Sacramento Dharma Center

When Susan Orr was the Sacramento Dharma Center’s Board President, she signed-off her emails with the single word: Onward! – expressing her cheerful optimism that we would succeed in our quest to buy a building. And it is onward that we continue to go, though without our beloved Susan, who died in 2018. And as of this year, without Linda Dekker, who served SDC so selflessly from its inception through 2021.

Our founders thought of the Dharma Center as a legacy project, something precious they could leave to future generations – a home for Buddhist practice. Our current Board is committed to preserving and extending their legacy. One goal is to leave the property debt-free by paying down the mortgage. A second is to nurture younger leaders who will carry on managing, improving, and defining what the Dharma Center will be.

To accommodate the needs of younger leaders, the Dharma Center will need more paid staff and services. This is already happening and stretching our budget, and these needs and costs will undoubtedly increase. This is the reason why paying off the mortgage – our biggest single expense – remains a top priority.

Asking for Your Help

Two years ago, we began a five-year fundraising campaign to pay down the balance of our mortgage, which now stands at just under $300,000. We’ve had two tremendously successful campaigns, raising over $70,000 each year, all of which went to pay-down the mortgage to its current level.

The goal is to keep replicating this success. This year two donors have together offered $1 to $1 matching funds, up to $25,000. This sets our campaign goal at $50,000. We humbly ask for your support to meet or go beyond this goal.

‘The Way is to Volunteer’

The Sacramento Dharma Center (SDC) thrives due to the effort of volunteers and committed donors. Among the people who check those boxes, Barbara Colton stands out. Barbara, stepped into the role of SDC Board President in early 2019. She will finally “term-out” of her Board position early next year, so we asked her to look back at her spiritual path and her motivation for such long service.

SDC: Please tell us about your personal path of practice.

Barbara Colton: I came to the Dharma late in life, beginning with yoga practice in the 1990’s. My first meditation retreat was at Chochmat HaLev, a Jewish spiritual center in Berkeley. Though my spiritual bones were not very strong, I persisted and began to attend retreats at Spirit Rock, the Insight Meditation Center in
Massachusetts, and started going to Sacramento Insight  Meditation (SIM). I completed the two-year Dedicated Practitioners Program at Spirit Rock, which included five long retreats, as well as the Heavenly Messengers Program with Frank Ostaseski, which provided support for my work then as a hospice volunteer.

SDC: What motivates your spirit of service?

Barbara Colton: I’ve learned that if you want to get involved in something, the way is to volunteer. Shortly after I joined SIM, I volunteered to set up the meditation hall; eventually I was on the SIM board. I wanted to experience how a board could work based on Dharma principles. When the SDC Board President position
became vacant, I told the Board that “president skills” were not my strong suit, but I would do it. I hoped to improve my leadership skills and to contribute to the ongoing health of the Board according to the Dharma.

SDC: What are your hopes for the future of SDC?

Barbara Colton: The Dharma Center needs to have a sense of identity that new people can understand. We are working on that. We produced a poster explaining the role of SDC and we are working on another one as the run-up to this fundraising campaign. All our efforts are so that SDC can to continue to exist and be a Dharma home for people who come here.

SDC: You have been a consistent donor to SDC. Would you talk about that?

Barbara Colton: One of the important teachings for me is Dana (generosity, giving). I’ve learned that it is important to support those things that one believes in. SDC is an expression of that. For me the Dharma started out as a conceptual scaffolding. Through my practice I’ve come to experience the truth of the teachings. The Buddha’s insights are profound. For me the Dharma works, and I would like there to continue to be a home for people to explore how the Dharma works for them too. I think the crude expression is ‘you put your money where your mouth is;’ or more accurately for me, ‘put your money where you want to be
(silent, on a cushion.)’

SDC: Do you have a message for prospective donors?

Barbara Colton: People can see and enjoy the investments we have made in this building: the new bathrooms, the remodeled West Hall, new roofs and solar panels, the North Garden area, the fledgling trees in the ‘back forty.’ What they can’t see is the $3,000 per month mortgage payments, our biggest single expense. Donating to pay down the mortgage is the most effective way to ensure the future of the Dharma Center.

Thank you,

Kenny Bender

For the Dharma Center Board

Making a Donation

To make a contribution of any amount, please press the button below and you’ll be connected to the Dharma Center donation page. Thank you!

P.P.S. If you are 70½ or older and have a Traditional IRA, you can donate to the Sacramento Dharma Center by making a “Qualified Charitable Distribution” from your IRA, and you won’t have to pay taxes on the money you withdraw. This article explains how to do this:
https://www.investopedia.com/taxes/can-i-use-money-my-ira-donate-charity/

Or mail your donation to Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento, CA 95826, and indicate “Mortgage Pay Down” on your check.Thanks!

Please join us on July 9th, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. to honor and celebrate the life of Kyōji Linda Dekker. The memorial service will be held at the Sacramento Dharma Center, with a reception to follow. We would appreciate those attendees who are able to bring a snack, sweet, or fruit to share.

The Sacramento Dharma Center and its sustaining sanghas offer their deepest gratitude and respect to Kyōji Linda Dekker, one of the founders of SDC and Valley Streams Zen Sangha. Linda passed from this life on April 2nd after a long illness, surrounded by her family and friends. She is survived by her son Bryn, partner Nuala, and grandchild Parlee, as well as her best friends, Gwen Roedel Green and Garry Green, her honorary grandson Nathaniel Green, many close friends, and Dharma brothers and sisters.

