The Gay Buddhist Forum by GBF

GBF
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Buddhism for Liberation and Social Action - especially for LGBTQIA audiences.We invite teachers from all schools of Buddhism to offer their perspective on its application in modern times. Produced by The Gay Buddhist Fellowship of San Francisco.

  1. Aug 16

    Relating to the Mettā Sutta on Our Own Terms – Prasadachitta

    This talk is a preview of the GBF Fall Retreat: Our Belonging to Kindness: Awakening to the World We Carry Together, September 25-27, 2026. ______________ How do we take ancient, highly analytical Buddhist teachings and make them truly land in our everyday, modern lives? In this warm and deeply personal talk, Prasadachitta helps us imagine what it must have been like to be in the presence of the Buddha, hearing him speak directly to us in language that is easily understood. He invites us to step away from academic perfectionism and instead embrace the Buddha’s “come and see” invitation to experience a colloquial relationship with the Dharma. Prasadachitta explains that he isn’t concerned with strict historical or translation accuracy. Instead, he feels empowered as a practitioner to make these teachings real in his own life, letting the translated phrases of the Karaniya Metta Sutta shift and be rephrased depending on how they “hit” him, trusting that actual practice will naturally self-correct any misunderstandings. To remind us that the Dharma is built to be accessible, he shares the traditional qualities of teaching from the Dharma Vandana, proving that the truth is always meant to be practical: Intelligible and Well-Communicated: The Buddha always met people where they were, using everyday language and lived experiences (like those of farmers or kings) so we can actually do something with what is being communicated.Experienced Here and Now: It is a testable path that we can start practicing and verifying in our lives immediately.Perennial: Its core truths are timeless, surviving any historical or cultural change.Open to Investigation (Ehipassiko): It functions as a personal “come and see” invitation rather than a rigid system demanding blind belief.Progressive: It leads us onward, continuously unpacking new layers of wisdom as we engage with it.Individually Verifiable: It is ultimately validated through our own direct experience, turning us into the wise ones who know peace for themselves.With this open-minded, personal approach, Prasadachitta guides us directly into the Karaniya Metta Sutta as a highly practical roadmap for our spiritual growth. Rather than treating its instructions as abstract rules, he encourages us to relate to them through our own physical, lived experiences. When the sutta asks us to be upright but “flexible,” he illustrates this with a wonderful story about a flight attendant who playfully deputized snack-stealing kids to help her hand out peanuts, transforming a potential moment of conflict into an act of community.To make the sutta’s famous instruction to love “as a mother cherishes her only child” real for himself, he connects it to his own mother’s “rough” but deep, physical hugs that he can still feel in his body today.By bringing our own imagination and personal memories into the practice, we learn to cultivate a fierce, boundless goodwill that moves us from everyday “eminence” to spiritual “transcendence”.Ultimately, Prasadachitta promises that as we rest in this unlimited kindness, we naturally let go of our rigid views, become spontaneously ethical, and experience a quiet, complete sense of freedom. ______________ Prasadachitta was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2011 and he became the Chair of the San Francisco Buddhist Center in April 2022. He was born on a “back to the land” commune in rural Northern California and that background has inspired his engagement with others in building the SFBC’s rural meditation center called Dharmadhara. He also helped to establish a community of sangha members who support the retreats there. He supports himself as a documentary filmmaker and photographer but his real life’s work is training others who want to practice Buddhism within the Triratna Buddhist Community. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donate  Learn how to participate live  Find our schedule of upcoming speakers  Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995CREDITS Audio Production: George Hubbard Producer: Tom Bruein Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

