San Francisco Zen Center
by San Francisco Zen Center
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.
Episodes
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Undivided Giving: Empty Hands, Full Life
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.
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Great Is The Matter
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
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”
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…
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Arising in Unimaginable Awareness
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.
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Suzuki Roshi's Legacy and Our Path of Practice
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.
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Awakening Together is APT
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
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.”
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Cultivating Stillness in Turbulent Times
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.
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Freedom in Limitation
10/19/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler reflects on the “Finding Yourself” chapter of “Becoming Yourself,” in which Suzuki Roshi teaches that finding real freedom is not about overcoming the limitations of our life, but rather embracing…
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Expanding How We See Things
10/18/2025, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho, dharma talk at City Center. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho teaches that when we remain in the mode of discovery we open to new portals to engage and activate in tending to today’s suffering.
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Perception and Practice
10/12/2025, Eli Brown-Stevenson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson uses the image of bubbles and the teaching of the Three Marks of Existence to explore how Zen practice helps us meet impermanence, suffering, and no-self in the body, not through ideas, but through presence.
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The Power of Non-Retaliation
10/11/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. Shosan Victoria Austin teaches that we can deepen our understanding of the causes and cures of dispute, and practice with a unifying value of kindness that has the power to transform our conflicts to occasions for mutual curiosity,...
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A New Here: How Practice Opens Different Worlds
10/05/2025, Tatsudo Nicole Baden Roshi, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Tatsudo Nicole Baden explores how Zen practice literally shifts the architecture of our experience — from a narrow, biographical “here” into a living, embodied field of contact.
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A Request for Jukai
09/27/2025, Chikudo Catherine Spaeth, dharma talk at City Center. Chikudo Catherine Spaeth teaches that zazen shows us what to care for, and leads the way in our request to study the precepts with a teacher. In this caring we become a good friend to our practice.
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A Journey Toward Boundless Connection
09/20/2025, Tenmyo Dojima 堂島典明, dharma talk at City Center. Tenmyo Dojima 堂島典明 shares how her early struggles with depression led her to rediscover Buddhism in the U.S., begin monastic training in Japan, and continue the joy of walking the Buddha Way—together with others, rooted in connection.
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How Can We Not Pick and Choose?
09/14/2025, Sokaku Kathie Fischer, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Sokaku Kathie Fischer examines the Xin Xin Ming (Faith in Mind, or Trusting the Mind), a text by the third Chinese Chan (Zen) ancestor, Jianzhi Sengcan.
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The Unique Role Tassajara Plays in the Times We Live
07/12/2025, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at Tassajara. The world has so many issues that need people's time and attention yet we squester ourselves for days or weeks on end at Tassajara. While it may seem indulgent or even escapist to retreat to practice in the wilderness, it is surviving...
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Engaged Buddhism
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.
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The Struggle Is the Medicine
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.
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What Is the Role of a Monastery in Today’s World?
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.
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Indiscriminate Devotion
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.
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Zazen: Outer and Inner Sitting
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?
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Study the Self
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.
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Meditating at Night
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.
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Is It Enough to Be Kind?
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...
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Ancestor Warmth
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.
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Live What You See, Not What You Know
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.
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Bearing Witness to the Tension in Our Life
08/23/2025, Myles Cowherd, dharma talk at City Center. Myles Cowherd explores the transformative power of sincerity and acceptance as a counterpoint to a life of seriousness and fear.
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Virya / Hypernormalisation
07/13/2025, Gengyoko Tim Wicks, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Gengyoko Tim Wicks explores cultivating joyful energy in times of crisis, with reference to Eihei Dogen Zenji and the Dhammapada.
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Lucky to Be Alive
08/17/2025, Doshin Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Doshin Dan Gudgel explores how feeling the preciousness of life can support deep practice, kindness and gentleness.
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This Human Body
07/12/2025, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at City Center. Kiku Christina Lehnherr explores the dharma of living and practicing in a human body.
