San Francisco Zen Center

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...

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.

05/10/2023, 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.

05/14/2023, 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.

05/06/2023, 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 spac...

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.

04/08/2023, Dōshin Mako Voelkel, dharma talk at City Center. Abiding Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel, in this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, asks: Who or what is the 'I' in baby Buddha's first words, 'I alone am the world-honored one'?

04/05/2023, Chikudo Catherine Spaeth, dharma talk at City Center. Catherine Spaeth asks 'What is the difference between having someone's attention and holding someone's attention?' This dharma talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, explores how, from the early Buddhist teachings to Zen, appropriate attention cultivates our beholdenness.

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?

03/18/2023, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. Shosan Victoria Austin explores the life and liveliness of Zen forms. How do the traditional forms of Soto Zen help us understand the teachings of the Buddha? How can we as Westerners practice them in accessible, life-giving ways that truly help us and those whose lives we touch?

03/11/2023, Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given before the Mountain Seat Ceremony installing San Francisco Zen Center's new abbots, Hoitsu Suzuki (son of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi) discusses how our everyday work and activities can be the heart and expression of Zen practice.

03/04/2023, Ango Sara Tashker, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk Sara Tashker talks about the Ecological Farming community and Suzuki Roshi’s teachings on confession and repentance. She reflects on the ways that the practice of confession and repentance is how we take responsibility for harm we have caused which allows us to return to upright, dynamic, and connected right relationships that...