    Relating to the Mettā Sutta on Our Own Terms – Prasadachitta

  2. Jun 28

    Remagining Buddhist Pride - Trip Weil

    In this talk from Pride weekend, Trip Weil explores how we can find a true, universal sense of freedom in our lives if we allow the dharma to reveal and heal painful aspects of shame we may be carrying.   Trip invites us to join him in "reimagining" what Pride and liberation can mean over the course of a lifetime. Journeying back to his very first Pride parade in San Francisco in 1985, Trip shares his own early struggles with internalized homophobia, vulnerable self-worth, and a defensive relationship with the world.  He beautifully pairs these personal memories with a classic non-dual quote from Indian guru Nisargadatta Maharaj: "Mind creates the abyss, love crosses it". Through this lens, we are invited to explore how our minds build walls of separation and clinging, while our hearts hold the power to bridge those gaps and bring us home to ourselves. To show us how this plays out, Trip guides us through the touching story of Kisa Gotami, a mother driven to temporary madness by the sudden death of her young son. When she begs the Buddha for a cure, he gently sends her on a quest to gather a mustard seed—but only from a household that has never experienced death. As she knocks on doors, she realizes that loss is a universal human thread, an insight into impermanence that brings her immediate, immense relief. Trip maps this ancient parable directly onto our modern queer journey, sharing several key lessons we can take to heart: The Illusion of the Outside Fix: Just like the death-free mustard seed, the idea that an external cure will "fix" or "straighten us out" is a mirage; true healing begins when we stop trying to fix ourselves and instead accept who we are.The Medicine of Community (Sangha): Gotami's sanity returned when she realized she wasn't alone in her grief. Similarly, stepping into a vibrant, visible community shows us that our struggles are shared, reminding us that we are not crazy or isolated.Releasing Rigid Identities: When we cling too tightly to a single identity—such as a grieving mother or a defensive ego—we obscure the vast, beautiful reality of who we actually are.Pride as Love Crossing the Abyss: Ultimately, Trip redefines Pride not as an ego-driven comparison, but as a deep sense of honor in our shared journey and a celebration of love crossing the mental divides of separation.______________ Trip Weil has been practicing in the Theravadan tradition since 2004. He is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader and Dedicated Practitioner programs. He is a psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco and a former attorney. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donate  Learn how to participate live  Find our schedule of upcoming speakers  Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995CREDITS Audio Production: George Hubbard Producer: Tom Bruein Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

    Remagining Buddhist Pride - Trip Weil

  3. Jun 21

    How We Can Stop Judging and Start Living - Daigan Gaither

    We become disconnected from our actual lives when we’re constantly trapped in a cycle of judging every feeling we have.  Here Daigan Gaither invites us to look at how we often dismiss our own pain by comparing it to "first-world problems" or the greater struggles of others. He shares his own journey with a "neurospicy" brain and rejection sensitivity, explaining that when we tell ourselves our feelings "aren't real" just because they have a biological cause or aren't "logical," we’re actually distancing ourselves from our lived experience. Daigan reminds us that if we feel it, it is real, and our practice is about learning to "experience the experience" while we’re actually in it, rather than getting lost in exhausting layers of thoughts about our feelings. To help us move closer to the front of that mental "train," Daigan offers several key insights into how we can soften our self-judgment and live more authentically: Kusala and Akusala: We can look at our thoughts and actions through the lens of whether they lead us toward liberation or away from it.The Healing Power of Noticing: Just as a physical wound heals when we stop picking at it, our emotional wounds can begin to pass when we simply notice them without trying to weigh or force them into something we think we "know"."What Else is There?": Instead of making our entire lives about one feeling of rejection or pain, we can practice asking what else is present in the moment—like the air on our skin or the sounds around us—allowing us to be a whole person having a whole experience.Fluidity of Self: By understanding that "no-self" means we are constantly changing, we can stop trying to hold onto a version of ourselves that no longer exists and instead break up the "concrete" of fixed views that keep us stuck.Ultimately, he encourages us to stop using our practice as a way to increase judgment on ourselves and instead simply allow ourselves to "have a day," trusting that each moment is a new chance to connect with reality. ______________ Rev. Daigan Gaither (he/him) began Buddhist practice in 1995 in the Vipassana (Insight) tradition, then began studying Zen in 2003. He received Lay Ordination in 2006 where he was given the name Daigan or “Great Vow,” and received Priest Ordination in July 2011.  Daigan speaks internationally on a variety of topics particularly around gender, sexuality, social justice, and their intersections with the Dharma. He also sits or has sat on a number of boards and committees that serve community needs and further social justice causes. Daigan has a BA in Philosophy and Religion from San Francisco State University, and an MA in Buddhist Studies (with a chaplaincy certificate and a certificate in Soto Zen Buddhism) from the Graduate Theological Union and the Institute of Buddhist Studies. He lives in San Francisco, CA and identifies as a disabled, queer, white, cis male. Learn more at https://queerdharma.net ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donate  Learn how to participate live  Find our schedule of upcoming speakers  Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995CREDITS Audio Production: George Hubbard Producer: Tom Bruein Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

