San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks: Recent Episodes
San Francisco Zen Center
04/08/2026, Dan Zigmond, dharma talk at City Center. Dan Zigmond explores how the "monkey mind" the Buddha diagnosed 2,500 years ago is exactly what today's algorithms are engineered to exploit, drawing on nearly thirty years of building attention-capturing technology at Google, Facebook, Apple, and Headspace, alongside four decades of Zen practice.
04/04/2026, Marc Lesser, dharma talk at City Center. Marc Lesser weaves together personal stories, Shunryu Suzuki, Dogen, and the Enneagram, in an exploration of how we interpret our identities and the world.
04/01/2026, Henzan Roger Hillyard, dharma talk at City Center. Roger Hillyard explores how Dogen's most poetic sutra, Mountains and Rivers, can help us practice with tragedy and lead us towards equanimity.
03/18/2026, Doshin Patti Mitchell, dharma talk at City Center. Doshin Patti Mitchell shares how meditation and community helped her face suffering, expectations, and self-judgment. Speaking about the importance of honesty, gratitude, and spiritual friendship, she also honors the teachers and practitioners who supported her along the way.
03/15/2026, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho expands the teachings of Buddha from tools held in our hands (in our control) to a way of living that is wider than we can imagine.
03/14/2026, Doshin Mako Voelkel, dharma talk at City Center. Abiding Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel explores the life and lessons of Mahapajapati—the first Buddhist nun, and foster mother of the historical Buddha—after City Center’s annual ceremonial celebration for this first of our Buddhist women ancestors.
03/08/2026, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho explores stillness and silence as a response to the great suffering we are facing today. Can we trust the discovery promised in a practice of silence to lead us to resolve or peace?
03/07/2026, Jeannie Linam and Myoju Erin Merk, dharma talk at City Center. Jeannie Linam and Myoju Erin Merk explore how our individual body is inseparable from the living Earth.
03/04/2026, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. Shosan Victoria Austin explores love as an internal posture, rather than a feeling. A stable base for our posture of love is awareness and patience with the negative emotions that often come up without our noticing them.
03/01/2026, Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Jiryu Rutschman-Byler reflects on the classical Zen teaching "the ten thousand things are one body," exploring how understanding that truth plants seeds of peace in our hearts and in this world of confusion and violence, in which we see the "left hand" and "right hand" of this "one body" choose again and again to go to war with each other.
02/28/2026, Grace Dammann, dharma talk at City Center. Dr. Grace Dammann shares her journey through medicine, Zen practice, disability, and spiritual awakening.
02/25/2026, Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo, dharma talk at City Center. Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo reflects on full presence as direct, embodied, moment-to-moment awareness beyond judgment or self-narrative, illustrated by a wordless encounter with a newborn and cultivated through zazen as “practice 24/7.”
02/22/2026, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho speaks to the fear of being consumed by great suffering while being turned towards the expansion of life at the same time.
02/21/2026, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at City Center. Kiku Christina Lehnherr explores meeting everything that presents itself to our awareness with tender and gentle attention.
02/20/2026, Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo, sesshin dharma talk at City Center. Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo explores how lifelong, internalized expectations—shaped by personal history and conditioning—distort perception and create suffering by separating us from present-moment experience.
02/19/2026, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, sesshin dharma talk at City Center. Kiku Christina Lehnherr explores how resting our attention on our breath coming in and going out for a while, unites body and mind, calms them and brings them into the present moment.
02/15/2026, Heather Shoren Iarusso, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Heather Shōren Iarusso discusses an encounter with a rattlesnake when, in the flash of danger, there is no “Heather,” no narrative, no arising mental formations—only pure perception and appropriate response.
02/14/2026, Gendo Lucy Xiao, dharma talk at City Center. Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道 invites us to welcome the Lunar New Year by settling into inner stability and ease—remembering that peace is not something we chase outside ourselves, but something we can return to right where we are.
02/11/2026, Gengyoko Tim Wicks, dharma talk at City Center. Gengyoko Tim Wicks speaks about the history of the robes we wear (Buddha's Robe) and how it follows the geographic travel of Zen Buddhism.
02/08/2026, Marc Lesser, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Marc Lesser explores awareness, compassion, and the idea that nothing in the universe is truly hidden.
02/07/2026, Onryu Mary Stares, dharma talk at City Center. Onryu Mary Stares explores how external stimuli can act as a gate to practice if we use intention and curiosity.
02/01/2026, Thiemo Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Thiemo Blank guides us towards awakening to "the one who is not busy" in everyday activity.
01/28/2026, Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo, Shuso Way-Seeking Mind talk at City Center. Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo unpacks the shuso’s way-seking mind by framing practice as an everyday exercise of holding internal conflict without fixing it, allowing harmony to arise naturally, and walking one’s vows through ordinary activities.
01/24/2026, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at City Center. Kiku Christina Lehnherr explores how the body is completely and inseparably intertwined and interconnected with the mind and with everything in this universe, and how the practice of slowing down a fraction in all our activities can support us in becoming intimate with our body.
01/17/2026, So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson, dharma talk at City Center. So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson reflects on Dr. King’s legacy as a practice of staying human in the face of fear, polarization, and fatigue. Through Zen teachings on virya or joyful effort, we explore how commitment, courage, and hope can be sustained without hardening the heart.
01/14/2026, Doshin Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at City Center. Doshin Dan Gudgel discusses our human experience of feeling like a completely distinct and separate self, and unpacks the fundamental Buddhist teaching of ‘no fixed self’ that answers this experience.
01/10/2026, Mushim Patricia Ikeda, dharma talk at City Center. Mushim Patricia Ikeda asks how is our Zen Buddhist practice showing up within the "burning house" of global "forever wars," environmental crisis, and U.S. global and national actions in 2026? What might different forms and schools of Zen be able to learn from one another?
01/07/2026, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center. Sozan Michael McCord explores how waiting is not necessarily patience. And it is not a passive default. In this talk, the subject of patience is explored as one of the Buddhist "paramitas" (perfections) that are both fruits of practice and an area of one's life that is actively cultivated.
01/04/2026, Nyokai Kristin Diggs, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Nyokai Kristin Diggs addresses the importance of reflecting upon ourselves as storytellers and our practice of zazen as "just looking" at the stories that we tell, as an entry point to recognizing the truth of our interdependent, inconceivable lives.
12/27/2025, Nyokai Kristin Diggs, dharma talk at City Center. Nyokai Kristin Diggs talks about the non-separation of feeling, sensing, and thinking as they relate to giving, as a whole-being practice and a state of mind that reflects the always-unhindered, underlying truth of our undivided lives.
12/20/2025, Gyokuden Stephanie Blank, dharma talk at City Center. Gyokuden Stephanie Blank considers Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol as a dharma story that reveals the transformative power of illumination, intimacy, and karmic fruition.
12/17/2025, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center. Shundo reflects on two recent deaths in his family, and what our practice can teach us about facing death and cherishing life.
12/13/2025, Keiryu Liên Shutt, dharma talk at City Center. Keiryu Liên Shutt presents an informal comparison of Soto Zen and Insight practices within the context of The Three Marks of Existence.
12/07/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler reflects on a line from the Song of the Trusting Mind, “If you want the Way to manifest, then hold no opinion for or against,” by drawing on five aspects of practice in Suzuki Roshi’s teaching: posture, breathing, warm heart, empty mind, and oneness with things.
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho teaches that sometimes it is necessary to be for or against but there is a broader context in which this is not always necessary.
11/02/2025, Gyokuden Stephanie Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Gyokuden Steph Blank honors the effort and awakening of our ancestors and calls on us—the living—to rise up in support of Decency, Dignity and Awakening.
11/01/2025, Zenshin Florence Caplow, dharma talk at City Center. Zenshin Florence Caplow offers stories and teachings from her life as both a Zen practitioner and person with chronic illness, and readings from her new book, “Tend to Your Spirit: Mindful Living With Chronic Illness.”
Sessei Meg Levie reflects on Suzuki Roshi’s dedication to zazen, his work with early students in San Francisco, and the creation of the San Francisco Zen Center.
10/25/2025, Dainin Marsha Angus, dharma talk at City Center. Dainin Marsha Angus teaches about cultivating and mental and physical capacity to settle into stillness.
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho teaches that when we remain in the mode of discovery we open to new portals to engage and activate in tending to today’s suffering.
So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson uses the image of bubbles and the teaching of the Three Marks of Existence to explore how Zen practice helps us meet impermanence, suffering, and no-self in the body, not through ideas, but through presence.
Shosan Victoria Austin teaches that we can deepen our understanding of the causes and cures of dispute, and practice with a unifying value of kindness that has the power to transform our conflicts to occasions for mutual curiosity, intimacy, and growth.
Tatsudo Nicole Baden explores how Zen practice literally shifts the architecture of our experience — from a narrow, biographical “here” into a living, embodied field of contact.
Chikudo Catherine Spaeth teaches that zazen shows us what to care for, and leads the way in our request to study the precepts with a teacher. In this caring we become a good friend to our practice.
09/21/2025, Hoka Chris Fortin, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Hoka Chris Fortin asks: How do we—individually and as one—not turn away but bear witness, and respond to the suffering of the world with clear-hearted wisdom and compassion as we awaken together to our True Nature and shared humanity.
09/17/2025, Kim Kogen Daiho Hart, dharma talk at City Center. Kim Kōgen Daihō Hart explores her personal journey through anxiety to the realization that it is our own, all too real human struggles that light the path to liberation.
09/10/2025, Doshin Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at City Center. Doshin Dan Gudgel discusses gratitude and devotional practices, using his personal altars as examples, and reading “The Angel Handed Me a Book” by Paul Valéry.
09/07/2025, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Sozan Michael McCord considers the deeper purpose of monasteries—not only as places of study and community, but as spaces that preserve and sustain collective practice, creating lasting impact beyond the moment of gathering.
09/06/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. Shosan Victoria Austin points out that most of us are trying to find stability in less-than-perfect places, times, and conditions. How do we build an external and internal environment that supports us to meditate in peace?
08/31/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler discusses practicing kindness as an overflowing of the direct experience of non-separation, and explores the teachings of Suzuki Roshi on ethical precepts by analyzing each word in a questionable statement that he heard: "You should be kind, and that's enough."
08/06/2025, Kristin Diggs, dharma talk at City Center. Nyokai Kristin Diggs talks about the centrality of self-study in the context of Soto Zen, the interdependent nature of body-mind-self and all phenomena, and wise view within the context of Big Mind, which includes the whole universe.
08/27/2025, So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson, dharma talk at City Center. So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson explores what it means to be a good ancestor now: carrying warmth, witnessing others into fullness, and tending the ceremonies of life with reverence.
08/24/2025, Marc Lesser, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Marc Lesser points out that “And yet” is a way of seeing differently, with greater confidence and greater humility. “And yet” could be how we describe history, our lives, and our futures.
08/23/2025, Myles Cowherd, dharma talk at City Center. Myles Cowherd explores the transformative power of sincerity and acceptance as a counterpoint to a life of seriousness and fear.
08/20/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. Shosan Victoria Austin teaches that when we train our posture and breathing in a manner that helps us sit at night, aided by traditional images and teachings, we can hold the dreamy parts of experience in stillness and understanding.
08/17/2025, Doshin Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Doshin Dan Gudgel explores how feeling the preciousness of life can support deep practice, kindness and gentleness.
08/16/2025, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman unpacks what it might mean to become yourself through the simple but challenging practice of shikantaza (just sitting), referencing Suzuki Roshi’s teachings and two Zen koans.
08/13/2025, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center. Anshi Zachary Smith examines case 96 from the Blue Cliff Record which holds suggestions about how to frame one’s practice and warnings about the many ways we can get it wrong.