A devoted practitioner, Linda became a student of Tenshin Reb Anderson in the late 1990s and practiced with him in residence at Green Gulch Farm. She served as Ino (head of the meditation hall) at VSZS from 2015 to 2018. Linda’s commitment to the Sacramento Dharma Center can be traced all the way to the roots of the organization. She was a founding member of Valley Streams Zen Sangha and a strong contributor in the early days of the Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group. This relationship placed her in a position to help in drawing the sanghas together and encouraging the conversations that led to the vision of sharing a permanent home and future.

Linda strongly supported the idea to seek out a shared space for inter-sangha practice and committed herself to making the venture a reality. She served on the Inter-Sangha Coordinating Committee as a representative for Valley Streams and worked to find the best path forward for securing a home for the sanghas. After a year of discussion, the group decided to form a nonprofit, the Sacramento Dharma Center, to act as the entity responsible for finding, purchasing, and maintaining a permanent home for VSZS, SBMG, and Sacramento Insight Meditation.

Linda’s contributions to the formation of the SDC were immense and began with the work of incorporating the nonprofit, creating its structure, and pursuing a tax-exempt status. She served on the SDC Board of Directors and dedicated herself to the challenging work that the board faced in securing a property for SDC. Linda and other board members took a fundraising seminar and worked together to build the network of donors that sustain SDC and our sanghas to this day. The board’s search committee diligently looked for properties that would accommodate the needs of the three sanghas. Finally, in 2016, the property on Wissemann Drive was presented as a possible site and Linda toured the location along with SDC president Susan Orr. Seeing the promise of the property, the board made the decision to purchase it. Linda’s leadership and dedication to the project were crucial through the long process of negotiating the purchase, securing the loan, and beginning renovations once the sale was finalized.

Linda would serve a total of eight years on the SDC board, while also sitting at times on the VSZS board and commanding a variety of roles and responsibilities. She served on the SDC Art and Design Committee, and worked to enrich the aesthetic and spiritual environment that makes SDC the inviting and peaceful refuge it is today. Linda also served as the first office manager for SDC, taking on the immense duties of managing the property, maintaining the financial health of the organization, and scheduling events. As Jerry Simpkins, an early SDC board member and friend, remembered, “Linda always showed up. She was there for all and provided support and ideas and presence for all whom she encountered.” In every room of the Dharma Center, in every area of its history and workings, and in the deep practice of its sanghas and members, Linda’s contributions can be found.

Even with all of her service to the Dharma, Linda will be remembered best as a friend and a fellow traveler of Buddha’s Way. “Linda was an extraordinary friend, a friend who was direct, honest and supportive in the truest sense of those virtues,” remembers John Penfield, a long-time friend and VSZS member. She shared her passions and interests with her friends, from literature and movies to gardening to cooking, and was always happy to swap a book or recipe recommendation. Decades of deep practice and intensive retreats created strong friendships with many as Linda supported the Dharma path of her fellow practitioners and encouraged their efforts.

Through her sustained practice in the Dharma and her devotion to the strength and future of the SDC mission, Linda walked the bodhisattva path. The communities that she brought together and supported recognize her selfless and compassionate work in creating a home for their sanghas and a place to offer the Buddha Way. She worked tirelessly for the benefit of all practitioners who seek out SDC for community, healing, and authentic practice. Linda will be deeply missed by our community as we move forward to honor her legacy with sustained practice and a dedication to celebrating the Dharma. We invite all to join us in honoring Linda’s memory on July 9th at the Sacramento Dharma Center.

Outdoor Events Now Permitted

Indoor events at Sacramento Dharma Center (SDC) are still on hold due to coronavirus, but we are now allowing limited outdoor meetings on the grounds of the Center. Sanghas were given the green light at the end of September and scheduling for outdoor events is underway.

To keep everyone safe, organizers and participants must follow a set of guidelines developed by SDC’s Committee on Re-opening. For example, participants must be fully masked and must stay six feet from other participants at all times. The bathrooms will be open, but socially-distanced queues must be maintained. A sangha member who has undergone training in the SDC safety protocols must be present and ensure that the guidelines are being followed.

Scheduling at least three days in advance is crucial as only one outdoor event per day may be held on the property. Only groups that have previously met in the SDC and are sponsored by one of the sanghas or SDC may schedule an event.

The complete protocols governing outdoor use will soon be posted on our website, sacdharma.org. To have an event coordinator trained and schedule an event, please go to https://sacdharma.org/scheduling/.

Valley Streams Zen Sangha held an outdoor retreat on October 10th

Indoor Re-opening Not on the Horizon

Resumption of indoor meetings at the Center is not likely in 2020. After taking into account the sentiments of many members of the sangha community and the level of coronavirus risk in the larger community, the SDC Committee on Re-opening (made up of health professionals and members of each of the sustaining sanghas) concluded that the time was not yet right. The committee is now on stand-by and will be called back to develop policies guiding indoor use when re-opening the building seems warranted.

New signs!

Video Streaming is Here to Stay

Our three sustaining sanghas had to adapt quickly and go online at the start of the pandemic. Chances are that video streaming of events will continue and become a permanent component of in-person events even after indoor meetings resume. To prepare for this hybrid future, the Center is purchasing the equipment necessary to conduct interactive video meetings via platforms like Zoom and to transmit live-streamed events. All this technology (a video camera, a laptop, and microphones) will be placed on a portable video cart and will be available for use by trained sangha members. SDC’s Wi-Fi system has also been upgraded to provide better coverage throughout the building and our internet service has been upgraded to provide faster speed. We owe a big thanks to the members of the Audio-Visual Committee.

New signs part 2