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Join the Brooklyn Zen Center for its Saturday morning program with a reading, Q&A and book signing with Ruth Ozeki, Zen Buddhist priest and author of The Face: A Time Code.

Zen Buddhist priest and beloved author of A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki will give a reading from her most recent book, The Face: A Time Code, a short memoir that recounts, in moment-to-moment detail, a profound encounter with memory and the mirror. Ozeki challenges herself to spend three hours gazing into her own reflection, recording her thoughts, and noticing every possible detail. Those solitary hours open up a lifetime’s worth of meditations on race, aging, family, death, the body, self-doubt, and, finally, acceptance. The reading will be followed by a Q&A session, book signing, and meet-and-greet. Books may be purchased for the author to sign. Community lunch will follow.

Brooklyn Zen Center is a Soto Zen community in the tradition of San Francisco Zen Center’s founder, Shunryu Suzuki. The community’s founding students came from both San Francisco Zen Center and Austin Zen Center, where they studied with dharma teachers from both centers. The mission of Brooklyn Zen Center is to cultivate an open community based on the Buddha’s teachings of love and interconnectedness. 

Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. Her first two novels, My Year of Meats (1998) and All Over Creation (2003), have been translated into eleven languages and published in fourteen countries. Her most recent novel, A Tale for the Time-Being (2013), won the LA Times Book Prize, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critic’s Circle Award, and has been published in over thirty countries. Ruth’s documentary and dramatic independent films, including Halving the Bones, have been shown on PBS, at the Sundance Film Festival, and at colleges and universities across the country. A longtime Buddhist practitioner, Ruth was ordained in 2010 and is affiliated with the Brooklyn Zen Center and the Everyday Zen Foundation. She lives in British Columbia and New York City, and is currently the Elizabeth Drew Professor of Creative Writing at Smith College.

When: Saturday, September 24, 2016 at 11:00 am

Where: Brooklyn Zen Center, 505 Carroll Street, Suite 2A, Brooklyn NY 11215

Access Notes: There is one short flight of stairs leading to the entrance to the building. Please press 3-0 to be buzzed in. The center is located at the top of a steeper second staircase of around 20 steps. A ramp and elevator are available via an alternate entrance; please email in advance if you need access. Chairs, benches, and extra support cushions are available. We are not yet a fragrance-free space; our hand soap is scented with essential oils. If you have any additional questions about accessibility, please contact us at info@brooklynzen.org.