08/10/2025, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho discusses the reality that a human body will turn to dust and yet it is the body in which we carry the dharma and come to know it. As Dogen Zenji, founder of Soto Zen, taught, "To expound the dharma with this body is foremost."
08/09/2025, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center. Shundo David Haye reflects on the way we hold stories about ourselves and others, and how our practice of dwelling in silence can help us change our relationship with them.
08/06/2025, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center. Sozan Michael McCord discusses working with and growing in our awareness of how the three poisons—greed, hatred and delusion—manifest in our lives, on this 80th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.
08/03/ 2025, Sessei Meg Levie, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Sessei Meg Levie offers the teaching of the Four Elements and how seeing Dharma in nature can help us open our hearts to all beings.
07/27/2025, Zenshin Greg Fain, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zenshin Greg Fain talks about gratitude and grief in the context of Thusness. Gratitude and grief can both be dharma gates to bring us closer to a felt sense of connection with each other, and all of existence.
07/23/2025, Yogetsu Akasaka, dharma talk at City Center. Yogetsu Akasaka, a priest from the Sōtō Zen School in Japan, asks What if cleaning a bathroom could be one of your most profound spiritual practices?
07/20/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler reflects on recent departures from Green Gulch of the elder teachers of the founding generation, and how at the same time as that loss, a new flower of teaching blossoms as "Becoming Yourself," the new book of Suzuki Roshi's talks, is released.
07/19/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at City Center. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler celebrates together with the sangha the launch of the first new book of Suzuki Roshi's teachings in over 20 years, "Becoming Yourself," sharing about its fundamental teachings and how it came about.
07/26/2025, Henzan Roger Hillyard, dharma talk at City Center. Roger Hillyard offers a look into the origins of Lay Entrustment and how it has manifested in American Zen.
07/13/2025, Gengyoko Tim Wicks, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Gengyoko Tim Wicks explores cultivating joyful energy in times of crisis, with reference to Eihei Dogen Zenji and the Dhammapada.
07/12/2025, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at City Center. Kiku Christina Lehnherr explores the dharma of living and practicing in a human body.
07/06/2025, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zoketsu Norman Fischer discusses a forthcoming book by the Japanese Zen Master Kosho Uchiyama about his experience practicing chanting the name of Kanzeon Bodhisattva.
07/05/2025, Mark Lesser, dharma talk at City Center. Marc Lesser discusses a teaching from Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh: Breathing, smiling and living are three ways to practice.
07/02/2025, Doshin Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at City Center. Doshin Dan Gudgel explores the image of Indra’s Net and how it relates to life in this complicated, messy modern world.
06/29/2025, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Kokyo Henkel explores what is really transmitted from teacher to student, and some classic Zen stories about Dharma transmission.
This talk was given at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center (Zenshinji) by Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道. Lucy reflects on different aspects of harmony. Recorded on June 28, 2025.
06/22/2025, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. As senior dharma teacher Linda Ruth Cutts prepares to move from Green Gulch and SFZC residency after 54 years she brings up the practice of being upright in the midst of great change.
06/21/2025, Esho Sudan, dharma talk at City Center. Esho Sudan explores the life-story and great legacy of Sozen Nagasawa Roshi, a Soto Zen abbess and teacher, founder of the only women's training monastery in WW2-era Japan.
06/18/2025, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center. Jisan Tova Green shares how Zen practice has influenced her long engagement with peace and justice issues, and draws from the words and actions of three of her mentors, Joanna Macy, Maylie Scott, and Alan Senauke.
06/15/2025, Gyokuden Stephanie Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Gyokuden Steph Blank shares her experience of grief and gratitude arising through the intimate process of accompanying her father during his recent transition from the miracle of life into the miracle of death.
06/14/2025, Monitsu Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. Monitsu Pamela Weiss explores the final section of the Eihei Koso Hotsuganmon by Dogen Zenji.
06/13/2025, Monitsu Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. Monitsu Pamela Weiss explores the second section of the Eihei Koso Hotsuganmon by Dogen Zenji.
06/12/2025, Monitsu Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. Monitsu Pamela Weiss explores the opening paragraphs of the Eihei Koso Hotsugonmon by Dogen Zenji.
06/11/2025, Rebecca Li, dharma talk at City Center. Dr. Rebecca Li explains how the practice of Silent Illumination is to actualize the Buddha’s teachings to be free from suffering.
06/07/2025, Monitsu Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. Monitsu Pamela Weiss explores the stories of our early women ancestors, Mahapajapati and Yasodhara.
06/04/2025, Monitsu Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. Monitsu Pamela Weiss explores the life of Huineng and living a life of vow, in this talk from the summer 2025 practice intensive at Beginner’s Mind Temple.
06/01/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler takes up the theme of “Becoming Yourself,” the title of a new book of talks by Suzuki Roshi, by reflecting on two lines from the book.
05/31/2025, Teah Strozer, dharma talk at City Center. Teah Strozer explores the ways that our assumptions and fixed ideas about people or situations can blind us to change and to what’s actually in front of us.
05/25/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Shosan Victoria Austin examines the Memorial Day holiday through a Buddhist lens, particularly looking at the ethical dilemmas in the oaths taken in our society.
05/24/2025, Monitsu Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. Monitsu Pamela Weiss explores the twin themes of refuge and compassion in Cases 4 and 54 of the Book of Serenity.
05/21/2025, Monitsu Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. Monitsu Pamela Weiss explores the theme of True Refuge as reorientation and wholehearted dedication to awakening, truth and love.
This talk was given at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center (Zenshinji) by Shoren Heather Iarusso. Shoren discusses how we get stuck in concepts and cause our own suffering. Recorded on May 21, 2025.
05/17/2025, Zentatsu Richard Baker Roshi, dharma talk at City Center. Former Abbot Zentatsu Richard Baker Roshi discusses lessons from a life of practice, and from close observation of Shunryu Suzuki’s life and teachings.
05/14/2025, Myogen Kathryn Stark, dharma talk at Tassajara. In this talk, Myogen Kathryn Stark talks about Shantideva, his work on the Way of the Bodhisattva, and how we apply this to our own lives.
05/14/2025, Tatsudo Nicole Baden, dharma talk at City Center. Tatsudo Nicole Baden explores two foundational Buddhist perspectives: that everything changes (impermanence) and that everything is interconnected (interdependence).
12/07/2024, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center. Jisan Tova Green weaves together several themes in this final talk of the City Center Fall 2024 Practice Period: welcoming beginner's mind and the ten ox-herding pictures, Buddha's enlightenment, and seeing our path of practice as a journey, not unlike Buddha's journey.
11/30/2024, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center. Sozan Michael McCord discusses where the concept of work practice came from in the Zen Buddhist tradition and how the principles found in the monastic setting can be used in any modern work context.
11/24/2024, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Kiku Christina Lehnherr teaches that practicing and overtly expressing appreciation, gratitude and generosity towards all the people, situations and things, great and small, that support our lives and fill them with love and beauty, is a powerful antidote to challenging situations.
11/23/2024, Rinso Ed Sattizahn, dharma talk at City Center. This dharma talk by former central abbot Rinso Ed Sattizahn examines Suzuki Roshi’s open, inviting practice, and unpacks Wang Wei’s poem “In my middle years…”
11/17/2024, Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, closing a five day sesshin, Jiryu talks about the unborn, undying aspect of reality, opened to through the practice of stopping, dropping off everything, and just being our ordinary self.
11/16/2024, Paula Arai, dharma talk at City Center. This dharma talk by visiting teacher Paula Arai at Beginner’s Mind Temple explores Buddhism from a woman’s perspective, focusing on the liberating power of storytelling in sutras. Combining rigorous research and an embodied approach, Arai humanizes Buddhist women’s experiences. She shared two stories—Queen Shrimala and "Bowing With the Dharma"—from her upcoming book, "Of Lotuses and Mud: Women Liberating Dharma".
11/13/2024, Eli Brown-Stevenson, dharma talk at City Center. This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson, co-leader of the fall 2024 Practice Period at City Center. Inspired by the teachings from Suzuki Roshi and the symbolism of the bell in Zen practice, this talk explores the Bodhisattva’s unwavering path of sincerity, presence, and purpose. Through Ox-Herding Pictures 5 and 6, we follow the journey from striving and control to a state of acceptance and flow. Moving from “Taming the Ox” to “Riding the Ox Home,” we learn to meet ourselves with patience and embrace life as it is.
11/10/2024, Zesho Susan O'Connell, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk by Zesho Susan O’Connell examines the vast field of existence, the fabric of our world that can get torn and faded. We are not in control, but we can “clearly observe” the tears.
11/09/2024, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center. This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by Fall 2024 Practice Period co-leader Jisan Tova Green. How can we welcome what we find unwelcome—from pain, disturbing emotions or thoughts in Zazen to events in our country or the world? Drawing from teachings on Bodhicitta (awakening mind) and her experience as a hospice worker, Tova suggests ways we can turn toward and learn from experiences we don't welcome.
11/06/2024, Gengyoko Tim Wicks, dharma talk at City Center. This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by tanto (head of practice) and practice period co-leader Gengyoko Tim Wicks. In the talk, Tim shares some of the teachings that are being studied this practice period and talks about practicing wherever we find ourselves. Recorded on Wednesday, November 6, 2024.
This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by visiting teacher Gaylon Ferguson. During the Fall 2024 Practice Period at Beginner’s Mind Temple, the community is studying Dr. Ferguson’s book “Welcoming Beginner’s Mind: Zen and Tibetan Buddhist Wisdom on Experiencing Our True Nature.” Dr. Ferguson begins by talking about the historical and continuing connection between San Francisco Zen Center and the Shambhala International Buddhist community where he was trained. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche were close friends in life, and our communities continue that connection and shared practices. In the second portion of the talk, Dr. Ferguson looks at five phrases and their interpretations from Zen and Tibetan Buddhist perspectives. The five phrase-topics covered are: beginner’s mind; practice-realization; no gaining idea; buddha-buddha-buddha; and, “grief is a Buddha.” Recorded on Saturday, November 2, 2024.
10/30/2024, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Jisan Tova Green describes the Sejiki Ceremony, in which hungry ghosts are cajoled and offered food, including the sweet dew of the Dharma. She likens this to the experience many of us have when we set out on a spiritual path and describes the first of the Ten Oxherding Pictures, in which a person is walking in nature, seeking, looking a little lost. Something is missing. We all have within us hungry ghosts. Recorded on Wednesday, October 30, 2024.
This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by Fall 2024 Practice Period co-leader So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson. This talk centers on the Zen practice of welcoming, rooted in Suzuki Roshi's teachings. We explore how welcoming everything—joy, discomfort, and impermanence—brings us into deeper alignment with the present moment. Through the metaphor "The body is the temple, and awareness is the host," we uncover how zazen allows us to meet life with openness, breaking down the boundaries between self and the world. By fully welcoming our experience, we connect with our true nature and the interconnectedness of all things.
10/19/2024, Gengyoko Tim Wicks, dharma talk at City Center. This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple’s October one-day sitting, held at Unity Church, by Tanto (head of practice) Gengyoko Tim Wicks. Using this famous koan (Zen teaching story) Tim discusses the connection that our pasts have with the present and how it is that we practice with our difficulties.
10/13/2024, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This dharma talk was given at Green Gulch Farm by San Francisco Zen Center president Sozan Michael McCord. While we honor and treasure the memories, lessons and times with people who we knew in the past, it is that very memory of how temporary this life is — that everything is changing — which helps us treasure those we have in our lives today. This also serves as scaffolding to do the work of being here now, in this moment. It helps us take into our bones the beating heart of now, and turn our complete attention to the seemingly special or mundane that the moment in front of us is offering.
