San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks
Public lectures recorded at the San Francisco Zen Center, a Buddhist practice center in California. These dharma talks explore meditation, mindfulness, and Zen teachings. They are given by teachers and guest speakers to the community, offering insights into Buddhist practice and philosophy.
Episodes
Heart-Teachings of a No-Good, Lazy Monk
Given by Jan Willis at Green Gulch Farm on August 2nd, 2026 Dr. Jan Willis discusses the life of eighth-century poet and philosopher, Shantideva, and what it can teach us about genuine bodhisattva practice.
Attention: Practice to Benefit the World
Given by Eijun Linda Cutts at Green Gulch Farm on July 26th, 2026 Eijun Linda Ruth Cutts explores how caring with wholehearted attention to what is before us and within us realizes the practice of expressing the True Reality of All Things.
Turning the Light Around to Illuminate the Light
Given by Tenzen David Zimmerman at City Center on July 25th, 2026 Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman offers three analogies related to light as supportive practices for zazen, noting that in Zen, light serves as a powerful analogy for awareness.
Joy and Responsibility in Zen
Given by Doshin Dan Gudgel at City Center on July 22nd, 2026 Doshin Dan Gudgel explores joy as a fuel for practice and shares a practice for connecting with joy during daily meditation.
Nothing Wasted
Given by So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson at Green Gulch Farm on July 19th, 2026 So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson explores a practice that rejects nothing, wastes nothing, and reveals how transformation begins when everything belongs through stories from Green Gulch Farm, Zen teachings, and an ecological view of dependent arising.
We Are Buddhas and Ancestors
Given by Odo Ellen Simpson at City Center on July 18th, 2026 Odo Ellen Simpson explores the depth and complexity of Soto Zen ancestor practice in the context of monastic and lay life with consideration of cultural and family trauma perspectives.
When A Buddha Breaks
Given by Tenzen David Zimmerman at Green Gulch Farm on July 12th, 2026 Central Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman speaks to the loss felt by the fire that destroyed the Tassajara Zendo in March 2026, and particularly the damage to the 1800-year-old Gandharan Buddha stone statue that had been on the altar (with slide accompaniment).
Honoring My Teacher
Given by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho at City Center on July 11th, 2026 Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho shares the experience of being a student and learning from a Zen teacher. What is needed? Are you prepared to have a teacher? What happens when you’re from different cultures?
Returning and the Settled Self
Given by Horin Nancy Petrin at City Center on July 8th, 2026 Horin Nancy Petrin reflects on the ‘settled self’ inspired by Suzuki Roshi’s lecture ‘Be Kind with Yourself” from the collection “Not Always So.”
To Shine One Corner
Given by Jiryu Rutschman-Byler at Green Gulch Farm on July 5th, 2026 Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler shares some of Suzuki Roshi’s views on WWII, America and Japanese nationalism, and shares a story of Suzuki Roshi’s practice of “shining one corner” during the war.
Taste The Truth
Given by Shundo David Haye at City Center on July 1st, 2026 Shundo David Haye reflects on the role and value of practice in imbuing us with inner integrity, in this age of social media and AI.
The Dharma of Demi-Girls
Given by Shoren Heather Iarusso at Green Gulch Farm on June 28th, 2026 Shōren Heather Iarusso explores the intersection of Buddhism, gender fluidity and the PRIDE movement using a rainbow as a metaphor.
Holding It All
Given by Jisho Lisa Beth Hoffman at City Center on June 27th, 2026
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Jisho Lisa Beth Hoffman, in this Queer Pride weekend talk, asks “How do we practice so the poignant truth of impermanence deepens our experience of ‘just this’ – the life and moment before us?”
The Gulch, the Valley, as the Embodiment of Silent Illumination
Given by Guo Gu at Green Gulch Farm on June 21st, 2026
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Chan Teacher Guo Gu speaks of the significance of the "gulch" in Green Gulch, connecting it with the qualities of being the “valley"—open receptive, responsive, hollow yet luminous qualities.
The Historical-Political Rise of Silent Illumination, Shikantaza, and the Embodied Experiencing of this Practice
Given by Guo Gu at City Center on June 16th, 2026
Zazen Sits Zazen for the Welfare of the World
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.
AI and the Second Noble Truth
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 va
Body, Breath and Hara
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.
How to Be Alive for It All
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.
Awakening to the Sickened Heart
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?
A Non-Buddhist Questions the Buddha
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.
Come Home, Come Home!
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.
Not Taking What Is Not Given
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.
Sitting Zazen—Whole & Complete Without Striving
Given by Nyokai Kristin Diggs at City Center on May 23rd, 2026 Nyokai Kristin Diggs talks about the difference between the zazen of Soto Zen and styles of sitting practice that aim at attaining an ideal or special state of mind.
Teaching Without Words: An Invitation to Continuous Practice
Given by Tenmyo Dojima at City Center on May 20th, 2026 Tenmyo Dojima 堂島典明 reflects on interfaith dialogue in Italy and lessons learned through injury and recovery, and invites us to slow down, breathe, and rediscover the ordinary miracles of daily life.
Held in the Vastness
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.
Study the Self First
Given by Gengyoko Tim Wicks at City Center on May 13th, 2026 Gengyoku Tim Wicks explores Dogen Zenji's famous teaching, "To study the Buddha way is to study the self," through the lens of recovery, trauma, and meditation practice.
In the Lap of the Buddha
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.
Accepting the Unacceptable
Given by Kim Kogen Daiho Hart at City Center on May 6th, 2026 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.
Mindfulness and the Path to Liberation
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 Bodhidh
Nothing Lacking, Continuous Practice
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”.
No Body – No Life
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.
Interdependence and Engagement
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.
Bodhisattva Precepts on This Great Earth
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.
Department of Peace
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.
Jizo Bodhisattva and Impermanence
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.”
Our Ritual Practice
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.
The Monkey and the Machine
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.
Illusions, Delusions, and Mistaken Beliefs
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.
Mountains Walk and Rivers Talk
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.
A Path of Zen Healing
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.
Buddhism Is A Way of Life
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.
Mahapajapati and Liberation
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.
Can Stillness Be Trusted?
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?
Buddha Body – Buddha Earth
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.
Building a Posture of Love
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.
Left Hand, Right Hand
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 w
Awakening With the Help of Just This Body
02/28/2026, Grace Dammann, dharma talk at City Center. Dr. Grace Dammann shares her journey through medicine, Zen practice, disability, and spiritual awakening.
On Presence
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.”
Tending to the Cries of the Earth
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.
Cultivating the Art of Tenderness
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.
Expectations
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.
The Practice of Settling Down
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.
One Hiss and I Lost What I Know
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.
Message of Peace
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.
Buddha's Robe as the Body
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.
Nothing in the Universe Is Hidden
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.
The Gates to Practice Multiply
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.
Work Practice and The "One Who Is Not Busy"
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.
Agents of Peace and Change
Disentangling Karma
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.
Cultivating Intimacy With Our Body
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.
Virya, Joyful Effort and M.L.K.
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.
I Don’t Exist!: The Self in Buddhism
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.
Embodying Wonderment: Zen 2.0
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?
Patience: The Buddhist Practice of Showing Up for the World
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.
Zen Gossip, Rumors, Speculation, and Idealization
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.
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.
Scrooge’s Buddhist Lessons
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.
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.
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.
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: posture, breathing, warm heart, empty mind, and oneness with things.
Awakening Through Harmonious Differences
11/22/2025, Thich Nu Thuan Tue, dharma talk at City Center.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 them: “To find true joy under some limitation is the way to realize the whole universe."
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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