02/14/2024, Kim Kōgen Daihō Hart, dharma talk at City Center.
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Kim does a deep dive into the five remembrances to support us to live the life that we are already living with all its pain and preciousness.

Vow to Live the Life You’re Already Living

02/11/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
In this talk, Abbot Jiryu reflects on Suzuki Roshi's core teaching that Zen practice is fundamentally about "becoming yourself," and explores the strong resonance there with the Silent Illumination teaching that awakening is right there when we sit still, exactly as we are.

Becoming Yourself

02/10/2024, Shogen Jody Greene, dharma talk at City Center.
This talk was given at Beginner's Mind Temple by Shogen Jody Greene. While Dōgen Zenji once described 'shikantaza' (just sitting) as “the dharma gate of repose and bliss,” our teachers have also reminded us of the ways in which working with our minds on the cushion can surface irritability, judgment, even hatred. Many of us struggle with our thoughts and struggle with our selves. This talk returns to the story of Seiko and the dragon to explore the repeated arising of ideas about right and wrong, good zazen and bad zazen, false practice and true practice. The  second half of the talk turns to the recent horrifying and heartbreaking events in Israel-Palestine to see what our practice has to offer those of us longing for “peace and harmony” in a world that appears to be erupting in war. What it would mean for us, individually and collectively, to ceasefire?

Ceasefire

In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Rev. Eli explores how Zen practice, particularly the precepts, can be supportive when going through major life change—especially when dealing with loss of identity, decision making, and working with an inner critic. Through personal anecdotes and philosophical reflections, the talk emphasizes the role of Zen in fostering a deeper understanding of self and existence amidst change.

Embracing Zen with Change

02/04/2024, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Avalokiteshvara in the Avatamsaka Sutra lets us know of the powerful practice of Great Compassion to meet the great challenges of our life.

Practice Compassion Without Delay

02/03/2024, Onryu Mary Stares, dharma talk at City Center.
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Onryu Mary Stares explores the current City Center Practice Period theme of the Bodhisattva precepts, describing her personal experiences of taking refuge and encouraging this vibrant practice.

The Power of Precepts

In this talk, given during the first one-day sitting of the winter 2024 practice period, Abiding Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel discusses the sources and outcomes of the many different places and ways we construct our individual ethical frameworks. This talk was recorded during the January one-day sitting, held at Unity Church, a neighbor of San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center congregation.

Exploring Conditions and Consequences of Ethical Beliefs

01/21/2024, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In the great flower adornment scripture, chapter 67, the Buddha says, “All sentient beings without exception, fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddha, and yet because of misconceptions and attachments, they do not realize it.If they would only abandon these misconceptions and attachments, they would fully realize Buddhahood.”
During this talk, there was some discussion of how to compassionately relate to misconceptions and attachments in such a way that they drop away.

All Living Beings Fully Possess The Wisdom And Virtues Of The Buddhas, And Yet...

01/20/2024, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center.
Now our community is meeting only in the single room of the Zendo. What are some teachings on Sangha transformation in a Zendo? How can we see forms of the infinite, miraculous Dharma embedded through tradition and visualization in this shared space? This lecture explores such teachings in a verbal and visual presentation.

What Is Community?

01/17/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Shosan explores how we are practicing with the current physical changes to the temple space. This year, our urban temple is “residents out, contractors in.” Dogen Zenji once taught that Sangha Treasure appears equally in the vast openness of being or within a particle of dust; that to help people it can transform to an Ocean Storehouse or to sutras written on shells and leaves.

Beginner’s Mind Zendo: An Embodied Mandala of Sangha

01/14/2024, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
This talk by Tenshin Reb Anderson considers how to apply the Teaching of Thusness to the significant outbreak of infection and disruption in the midst of our January meditation intensive.

Courageously Practicing the Teaching of Suchness in the Midst of Illness and Fear

In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple on the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, Sozan Michael McCord unpacks many life events from this historic civil rights icon and looks at how he could have had a much more comfortable life at many turns, but instead chose the path that the times were calling for. In the Buddhist path, we are met every day with many small choices that no one will every know about—whether to say something, whether to do something, to move forward or withhold—and only our internal awareness usually is privy to this information. Are we concerned with status, reputation, ego, or simply avoiding personal bother and by this not actually meeting what the moment is asking of us?

Meeting the Moment and MLK, Jr.

01/10/2024, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center.
In this talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, Zachary discusses an often-used koan (teaching story): Yúnmén’s “Every day is a good day.” Zen, a Mahayana Buddhist school that theoretically eschews lists, dualities, categories of experience and other conceptual forms on the grounds that they’re empty, is nonetheless swimming in them. We’ll examine Case 6 of the Blue Cliff Record, in which Yúnmén, unquestionably one of the great Chán masters of the Táng Dynasty, employs such a device, and try to divine what he could possibly have been doing.

Is Every Day REALLY Good?

01/07/2024, Tenshin Reb Anderson, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
This talk is a contemplation of the Flower Adornment Scripture saying “Clearly observe the Dharma of the king of Dharma. The Dharma of the king of Dharma is thus.” Tenshin Reb Anderson is further relating this teaching to the first case in the Book of Serenity and the "Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi."

The Teaching of Thusness

In this talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, Liên speaks about how Skillful View, in services of restoration, is about opening up to acknowledging harm and harming, (re)learning ways to be more skillful, and then enacting them. The talk also serves as an overview of the main points of Rev. Liên Shutt's new book, “Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path,” and how they can be applied to these crucial issues of our contemporary lives.

Skillful View And Three Essential Aspects of Healing

01/03/2024, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at City Center.
In this talk, from Beginner's Mind Temple, Tova speaks of the importance of sangha as we vow to be of benefit to all beings. This first talk of 2024 is also the first recorded in the City Center zendo, as renovations to our temple building are beginning.

Live And Be Lived To Benefit All Beings

In light of several major transitions unfolding for SFZC and the sangha at large, including the upcoming yearlong renovation of Beginner’s Mind Temple, Abbot David offers dharma pointers for how we might relate to and navigate changes and transitions in our lives ─ both big and small, individual and collective ─ with some measure of mindfulness, clarity, composure, and equanimity. Recorded on December 16th, 2023.

Navigating Transitions

12/03/2023, Chosetsu Lauren Bouyea, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Suzuki Roshi said that beginner's mind - meeting the world and ourselves just-as-it-is - is the secret of Zen practice, but there are many powerful cultural and evolutionary forces that make remembering our beginner's minds the most difficult thing.

The Secret of Zen Practice

12/02/2023, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center. This talk from Beginner's Mind Temple addresses the aspect of philosophy in the practice and study of Buddhism, based on the fourth - contemplation of the dharmas - of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. One of the qualities of philosophy and practice not usually explicitly referred to is poignancy, which includes the pathos of human nature and a realization of the unresolvability of the human condition.

Buddhism and Philosophy

11/26/2023, Furyu Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In times of trouble, may the gracious teachings of the gentle Buddhas aid us in healing ourselves and the world.

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