10/12/2024, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman. In Case 36 of the ‘Gateless Gate’ (Mumonkan), Zen teacher Wuzu poses a question to his students: “Meeting a person of the Way, not using words or silence, how will you greet them?” Abbot David explores this koan, weaving throughout an account of his recent travels to meet various ‘persons of the Way’ as well as reflections on intimacy in Zen and the value of honoring our past, present, and future ancestors. He concludes by sharing a wisdom prophecy from a Hopi Elder.
10/09/2024, So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson, dharma talk at City Center. This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson. Words are powerful, but they can also lead us astray—especially when teachings cross cultures and languages. In this talk, we’ll explore how mistranslations and misunderstandings of Buddhist concepts shape our practice and how we can move beyond intellectualization to a deeper, more direct experience of the Dharma.
10/05/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by Shosan Victoria Austin. When we are challenged by anger, it's easy to react and difficult to respond. How might Zen practices of giving, tolerance and enthusiasm help us let go of relational barriers, transforming them into gateways to increased intimacy? In times of conflict and unwanted change, what tools might the tradition offer to refresh our deeper intention? What do we need to remember and to do, to nourish ourselves, the other, and the space of trust that we share?
10/02/2024, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center. Our narratives and our histories shape our conditioned being. Acknowledging this conditioning, we take Refuge in Buddha, the innate capacity to awaken. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Ryushin investigates how our stories and narratives influence our experience of the world. By examining the truth of our lives, we can recognize that our experience is just one, subjective version of reality. After briefly getting the community into small groups to discuss their own experiences, Ryushin points out the clarifying and encouraging power of acknowledging, and speaking our experiences out loud to another human being, non-judgmentally - each of us enacting "Only a Buddha Together with a Buddha” — the title of a fascicle (Yuibutsu Yobutsu 唯佛與佛) of the Shobogenzo by Eihei Dogen, founder of Soto Zen in Japan.
This talk was given at Green Gulch Farm by Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道. The talk is an exploration of taking refuge in our true nature as we navigate the seasons of life.
This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by Onryu Mary Stares. In this talk Onryu Mary Stares discusses the five considerations the Buddha lists that allow us to practice Right Speech. These considerations shape our relationship with ourselves and with all beings.
This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by Hondo Dave Rutschman. One of the most important questions each of us has to work out in our life is deciding what it is we will take care of. In this talk, Dave considers what it might mean to take care of our practice through time—to appreciate all those who have maintained it for us in the past, and to uphold it for future generations. Then he considers what it might mean to practice in a way that completely lets go of past and future.
09/22/2024, Thiemo Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This dharma talk was given at Green Gulch Farm by Tanto Thiemo Blank. The talk gives an introduction into the precepts of the Zen lineage as well as Thiemo's personal path in finding meaning in the precepts beyond a seemingly rule-driven moral guideline.
09/15/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk given at Green Gulch Farm, Abiding Abbott Jiryu Rutschman-Byler continues to explore four core elements of zazen practice: low belly, upright spine, clear mind, and wide-open welcoming. He focuses in particular on the practice of "clearing the mind," using teachings of the Buddha and from the Platform Sutra to discuss the dynamic between, on the one hand, welcoming everything including thought, and on the other hand, the fact that without a clear, empty mind the practice of welcoming often feels inaccessible to us.
09/14/2024, Gengyoko Tim Wicks, dharma talk at City Center. In this dharma talk, given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by tanto (head of practice) Gengyoko Tim Wicks, Tim speaks about working with everything that arises in zazen including grief and difficult emotions, for it is all a part of being awake.
09/07/2024, James Ishmael Ford, dharma talk at City Center. This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple’s pop-up zendo at Unity Church on Page Street, by visiting teacher James Ishmael Ford. In the talk, Roshi Ford tells a story from his latest book, “The Intimate Way of Zen: Effort, Surrender, and Awakening on the Spiritual Journey.” In his book James addresses the arc of a spiritual life. He uses the 12th-century Zen verses of Kuoan Shiyuan's Ox Herding Pictures as a scaffolding for an exploration of the winding path of spiritual exploration as well as the twin projects of waking up and growing up. He says the story that he shares here, which comes from the end of the book, and is based in a traditional Indian tale, summarizes the whole thing: who we are, and who we might become.
08/31/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, Abbot Jiryu describes the fundamental Zen practice of "welcoming everything," and emphasizes the posture - grounded belly, upright spine, and clear mind - that we can care for in order to fully embody and actualize that practice.
08/28/2024, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Shundo reflects on a recent visit to Tassajara, which included the monthly Full Moon Ceremony and the Obon Ceremony. He encourages us to remember our place in the ongoing lineage of Buddhas and Ancestors.
08/27/2024, Jan Willis, dharma talk at Tassajara. In this talk, Jan Willis discusses the conditions around the time of Buddha's lifetime, and how the Buddhist community was created.
08/25/2024, Onryu Mary Stares, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk Onryu Mary Stares discusses reality: how our attachments and karma lead us to obscure reality; how practice guides us to seek what is real in each moment.
08/21/2024, Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at City Center. In this dharma talk, given at Beginner’s Mind Temple, Dan uses the Soto Zen standard “Confession” verse to explore the connections between personal and collective karma. The verse is: “All my ancient twisted karma, from beginningless greed, hate and delusion, born through body speech and mind, I now fully avow.” Avowing karma — acknowledging and accepting the reality of the situation a person is in — is a crucial first step in stopping further harm and beginning to repair harms already done. In the talk, Dan looks at examples of his own karma, inherited in his youth and still reverberating today, even though it’s not beneficial.
08/21/2024, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at Tassajara. In this talk, Shundo explains the elements and significance of the Full Moon Ceremony to those who had participated in it on their arrival day at Tassajara, and encourages everyone to understand their role in creating and sustaining the monastery and the community.
08/17/2024, Sokaku Kathie Fischer, dharma talk at City Center. In this dharma talk, given at Beginner’s Mind Temple, Kathie references Eihei Dogen's work, "Receiving the Marrow by Bowing," to tell the stories of important Zen women ancestors in the light of changing demographics over the millennia, and discuss Zen master Dogen's courageous and uncompromising defense of women's practice. "Receiving the Marrow by Bowing” (“Raihai Tokuzui” in Japanese) is a fascicle from Eihei Dogen’s (12th-century founder of Soto Zen in Japan) long work, “Shobo Genzo” (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye).
08/14/2024, Roger Hillyard, dharma talk at City Center. This talk was given at Beginner's Mind Temple, by Roger Hillyard. The path is sometimes dark and difficult, sometimes smooth and joyous. It is always circuitous and doesn't proceed in a linear direction, so we cannot resist its call. When we seek the extraordinary we miss what is before us, beneath our feet. There is a direction we can go in, but not a place where we arrive. The only place we take steps is HERE, on the ordinary ground with an ordinary mind.
08/11/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk Jiryu discusses four fundamental, inter-related aspects of the Zen posture of body and mind which we can care for in sitting and in daily life: 1) grounded in the belly, 2) upright and strong in our spine, 3) clear and empty in our mind, and 4) warmly welcoming of the whole wide, bright, constantly changing, utterly unknowable field of experience.
08/04/2024, Rinso Ed Sattizahn, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. An exploration of the the koan: Zhaozhou's Cypress Tree in the Courtyard.
07/31/2024, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center. This talk was given at Beginner's Mind Temple, by Tova Green. Tova explores deep listening on the personal, relational, community, and global levels. Investigating the meaning of her dharma name, MyoCho, Wondrous or Subtle Listening, Tova shares stories that express the compassionate nature of Avalokitesvara, or Kuanyin, Hearer of the Cries of the World. These stories encourage us to experience the entire universe as not separate from ourselves and meet the cries of the world with skillful means.
07/28/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Studying Zen precepts, our tradition transmits a wealth of teachings to help us stop harming at personal and interpersonal levels. At this time in the West, we need to develop our ability to stop supporting harm and evil in groups and systems. Understanding and admitting how we may have supported collective harm actively, by collusion or tolerance, consciously or unconsciously, we can remove the hidden supports of collective harm. Humility in our group roles and behaviors opens our hearts and mind to what gives life to our participation in institutions, systems, and shared culture. When we scale up our practice of compassion and skillful means to plant our group behavior in the sensitive, responsive ground of the precepts, we find new ways to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings.
07/21/2024, Dr. Grace Dammann, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Dr. Grace Dammann, a previouse Green Gulch Resident and physician, who was honored by the Dalai Lama for her extraordinary work speaks about the difference between suffering and pain from her experience as a doctor, practitioner and patient.
07/20/2024, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. This talk was given at one of Beginner's Mind Temple’s pop-up events at Unity Church, by Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman. Dogen Zenji’s beautiful and inspiring essay “Bodaisatta Shishobo” addresses four central practices of a bodhisattva ─ giving, loving speech, beneficial action, and identity action. Abbot David provides an overview of these four “embracing actions” which can heal our sense of separateness, deepen our connection with others, and foster social harmony and communal well-being. By actively taking up these practices together, we can ultimately transform the world.
07/13/2024, Kogen Jamie Howell, dharma talk at City Center. This talk was given by Kogen Jamie Howell at one of Beginner’s Mind Temple’s pop-up events at Unity Church, San Francisco. Jamie discusses his lay (i.e., not ordained clergy) Zen life in both the Rinzai and Soto traditions in the west, highlighting similarities and differences in their approaches to Buddhist practice. Jamie spent most of his 45-year practice at the San Francisco Zen Center but also studied with teachers at the Mount Baldy Zen Center, Zendo Brasil and City Zen (Santa Rosa).
07/06/2024, Peter Coyote, dharma talk at City Center. This talk was given by Zen teacher, actor, poet and artist Peter Coyote. The talk, which Peter describes as “disguised as a dharma-way talk” recounts how the deepening grip of the precepts, as his practice deepened, made a wiser and more effective person, trying to model the life of a Buddha in his own life. Recorded on Saturday, July 6, 2024 at Unity Church, Page St., San Francisco.
06/29/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. This talk was given by Shosan Victoria Austin at one of Beginner’s Mind Temple’s pop-up events at Unity Church on Page St in San Francisco. Sōtō Zen teaches that compassion underlies wisdom, and wisdom underlies compassion. When we take up the question of how to become compassionate humans, it helps to have role models such as The Bodhisattva "Hearer of the Cries of the World" (Kannon Bosatsu), our grandmothers and grandfathers. Some contemporary methods of skill in compassion include Paula Arai's Way of Healing, David Treleaven's Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, and Roshi Joan Halifax's G.R.A.C.E. Practicing compassion does not erase the pain and suffering of the world, but it helps us respond accurately, in nourishing ways. With the steadfastness of pine and the resilience of bamboo, we can help give life to ourselves and those around us in whatever states arise.
06/23/2024, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Case 35 in the Gateless Barrier koan collection tells the story of Qian's spirit being divided between following her heart and being responsible by following obligations. Is one path more true than the other or not?
06/22/2024, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, the last given at Beginner's Mind Temple before the zendo closed for renovation, Shundo David Haye reflects on ideas of home, and taking refuge in the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
06/16/2024, Ryuko Laura Burges, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Laura talks about how we can practice with grief, loss, and ordinary everyday suffering, She weaves in stories from her recent book from Shambhala, The Zen Way of Recovery, and shares practices that can help us--no matter what we may be recovering from.
06/15/2024, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center. This talk was given at Beginner's Mind Temple, by Sozan Michael McCord. The Zen Buddhist path can seem like one that is spare, determined and somewhat serious; addressing the primary root of suffering as its main purpose. Yet, the practice is full of examples and instructions about liberation, joy and the connection to the beating heart of NOW. How do these seemingly disparate views reconcile?
06/09/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Jiryu reflects on the practice of shikantaza, just sitting, as a Way that is fundamentally different than technique-based meditation.
