San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks
Alle afleveringen
109 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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Accepting the Unacceptable
6 mei 2026 · 42 min
Given by Kim Kogen Daiho Hart at City Center on May 6th, 2026 Lees meer
Kim Kōgen Daihō Hart, who was raised in apartheid South Africa, explores themes of accepting what is unacceptable and what our practice asks of us.
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Mindfulness and the Path to Liberation
2 mei 2026 · 33 min
Given by Gengyoko Tim Wicks at City Center on May 2nd, 2026 Lees meer
The talk discusses the significance of the Platform Sutra in Zen practice, highlighting its role in the exploration of sudden versus gradual enlightenment and the inherent purity of the mind. The discussion also emphasizes the historical continuity of Zen teachings through the teacher-student lineage, notably the transmission from Bodhidharma to his disciple Huike, and the subsequent teachings encapsulated in the Platform Sutra during the Tang Dynasty. The talk underscores the importance of direct experience and mindfulness in daily activities as a means to realize liberation from suffering.
Platform Sutra: Explores sudden vs. gradual enlightenment, emphasizing the inherent purity of the mind, and the unity of all things.
Lankavatara Sutra: Referred to as the mind-only sutra, it discusses the manifestation of all phenomena from the mind and relates to the central Buddhist theme of transforming suffering through mindfulness.
Dhammapada: An early Buddhist text illustrating the precedence and influence of the mind on lived experience and suffering.
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki: Explores the importance of having a beginner's mind, which allows for many possibilities, as opposed to an expert's mind, which is more limited.
Lineage of Bodhidharma: Chronicles the teacher-student relationship which maintains the Zen tradition, beginning with Bodhidharma as the first ancestor bringing Chan (Zen) to China.
Koans: Referenced to illustrate important Zen teachings, such as the dialogue between Huike and Bodhidharma about pacifying the mind.
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Nothing Lacking, Continuous Practice
29 april 2026 · 43 min
Given by Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道 at City Center on April 29th, 2026 Lees meer
Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道 explores the theme of the Spring Practice Period and explores the relationship between “nothing lacking” and “continuous practice”.
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No Body – No Life
26 april 2026 · 47 min
Given by Kiku Christina Lehnherr at Green Gulch Farm on April 26th, 2026 Lees meer
Kiku Christina Lehnherr teaches that cultivating generosity, patience, tolerance, compassion, gentleness and steadfastness are essential to create, and be in intimate relationship with our body. Taking care of it is simultaneously taking care of all existence.
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Interdependence and Engagement
25 april 2026 · 41 min
Given by Ben Connelly at City Center on April 25th, 2026 Lees meer
Ben shares from his new book “Inside the Flower Garland Sutra, Huayan Buddhism and the Modern World.” Ben illustrates the teachings with stories and lessons from his recent involvement with an array of nonviolent community responses to the violence ICE brought to his hometown Minneapolis in 2026.
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Bodhisattva Precepts on This Great Earth
22 april 2026 · 47 min
Given by Shosan Victoria Austin at City Center on April 22nd, 2026 Lees meer
Shosan Victoria Austin, in this Earth Day lecture, invites us to contemplate how practicing ethics protects both us and the world.
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Department of Peace
15 april 2026 · 45 min
Given by Doshin Dan Gudgel at City Center on April 15th, 2026 Lees meer
Doshin Dan Gudgel expresses a hope for lasting peace in this world, based on deep belief in interconnection and impermanence, and the incredible cosmic rarity of life itself.
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Jizo Bodhisattva and Impermanence
12 april 2026 · 56 min
Given by Rinso Ed Sattizahn at Green Gulch Farm on April 12th, 2026 Lees meer
Rinso Ed Sattizahn reflects on the meaning of Jizo’s staff and comments on David Chadwick and the Shunryu Suzuki teaching story “Everything Changes.”
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Our Ritual Practice
11 april 2026 · 39 min
Given by Hondo Dave Rutschman at City Center on April 11th, 2026 Lees meer
Hondo Dave Rutschman explores how we enter a ritual space with our effort and intention, without attempting to control the outcome.
