San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks

San Francisco Zen Center
  • 4.3 (172)
  • BUDDHISM
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Dharma Talks given at San Francisco Zen Center

  1. AUG 31

    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 statement that he heard: "You should be kind, and that's enough."

    47 min

  2. AUG 28

    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.

    23 min

  3. AUG 24

    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.

    53 min

  4. AUG 23

    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.

    37 min

  5. AUG 17

    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.

    34 min

  6. AUG 16

    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.

    47 min

  7. AUG 14

    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.

    40 min

  8. AUG 10

    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 dharma with this body is foremost."

    39 min
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Dharma Talks given at San Francisco Zen Center

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