06/08/2024, Mushim Patricia Ikeda, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, San Francisco Zen Center, Muslim Ikeda examines the question, How can Zen practice be of benefit to more people during what many are calling "unprecedented times"? In mid-2024 the news is filled with political divisiveness, threats of fascism, ongoing genocides, and, as the polar ice caps continue to melt, Mexico City is facing a possible "Day Zero" when millions of people will have no running water. Weaving threads from Chinese Chan, Korean Seon, Japanese Zen, and Vietnamese Thien, Mushim Ikeda asked how possible it might be, on one hand, for her to live up to Korean Zen Master Naong's ‘Great Resolutions;’ and, on the other hand, to possibly chicken out and take back her Bodhisattva Vows. Mushim shared from her wide-ranging recent explorations into a Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhist modern version of Chöd and other experiences, suggesting that the vital inquiry for each of us might be to engage in heartfelt discernment each day, asking, "What is the most important thing for me to be doing, here, now, with all that I am?"
06/05/2024, Kim Kōgen Dai-Hō Hart, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, San Francisco Zen Center, Kim considers how we are often hindered by our habitual responses, conditioning and fundamental misunderstanding of the substantiality of the phenomenal world. Here, she reflects on how, through Zen practice, we can access freedom through exploring the two aspects of non-dual reality, which can broaden our understanding, but more importantly set us free to meet the moment and engage more fully with our own lives.
06/01/2024, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple’s monthly one-day sitting, (this time held at Haight Street Art Center) Abbot David shares highlights of his recent trip to Japan to participate in a memorial ceremony and tour in honor of Keizan Jokin, considered the second of Soto Zen’s two founders (along with Dogen Zenji). After providing some historical background on Keizan, he then introduces the opening sections of Keizan’s ‘Zazen Yojinki’ or ‘Notes on What to Be Aware of in Zazen’, which describes zazen as a way to “clarify the mind-ground and rest at ease in your actual nature.”
05/29/2024, Kazuaki Tanahashi, Mitsue Nagase, dharma talk at City Center. In this discussion, held in the conference center at Beginner's Mind Temple, Mitsue Nagase and Kaz Tanahashi discuss their new book “Gardens of Awakening: A Guide to the Aesthetics, History, and Spirituality of Kyoto's Zen Landscapes.” Selected photographs were exhibited on site to share the experience of "meeting" a Zen garden in its fleeting moments.
05/18/2024, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Kokyo celebrates the spirit of non-sectarianism within Buddha-Dharma, and explores the similarities and differences between Zen and Vajrayana practices, through the teaching of the nine vehicles of the Tibetan Nyingma School.
05/15/2024, Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Dōshin Dan Gudgel investigates how using the word and idea of ‘enemy’ affects our every day experience. Dan examines our national, military idea of ‘enemies,’ as well as how modern culture in the U.S. is increasingly using the word and concept of ‘enemy’ more broadly, and harmfully. With linguistic, dharma and personal examples, Dan points to how we are limiting our responses and closing our hearts to people and ideas by accepting these artificial categories of ‘enemy’ and ‘friend.’
05/12/2024, Thiemo Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk was presented by Thiemo on Mothers Day at the end of an introductory Sesshin (meditation retreat) at Green Dragon Temple. The Investigation of - “the true dragon” (Reality / Thusness) - in Sesshin is likened to the ancient story of the blind men investigating an Elephant. The speaker suggests that Forms and Ceremonies offer a path to wholeheartedly and intimately connect to the “dragon”. As babies we were in accord with the flow of Reality but as adults we lost connection by our focus on conceptual thinking. Returning to our original intimacy we need to learn the “backward step” that Dogen is teaching.
05/04/2024, Jisho Lisa Beth Hoffman, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Jisho Lisa Beth Hoffman explores the meaning of refuge and the experience of doing so through teacher, teaching and community - Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Sharing herexperiences with Heart teacher Surei Darlene Cohen and mentor Ninsen Lee Lipp, this talk is personal, engaging and encouraging.
05/01/2024, panel discussion at City Center. In this discussion, held in place of the regular Wednesday night dharma talk at Beginner's Mind Temple, Eli Brown-Stevenson leads a discussion featuring Community Village co-founders Caleb Tenenbaum, Nina Raddy, and Richard Bae; and, representing San Francisco Zen Center, resident priest Sozan Michael McCord. Community Village is an emerging peer-led, co-created, pan-Buddhist meditation community primarily focused on younger meditators. San Francisco Zen Center is a long-established Buddhist training organization, firmly based on the Soto Zen lineage of Japan. In the discussion, many common themes and experiences emerge, as well as notable areas of overlap and mutual support.
04/28/2024, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk Zoketsu discusses case 19 of Mumonkan, Nanchuan’s Everyday Mind. Our practice is very plain and ordinary, and yet, the plain and ordinary world is also vast and wide, and when we practice zazen regularly we can begin to live in it with that appreciation. To end his talk Zoketsu quotes at length from a commentary to this story by his late teacher Sojun Weitsman, from his new posthumous book Seeing One Thing Through.
04/27/2024, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis discusses the Zen text "Harmony of Difference and Equality". Written in the 8th century in China, the "Harmony of Difference and Equality" holds significant importance in Zen history. It is chanted daily in many Zen temples and at the memorial ceremonies of founding teachers. The tone of the poem is an examination of the interactivity of the relative and absolute truths. In his commentary on the poem, Shunryu Suzuki says "The capacity of the human mind has three aspects: potentiality, interrelationship, and appropriateness. ... [T]he 'interrelationship between someone who helps and someone who is helped' is called jihi [which] is usually translated as ‘love.'"
04/24/2024, Kodo Conlin, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Kodo Conlin discusses this rich topic. Here, we resolve the distance between speaker and listener to turn the questions, "What is the shape of our practice?" and "How do we stay intimate with Dharma?" Also, haiku by Mitsu Suzuki one day after the 110th anniversary of her birth.
04/17/2024, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Anshi Zachary Smith digs into the well-known Case 17 of the Blue Cliff Record. Here, we discover that there are unexpected and experientially accurate ways to interpret the original text of Hsiang Lin’s response beyond the usual, “Sitting for a long time becomes toilsome.” We explore some of these and talk about what, if anything, the “toil” or work of Zazen might be, both in the course of a single sitting and of a lifetime of practice.
04/14/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Jiryu suggests that by reflecting on the potential of Artificial Intelligence in Buddhism, in the form, for example, of the Suzuki Roshi chatbot, we can be led to renew our commitment to embodied presence, which is the real purpose and effort of Zen practice, and the real source of Bodhisattvas’ wisdom and compassion.
04/13/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. Zen forms work both in clear and hidden ways. In this interactive lecture, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Shosan Victoria Austin discusses the ancient chants, called dharanis, which sound like magic spells. At a deeper level, they function as rituals that hold teachings. Chanted with faith and energy, they build safe internal space — physically through posture, physiologically through sound, and mentally through key words of wisdom and compassion. Recited daily in Zen temples throughout the world, the Sho Sai Myo Kichijo Dharani (Jvala-Maha-Ugra Dharani, “Flame of Great Strength Dharani”) empowers us in resources. In times of disaster and conflict, more resources means less overwhelm. Through practice, we can take steps towards refuge and relief.
04/10/2024, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Jisan Tova Green speaks of her recent visit to Montana de Silencio, a Suzuki Roshi lineage Zen Center in Medellin, Colombia, where the late Blanche Hartman's name is mentioned daily as "our first woman ancestor in America." Tova's presence as a woman teacher was encouraging to women in the sangha, as there are few women Zen teachers in South America. Tova also draws from “The Gathering” — a novel by Professor Sasson about the ways in which the first Buddhist women came together and persevered in their requests for ordination. She refers to Dr. Paula Arai's “Women Living Zen” which illustrates the strengths of Japanese women who pursued a monastic lifestyle. Tova ends with her reflections on challenges for contemporary women practicing in Soto Zen centers, including San Francisco Zen Center.
04/06/2024, Ryuko Laura Burges, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Ryuko Laura Burges opens the City Center temple’s celebration of Buddha’s Birthday by recounting the story of the Buddha’s birth for the children in attendance, before further unpacking this story for the congregation. Buddha’s early life of privilege, renunciation, spiritual seeking and eventual awakening have powerful parallels in our modern world.
03/24/2024, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk by Eijun Linda Cutts was offered and dedicated to Caroline Meister, a Tassajara resident whose accidental death touched so many with sorrow. The talk looks at the Koan “Daowu’s Condolence Call” Case 55 in the Blue Cliff Record, and the non-dual life of zazen and precepts.
03/23/2024, Marc Lesser, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk Marc Lesser examines some instructions from Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, for living a full life; a life of practice, joy, grief, ordinary, and sacred.
03/20/2024, Gendo Lucy Xiao, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Gendo Lucy Xiao explores case number 3 from the koan collection "The Blue Cliff Record” — the case known as “Master Ma is Unwell.” In the talk, Lucy discusses entering the path of awakening from right here, in the life we are living.
03/16/2024, Sojun Mel Weitsman - Norman Fischer - Andrea Thach - Susan Moon, book release at City Center. In this discussion, three long-time Zen practitioners discuss their experiences with Sojun Mel Weitsman, and highlight key portions of his autobiography and teachings. The discussion was held in celebration of the release of a new book about Sojun’s life and practice.
03/13/2024, Koshin Steven Tierney, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Koshin Steven Tierney discusses the experience of loss and grief, and how these very natural and individual human experiences unfold within spiritual community. We must attend to our grief, individually and collectively, in order to maintain healthy relationships and communities. Featuring Clint Smith’s poem “Expedience,” Grace Noll Crowell’s “Let Me Come in Friend,” and the Eihei Koso Hotsuganmon.
03/10/2024, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. The great Way is not difficult for those who hold no preferences, it is like vast space with nothing lacking and nothing extra. At the moment awareness turns around and illuminates itself, there is going beyond appearance and emptiness.
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Teah Strozer reminds us everyone is enough — you, yourself, are perfect just as you are, even if, as Shunryu Suzuki Roshi said, we can also ‘use a little improvement.' In the talk, Teah shares stories about dependent arising and its relevance for today. She highlights the importance of not making divisions — not creating ideas of separate self and others — especially as the world deals with continued armed conflicts and political divisions.
"In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Gengyoko Time Wicks, the current tanto (head of practice) at SFZC City Center, uses the koan “Shishuang's 100 Foot Pole” to discuss deepening our practice. He also uses Eihei Dogen's “Eihei Koso Hotsuganmon” in discussing faith in practice and overcoming karmic responsibilities.
03/03/2024, Thiemo Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk Thiemo Blank uses a scene from "Harry Potter" to playfully teach about penetrating the "Walls" in our lives as a journey of liberation.
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, visiting monk Yogetsu Akasaka discusses the contrasts he’s seen between Soto Zen in Japan and in the United States. Yogetsu explains the path he’s taken from touring as a beatbox musician, to preparing to one day inherit the temple that this father currently runs — with a particular focus on his interest in bringing the wisdom and teachings of Zen to the lives of everyday people. Featuring the virtues of toilet cleaning, herding 100 cats, and ending with a musical performance of the Makka Hannya Haramitta Shin Gyo, accompanied by the handpan (a metallic drum).
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Roger Hillyard discusses what we mean when we “take refuge” — particularly when we take refuge in dharma, as we do as part of the liturgy of the Full Moon Precepts Ceremony. Roger unpacks the connections between taking refuge in dharma, right effort and the four right exertions. Featuring William Stafford’s poem “The Way It Is.”