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The Monkey and the Machine
9 april 2026 · 43 min
04/08/2026, Dan Zigmond, dharma talk at City Center. Dan Zigmond explores how the "monkey mind" the Buddha diagnosed 2,500 years ago is exactly what today's algorithms are engineered to exploit, drawing on nearly thirty years of building attention-capturing technology at Google, Facebook, Apple, and Headspace, alongside four decades of Zen practice. Lees meer
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Illusions, Delusions, and Mistaken Beliefs
4 april 2026 · 41 min
04/04/2026, Marc Lesser, dharma talk at City Center. Marc Lesser weaves together personal stories, Shunryu Suzuki, Dogen, and the Enneagram, in an exploration of how we interpret our identities and the world.
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Mountains Walk and Rivers Talk
2 april 2026 · 42 min
04/01/2026, Henzan Roger Hillyard, dharma talk at City Center. Roger Hillyard explores how Dogen's most poetic sutra, Mountains and Rivers, can help us practice with tragedy and lead us towards equanimity.
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A Path of Zen Healing
19 maart 2026 · 41 min
03/18/2026, Doshin Patti Mitchell, dharma talk at City Center. Doshin Patti Mitchell shares how meditation and community helped her face suffering, expectations, and self-judgment. Speaking about the importance of honesty, gratitude, and spiritual friendship, she also honors the teachers and practitioners who supported her along the way. Lees meer
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Buddhism Is A Way of Life
15 maart 2026 · 55 min
03/15/2026, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho expands the teachings of Buddha from tools held in our hands (in our control) to a way of living that is wider than we can imagine.
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Mahapajapati and Liberation
14 maart 2026 · 1 uur 4 min
03/14/2026, Doshin Mako Voelkel, dharma talk at City Center. Abiding Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel explores the life and lessons of Mahapajapati—the first Buddhist nun, and foster mother of the historical Buddha—after City Center’s annual ceremonial celebration for this first of our Buddhist women ancestors. Lees meer
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Can Stillness Be Trusted?
8 maart 2026 · 35 min
03/08/2026, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho explores stillness and silence as a response to the great suffering we are facing today. Can we trust the discovery promised in a practice of silence to lead us to resolve or peace? Lees meer
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Buddha Body – Buddha Earth
7 maart 2026 · 40 min
03/07/2026, Jeannie Linam and Myoju Erin Merk, dharma talk at City Center. Jeannie Linam and Myoju Erin Merk explore how our individual body is inseparable from the living Earth.
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Building a Posture of Love
5 maart 2026 · 33 min
03/04/2026, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. Shosan Victoria Austin explores love as an internal posture, rather than a feeling. A stable base for our posture of love is awareness and patience with the negative emotions that often come up without our noticing them. Lees meer
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Left Hand, Right Hand
1 maart 2026 · 43 min
03/01/2026, Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Jiryu Rutschman-Byler reflects on the classical Zen teaching "the ten thousand things are one body," exploring how understanding that truth plants seeds of peace in our hearts and in this world of confusion and violence, in which we see the "left hand" and "right hand" of this "one body" choose again and again to go to war with each other. Lees meer
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Awakening With the Help of Just This Body
28 februari 2026 · 44 min
02/28/2026, Grace Dammann, dharma talk at City Center. Dr. Grace Dammann shares her journey through medicine, Zen practice, disability, and spiritual awakening.
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On Presence
26 februari 2026 · 29 min
02/25/2026, Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo, dharma talk at City Center. Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo reflects on full presence as direct, embodied, moment-to-moment awareness beyond judgment or self-narrative, illustrated by a wordless encounter with a newborn and cultivated through zazen as “practice 24/7.” Lees meer
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Tending to the Cries of the Earth
22 februari 2026 · 35 min
02/22/2026, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho speaks to the fear of being consumed by great suffering while being turned towards the expansion of life at the same time.
