wrote this forgetting that we're going to be sitting in the building when I was saying this but you can see it says beautiful proportions restrained but nice detailing large expansive windows which allow natural light in the two courtyards which themselves are lovely but also bring terrific light into all the rooms of the building almost all of them It's got generous community spaces, and it really offered a safe, supportive environment for these young women to be introduced into the city. Julia Morgan was also an engineer, which many people don't know, and she engineered this building, and it's a safe, strong for the time, very strong, and fire-resistant building.

[52:43]

You remember San Francisco, not that far before it came through a huge fire. And so the building is... actually a reinforced concrete frame building with columns and beams. And so the exterior, which is a brick, is just a veneer on the building. Our approach when we were working on the building was to really look at the way, the sort of infrastructure of the building, the way it was organized, and to really, for cost reasons and also aesthetics, to keep it basically as it was. spatially. So if you look in the Welcome Center, you'll see the columns. Those are actually the concrete columns of the original building, and we've covered them with sheetrock. And so we really just wanted to use the same spirit that Julia and her team did in creating the building and make it a place that would be great for the changing program and the needs of the Zen Center.

[53:48]

Turns out when the building was bought in, it was bought in 69, I think, and then occupied in 70, I don't think they had to do too much to the building because it really worked for this community as well as it had for the sisterhood. But over 100 years, every building, every object, every person, comes to the point in their lives when they need some repairs. uh and paint carpet just won't won't do it so as uh helen was saying uh we we put in we wanted to make the building so some person on the third floor could get to the zendo without assistance or having to go outside and we've achieved that with the two elevators or the elevator in the left the uh Turns out the elevator just fit between four of the columns that were already here in just the right place. So that was fortunate. The acoustics, of course, the acoustics were great in the Zendo.

[54:55]

If you opened the window, the trash trucks and the traffic would come in. If you closed the windows, no air would come in. So the solution was, of course, to close the windows and provide air. And then we've also... did more acoustical treatment. The bathrooms, there again, we looked at the building layout. Every bathroom but two have natural light, I think. We were able to organize them around the existing windows. And the welcome center, as I said, was organized around the existing column structure. I wanted to point out just the... She's not here today. She was here for the last. Lily Lanier, who was Ruth Asawa's granddaughter, she's a local well-known artist, did the portrait of Suzuki Roshi with the origami portrait. So there's a tradition of arts in San Francisco that has also been brought in. But most of all, I just wanted to say that the team of the architecture team, your community, the engineers, Herrera builders,

[56:00]

Yeah, they work together with, I want to say, with faith, compassion, and great energy to bring this to today, which is the beginning of the next 100 years of San Francisco Zen Center. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. And I just want to also thank Bill for his generosity. He also donated that particular piece of art of Suzuki Roshi's image. So thank you very much for that. And we were going to have Bodie Bloyd, who from Hero Builders joined, but he had a death in the family, so he couldn't join us. However, I invited Laura, also in the architectural team, who has worked with Hero Builders on a number of projects, just to speak to the experience of working with Hero. Thank you, David. It's always interesting to be an architect speaking on behalf of a contractor. If any of you have ever done any building, I sense you know this, that sometimes it can be very contentious.

[57:03]

I've worked with Herrero on a few different projects, and Abbott Mocko spoke of the shared value process. That came from the general contractor. They do it on all of their projects, but it's often received differently. And here, I mean, it's often... not taken seriously and I think here the whole team really understood, they understood what the project was and that part of the project is that collaborative effort and they, Herrera Builders is really a wonderful partner in that. They care deeply about the building and the craft of the building. Their superintendent, Alex, an excellent carpenter and You know, our drawings are often just a sketch of what needs to happen. The contractor's in charge of the means and methods. He took the great care of removing trim, the historic trim, in a lot of places so it could be reinstalled. He had the foresight to do that.