02/25/2024, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. The first of the four Great Bodhisattva Vows is to “save all beings”, but what exactly does this mean and how might I engage in such an impossible endeavor? Abbot David explores the concept of “salvation” from a Zen perspective, using as a springboard an amusing koan in which Zen master Nanquan saves his disciple Zhaozhou from falling into a well.
The first of the four Great Bodhisattva Vows is to “save all beings,” but what exactly does this mean and how might I engage in such an impossible endeavor? In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, central abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman explores the concept of “salvation” from a Zen perspective, using as a springboard an amusing koan in which Zen master Nanquan saves his disciple Zhaozhou from falling into a well.
02/21/2024, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Shundo reflects on how a community based on zazen can help human flourishing and offer much-needed connection. Featuring an examination of selected sections of Eihei Dogen’s “Genjo Koan.”
02/18/2024, Sonja Gardenswarz, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zazen, a yogic practice, a word, an invitation, a posture, a pause in time, a space, a clearing between the edges of here and then. A space to breathe, to feel, to connect. What we choose to emphasize determines our lives. To be a disciple to and enact in each moment what matters is building a Seamless Monument, is living like a river flows. "To live as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a Marvelous Victory" ( Howard Zinn)
In this talk, given during the second one-day sitting of the winter 2024 practice period, Abiding Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel discusses the power and peace of not-knowing. In the Zen tradition, ‘not-knowing’ is not the same as the ignorance or delusion of everyday life. When we deeply and fully ‘don’t know’ we are more able to be at peace with things as they really are, and can see and respond to circumstances of our world as they arise and pass in each moment. This talk was recorded during the February one-day sitting, held at Unity Church, a neighbor of San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center congregation.
02/14/2024, Kim Kōgen Daihō Hart, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Kim does a deep dive into the five remembrances to support us to live the life that we are already living with all its pain and preciousness.
02/11/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Abbot Jiryu reflects on Suzuki Roshi's core teaching that Zen practice is fundamentally about "becoming yourself," and explores the strong resonance there with the Silent Illumination teaching that awakening is right there when we sit still, exactly as we are.
02/10/2024, Shogen Jody Greene, dharma talk at City Center. This talk was given at Beginner's Mind Temple by Shogen Jody Greene. While Dōgen Zenji once described 'shikantaza' (just sitting) as “the dharma gate of repose and bliss,” our teachers have also reminded us of the ways in which working with our minds on the cushion can surface irritability, judgment, even hatred. Many of us struggle with our thoughts and struggle with our selves. This talk returns to the story of Seiko and the dragon to explore the repeated arising of ideas about right and wrong, good zazen and bad zazen, false practice and true practice. The second half of the talk turns to the recent horrifying and heartbreaking events in Israel-Palestine to see what our practice has to offer those of us longing for “peace and harmony” in a world that appears to be erupting in war. What it would mean for us, individually and collectively, to ceasefire?
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Rev. Eli explores how Zen practice, particularly the precepts, can be supportive when going through major life change—especially when dealing with loss of identity, decision making, and working with an inner critic. Through personal anecdotes and philosophical reflections, the talk emphasizes the role of Zen in fostering a deeper understanding of self and existence amidst change.
02/04/2024, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Avalokiteshvara in the Avatamsaka Sutra lets us know of the powerful practice of Great Compassion to meet the great challenges of our life.
02/03/2024, Onryu Mary Stares, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Onryu Mary Stares explores the current City Center Practice Period theme of the Bodhisattva precepts, describing her personal experiences of taking refuge and encouraging this vibrant practice.
In this talk, given during the first one-day sitting of the winter 2024 practice period, Abiding Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel discusses the sources and outcomes of the many different places and ways we construct our individual ethical frameworks. This talk was recorded during the January one-day sitting, held at Unity Church, a neighbor of San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center congregation.
01/21/2024, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In the great flower adornment scripture, chapter 67, the Buddha says, “All sentient beings without exception, fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddha, and yet because of misconceptions and attachments, they do not realize it.If they would only abandon these misconceptions and attachments, they would fully realize Buddhahood.” During this talk, there was some discussion of how to compassionately relate to misconceptions and attachments in such a way that they drop away.
01/20/2024, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center. Now our community is meeting only in the single room of the Zendo. What are some teachings on Sangha transformation in a Zendo? How can we see forms of the infinite, miraculous Dharma embedded through tradition and visualization in this shared space? This lecture explores such teachings in a verbal and visual presentation.
01/17/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Shosan explores how we are practicing with the current physical changes to the temple space. This year, our urban temple is “residents out, contractors in.” Dogen Zenji once taught that Sangha Treasure appears equally in the vast openness of being or within a particle of dust; that to help people it can transform to an Ocean Storehouse or to sutras written on shells and leaves.
01/14/2024, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk by Tenshin Reb Anderson considers how to apply the Teaching of Thusness to the significant outbreak of infection and disruption in the midst of our January meditation intensive.
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple on the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, Sozan Michael McCord unpacks many life events from this historic civil rights icon and looks at how he could have had a much more comfortable life at many turns, but instead chose the path that the times were calling for. In the Buddhist path, we are met every day with many small choices that no one will every know about—whether to say something, whether to do something, to move forward or withhold—and only our internal awareness usually is privy to this information. Are we concerned with status, reputation, ego, or simply avoiding personal bother and by this not actually meeting what the moment is asking of us?
01/10/2024, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, Zachary discusses an often-used koan (teaching story): Yúnmén’s “Every day is a good day.” Zen, a Mahayana Buddhist school that theoretically eschews lists, dualities, categories of experience and other conceptual forms on the grounds that they’re empty, is nonetheless swimming in them. We’ll examine Case 6 of the Blue Cliff Record, in which Yúnmén, unquestionably one of the great Chán masters of the Táng Dynasty, employs such a device, and try to divine what he could possibly have been doing.
01/07/2024, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk is a contemplation of the Flower Adornment Scripture saying “Clearly observe the Dharma of the king of Dharma. The Dharma of the king of Dharma is thus.” Tenshin Reb Anderson is further relating this teaching to the first case in the Book of Serenity and the "Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi."
In this talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, Liên speaks about how Skillful View, in services of restoration, is about opening up to acknowledging harm and harming, (re)learning ways to be more skillful, and then enacting them. The talk also serves as an overview of the main points of Rev. Liên Shutt's new book, “Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path,” and how they can be applied to these crucial issues of our contemporary lives.
01/03/2024, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, Tova speaks of the importance of sangha as we vow to be of benefit to all beings. This first talk of 2024 is also the first recorded in the City Center zendo, as renovations to our temple building are beginning.
In light of several major transitions unfolding for SFZC and the sangha at large, including the upcoming yearlong renovation of Beginner’s Mind Temple, Abbot David offers dharma pointers for how we might relate to and navigate changes and transitions in our lives ─ both big and small, individual and collective ─ with some measure of mindfulness, clarity, composure, and equanimity. Recorded on December 16th, 2023.
12/03/2023, Chosetsu Lauren Bouyea, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Suzuki Roshi said that beginner's mind - meeting the world and ourselves just-as-it-is - is the secret of Zen practice, but there are many powerful cultural and evolutionary forces that make remembering our beginner's minds the most difficult thing.
12/02/2023, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center. This talk from Beginner's Mind Temple addresses the aspect of philosophy in the practice and study of Buddhism, based on the fourth - contemplation of the dharmas - of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. One of the qualities of philosophy and practice not usually explicitly referred to is poignancy, which includes the pathos of human nature and a realization of the unresolvability of the human condition.
11/26/2023, Furyu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In times of trouble, may the gracious teachings of the gentle Buddhas aid us in healing ourselves and the world.
This talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, was given by City Center tanto (head of practice) Tim Wicks. Virya Paramita is often translated as "joyful" or "enthusiastic" energy. Working with the shadow side of energy — depression and low self-esteem — can also be a fruitful practice. Recorded on Nov. 25, 2023.
This talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, was given by senior dharma teacher Ryushin Paul Haller. This talk was based on a Thanksgiving message from Brother David Steindl-Rast and examines how to sustain gratitude and be uplifted in the face of the difficulties and “bad news” of our lives. In dyads, attendees of the talk discussed the question: “What does it take for you to meet and be uplifted while acknowledging the bad news of life?” Recorded on Nov. 22, 2023.
11/19/2023, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. The one practice for every moment of our life is just to welcome and care for whatever is right here - why do we forget that so easily, and how can we train in staying with that?
In this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, Greg Fain discusses how the new book “Home Is Here” by Rev. Keiryu Liên Shutt has influenced his practice, and the vital necessity of metta (loving kindness) practice. Recorded on Nov. 18, 2023.
This talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, was given by senior dharma teacher Ryushin Paul Haller. Practicing with the Paramitas brings initially asks us to see the dualistic perspectives of the absence of the virtues of the Paramitas and to practice remedy that lacking. As we bring our lives into alignment with the Paramitas, we start to see how “perfection” and imperfection” are both merely aspects of discriminating mind. Recorded on Nov. 8, 2023.
11/05/2023, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. After finishing 11 days on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Linda brings up the koan, Case 20 in the Book of Serenity, "Not Knowing is Most Intimate," which brings up the practice of pilgrimage.
This talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, was given by senior dharma teacher Ryushin Paul Haller. As we witness the war in the Middle East and the suffering it creates, it's challenging not to get caught in choosing which side has virtue and which is the aggressor. Practicing with the Paramitas of Mutual Benefit, Ethical Conduct and Patience can help us acknowledge the humanitarian tragedy of war that ravages everyone involved. Recorded on Nov. 4, 2023.
10/29/2023, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. During this talk it was suggested that all Buddha ancestors who uphold the true Dharma have made it the true path of awakening to sit upright, practicing our individual samadhis in the midst of, in the presence of, the universal samadhi of all Buddha ancestors.
In this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, Shosan Victoria Austin discusses working skillfully with anger. Many ancient texts mention anger as an unwholesome emotion that undercuts or destroys our relationships and our true intention. However, we can practice using anger in wholesome ways, as an internal warning system for unmet needs, violated boundaries, and withheld respect. Developing skill with the energy of anger, we drop harmful habits of perception and action to cultivate appropriate response in ways that give life, embodying generosity, morality, tolerance and wise effort. Recorded on Oct. 28, 2023.
In this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, Ryushin Paul Haller discusses how the practice of fully engaging body and mind is expressed through attention to posture and awareness in sitting zazen and wholeheartedness in the activities of daily life. Dogen zenji points out in Genjo Koan that there is a potential for a one-sided approach. When we bring that sensibility to the paramita of Sila, we can see how expressing Sila as virtue and ethics calls for the inquiry of appropriate response. That is, to keep in mind Suzuki roshi’s phrase “maybe so". Recorded on Oct. 25, 2023.
10/22/2023, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. For those who have vowed to "do all good" and "avoid all evil," Zen offers a compassionate but counter-intuitive teaching, equally relevant to meditation and to the ethics of daily living: "do not think good or evil," but include absolutely everything.
In this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, Marc Lesser discusses the conundrum of clarity. If you seek for clarity, you cannot find it. Clarity itself is necessary before you can acquire or find clarity. Recorded on Oct. 21, 2023.
In this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, given by Ryushin Paul Haller, two different circumstances are described to illustrate how the teachings of the Genjo Koan can guide how to practice with challenging events. The first event is working with persistent thoughts in zazen, and the second is working with interactions that arouse distress and frustration. Recorded on Oct. 18, 2023.
10/15/2023, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Kokyo discusses Case 16 in the Gateless Barrier koan collection: The world is so vast and wide - why do you always put on the robe at the sound of the bell?...When in the heard there is just the heard, there is no "you" in relation to that.
08/27/2023, angel Kyodo williams, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Rev. angel Kyodo williams concludes a three-day retreat with this Dharma talk remiding us that past and future are contained in Now. We must Just Return.