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Cultivating the Art of Tenderness
21 februari 2026 · 39 min
02/21/2026, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at City Center. Kiku Christina Lehnherr explores meeting everything that presents itself to our awareness with tender and gentle attention.
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Expectations
20 februari 2026 · 37 min
02/20/2026, Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo, sesshin dharma talk at City Center. Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo explores how lifelong, internalized expectations—shaped by personal history and conditioning—distort perception and create suffering by separating us from present-moment experience. Lees meer
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The Practice of Settling Down
19 februari 2026 · 35 min
02/19/2026, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, sesshin dharma talk at City Center. Kiku Christina Lehnherr explores how resting our attention on our breath coming in and going out for a while, unites body and mind, calms them and brings them into the present moment. Lees meer
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One Hiss and I Lost What I Know
15 februari 2026 · 44 min
02/15/2026, Heather Shoren Iarusso, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Heather Shōren Iarusso discusses an encounter with a rattlesnake when, in the flash of danger, there is no “Heather,” no narrative, no arising mental formations—only pure perception and appropriate response. Lees meer
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Message of Peace
14 februari 2026 · 52 min
02/14/2026, Gendo Lucy Xiao, dharma talk at City Center. Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道 invites us to welcome the Lunar New Year by settling into inner stability and ease—remembering that peace is not something we chase outside ourselves, but something we can return to right where we are. Lees meer
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Buddha's Robe as the Body
12 februari 2026 · 31 min
02/11/2026, Gengyoko Tim Wicks, dharma talk at City Center. Gengyoko Tim Wicks speaks about the history of the robes we wear (Buddha's Robe) and how it follows the geographic travel of Zen Buddhism.
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Nothing in the Universe Is Hidden
8 februari 2026 · 35 min
02/08/2026, Marc Lesser, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Marc Lesser explores awareness, compassion, and the idea that nothing in the universe is truly hidden.
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The Gates to Practice Multiply
7 februari 2026 · 36 min
02/07/2026, Onryu Mary Stares, dharma talk at City Center. Onryu Mary Stares explores how external stimuli can act as a gate to practice if we use intention and curiosity.
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Work Practice and The "One Who Is Not Busy"
1 februari 2026 · 42 min
02/01/2026, Thiemo Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Thiemo Blank guides us towards awakening to "the one who is not busy" in everyday activity.
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Agents of Peace and Change
31 januari 2026 · 50 min
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Disentangling Karma
29 januari 2026 · 58 min
01/28/2026, Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo, Shuso Way-Seeking Mind talk at City Center. Hokyo Lorenzo Garbo unpacks the shuso’s way-seking mind by framing practice as an everyday exercise of holding internal conflict without fixing it, allowing harmony to arise naturally, and walking one’s vows through ordinary activities. Lees meer
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Cultivating Intimacy With Our Body
24 januari 2026 · 36 min
01/24/2026, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at City Center. Kiku Christina Lehnherr explores how the body is completely and inseparably intertwined and interconnected with the mind and with everything in this universe, and how the practice of slowing down a fraction in all our activities can support us in becoming intimate with our body. Lees meer
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Virya, Joyful Effort and M.L.K.