[58:06]

And all of the team from Herrero, I think, really showed that the care for this building that is the home to many people, You're here every day, 24 hours a day. And as has been alluded to, there are often problems that come up, but they were really good at working through those things with you and with the architects. And I think you had a great partner in them for preparing the building for the next 100 years. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. And... You know, it was so sweet to have Hero Build here as well as Studio Bundy. They did become family. And I feel a little bit clenched. We're thinking like, oh, we're not going to see them every day. And they're having the same feeling too. So fortunately, we have a few more things for them to tie up. So we'll get to practice together. I've invited them to come and move in as residents and so on. So they're thinking about it.

[59:07]

So they're talking to their partners to see if that might be happening. But we'll see, you know. Anyhow, it is so special. It was really quite heartwarming and fun. We had fun together. And so we're thinking of another project that we can have them work on together again just for that. And I just once again want to acknowledge many of the staff who have contributed so much to making this possible. I want to give nine vows to Choku, our director, who spearheaded so much of the communications. It was in numerous meetings and organizing us, moving out of the building, moving back in, keeping everything going during that time is quite a feat. And then the president, Sosan, and then Michael, who helped also with the process. There are treasures, Michael, then Koketsu, and the senior staff who just helped the temple continue to run a smoothie and offered so many ideas about how we can take care of the space.

[60:11]

So before we wrap up, I want to invite our president, Michael, to come forward and share a few things. It's great to see all of you here finally in this temple and all of the people that have called this their temple since we bought it, since the very first night when someone walked around and actually did a spirit cleansing ceremony in each room burning incense back in 1969. And through all the people that have made this their temple. And it can seem like this is a physical temple that got physically remodeled, which it did. But you are Zen Center. Whoever is here today is Zen Center. And we are standing on the shoulders of giants, as they say. We are moving forward with the legacy of what people brought to us, what people gave us.

[61:16]

And that is to inspire us, but not to look backward. Because you are Zen Center. If you are here today, this is the beating heart of who is here now. And that's all Zen Center has ever been. And so we want you to come and to make this your home for the next 50, 70 years, however long this remodel lasts until they need to do the next one. But, you know, maybe 100 years if we, you know, keep going with how well this was put together. But we want you to come and make this your place to practice, your place to uncover your mystery. And you don't have to be a Buddhist or believe in something. If you are, that's great. We love Buddhism here. This is a community temple for you to come and to be with a sangha, to be with a community, because you are Zen Center. Thank you. And I just want to offer nine vows again to Studio Bandi, to Herrero, and to dear Helen for all your...

[62:32]

contributions, hard work, heartfulness, and care that you have brought to this project. I'm getting reclimped just thinking of it. Okay, so we'll wrap up now, and I'll turn it over to Mako for closing words, and then we'll eat manja. Thank you, David. I'm not going to talk long. I've already talked quite a bit this morning. But just to reiterate the great thanks and welcoming spirit. And there's a movement that happened in Japan a number of years ago. It's also a very similar title to one of Suzuki Rishi's books. It's called To Shine One Corner. And I just have to say, this is one corner right here that we can take care of. And in shining one corner, if everyone shines one corner, then the whole world can glow.

[63:35]

Thank you all very much. Thank you everyone so much for coming today and joining us in this celebration of the rededication of Beginner's Mind Temple.

[65:53]

We truly value each and every one of you being here today. As you might have heard, there's lunch and it's available now. So you can proceed down to the kitchen. I'm not sure if it's being served in the dining hall or if you need to go into the kitchen. But anyway, go out the door, make a right, and I'm sure you'll find the food. And in about 45 minutes or so, there will be temple tours. And I imagine the people who are leading those tours will be right outside in the lobby there, and they will guide you around. So if you want to see all the work that was done, or at least some of the work that was done over the past year, you're very welcome to join that. So thank you again. Have a lovely weekend, and thank you. Yeah, go ahead. Take a chair. If you feel up to carrying a chair back to the dining hall, it's probably a good idea because I don't think there's many chairs in there. But there are chairs in the courtyard. It's a beautiful day. You could eat outside. But, yeah, if you can take a chair back to the dining hall, that's also great.

[66:54]

Thank you so much. I'm just kidding.

[67:38]

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