08/23/2023, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center. The most striking feature of the famous Koan recorded as Case 1 of the Blue Cliff Record and entitled, in Cleary’s translation, as “The Highest Meaning of the Holy Truths” is what a philosophical set piece it is. The Emperor and the Wandering Monk act flawlessly as the voices of two philosophical and experiential qualities that are at the foundation of Mahayana Buddhism. Hmmm… how did that happen? Is this mythology or history? In either case, it’s a great story.
08/20/2023, Fu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Senior Dharma Teacher Fu Schroeder concludes a 3-day sesshin with a review of the ten ox-herding frames and how they relate to our life.
08/13/2023, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Senior Dharma Teacher Tenshin Reb Anderson illuminates Zen and why we sit. We are conversation; we are always in conversation.
08/06/2023, Zenki Mary Mocine, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. I confess my hatred and ask about the fears underlying it. How do I work with this fear so as to respond from a generous place?
07/30/2023, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Jiryu encourages the practice of “Silent Illumination” from the Song Dynasty Chinese Chan teachings that the SFZC Soto Zen style of practice emerges from.
07/23/2023, Ango Sara Tashker, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. An exploration of gratitude and the precept of not killing life - what does it mean?
07/16/2023, Furyu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. A discussion of Dogen Zenji’s instructions to the Head Cook with examples from our own kitchen practice here at San Francisco Zen Center.
In this dharma talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, Shosan Victoria Austin asks: How do we approach barriers and obstacles to meditation, to invite steadiness and comfort in these times? How do we serve our varied abilities and needs to establish a life of peaceful, harmonious practice?
07/12/2023, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. In this dharma talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman shares the heartbreaking yet ultimately inspiring story of Patacara, one of Buddhism's first female ancestors, to illustrate how we might maintain our compassion, resilience, and presence of mind as we navigate times of great loss and suffering.
07/09/2023, Dojin Sarah Emerson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Ritual is a way to heal ourselves, each other, and the earth.
07/02/2023, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Three barriers to pass through, from Case 47 in the Gateless Barrier koan collection: where is your buddha-nature right now, how can you be free of birth and death when dying, and where do you go after death?
Shundo David Haye, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, discusses a story between the Third and Fourth Ancestors in China, and offers ways to be free to meet the present moment without being caught up in our karmic conditioning.
06/25/2023, Furyu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk is about radical kindness and warm hearted candor, freed from malice of any kind. Inspired by the conjoining of Zen and Quaker values.
06/18/2023, Wendy Johnson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this time of climate challenge and unrest, the engaged practice of Dharma and Ecology offers a grounded response.
06/17/2024, Keiryu Liên Shutt and Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center. Keiryu Liên Shutt and Jisan Tova Green, in this shared dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, investigate what jukai (also known as lay ordination, Bodhisattva initiation, or receiving the precepts) is about.
06/14/2023, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center. Sozan Michael McCord, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, explores what freedom means, and asks whether we really know that we are free.
06/11/2023, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Jiryu shares teachings on continuously welcoming our problems as our practice, by exploring Suzuki Roshi’s comment that “if your everyday life is not based on this kind of spirit of repeating it forever, you cannot cope with the problems you will have day after day.”
06/10/2023, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center. Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, considers liberation from the humanist perspective as a poignant, balanced understanding and perception of the world and the human condition. Freedom is characterized by sacrifice in a sense of purpose, dedication, and joy, and grounded in morality, understanding, and communication.
06/04/2023, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. The Avatamsaka Sutra says that everyone without exception is endowed with the wisdom and virtue of the Buddhas, however because of of delusion and attachments they do not realize it. The practice of bowing where self and other are not two embodies this teaching.
05/28/2023, Thiemo Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Exploring our habitual concepts of time in relation to science and Dogen's fascicle "Time being."
05/27/2023, Chimyo Atkinson, dharma talk at City Center. Chimyo Atkinson, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, explores the nature of our delusions, and how to apply Buddhist teachings and work skillfully with delusion, using stories from her own life and stories of the Zen ancestors.
05/24/2023, Chimyo Atkinson, dharma talk at City Center. Chimyo Atkinson, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, discusses impermanence, interbeing, interdependence and finding joy, using stories from her time in Japan. Featuring a poem by Zen ancestor Keizan Jokin.
05/20/2023, Chimyo Atkinson, dharma talk at City Center. Chimyo Atkinson, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, uses Dogen’s “Instructions to the Cook” (Tenzo Kyokun) and her own work experience to frame a discussion of work, compassion and the path of practice in our modern world.
05/17/2023, Chimyo Atkinson, dharma talk at City Center. Chimyo Atkinson, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, explores renunciation and the intersection of monastic practice and everyday life, using a selection from Dogen's Shobogenzo Zuimonki and the story of her own ordination and path of practice.
05/14/2023, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this Dharma talk, Jiryu uses the seventh century Chinese Buddhist ancestor Fazang’s analogy of “the golden lion” to encourage our practice of finding and fully expressing our true nature, through the Zen forms and in every moment of our life just as it is.
05/10/2023, Chimyo Atkinson, dharma talk at City Center. Chimyo Atkinson, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, explores her personal experience of emptiness, the theme of the May practice intensive.
05/06/2023, Grace Dammann, dharma talk at City Center. Grace Damman, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, discusses how the Noble Eightfold Path and Buddhist practice have supported her through grave injury, the healing process and living with profound disability.
04/30/2023, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Jiryu explores the fundamental Zen practice of "total exertion" or "burning completely up" in every activity, a practice of living fully in each moment, marshaling the whole body, mind, breath, and heart to fully engage in the universal activity of life.
04/29/2023, Ben Connelly, dharma talk at City Center. Ben Connelly, in this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, teaches about the three natures that were expounded by Vasubandu. The three natures provide a framework to explore the reality, unreality and non-dual nature of our existence.
04/26/2023, Heather Shoren Iarusso, dharma talk at City Center. Heather Shoren Iarusso, in this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, examines aversion, one of the mental afflictions the Buddha calls The Five Hindrances, which hinder our ability to experience calm and insight on and off the meditation cushion. By turning toward these uncomfortable feelings, we slowly become less reactive and more spacious. This frees the heart to be compassionate and receptive.
04/23/2023, Hozan Alan Senauke, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Hozan's reflections on his experience of Sojun Roshi's presence and teachings over nearly forty years.
04/22/2023, Doshin Mako Voelkel, dharma talk at City Center. Abiding Abbot Doshin Mako Voelkel, in this Earth Day talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, examines how Zen practice encourages and supports continuous care for our natural environment.
04/19/2023, Kodo Conlin, dharma talk at City Center. Kodo Conlin, in this dharma talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, explores images, tales, and inspiration to celebrate our Zen practice as a path that reshapes our lives and opens our hearts. Appearances by Basho and Ram Dass.
04/16/2023, Furyu Nancy Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Using the koan called Rhinoceros Fan, this talk focuses on fear and how powerfully it keeps us from leaving the nests of our habitual views.
04/15/2023, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center. Anshi Zachary Smith, in this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, explores Buddhism's program of introspective self-study framed by avowal and vow as an antidote to the Human Condition. Over time, this program has clearly demonstrated its efficacy and transformative power as well as a number of ways that it can go astray.
04/12/2023, Henzan Roger Hillyard, dharma talk at City Center. Roger Hillyard explores accepting and practicing with darkness, in this dharma talk from Beginner's Mind Temple.
02/04/2023, Grace Dammann, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Covid and the Eightfold Path; what can they teach each other?
03/26/2023, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk explores "Yusan Gansui," a Zen term for an easeful, open way of "strolling through the mountains" of life, indicating a way of being that is not stuck to any feeling but that is open to any feeling, and a way that does not just express joy and freedom for oneself, but also serves as a gateway to real compassion and presence with great suffering inside or outside.
03/25/2023, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center. The theme of this practice period is Dogen's "To study the Buddha Way is to study the self." This is followed in Genjokoan by "When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away." ... In one sense, women's history is a history of gender definitions.
03/19/2023, Fu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Dogen Zenji’s great awakening took place on hearing his teacher Rujing scold a student for sleeping during zazen saying, “Zen study is the dropping of body and mind.”
03/05/2023, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Case 12 in the Gateless Barrier: Every day Ruiyan called out to himself "Master!" and answered himself "Yes!" Then he would say to himself "Be aware!" and reply "Yes!" "Don't be deceived by others!" "Yes, yes!"... Big mind, the host, experiences everything within itself, so there really are no others.
02/26/2023, Shoho Kuebast, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Contemplating the teachings of buddha-nature as taught in Maitreya's Uttaratantra Shastra.
02/25/2023, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. How does mindfulness of breathing help untangle our experience of the self and the world? Guided meditations and commentary based on ancient words of the Buddha, Prajnatara, and Bodhidharma; on contemporary teachings from Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and on personal study with Tenshin Reb Anderson and Sojun Mel Weitsman.
02/19/2023, Rinso Ed Sattizahn, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Dogen Zenji said, “Breathing in or breathing out, after all, what is it?” No one can tell what it is.
02/12/2023, Fu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Knowing the grief and despair that humans suffer in their lifetimes, the Buddha offered teachings to lessen the impact of those losses through practices based in compassion and wisdom. By coming to a greater understanding of the causes of suffering -namely desire and ignorance - the Buddha showed us the same pathway to freedom that he had found.
02/11/2023, Onryu Mary Stares, dharma talk at City Center. In a culture where we are going faster and faster, this talk gives one permission and encouragement to slow down and reflect.
02/05/2023, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch. In this talk, Jiryu raises the line chanted before Zen lectures, "I vow to taste the truth of Tathagata's words," and reflects on what it could mean for us not just to listen to formal talks with this heart, but to live our whole life in every moment in this way, looking deeply for the element of truth and beauty and liberative teaching in each thing that arises.
01/18/2023, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center. Living life like we have infinite social capital, like a generous benefactor to all those around us, allows a great freedom of spirit. When we realize that promoting and worrying about the self is a small minded path that leads to suffering, we start to see our interconnectedness - that none of us win until we all win. The precept of "not praising self at the expense of others", goes to the heart of the bodhisattva vow - to be invested in the lives of others and taking great care with how we speak, act and promote ourselves and others. And ultimately, the life choices that it leads us to make. A reputation is a result, not a goal, in life. The goal is to live for the benefit of all beings and through the honesty of that lens, learning how to live a fearless life with generosity of spirit for others.
1/15/2023, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Afflictions are inexhaustible, we vow to cut through without ending them; the bodhisattva's mind is afflictions entangled with afflictions.
01/08/2023, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Intimate transmission, the one who is not busy, and taking care of brooms and other tools.
12/18/2022, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Exploring practices that can support us in meeting the manifold challenges of this time in history, in life-affirming and supporting ways.
12/17/2022, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center. Many of our teachings and talks address both freedom or liberation and the agony of existence or suffering.
12/11/2022, Sonja Gardenswartz, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Our zazen sitting builds a foundation upon which we make contact with what is important to us, you become the gift. Not searching outside ourselves for what matters but to go in and settle, drop in to the body is to be more permeable to what is whispering in us, to recognize what is going on in our own mind. Such is each moment, each thought incorporating the forms of spring. Although we can say we don’t know what zazen is, sitting absolutely still and present can just make it clear where you are. “We say to shine one corner-that is enough. Not the whole world. Just make it clear where you are.” (Suzuki Roshi)
11/13/2022, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Reflections on the importance of rest and relaxation to wholeheartedly express our practice life.
11/12/2022, Rinso Ed Sattizahn, dharma talk at City Center. Continuing the practice period study of koans from the Blue Cliff Record and Suzuki Roshi's commentaries on them.
