San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks

04/26/2023, Heather Shoren Iarusso, dharma talk at City Center. Heather Shoren Iarusso, in this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, examines aversion, one of the mental afflictions the Buddha calls The Five Hindrances, which hinder our ability to experience calm and insight on and off the meditation cushion. By turning toward these uncomfortable feelings, we slowly become less reactive and more spacious. This frees the heart to be compassionate and receptive.

04/23/2023, Hozan Alan Senauke, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Hozan's reflections on his experience of Sojun Roshi's presence and teachings over nearly forty years.

04/22/2023, Doshin Mako Voelkel, dharma talk at City Center. Abiding Abbot Doshin Mako Voelkel, in this Earth Day talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, examines how Zen practice encourages and supports continuous care for our natural environment.

04/19/2023, Kodo Conlin, dharma talk at City Center. Kodo Conlin, in this dharma talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, explores images, tales, and inspiration to celebrate our Zen practice as a path that reshapes our lives and opens our hearts. Appearances by Basho and Ram Dass.

04/16/2023, Furyu Nancy Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Using the koan called Rhinoceros Fan, this talk focuses on fear and how powerfully it keeps us from leaving the nests of our habitual views.

04/15/2023, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center. Anshi Zachary Smith, in this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, explores Buddhism's program of introspective self-study framed by avowal and vow as an antidote to the Human Condition. Over time, this program has clearly demonstrated its efficacy and transformative power as well as a number of ways that it can go astray.

04/12/2023, Henzan Roger Hillyard, dharma talk at City Center. Roger Hillyard explores accepting and practicing with darkness, in this dharma talk from Beginner's Mind Temple.

04/08/2023, Dōshin Mako Voelkel, dharma talk at City Center. Abiding Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel, in this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, asks: Who or what is the 'I' in baby Buddha's first words, 'I alone am the world-honored one'?

04/05/2023, Chikudo Catherine Spaeth, dharma talk at City Center. Catherine Spaeth asks 'What is the difference between having someone's attention and holding someone's attention?' This dharma talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, explores how, from the early Buddhist teachings to Zen, appropriate attention cultivates our beholdenness.

02/04/2023, Grace Dammann, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Covid and the Eightfold Path; what can they teach each other?

03/26/2023, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk explores "Yusan Gansui," a Zen term for an easeful, open way of "strolling through the mountains" of life, indicating a way of being that is not stuck to any feeling but that is open to any feeling, and a way that does not just express joy and freedom for oneself, but also serves as a gateway to real compassion and presence with great suffering inside or outside.

03/25/2023, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center. The theme of this practice period is Dogen's "To study the Buddha Way is to study the self." This is followed in Genjokoan by "When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away." ... In one sense, women's history is a history of gender definitions.

03/19/2023, Fu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Dogen Zenji’s great awakening took place on hearing his teacher Rujing scold a student for sleeping during zazen saying, “Zen study is the dropping of body and mind.”

03/18/2023, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. Shosan Victoria Austin explores the life and liveliness of Zen forms. How do the traditional forms of Soto Zen help us understand the teachings of the Buddha? How can we as Westerners practice them in accessible, life-giving ways that truly help us and those whose lives we touch?

03/15/2023, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center. How equanimity and patience cultivate the capacity to respond rather than react.