08/24/2025, Marc Lesser, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Marc Lesser points out that “And yet” is a way of seeing differently, with greater confidence and greater humility. “And yet” could be how we describe history, our lives, and our futures.

Live What You See, Not What You Know

08/27/2025, So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson, dharma talk at City Center.
So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson explores what it means to be a good ancestor now: carrying warmth, witnessing others into fullness, and tending the ceremonies of life with reverence.

Ancestor Warmth

08/31/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler discusses practicing kindness as an overflowing of the direct experience of non-separation, and explores the teachings of Suzuki Roshi on ethical precepts by analyzing each word in a questionable statement that he heard: "You should be kind, and that's enough."

Is It Enough to Be Kind?

08/20/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.
Shosan Victoria Austin teaches that when we train our posture and breathing in a manner that helps us sit at night, aided by traditional images and teachings, we can hold the dreamy parts of experience in stillness and understanding.

Meditating at Night

08/06/2025, Kristin Diggs, dharma talk at City Center.
Nyokai Kristin Diggs talks about the centrality of self-study in the context of Soto Zen, the interdependent nature of body-mind-self and all phenomena, and wise view within the context of Big Mind, which includes the whole universe.

Study the Self

09/06/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.
Shosan Victoria Austin points out that most of us are trying to find stability in less-than-perfect places, times, and conditions. How do we build an external and internal environment that supports us to meditate in peace?

Zazen: Outer and Inner Sitting

09/10/2025, Doshin Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at City Center.
Doshin Dan Gudgel discusses gratitude and devotional practices, using his personal altars as examples, and reading “The Angel Handed Me a Book” by Paul Valéry.

Indiscriminate Devotion

09/07/2025, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Sozan Michael McCord considers the deeper purpose of monasteries—not only as places of study and community, but as spaces that preserve and sustain collective practice, creating lasting impact beyond the moment of gathering.

What Is the Role of a Monastery in Today’s World?

09/17/2025, Kim Kogen Daiho Hart, dharma talk at City Center.
Kim Kōgen Daihō Hart explores her personal journey through anxiety to the realization that it is our own, all too real human struggles that light the path to liberation.

The Struggle Is the Medicine

09/21/2025, Hoka Chris Fortin, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Hoka Chris Fortin asks: How do we—individually and as one—not turn away but bear witness, and respond to the suffering of the world with clear-hearted wisdom and compassion as we awaken together to our True Nature and shared humanity.

Engaged Buddhism

2016-03-12, Mushim Patricia Ikeda, dharma talk at City Center

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The purpose of San Francisco Zen Center is to make accessible and embody the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha as expressed in the Soto Zen tradition established by Dogen Zenji in 13th-century Japan and conveyed to us by Suzuki Roshi and other Buddhist teachers. Our practice flows from the insight that all beings are Buddha, and that sitting in meditation is itself the realization of Buddha nature, or enlightenment.