11/09/2022, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. As part of the exploration of koans from the Blue Cliff Record, Abbot David unpacks Case 75, “Wu Chiu's Unjust Beating.” He considers what is it to receive the unjust “blows” of life and not make them personal, to not harbor anger and resentment, and to not make a self out of them. How might we learn to transform unfair experiences in such a way that they can become opportunities for liberating insight?
11/06/2022, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. An exploration of compassion for self and others.
10/30/2022, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Different types compassion as taught by Shakyamuni Buddha, Vasubandhu, Maitreya, Chandrakirti, and Zen Ancestors Yunyan and Daowu
10/26/2022, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. As part of the exploration of koans from the Blue Cliff Record, Abbot David unpacks Case 3, “Master Ma is Unwell”. In the midst of life’s vicissitudes ─ whether we're encountering health or sickness, joy or sorrow, birth or death ─ how might we find stability and composure? Using the incredible story of the rescue of 13 Thai boys trapped in a cave, he also invites us to consider the bodhisattvic effort and fearlessness required to enter the dark cave of our karmic consciousness.
10/23/2022, Sokaku Kathie Fischer, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Kathie Fischer discusses Hongzhi's 12th century teaching of silent illumination and how it can inform our practice in these times.
10/22/2022, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center. As leaves fall and nights are longer, we turn from autumn towards winter. This is a tender, transitional time for many of us. We may be more in touch with loss, grief, and death. In this talk, Tova shares her own journey toward facing death and dying as a hospice volunteer and social worker, some questions she has about death, and her recent experiences of being with two people who were dying.
10/16/2022, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Paying homage, praising, and making offerings to great compassion with all our actions of body, speech, and mind.
10/15/2022, Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道, dharma talk at City Center. What is your original face? Exploring Case 23 of Wumenguan (The Gateless Barrier).
10/09/2022,Thiemo Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. The teachings of interdependence, emptiness and dependent arising in Mahayana Buddhism, explained with the help of a cut out paper bunny.
10/08/2022, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. Abbot David unpacks Case 19 of the Blue Cliff Record, including the circumstances leading up to Gutei's teaching of "one-finger Zen", the practice of cutting off complications, and the poignant image of blind turtles seeking sunlight in dark waters.
10/05/2022, Rinso Ed Sattizahn and Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. In the first dharma talk of the Fall practice period, Abbots Ed and David provide an introduction to 'encounter dialogues' and the venerable koan collection of The Blue Cliff Record, including the enlightenment stories of its primary authors, Xuedou and Yuanwu.
10/01/2022. Marcia Lieberman, dharma talk at City Center. Three main questions posed by Lieberman: How to behave; what to wear; how to travel— answered with stories, poetry, and the words of Dogen, Suzuki Roshi, and Utpalavarna.
09/25/2022, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Kokyo Henkel brings up the relative and ultimate aspects of the ground of reality, that which obscures it, the path of practice to see through the obscurations, and the fruition of practice - and case 21 of the Book of Serenity: Yunyan Sweeps the Ground.
09/18/2022, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zazen can be a portal to opening the mind that perceives all things, even the trouble we are experiencing in the world today. The poet Rumi wrote, "I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I've been knocking from the inside." Can sitting meditation open our personal and collective minds in a way that deals with chaos? Can the mudra of our hands act as an antenna to receive all that is happening in the world and perceive it from a place of liberation?
09/10/2022, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center. Our Zen practice gives us the context and tools to be with and meet the moments in our life, honing our gut as to whether to tighten or release, to act or wait. And the HOW of that learning comes from the many teachers around us. And if we can become aware of what we are learning and seek out those who may be able to demonstrate a way to walk paths we are unable to traverse, it gives us the experience of what a tuned note even sounds like. And then, we start to let our own expression unfold in how to navigate more skillfully.
09/14/2022, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center. Drawing on the teachings of Suzuki Roshi and Dogen, Shundo reflects on the history of City Center and how to move forward with our practice in uncertain times.
09/07/2022, Roger Hillyard, dharma talk at City Center. Using the hindrance of Remorse and the paramita of Generosity.
09/03/2022, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at City Center. Reflections on the importance of the central practice of confession and repentance with stories of our ancestors.
08/31/2022, Kogen Kim Hart, dharma talk at City Center. Kim present a lively discourse on the nature of time and what has been revealed to her on the subject over her 30 years practising in the Soto Zen tradition.
08/28/2022, Wendy Johnson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Wendy reflects on the Dharma of farming and shares principles by which to practice.
08/27/2022, Zesho Susan O'Connell, dharma talk at City Center. Practice is more than following the breath, and happens inside and outside the zendo. This talk investigates qualities of practice that are possible and that help us be more available to help others skillfully.
08/21/2022, Jisan Anna Thorn, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. A reflection on how we can embrace the complexities and contradictions of life in practicing embodiment in ritual.
08/20/2022, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center. In Genjokoan, Dogen further investigates the teaching of The Heart Sutra, especially the dialectical relationship between the relative and the absolute in the context of emptiness. This inquiry is related to how we live in practice-realization.
08/17/2022, Florence Caplow, dharma talk at City Center. In our tradition, sickness and pain are honored as messengers. But what does it mean for us when these messengers come to our own lives? How do we meet them? How do we dance with them?
08/14/2022, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. A talk on Suzuki Roshi's statement that, while the essential truth of Buddhism is most directly reached by zazen practice, there are two teachings that characterize Mahayana Buddhism: "the absolute character of all phenomena and the possibility for ordinary people to attain Buddhahood."
08/13/2022, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. Abbot David unpacks the Zen story "Nanyue Polishes a Tile", touching upon several of the koan's key meditation and practice instructions, including the understanding that zazen is the practice of being a buddha without seeking to become a buddha.
08/10/2022, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, dharma talk at City Center. Stillness and silence is to return home in the midst of chaos in the world. In this way we are learning to trust our practice or explore ways in which it can address the changes and upheavals of the outer world.
08/06/2022, Venerable Thich Nu Thuan Tue, dharma talk at City Center. To unlock your happiness you must first hold the key in your own hand. It means to be a master of your own mind by ways of self-reflecting and meditation. A person who radiates happiness from within is capable of sending that happy energy to other people and the surrounding area. Mentioned here are a couple ways of starting your own journey to your happiness, realizing your true nature. Be the key holder, be the master of your own happiness.
08/03/2022, Chikudo Catherine Spaeth, dharma talk at City Center. What is the role of inquiry in our practice? Inquiry has many different functions and is an expression of how we relate to the world. It is essential to our Zen practice. How does inquiry bring us closer to Buddha Nature, and how is it an expression of it?
07/24/2022, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Senior Dharma Teacher Eijun Cutts takes up Case 5 of the Book of Serenity to uncover the call for confession and repentance—formal, formless, and of true reality.
07/23/2022, Keiryu Liên Shutt, dharma talk at City Center. Guidance from the teachings on how we can stay connected and be supportive to and with each other during these times.
07/17/2022, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Jiryu reflects on a teaching in the Diamond Sutra that one moment of insight into emptiness is more meritorious than the greatest of material gifts.
07/16/2022, Judith Ragir, dharma talk at City Center. This is a talk on the book Untangling Karma. It is one woman Zen teacher's approach to trauma that integrates deep spirituality with directly facing your pain. This talk circles around unraveling our karma by deeply entering our narrative and finding the root cause of our conditioning.
07/13/2022, Kodo Conlin, dharma talk at City Center. Reflections from the City Center Buddha Hall on Suzuki Roshi's teaching of "Inmost Request," a pointing to both one's basic intention and the realization of awakening. With clarified vision and a nourished heart, our whole life can be filled with vitality.
06/26/2022, Yuki Kobiyama, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Recalling recent tragic events from Ukraine to Buffalo to Laguna Woods to Uvalde, and reflecting on the deep heart break, violence, hatred, and ignorance in our world, Rev. Kobiyama discusses how our daily practice and Buddhist teachings relate to human suffering and psychological trauma, while sharing her story about investigating her own self which has been shaped by two different cultures and a specific historical period of time over generations of war and conflict.
06/19/2022, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. On the day of the funeral ceremony for Sojun Mel Weitsman Roshi, Senior Dharma Teacher Norman Fischer offers a tribute and shares words from Sojun's writing.
06/15/2022, Jisan Anna Thorn, dharma talk at City Center. The new Tanto's Way Seeking Mind Talk - returning to City Center and a different world.
06/12/2022, Furyu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbess Fu Schroeder talks about addressing conflict through the wisdom of the ancient teachings of the Buddha and the modern-day wisdom of the Harvard Negotiation Project.
06/08/2022, Henzan Roger Hillyard, dharma talk at City Center. Seeking our Master far and wide is remembering our Buddha Nature
06/05/2022, Sokaku Kathie Fischer, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Our practice is simple and immense, returning over and over to just this, inhaling the earth's atmosphere, exhaling falling into the earth, meeting each other and each moment with respect.
05/28/2022, Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. Is the world full of pain, brutality and violence, or brimming with beauty, courage and generosity? This talk explores the deepening of faith as love, and shares stories from Layman Pang, his wife, and his daughter Ling Zhao.
05/25/2022, Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. This talk shares stories from Layman Pang and his daughter Ling Zhao, and considers how to respond to the cries of the world.
05/22/2022, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this dharma talk, Senior Dharma Teacher Norman Fischer tells stories about his time living at Green Gulch in the mid-1980's, and reflects about the past and present moments, and how real or unreal they are.
05/18/2022, Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. Here we consider the judging mind—whose aim is to keep us tight, small, bound—and share teachings and myths that point us toward how to engage with this persistent, psychic force with steadiness and skill.
05/15/2022, Horin Nancy Petrin, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. A consideration of the importance of kindness, care and a tender heart in taking up our Bodhisattva Vows, inspired by a talk given by Suzuki Roshi to the students at Tassajara in 1971.
05/14/2022, Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. This talk shares stories of our ancestors—Bodhidharma, Huike and Sengcan—and shows how the freedom we discover in practice is beyond what we seek or expect.
05/11/2022, Pamela Weiss, dharma talk at City Center. Breathing in inspiration, breathing out aspiration, this talk explores how living by vow reveals the true mind and body of faith.
05/08/2022, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. A tribute— with origin stories— to Green Dragon Temple - Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary.
05/04/2022, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center. A personal and intimate reflection from Sr. Dharma Teacher Paul Haller, upon his return from caretaking for his daughter, on sickness, old age and death and the tenderness and heartbreak of being human when facing the mortality of a loved one.
05/01/2022, Furyu Nancy Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Finding peace in this suffering world for the sake of all beings.
04/30/2022, Kanshin Ruth Ozeki, dharma talk at City Center. Rev. Kanshin Ruth Ozeki, novelist and Zen priest ordained by Zoketsu Norman Fischer, talks about the Buddhist foundations of her new novel The Book of Form and Emptiness, and the interplay between spiritual and creative practice.
04/23/2022, Keiryu Liên Shutt, dharma talk at City Center. An examination of the precepts as a container for self-study, as an awareness practice, and as an enactment of Buddha Nature.
04/20/2022, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center. The Heart Sutra teaches emptiness as a context for understanding Buddhist teaching as not static or rigid, but ever-evolving. The connection between the teachings and changing circumstances includes a necessary emotional adjustment.
04/17/2022, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Suzuki Roshi had an unusual perspective on the practice of the Bodhisattva's ethical precepts. He emphasized zazen mind over rule-following, and saw precepts not as a mental moral code but as encouragements to touch and act from our innate loving and connected heart.
04/16/2022, Ryuko Laura Burges, dharma talk at City Center. "Rather than taking on the enormity of the suffering world, Suzuki Roshi suggested that we choose something and give ourselves to it wholeheartedly."