17 januari 2026 · 35 min
01/17/2026, So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson, dharma talk at City Center. So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson reflects on Dr. King’s legacy as a practice of staying human in the face of fear, polarization, and fatigue. Through Zen teachings on virya or joyful effort, we explore how commitment, courage, and hope can be sustained without hardening the heart. Lees meer
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I Don’t Exist!: The Self in Buddhism
15 januari 2026 · 31 min
01/14/2026, Doshin Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at City Center. Doshin Dan Gudgel discusses our human experience of feeling like a completely distinct and separate self, and unpacks the fundamental Buddhist teaching of ‘no fixed self’ that answers this experience. Lees meer
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Embodying Wonderment: Zen 2.0
10 januari 2026 · 36 min
01/10/2026, Mushim Patricia Ikeda, dharma talk at City Center. Mushim Patricia Ikeda asks how is our Zen Buddhist practice showing up within the "burning house" of global "forever wars," environmental crisis, and U.S. global and national actions in 2026? What might different forms and schools of Zen be able to learn from one another? Lees meer
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Patience: The Buddhist Practice of Showing Up for the World
8 januari 2026 · 36 min
01/07/2026, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center. Sozan Michael McCord explores how waiting is not necessarily patience. And it is not a passive default. In this talk, the subject of patience is explored as one of the Buddhist "paramitas" (perfections) that are both fruits of practice and an area of one's life that is actively cultivated. Lees meer
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Zen Gossip, Rumors, Speculation, and Idealization
4 januari 2026 · 36 min
01/04/2026, Nyokai Kristin Diggs, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Nyokai Kristin Diggs addresses the importance of reflecting upon ourselves as storytellers and our practice of zazen as "just looking" at the stories that we tell, as an entry point to recognizing the truth of our interdependent, inconceivable lives. Lees meer
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Undivided Giving: Empty Hands, Full Life
27 december 2025 · 36 min
12/27/2025, Nyokai Kristin Diggs, dharma talk at City Center. Nyokai Kristin Diggs talks about the non-separation of feeling, sensing, and thinking as they relate to giving, as a whole-being practice and a state of mind that reflects the always-unhindered, underlying truth of our undivided lives. Lees meer
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Scrooge’s Buddhist Lessons
20 december 2025 · 47 min
12/20/2025, Gyokuden Stephanie Blank, dharma talk at City Center. Gyokuden Stephanie Blank considers Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol as a dharma story that reveals the transformative power of illumination, intimacy, and karmic fruition.
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Great Is The Matter
18 december 2025 · 29 min
12/17/2025, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center. Shundo reflects on two recent deaths in his family, and what our practice can teach us about facing death and cherishing life.
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Two Directions, One Way: Reflections on U.S. Soto Zen and Insight Buddhism
13 december 2025 · 46 min
12/13/2025, Keiryu Liên Shutt, dharma talk at City Center. Keiryu Liên Shutt presents an informal comparison of Soto Zen and Insight practices within the context of The Three Marks of Existence.
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Opinions and “The Way”
7 december 2025 · 54 min
12/07/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler reflects on a line from the Song of the Trusting Mind, “If you want the Way to manifest, then hold no opinion for or against,” by drawing on five aspects of practice in Suzuki Roshi’s teaching: posture, breathing, warm heart, empty mind, and oneness with things. Lees meer
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Awakening Through Harmonious Differences
22 november 2025 · 35 min
11/22/2025, Thich Nu Thuan Tue, dharma talk at City Center.
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Arising in Unimaginable Awareness
16 november 2025 · 44 min
11/16/2025, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho teaches that sometimes it is necessary to be for or against but there is a broader context in which this is not always necessary. -
Awakening Together is APT
2 november 2025 · 40 min
11/02/2025, Gyokuden Stephanie Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Gyokuden Steph Blank honors the effort and awakening of our ancestors and calls on us—the living—to rise up in support of Decency, Dignity and Awakening.
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Tend to Your Spirit: Teachings from Illness
1 november 2025 · 42 min
11/01/2025, Zenshin Florence Caplow, dharma talk at City Center. Zenshin Florence Caplow offers stories and teachings from her life as both a Zen practitioner and person with chronic illness, and readings from her new book, “Tend to Your Spirit: Mindful Living With Chronic Illness.” Lees meer
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Suzuki Roshi's Legacy and Our Path of Practice
26 oktober 2025 · 21 min
10/26/2025, Sessei Meg Levie, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Sessei Meg Levie reflects on Suzuki Roshi’s dedication to zazen, his work with early students in San Francisco, and the creation of the San Francisco Zen Center. -
Cultivating Stillness in Turbulent Times
25 oktober 2025 · 32 min
10/25/2025, Dainin Marsha Angus, dharma talk at City Center. Dainin Marsha Angus teaches about cultivating and mental and physical capacity to settle into stillness.