03/28/2025, Doshin Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at City Center.
Doshin Dan Gudgel explores the idea of a ‘caretaker’ as it relates to the Parental Mind that Dogen encourages in his Tenzo Kyokun text.

Be a Caretaker

03/29/2025, Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel, dharma talk at City Center.
Abiding Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel explores how the spirit of Dogen’s “Tenzo Kyokun” extends beyond sesshin, inviting us to discover how zazen mind manifests in our homes and workplaces.

Nothing in the Entire Universe Is Hidden

04/02/2025, So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson, dharma talk at City Center.
So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson examines the rich intersection between Zen practice and artistic expression—not as a pursuit of perfection, but as a way to return to our true nature.

The Art of Just This

03/02/2025, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
An introduction to this ancient Zen poem that is often recited at SF Zen Center and Soto Zen temples around the world. The metaphor of a mirror and its reflections to clarify buddha-nature and the world of experience is offered by the Buddha in various sutras, and by many Zen ancestors as well.

Jewel Mirror Samadhi

03/09/2025, Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler explores the practice of seeing the present moment, just as it is, as “the mystic peak” of spiritual fulfillment, with reference to Suzuki Roshi’s comments on case #23 of the Blue Cliff Record.

Here is the Mystic Peak

03/16/2025, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Stories of our Chinese Zen Ancestor Dongshan, and his poem about nonduality: our life is like facing a jewel mirror - form and reflection behold each other. Both our sense of subjectivity and sense of objectivity are merely changing reflections on the unchanging mirror of buddha-nature.

You Are Not It, In Truth It Is You

04/13/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler reflects on comments from Suzuki Roshi’s talks on Case #36 of the Blue Cliff Record, exploring lines like “Buddhists resign from the world of suffering in order to live in the world of perpetual joy” and “human beings prefer the unreal to the real.”

Freedom from Spring and Autumn

04/16/2025, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center. Shundo David Haye reflects on the upcoming lay ordination ceremony at Beginner's Mind Temple, and talks about how a teacher sees a student: both how they are right now, and the potential of who they will become through practice.

Like Spring Arising In Everything

05/07/2025, Kim Kōgen Daihō Hart, dharma talk at City Center. In this talk Kim explores where we find the sacred. She considers the foundational Buddhist teaching of the Three Marks of Existence and considers how they might influence what we hold as sacred.

Is Anything Sacred?

05/14/2025, Tatsudo Nicole Baden, dharma talk at City Center. Tatsudo Nicole Baden explores two foundational Buddhist perspectives: that everything changes (impermanence) and that everything is interconnected (interdependence).

How Views Shape the World

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.

Here is the Mystic Peak

San Francisco Zen Center

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