San Francisco Zen Center

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.

11/05/2022, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center. Each step of the Eightfold Path and the practices it recommends, harmonizes disciplined conduct and opening to virtuous being. The third step, Right Speech, is described in detail to illustrate this.

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...

11/06/2022, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. An exploration of compassion for self and others.

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 trap...

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

10/23/2022, 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 recen...

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).

10/16/2022, 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.

10/08/2022, 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.

10/09/2022,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.

10/01/2022. 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.

09/24/2022, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center. We discuss the precepts, giving a bit of history, and how they changed as Buddhism was infused with new ideas from the Mahayana philosophers and practitioners. In particular, we talk about the way in which the six Paramitas were proposed, at least in part, as a positive and aspirational adjunct to the Precepts. We also bring along a Koan...

09/21/2022, Kodo Conlin, dharma talk at City Center. Taking a page from Dogen's own collection of koans, we consider Guishan's conversation with Yangshan about a gift of silk -- What role does giving play in our practice of radical thusness? And, what does our Zen tradition contribute to the conversation about such a foundational Dharma practice?

09/17/2022, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center. We discuss Case 5 of the Book of Serenity - “Qīngyuán and the Price of Rice” - and how, as in all good Koans, Qīngyuán answer to the monk’s question about the essential meaning of Buddhism is (at least) three phrases in one. We’ll see how those three phrases constitute as good an answer as any in history to the question of how to live an...

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.

08/07/2022, Fu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abiding Abbess Fu Schroeder talks about the process by which the imaginary self imagines itself split off from the rest of the universe.

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 t...

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.

08/27/2022, 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.

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...

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.