    How We Can Stop Judging and Start Living - Daigan Gaither

  4. Jun 7

    Finding Our Universal Flow - Bill Weber

    Can we move beyond that small, tight sense of feeling separate and truly experience ourselves as part of the vast, magical universe?  In this heart-opening talk, Bill Weber shares how a powerful Qigong practice called the "Six Verses" helped him dissolve the "tightness" he carried for years, particularly the isolation often felt by gay men.  He reminds us that while we often feel solid and separate, we are actually 99.99% empty space—and if we crushed the entire human species down to pure matter, we’d fit inside a single sugar cube! By shifting our perspective from being isolated individuals to "cosmic chemistry" made of stardust, we can learn to navigate the irritations of daily life with a much greater sense of spaciousness and ease. Bill Weber walks us through the Six Verses, a short meditation that encapsulates a path toward freedom and joy: Internal Awareness: We start by going inside our bodies to find the emptiness and spaciousness within, letting any tension melt away.Universal Expansion: We then expand our awareness outward, moving from the room to the city and finally becoming one with the limitless universe.Returning with Peace: We draw that awareness back into our bodies, bringing a sense of calm and peacefulness with us.Reverence (Gongjing): We open back up to the universe with a sense of "utmost gongjing"—a deep, humble respect for being part of the whole.Nurturing the Heart: We allow the bright universe to fill our hearts with unconditional love and compassion, which Bill describes as a richness unlike any love we've known.Harmonious Flow: We conclude by feeling relaxed and free, allowing our "Qi" (energy) to flow smoothly and joyfully through our entire being.By practicing these verses, we can begin to see that we aren't just walking in nature; we are nature, and the boundaries between us and the world around us are just an illusion. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donate  Learn how to participate live  Find our schedule of upcoming speakers  Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995CREDITS Audio Production: George Hubbard Producer: Tom Bruein Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

    Finding Our Universal Flow - Bill Weber

  5. May 31

    The Practice of Unselfish Joy - Melvin Escobar

    Melvin Escobar helps us discover how we can tap into a source of happiness that doesn't depend on our personal wins, but actually grows the more others succeed.  Here he explores the concept of mudita—often translated as unselfish or appreciative joy. He dives into how this practice, one of the four "divine abodes" or Brahma-viharas, helps us break out of the Western individualistic trap and realize that our happiness is deeply interconnected with everyone else's.  Melvin reminds us that even when we feel stuck in aversion or judge ourselves for "not doing it right," those very feelings are actually the path to joy; by noticing what we are reflexively pushing away, we create the space for a more authentic, humanized connection to the world around us. He guides us through several ways we can cultivate this "immeasurable" joy in our daily lives, moving beyond the idea of it being a separate, lofty goal: The Path of Purification: We learn that mudita is often found right in the middle of our aversion. Instead of fighting our negative thoughts, we can see them simply as "sensations" and use that awareness to melt the "stone" of indifference.Integrating Our Life Stages: We reflect on how our capacity for joy evolves from the "bundle of joy" we were as infants, through the traumas of adolescence, and into a more "distilled" version of ourselves as we age and learn to laugh at our own forgetfulness.Sati (Remembering): We practice the intention of "remembering" our Buddha nature and the path, realizing that once we’ve seen the truth of interdependence, we can never truly "unsee" it.The "Buddha Smile": We are invited to try a physical practice—the slight upward turn of the lips—that helps us stay present and serious about our spiritual work without losing our sense of lightness.Service as Joy: We see that humanizing each other is an act of joy, and through service, the separation between "who is serving who" begins to dissolve.By practicing mudita, we find the "safety valve" that allows us to experience the world's beauty and suffering without crumbling under the weight of it all. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donate  Learn how to participate live  Find our schedule of upcoming speakers  Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995CREDITS Audio Production: George Hubbard Producer: Tom Bruein Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

    The Practice of Unselfish Joy - Melvin Escobar

  6. May 24

    Shakespeare Dharma: Two Refuges - Matthew Perifano

    In this moving and lyrical talk, Matthew Perifano shares how he found a sense of true refuge when facing deep grief and the uncertainty of life.  Matthew shares how he began weaving together the wisdom of the Dharma with the timeless plays and sonnets of William Shakespeare. He describes how his relationship with these texts evolved from a daunting college requirement into a vital mind-body practice that eventually helped him navigate the devastating losses of the AIDS epidemic. He suggests that when we lend our own voices and bodies to these words, we can discover that we are never alone in our suffering, finding a profound sense of compassion—or karuna—that transcends time and space. Matthew illustrates how the insights of the Buddha are often hiding in plain sight within the Bard's greatest works, offering we several "Shakespeare Dharma" keys to unlock our own understanding of reality: Finding Refuge in Grief: He explains how Sonnet 30 helped him move through personal loss by revealing that our "precious friends hid in death’s dateless night" connect us to a universal experience of suffering, turning art into a path through pain rather than just an escape from it.Presence in the Ordinary: Drawing from his own "transcendent experience" while washing dishes and the poetry of Layman Pang, he reminds we that spiritual activity is found in the most basic daily affairs, like drawing water or carrying wood.The Trap of Papancha: He uses the jealous rants of King Leantes from The Winter's Tale to demonstrate papancha, or mental proliferation—the tendency of our minds to spin "nothing" into a suffocating storm of obsessive, illusory thoughts.Life as a Dream: He concludes with Prospero’s famous speech from The Tempest, which he calls "Shakespeare’s Diamond Sutra," to help we contemplate how all conditioned things are essentially "such stuff as dreams are made on". ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donate  Learn how to participate live  Find our schedule of upcoming speakers  Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995CREDITS Audio Production: George Hubbard Producer: Tom Bruein Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

