San Francisco Zen Center

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."

08/27/2025, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

04/23/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. Shosan Victoria Austin uses Keizan Zenji’s teachings to explore the questions: What is intentional service? And, how does this help very different people build an environment of wholeness and trust?

04/05/3035, Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman marks Buddha’s birthday by recounting the story of Shakyamuni Buddha’s birth over 2500 years ago while exploring the meaning of some of the more fantastical details.

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.