04/13/2022, Marcia Lieberman, dharma talk at City Center. Using the examples of Dogen, Suzuki Roshi, Hakuin, and Nun Abutsu, Marcia describes how koans, sutras, letters, and the notion of “only a Buddha together with a Buddha” permeates and informs everyday practice.
The Fourteen Precepts of the Order of Interbeing were first written and transmitted by Vietnamese Zen Master and poet, Thich Nhat Hanh, in 1964; this Dharma talk celebrates the ongoing engaged Buddhist tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh who died this January, 2022, after living in vow as a zen monk for more than 80 years. 04/10/2022, Wendy Johnson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
And exploration of the thread that runs though Buddha's life and all those trying to live like the Buddha. 04/09/2022, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center.
A talk focusing on how the Wheel of Nourishment supports the turning of the Wheel of Dharma. 04/06/2022, Sozan Miglioli, dharma talk at City Center.
What does it mean to practice in a time of war and pandemic? Using a couple of traditional texts, Shundo suggests ways that we can ground our practice in whatever conditions we find ourselves in. 04/02/2022, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center.
Senior Dharma Teacher Eijun Cutts shares and reflects on teachings from Shakyamuni Buddha, Bodhidharma, Dōgen Zenji, and Suzuki Roshi that the key to practice is "no gaining idea." 03/20/2022, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
The fundamental teaching of taking refuge. Repeatedly taking reguge, through the day with formal practice in zazen, in liturgy, in chanting, through stitching robes, daily refuges, in pali and through the effort of opening our hearts to those who we see as "other." 03/19/2022, Myogan Djinn Gallagher, dharma talk at City Center.
Abbot Ed Sattizahn uses Suzuki Roshi teachings to reflect on "to study the buddha way is to study the self." 03/13/2022, Rinso Ed Sattizahn, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
On the 49th day of Thich Nhat Hanh's passing, Peggy Ward, senior Dharma teacher in his Buddhist Plum Village tradition, reflects on vow and the refuges. 03/12/2022, Peggy Rowe Ward, dharma talk at City Center.
An exploration of living in an impermanent world, focusing on the situation in Ukraine. How do we take refuge in an imperfect world? 03/09/2022, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center.
Abbess Fu Schroeder reflects on the deep sorrow underlying our anger at the long history of violence in the human world, and on how we might arouse an appropriate response based on our vow to live for the welfare of all beings. 03/06/2022, Furyu Nancy Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
By engaging and practicing the Paramitas we turn our exploration of refuge outward. Including all beings. 03/05/2022, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at City Center.
Exploring the possiblity of transformation and creating a Sangha of Belonging by giving ourselves over to each other. 03/02/2022, Horin Nancy Petrin, dharma talk at City Center.
Impermanence happens, yes, but how do we actually make change happen? 02/26/2022, Mushim Patricia Ikeda, dharma talk at City Center.
A core teaching of the Lotus Sutra that can powerfully meet us. 02/20/2022, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
On the day of the one-day sitting, a talk on Refuge in the form of formal practice, zazen - stimulating what we already are. 02/19/2022, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center.
Appreciation as a practice of refuge. 02/16/2022, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at City Center.
What is “continuous practice,” all day long, and with each and every thing? 02/13/2022, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Examining Dogen's famous phrase, "To study the self is to forget the self." 02/12/2022, Rinso Ed Sattizahn, dharma talk at City Center.
Buddha's teaching on refuge and entering freedom through the refuge of coming home. 02/09/2022, Gil Fronsdal, dharma talk at City Center.
A talk about the Bodhisattva’s vow - to live for the benefit of others - as exemplified by the world's greatest chef, Massimo Bottura. 02/06/2022, Furyu Nancy Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
On the day of the celebration of Bodhidharma's Awakening a talk on the mind as fiction. 02/05/2022, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center.
An exploration of how engaging every moment, every place, every activity can become refuge. 01/29/2022, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at City Center.
Opening talk to the Winter 2022 Practice Period at Hosshin-ji Beginners Temple (City Center). 01/26/2022, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center.
A dharma talk on the day of a jukai ceremony, exploring vow and the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. 01/22/2022, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, Jisan Tova Green, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center.
An exploration of the Buddhist practice of cutting through the delusion of our disconnectedness highlighting Dr. Martin Luther King and Eihei Dogen's teaching of Uji (Time Being) 01/15/2022, Chimyo Atkinson, dharma talk at City Center.
Guided by the great Mahāyāna teachings of Prajñāpāramitā our Zen training asks us to join with all beings and follow the investigation of our karmic responsibilities from even the distant past to where we practice today without preference for where it may lead. 01/12/2022, Gengyoko Tim Wicks, dharma talk at City Center.
A rhapsody by Tenshin Roshi on a theme provided by our great ancestor Eihei Dogen. 01/09/2022, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Transforming: one season to another. Practicing and transforming through difficult times. 01/08/2022, Gendo Lucy Xiao, dharma talk at City Center.
As we enter the third year of the pandemic, reflecting on how our practice, and the legacy of Suzuki Roshi, can help us to keep moving forward. 01/05/2022, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center.
Recommendations for practice. 12/22/2021, Rinso Ed Sattizahn, dharma talk at City Center.
A talk about some of Suzuki Roshi’s teachings on the Sixteen Great Bodhisattva Precepts. 12/19/2021, Ango Sara Tashker, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
An exploration of impermanence through literature and poetry, focusing on the words of poet Jane Hirshfield, "Everything changes, everything is connected, pay attention." As well as Ruth Ozeki's teachings from The Book of Emptiness, as well as others. 12/18/2021, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center.
How Zen practice supports us in having an ongoing relationship to the past and all the ways we are conditioned; and to move upright through the Dharma gates of our individual and collective delusions. 12/12/2021, Dojin Sarah Emerson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Needs can be basic. They can also arise from values. What happens when needs are born from karma? 12/11/2021, Sozan Miglioli, dharma talk at City Center.
There are various New Year's traditions that involve reflection on how each person lives their life. One fascinating example from the history of the U.S. of how a person lived is that of Kit Carson, a trapper, guide, courier, and interpreter (fluent in Spanish and several Native American languages) who was born in the early 19th century in Missouri. 12/08/2021, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center.
A talk on Shakyamuni's Buddha's karmic journey. 04/12/2021, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center.
Rev. Kobiyama of Green Dragon Temple, a Japanese, female-embodied Zen priest who encountered Zen in the West, speaks on the question of "What Is Zen?" and tries to navigate through the crashing waves of two cultures and traditions while knowing it is impossible to really define either. 11/28/2021, Yuki Kobiyama, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Everything that we do is karma but with foundations in our precepts our karma becomes Dharma. 11/27/2021, Jose Shinzan Palma, dharma talk at City Center.
Drawing on her own experience and the teachings of Suzuki Roshi, Senior Dharma Teacher Eijun Linda Cutts reflects on the mind of a bodhisattva and the practice of helping self and other. 11/21/2021, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
In the context of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, Kaira Jewel Lingo explores the Buddhist teaching of "the perceiver and the perceived." Getting close to life, ourselves and each other through the practice of the intimacy of Dharma to see what is being left out. To see ourselves in others and to see others in ourselves. 11/20/2021, Kaira Jewel Lingo, dharma talk at City Center.
An exploration of our collective karma. Where our shared mindsets and behaviors intersect and ultimately affect the entire world, including our collective well-being and inevitably our shared liberation. 11/17/2021, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center.
Using Suzuki Roshi's teaching, some reflections on the practice of "listening to your inner voice." 11/14/2021, Steve Weintraub, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
A talk exploring the healing of dehumanization that comes with naming, remembering and reparation in Buddhist tradition. 11/13/2021, Duncan Ryuken Williams, dharma talk at City Center
This talk is about the source and the many forms of the Bodhisattva Vow, that vow to devote ourselves to the welfare of others which is the heart of our community life. 11/07/2021, Furyu Nancy Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
How it is that our fundamental human affliction ─ our everyday messy karmic consciousness ─ is none other than the unchanging, ever-present clear, and luminous knowledge of Buddhas? Abbot David explores this inquiry through an exploration of Case 37 of the Book of Serenity, "Guishan's Karmic Consciousness". 11/06/2021, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center.
The Avatamsaka Sutra tells us that “Ordinary beings live according to their karma, being their karmic habitual tendencies, while a bodhisattva lives according to vow.” How might we understand this teaching? How can we learn to transform our karma ─ and our lives ─ through the power of vow? 11/03/2021, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center.
Scholar, author, priest and social activist Duncan Ryuken Williams teaches in the talk on the text Sandokai, situating it in its context among Buddhist teachings on shifting vantage points, and correlates the wisdom of this ancient Zen text with the present concerns for racial reparations, justice, and healing. 10/31/2021, Duncan Ryuken Williams, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
A history of Sejiki Cermony, feeding of the hungry ghost. An open-hearted wish to welcome all beings without discrimination. 10/30/2021, Doshin Mako Voelkel, dharma talk at City Center.
Continuing the conversation on the harmony of absolute and relative truths, this talks suggests that we zazen is a good place to focus on the inconceivable reality, to discover, as Suzuki Roshi says, "who we are and what things are in their true sense." 10/24/2021, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
A talk exploring how the study the self is an opportunity to understand and heal our individual and collective karma. 10/23/2021, Horin Nancy Petrin, dharma talk at City Center.
Abbot David shares some approaches for how we might view karma in relation to the concepts of choice, free will, and determinism from a Buddhist orientation. 10/20/2021, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center.
This talk is based on Suzuki roshi’s lectures (from the book Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness) on Zen Master Shitou’s poem about the relationship between the ultimate truth and the relative truth, The Harmony of Difference and Equality. 10/17/2021, Furyu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
A Dharma talk exploring the themes of karma, love, power and control and the Dharma practices of non-attaching or letting go. 10/16/2021, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.
What are reactivity and responsiveness? How do they work in terms of inner process, impact and relational practice? 10/10/2021, Korin Charlie Pokorny, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
To study Buddhism is a process of being taken apart and put back together again; this includes karma and atonement. 10/09/2021, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center.
An exploration of clinging, attachment, selfing, karma and liberation through the metaphor of eddies.
10/06/2021, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center.
Senior Dharma Teacher Eijun Cutts reflects on a familiar yet upside-down way of understanding the practice of the precepts, and explores the teaching of Kanno Doko, Calling and Responding.
10/03/2021, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
The study of karma, and the importance of practicing zazen and non-doing for the study of self/the study of karma.
10/02/2021, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center.
A talk by Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman to open the practice period, which will focus on karma. 09/29/2021, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center.
In the talk, Abbot Ed Sattizahn uses the "Every Day is a Good Day" koan, and Suzuki's Roshi's teaching, to explore how it may be genuinely beneficial, to ourselves and others, to appreciate our life beyond the "good" and "bad" of it. 09/26/2021, Rinso Ed Sattizahn, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
The importance of unwiring ourselves and developing deep self-care in order to take up the great vow of liberation for ourselves and all beings. 09/25/2021, Dr. Larry Ward, Peggy Rowe Ward, dharma talk at City Center.
A talk about our Zen’s Chinese ancestors based in Suzuki Roshi’s teaching on Sekito Kisen’s Harmony of Difference and Equality. 09/19/2021, Furyu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
The ancient foundation of the breath, creating an environment for a skillful response. 09/18/2021, Myogan Djinn Gallagher, dharma talk at City Center.
The buddhas and Zen ancestors encourage us to become lucid dreamers - realizing that we are dreaming while remaining within the dream, where subject and object appear as separate but are really just manifestations of one mind. 09/12/2021, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
A personal reflection on priest ordination in the Soto Zen Lineage from their own live as priests. 09/11/2021, Ryushin Paul Haller and Furyu Nancy Schroeder, dharma talk at City Center.