San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks

08/21/2022, Jisan Anna Thorn, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. A reflection on how we can embrace the complexities and contradictions of life in practicing embodiment in ritual.

08/20/2022, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center. In Genjokoan, Dogen further investigates the teaching of The Heart Sutra, especially the dialectical relationship between the relative and the absolute in the context of emptiness. This inquiry is related to how we live in practice-realization.

08/17/2022, Florence Caplow, dharma talk at City Center. In our tradition, sickness and pain are honored as messengers. But what does it mean for us when these messengers come to our own lives? How do we meet them? How do we dance with them?

08/14/2022, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. A talk on Suzuki Roshi's statement that, while the essential truth of Buddhism is most directly reached by zazen practice, there are two teachings that characterize Mahayana Buddhism: "the absolute character of all phenomena and the possibility for ordinary people to attain Buddhahood."

08/13/2022, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. Abbot David unpacks the Zen story "Nanyue Polishes a Tile", touching upon several of the koan's key meditation and practice instructions, including the understanding that zazen is the practice of being a buddha without seeking to become a buddha.

08/10/2022, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, dharma talk at City Center. Stillness and silence is to return home in the midst of chaos in the world. In this way we are learning to trust our practice or explore ways in which it can address the changes and upheavals of the outer world.

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.

08/06/2022, Venerable Thich Nu Thuan Tue, dharma talk at City Center. To unlock your happiness you must first hold the key in your own hand. It means to be a master of your own mind by ways of self-reflecting and meditation. A person who radiates happiness from within is capable of sending that happy energy to other people and the surrounding area. Mentioned here are a couple ways of starting your own journey to your happiness, realizing your true nature. Be the key holder, be the master of your own happiness.

08/03/2022, Chikudo Catherine Spaeth, dharma talk at City Center. What is the role of inquiry in our practice? Inquiry has many different functions and is an expression of how we relate to the world. It is essential to our Zen practice. How does inquiry bring us closer to Buddha Nature, and how is it an expression of it?

07/30/2022, Furyu Nancy Schroeder, dharma talk at City Center. This talk is about our practice of meditation as seen through the many facets of the Perfection of Wisdom teaching of the Diamond Cutter Sutra. A teaching, like Zen itself, that is, “not dependent on words and letters” and yet…concluded a month long study of this transformational text.

07/24/2022, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Senior Dharma Teacher Eijun Cutts takes up Case 5 of the Book of Serenity to uncover the call for confession and repentance—formal, formless, and of true reality.

07/23/2022, Keiryu Liên Shutt, dharma talk at City Center. Guidance from the teachings on how we can stay connected and be supportive to and with each other during these times.

07/17/2022, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Jiryu reflects on a teaching in the Diamond Sutra that one moment of insight into emptiness is more meritorious than the greatest of material gifts.

07/16/2022, Judith Ragir, dharma talk at City Center. This is a talk on the book Untangling Karma. It is one woman Zen teacher's approach to trauma that integrates deep spirituality with directly facing your pain. This talk circles around unraveling our karma by deeply entering our narrative and finding the root cause of our conditioning.

7/14/2022, Teah Strozer, dharma talk at Tassajara.