This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by Fall 2024 Practice Period co-leader So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson. This talk centers on the Zen practice of welcoming, rooted in Suzuki Roshi's teachings. We explore how welcoming everything—joy, discomfort, and impermanence—brings us into deeper alignment with the present moment. Through the metaphor "The body is the temple, and awareness is the host," we uncover how zazen allows us to meet life with openness, breaking down the boundaries between self and the world. By fully welcoming our experience, we connect with our true nature and the interconnectedness of all things.

Welcoming All

11/30/2024, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center.
Sozan Michael McCord discusses where the concept of work practice came from in the Zen Buddhist tradition and how the principles found in the monastic setting can be used in any modern work context.

Zen at Work: Using Zen Principles in the Modern Work Day

10/27/2024, Furyu Nancy Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Senior dharma teacher Furyu Schroeder examines a variety of approaches for working with the difficulties in our life, all of them include bringing our attention to our thoughts and to our feelings.

Just Stop At Feelings

11/17/2024, Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
In this talk, closing a five day sesshin, Jiryu talks about the unborn, undying aspect of reality, opened to through the practice of stopping, dropping off everything, and just being our ordinary self.

Eternal Peace

11/24/2024, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Kiku Christina Lehnherr teaches that practicing and overtly expressing appreciation, gratitude and generosity towards all the people, situations and things, great and small, that support our lives and fill them with love and beauty, is a powerful antidote to challenging situations.

THANKS – GIVING

12/07/2024, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center.
Jisan Tova Green weaves together several themes in this final talk of the City Center Fall 2024 Practice Period: welcoming beginner's mind and the ten ox-herding pictures, Buddha's enlightenment, and seeing our path of practice as a journey, not unlike Buddha's journey.

Everything Is Connected

11/20/2024, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center.
In this dharma talk by Fall 2024 practice period co-leader Jisan Tova Green, Tova investigates how it's possible to find inner freedom in a world in which so many beings are not free to fully be who they are.

Finding Freedom

12/18/2024, Roger Hillyard, dharma talk at City Center.
Roger Hillyard explores the idea of transmission — how it flows in all directions, how we experience it in our lives, and how Eihei Dogen wrote about it in “Twining Vines.”

The River of Transmission

12/21/2024, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center.
On the occasion of the Winter Solstice, Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman delves into the themes of stillness, rest, liminality, and balance.

Solstice: In the Darkness There is Light

12/28/2024, Sozan Miglioli, dharma talk at City Center.
Sozan Miglioli explores the four fundamental principles of Wa, Kei, Sei, and Jaku—core teachings rooted in Zen and essential to the Way of Tea.

Harmony, Respect, Purity, Tranquillity

12/10/2024, Chikudo Catherine Spaeth, dharma talk at Tassajara.

The Womb of Emptiness and the Paramitas

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.