San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks

03/11/2023, Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk, given before the Mountain Seat Ceremony installing San Francisco Zen Center's new abbots, Hoitsu Suzuki (son of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi) discusses how our everyday work and activities can be the heart and expression of Zen practice.

03/08/2023, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center. A description of the function and symbolism of the Mountain Seat ceremony.

03/05/2023, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Case 12 in the Gateless Barrier: Every day Ruiyan called out to himself "Master!" and answered himself "Yes!" Then he would say to himself "Be aware!" and reply "Yes!" "Don't be deceived by others!" "Yes, yes!"... Big mind, the host, experiences everything within itself, so there really are no others.

03/04/2023, Ango Sara Tashker, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk Sara Tashker talks about the Ecological Farming community and Suzuki Roshi’s teachings on confession and repentance. She reflects on the ways that the practice of confession and repentance is how we take responsibility for harm we have caused which allows us to return to upright, dynamic, and connected right relationships that support freedom and thriving.

02/26/2023, Shoho Kuebast, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Contemplating the teachings of buddha-nature as taught in Maitreya's Uttaratantra Shastra.

02/25/2023, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. How does mindfulness of breathing help untangle our experience of the self and the world? Guided meditations and commentary based on ancient words of the Buddha, Prajnatara, and Bodhidharma; on contemporary teachings from Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and on personal study with Tenshin Reb Anderson and Sojun Mel Weitsman.

02/22/2023, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center. Chao Chou quotes the ShinShin Ming (Trust in Mind) and says “Just avoid picking and choosing.” Equanimity is not an issue of control but rather it requests us to not get stuck in what we want and what we don’t want.

02/19/2023, Rinso Ed Sattizahn, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Dogen Zenji said, “Breathing in or breathing out, after all, what is it?” No one can tell what it is.

02/18/2023, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center. Centering in body and breath helps cultivate the the capacity to respond rather than react to life’s challenges.

02/15/2023, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center. Zen practice emphasizes meeting each situation “face to face” - that is, meeting it fully with radical honesty. How do remember to do so when it’s unpleasant?

02/12/2023, Fu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Knowing the grief and despair that humans suffer in their lifetimes, the Buddha offered teachings to lessen the impact of those losses through practices based in compassion and wisdom. By coming to a greater understanding of the causes of suffering -namely desire and ignorance - the Buddha showed us the same pathway to freedom that he had found.

02/11/2023, Onryu Mary Stares, dharma talk at City Center. In a culture where we are going faster and faster, this talk gives one permission and encouragement to slow down and reflect.

02/05/2023, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch. In this talk, Jiryu raises the line chanted before Zen lectures, "I vow to taste the truth of Tathagata's words," and reflects on what it could mean for us not just to listen to formal talks with this heart, but to live our whole life in every moment in this way, looking deeply for the element of truth and beauty and liberative teaching in each thing that arises.

02/04/2023, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. In commemorating Zen’s first Chinese Ancestor, Abbot David provides an overview of Bodhidharma’s seminal work, the “Outline of Practice”, which posits that there are essentially two ways to enter the path of Zen ─ by ‘Principle’ and by ‘Practice’. He describes the four all-inclusive habits that Bodhidharma says lead to awakening, with particular focus on that of “accepting adversity”.

01/28/2023, Ryushin Paul Haller, dharma talk at City Center. The light is the capacity to be aware. In sitting zazen we immerse in the endless variety of Being. Each time we are aware of what’s happening, that moment reveals the particular Being of the moment and shows us who and what we are.