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Sitting as Your True Self
08/16/2025, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman unpacks what it might mean to become yourself through the simple but challenging practice of shikantaza (just sitting), referencing Suzuki Roshi’s teachings and two Zen koans.
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Three Turning Phrases
08/13/2025, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center. Anshi Zachary Smith examines case 96 from the Blue Cliff Record which holds suggestions about how to frame one’s practice and warnings about the many ways we can get it wrong.
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To Expound the Dharma with This Body
08/10/2025, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho discusses the reality that a human body will turn to dust and yet it is the body in which we carry the dharma and come to know it. As Dogen Zenji, founder of Soto Zen, taught, "To expound the…
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Stories and Silence
08/09/2025, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center. Shundo David Haye reflects on the way we hold stories about ourselves and others, and how our practice of dwelling in silence can help us change our relationship with them.
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The Three Poisons: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
08/06/2025, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center. Sozan Michael McCord discusses working with and growing in our awareness of how the three poisons—greed, hatred and delusion—manifest in our lives, on this 80th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.
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Hello, My Other Self
08/03/ 2025, Sessei Meg Levie, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Sessei Meg Levie offers the teaching of the Four Elements and how seeing Dharma in nature can help us open our hearts to all beings.
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Gratitude and Grief
07/27/2025, Zenshin Greg Fain, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zenshin Greg Fain talks about gratitude and grief in the context of Thusness. Gratitude and grief can both be dharma gates to bring us closer to a felt sense of connection with each other, and all of existence.
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Finding Awareness in the Everyday
07/23/2025, Yogetsu Akasaka, dharma talk at City Center. Yogetsu Akasaka, a priest from the Sōtō Zen School in Japan, asks What if cleaning a bathroom could be one of your most profound spiritual practices?
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Goodbye and Hello
07/20/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler reflects on recent departures from Green Gulch of the elder teachers of the founding generation, and how at the same time as that loss, a new flower of teaching blossoms as "Becoming Yourself," the new...
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Introducing "Becoming Yourself"
07/19/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at City Center. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler celebrates together with the sangha the launch of the first new book of Suzuki Roshi's teachings in over 20 years, "Becoming Yourself," sharing about its fundamental teachings and how it came about.
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Lay Entrustment and Dharma Gates
07/26/2025, Henzan Roger Hillyard, dharma talk at City Center. Roger Hillyard offers a look into the origins of Lay Entrustment and how it has manifested in American Zen.
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Grief and Gratitude on Father's Day
06/15/2025, Gyokuden Stephanie Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Gyokuden Steph Blank shares her experience of grief and gratitude arising through the intimate process of accompanying her father during his recent transition from the miracle of life into the miracle of death.
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Keizan's Pure Land Right Here
04/23/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. Shosan Victoria Austin uses Keizan Zenji’s teachings to explore the questions: What is intentional service? And, how does this help very different people build an environment of wholeness and trust?
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Buddha’s Birthday: I Am the World-Honored One
04/05/3035, Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at City Center. Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman marks Buddha’s birthday by recounting the story of Shakyamuni Buddha’s birth over 2500 years ago while exploring the meaning of some of the more fantastical details.
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Chanting the Name of Kanzeon
07/06/2025, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zoketsu Norman Fischer discusses a forthcoming book by the Japanese Zen Master Kosho Uchiyama about his experience practicing chanting the name of Kanzeon Bodhisattva.
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How To Be Of Service: Breathe, Smile, Live
07/05/2025, Mark Lesser, dharma talk at City Center. Marc Lesser discusses a teaching from Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh: Breathing, smiling and living are three ways to practice.
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Caught in a Net, Together
07/02/2025, Doshin Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at City Center. Doshin Dan Gudgel explores the image of Indra’s Net and how it relates to life in this complicated, messy modern world.
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What is Dharma Transmission in Zen?
06/29/2025, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Kokyo Henkel explores what is really transmitted from teacher to student, and some classic Zen stories about Dharma transmission.
About this show
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.
Hosted by
San Francisco Zen Center