San Francisco Zen Center

06/21/2025, Chikudo Catherine Spaeth, dharma talk at Tassajara.

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.

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.

05/24/2025, 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.

Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman takes up Case 12 from the Book of Serenity, titled ‘Dizang Planting the Fields’, which touches upon a number of key practice questions that can be beneficial to consider as we encounter and navigate the distressing state of the world.

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).

05/07/2025, Kim Kōgen Daihō Hart, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk Kim explores where we find the sacred. She considers the foundational Buddhist teaching of the Three Marks of Existence and considers how they might influence what we hold as sacred.

04/16/2025, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center. Shundo David Haye reflects on the upcoming lay ordination ceremony at Beginner's Mind Temple, and talks about how a teacher sees a student: both how they are right now, and the potential of who they will become through practice.

04/13/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler reflects on comments from Suzuki Roshi’s talks on Case #36 of the Blue Cliff Record, exploring lines like “Buddhists resign from the world of suffering in order to live in the world of perpetual joy” and “human beings prefer the unreal to the real.”

03/16/2025, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Stories of our Chinese Zen Ancestor Dongshan, and his poem about nonduality: our life is like facing a jewel mirror - form and reflection behold each other. Both our sense of subjectivity and sense of objectivity are merely changing reflections on the unchanging mirror of buddha-nature.

03/09/2025, Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler explores the practice of seeing the present moment, just as it is, as “the mystic peak” of spiritual fulfillment, with reference to Suzuki Roshi’s comments on case #23 of the Blue Cliff Record.

03/02/2025, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. An introduction to this ancient Zen poem that is often recited at SF Zen Center and Soto Zen temples around the world. The metaphor of a mirror and its reflections to clarify buddha-nature and the world of experience is offered by the Buddha in various sutras, and by many Zen ancestors as well.

04/02/2025, So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson, dharma talk at City Center. So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson examines the rich intersection between Zen practice and artistic expression—not as a pursuit of perfection, but as a way to return to our true nature.

03/29/2025, Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel, dharma talk at City Center. Abiding Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel explores how the spirit of Dogen’s “Tenzo Kyokun” extends beyond sesshin, inviting us to discover how zazen mind manifests in our homes and workplaces.

03/28/2025, Doshin Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at City Center. Doshin Dan Gudgel explores the idea of a ‘caretaker’ as it relates to the Parental Mind that Dogen encourages in his Tenzo Kyokun text.

03/19/2025, Judith Keenan, dharma talk at City Center. Judith Keenan explores the relationship between temple kitchen work and other types of work practice, and presents a short video interview with Sojun Mel Weitsman.

03/01/2025, Edward Brown, dharma talk at City Center. Edward Espe Brown shares teachings from Eihei Dogen’s “Tenzo Kyokun”, and stories from practicing as tenzo (head cook) at Tassajara under the guidance of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.

03/22/2025, Onryu Mary Stares, dharma talk at City Center. Onryu Mary Stares speaks about Eihei Dogen Zenji’s text “Tenzo Kyokun (Instruction to the Cook)” as part of the March 2025 intensive focus on kitchen practice.

03/15/2025, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center. Sozan Michael McCord looks at Zen kitchen practice and work practice generally, connecting to the joy of activity, learning to care and venerate all things, and how to have a broad vast mind for holding what arises.

03/08/2025, Zenki Mary Mocine, dharma talk at City Center. Zenki Mary Mocine speaks about Eihei Dogen Zenji’s text “Tenzo Kyokun (Instruction to the Cook)” as part of the March 2025 intensive focus on kitchen practice.

03/05/2025, Teah Strozer, dharma talk at City Center. Teah Strozer speaks about Eihei Dogen Zenji’s text “Tenzo Kyokun (Instruction to the Cook)” as part of the March 2025 intensive focus on kitchen practice.

02/22/2025, Dōshin Mako Voelkel, dharma talk at City Center. Abiding Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel explores the dharma teachings of the past year-plus of renovation work, community cooperation and trying new forms.

02/16/2025, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman explores the nature of the commitment that a priest makes, shares his own journey to ordination, and describes the responsibility that comes with the archetypal role.