San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks

Given by Guo Gu at City Center on June 16th, 2026

Given by Nyokai Kristin Diggs at Green Gulch Farm on June 14th, 2026 Nyokai Kristin Diggs talks about zazen as a practice of realizing the non-separation of body and mind, and about the dynamic relationship that is the body-mind.

Given by Sozan Michael McCord at City Center on June 13th, 2026 Sozan Michael McCord teaches that when we look at the cause of suffering, we see that it is grasping and clinging or aversion and not accepting what is. We have known since the Industrial Revolution, very clearly, but now have it even more greatly elucidated in the age of artificial intelligence: if a human being equates their value to production, they are obsolete.

Given by Anshi Zachary Smith at City Center on June 10th, 2026 Anshi Zachary Smith examines the "doing nothing” of zazen, and how much it actually does.

Given by Jiryu Rutschman-Byler at Green Gulch Farm on June 7th, 2026 Jiryu Rutschman-Byler shares the story from Dogen Zenji’s chapter "Jinzu" about the “great supernatural accomplishments” of the Zen ancestors Guishan and Yangshan, as they spend a morning together expressing the heart of Zen practice through their ordinary, everyday care and intimacy.

Given by Ryotan Cynthia Kear at City Center on June 6th, 2026 Ryotan Cynthia Kear shares Darlene Cohen’s core teachings on the importance of cultivating concentration, personal koans, transformation of suffering and vow.

Given by Chikudo Catherine Spaeth at City Center on June 3rd, 2026 Chikudo Catherine Spaeth teaches that a whole world of forms catches us up in personal emotions and stories, and when we see through them there can be a feeling of heartsickness. How, in our illness, does emptiness use emptiness to liberate us in true feeling?

Given by Sokaku Kathie Fischer at Green Gulch Farm on May 31st, 2026 Sokaku Kathie Fischer examines examines Case 32 of the Mumonkan (The Gateless Gate), likening this story to Suzuki Roshi's teaching that if you want to control your cows, give them a really large field.

Given by Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道 at City Center on May 30th, 2026 Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道 explores the dynamic interplay between our awakened nature and the ongoing cultivation of practice within the conditions of our lives, by drawing on the story and teachings of Zen Master Dongshan.

Given by Sozan Michael McCord at Green Gulch Farm on May 24th, 2026 Sozan Michael McCord takes a deep dive into the motivations behind acceptance and rejection, and the many ways they play out in everyday life.

Given by So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson at Green Gulch Farm on May 17th, 2026 So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson uses somatic meditation, the image of the hand, and Zen teachings on non-separation, to explore how we move from contraction and self-protection toward a more open participation in reality, compassion, and ordinary mind.

Given by Jiryu Rutschman-Byler at Green Gulch Farm on May 10th, 2026 Jiryu Rutschman-Byler explores and invites the practice of profound ease, which we can touch by exhaling completely enough to “let go of hundreds of years,” and which can feel like, as Suzuki Roshi teaches, being back in the lap of our mother, or of the Buddha.

Given by Gengyoko Tim Wicks at City Center on May 2nd, 2026 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.

Given by Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道 at City Center on April 29th, 2026 Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道 explores the theme of the Spring Practice Period and explores the relationship between “nothing lacking” and “continuous practice”.

Given by Kiku Christina Lehnherr at Green Gulch Farm on April 26th, 2026 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.

Given by Ben Connelly at City Center on April 25th, 2026 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.

Given by Shosan Victoria Austin at City Center on April 22nd, 2026 Shosan Victoria Austin, in this Earth Day lecture, invites us to contemplate how practicing ethics protects both us and the world.

Given by Doshin Dan Gudgel at City Center on April 15th, 2026 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.

Given by Rinso Ed Sattizahn at Green Gulch Farm on April 12th, 2026 Rinso Ed Sattizahn reflects on the meaning of Jizo’s staff and comments on David Chadwick and the Shunryu Suzuki teaching story “Everything Changes.”

Given by Hondo Dave Rutschman at City Center on April 11th, 2026 Hondo Dave Rutschman explores how we enter a ritual space with our effort and intention, without attempting to control the outcome.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

03/08/2026, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, 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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

02/28/2026, Grace Dammann, dharma talk at City Center. Dr. Grace Dammann shares her journey through medicine, Zen practice, disability, and spiritual awakening.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.