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?

07/23/2023, Ango Sara Tashker, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. An exploration of gratitude and the precept of not killing life - what does it mean?

Birds and Precepts

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.

Cooking Your Life

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?

Inviting Meditative Ease: Steps to Access

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.

07/12/2023, 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.

Recover Your Presence Of Mind

07/09/2023, Dojin Sarah Emerson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.Ritual is a way to heal ourselves, each other, and the earth.

07/09/2023, Dojin Sarah Emerson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Ritual is a way to heal ourselves, each other, and the earth.

Healing As Zen Practice

07/08/2023, Hozan Alan Senauke, dharma talk at City Center.Hozan Alan Senauke, abbot of Berkeley Zen Center, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, discusses the teacher-student relationship, using stories of Sojun Mel Weitsman and Suzuki Roshi. This rememberance and celebration of Sojun Weitsman also features a musical performance by Hozan.

07/08/2023, Hozan Alan Senauke, dharma talk at City Center. Hozan Alan Senauke, abbot of Berkeley Zen Center, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, discusses the teacher-student relationship, using stories of Sojun Mel Weitsman and Suzuki Roshi. This rememberance and celebration of Sojun Weitsman also features a musical performance by Hozan.

Turning Words From Our Teachers

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?

Zen Teacher Tushita's Three Barriers

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.

Everything Is Unbound

06/28/2023, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center.Senior Dharma Teacher Ryushin Paul Haller, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, discusses shikantaza (just sitting) and how this practice of awareness can be expressed in everyday activity. To keep returning to awareness of the present moment is a foundational part of our path to awakening.

06/28/2023, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center. Senior Dharma Teacher Ryushin Paul Haller, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, discusses shikantaza (just sitting) and how this practice of awareness can be expressed in everyday activity. To keep returning to awareness of the present moment is a foundational part of our path to awakening.

Being in the Moment is the Basis

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.

Holding in the Light

Dharma Talks given at San Francisco Zen Center

Rev. Dr. Wakoh Shannon Hickey, BCC, in this dharma talk from Beginner’s Mind Temple, describes a 1984 encounter with Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority that provoked a crisis leading her to come out as lesbian, to enter the path of Zen, and to study the question of how to assert one’s dignity and value without demonizing those who would deny it. She addresses the current backlash against advances in LGBTQIA+ civil rights and describes her own growing understanding of Trans people’s struggles. In her current work as an interfaith hospice chaplain, she illustrates how Zen teaching and practice help her navigate encounters with dying people, and to love and serve even those who express bigoted beliefs.

Queer Dharma for Pride Weekend

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.

Planting Life, Growing Justice

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.

06/17/2024, 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.

"In Faith That We Are Buddha" - Creating Ceremonial Space

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.

Juneteenth and the Buddhist Message of Freedom

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.”

06/11/2023, 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.”

Coping With Our Problems

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.

06/10/2023, 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.

Freedom and Equanimity

06/07/2023, Chikudo Catherine Spaeth, dharma talk at City Center. Chikudo Catherine Spaeth, in this talk from Beginner's mind temple, investigates how communal relationships are affected by and can perpetuate or interrupt shame, envy and disappointment. Featuring excerpts from Shunryu Suzuki's own translation of the Sandokai (Harmony of Difference and Equality).

Like the Front and Back Foot in Walking

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.

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.

Encouraging and Heartening Words from the Avatamsaka Sutra for Each of Us

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."

Being Time

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.

05/27/2023, 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.

Is That So? Not Always So

Reb Anderson is interesting if you can take his style. My favorite zen teachers so far on podcasts are Norman Fischer on the everyday zen site (he&#39;s the best I think) Genjo Marinello on the Choboji Seattle zen site, Gil Fronsdal - a vipassana teacher who&#39;s also a zen priest. There&#39;s a few talks by Robert Aitken on the Sydney Zen site that are awesome.

Paul Haller is consistently good

Keep up with dharma talks from all three locations!

Wonderful way to stay connected with the teachings at SFZC!

San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks

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