    Shakespeare Dharma: Two Refuges - Matthew Perifano

  7. May 17

    The Path to Freedom in an Ever-Changing World - Walt Opie

    The Path to Freedom in an Ever-Changing World How can we find lasting peace when everything in our lives—from our favorite shops to our own bodies—is constantly changing? In this talk, Walt Opie explores impermanence, the "bedrock" of Buddhist teaching, showing us how our suffering often comes from fighting a reality we cannot change. He explains that our brains are hardwired to look for "signs"—characteristic marks that help us recognize things—which trick us into believing life is more permanent than it really is. Through poetry and the wisdom of teachers like Ajahn Chah, Walt illustrates that when we accept "the glass is already broken," we create a "safety valve" for our hearts that prevents them from bursting when life shifts. Walt offers several concepts to help us wake up from the "dream state" of daily life: Equanimity: Being in harmony with the way things are instead of fighting reality.Signlessness: Intentionally ignoring the "signs" or labels we usually construct from our senses, which helps us stay focused during meditation.Bare Awareness: Training ourselves so that in the seen there is "just the seen" and in the heard "just the heard," stripping away the mental layers that cause us stress.The Present Moment as a Gate: Using the image of a simple sandwich to remind us that liberation is found by fully showing up for whatever is happening right now.By following his lead, we can learn to be "neither here nor there," allowing the world to catch our hearts off guard and blow them wide open. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donate  Learn how to participate live  Find our schedule of upcoming speakers  Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995CREDITS Audio Production: George Hubbard Producer: Tom Bruein Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

    The Path to Freedom in an Ever-Changing World - Walt Opie

  8. May 10

    Embodying Our Truth: The Perfection of Queer Wisdom - Liên Shutt

    Rev. Liên Shutt explores how the Buddhist path of wisdom can help us fully celebrate and embody our identities as queer people.  The concept of prajna (wisdom) is not an abstract theory, but as an interactive way of being that honors our lived experiences. Liên breaks down the traditional three levels of wisdom and maps them onto the queer journey, showing how we move from simply seeking information about our identities to reflecting on our shared stories and, finally, to an embodied presence. The "perfection of wisdom" is found in how we carry ourselves—without defensiveness or shame—fully alive in the moment and comfortable in our own skin. Drawing on her own history—from navigating the "cluelessness" of her youth to finding belonging in the queer Vietnamese community of the Bay Area—she describes the transition from being an "object" defined by society to reclaiming oneself as a "subject".  Liên emphasizes that the heart of meditation practice is discernment, which allows us to recognize the stories we tell ourselves and choose a path of kindness instead. She invites listeners to view their queerness as a gateway to understanding the interdependence of all things, highlighting several key frameworks for this development: Three Levels of Wisdom: Learning/Knowledge: Absorbing information and searching for representation.Reflection: Processing experience through shared coming-out stories, community symbols, and discussion.Meditation (Bhavana): Developing an "embodied wisdom" that allows one to live fully and authentically without apologies.Subjectivity and Value: Moving beyond the internalized idea that being "different" is bad, and instead realizing that all phenomena—including ourselves—are worthy and valuable subjects. Non-Egocentric Awareness: Practicing a "looseness" of self where our queerness is seen as both deeply personal and part of a larger, collective whole. Discernment as a Tool: Using mindfulness to notice when we are becoming reactive and instead consciously "turning toward" kindness and friendliness ______________  Liên Shutt (she/they) is a priest lineage holder in the Shunryu Suzuki tradition. Born to a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she received her meditation training in the Insight and Soto Zen traditions in the U.S., Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. She was a founding member of the Buddhists of Color in 1998 and currently is the guiding teacher of Access to Zen, an inclusive, anti-oppression sangha and non-profit in the SF Bay Area. She lives on Ohlone land, currently called Oakland, with her partner, exploring waterways and forests as often as they can. Visit https://accesstozen.org/ for ways to connect and practice together. ______________  To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/ There you can:    Donate  Learn how to participate live  Find our schedule of upcoming speakers  Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995CREDITS Audio Production: George Hubbard Producer: Tom Bruein Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

    Embodying Our Truth: The Perfection of Queer Wisdom - Liên Shutt
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Buddhism for Liberation and Social Action - especially for LGBTQIA audiences.We invite teachers from all schools of Buddhism to offer their perspective on its application in modern times. Produced by The Gay Buddhist Fellowship of San Francisco.

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