Frank Kilmer first meditated with Chogyam Trungpa then Dainin Katagiri then Richard Baker. He studied with other Zen and Tibetan teachers. He lives in Santa Fe where he managed Upaya's plant for some years. He's a a great plumber too. He has a lot of juicy tidbits to share from all these years of Buddhist study and practice. Check him out in this podcast.
Barrie Mottishaw is a landscape artist who spent years at the Jones Farm on Quadra Island, a Zen community that was started by students at the San Francisco Zen Center. Learn about that and more in this podcast with her.
Just what it says in the title - DC reads the Preface to Tassajara Stories. Full title - Tassajara Stories: a Sort of Memoire/Oral History of the first Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West--the First Year--1967. Publishing date for the book/audio book/ebook is S3ptember 23, 2025. Go to cuke.com to read reviews and so forth.
Ted Howell came to the SFZC in the mid-seventies and stuck around a long time. In this podcast, part two of two, he talks about his time at the SF Zen Center and a good deal more..
Ted Howell came to the SFZC in the mid-seventies and stuck around a long time. In this podcast, part one of two, he talks about what he's up to these days, his relationship with squirrels and crows, what transpired on his way to Zen Center, his arrival there and the first thing he learned - having to do with footwear. One point of interest is about his early acting training and relationship with Robin Williams.
Peter Ford started helping with Cuke Archives in 2012, maybe earlier. Not sure. Since the day he started he's been pretty much full time. For a number of years he's been the Managing Director of Cuke Archives. Thanks to Peter I can concentrate on special projects. In the podcast we talk about the work he's done and his way-seeking mind story. Nine bows to Peter for all he's done and continues doing. - dc
Marsha Angus has been a therapist for many in and out of the SFZC realm for decades. She received lay ordination in 1979 from Richard Baker, was shuso at SFZC in 2007 and received lay entrustment in 2010 from Dairyu Michael Wenger. She started practicing at Green Gulch Farm in 1975. She lives in Mill Valley with her partner, Kiku Christina Lehnherr. Listen to the podcast and learn more.
August 17, 2025, 80th anniversary of Indonesia 's Independence from the Netherlands. Ketut, Kadek, and I attend a sunrise concert of jazz great Indra Lesmana at the beach in front of Bali Beach Hotel and I DC reminisce about when Katrinka and I used to live in that area and free associate some.
Adam Beck was living at Tassajara before the SF Zen Center bought it in December of 66 from his parents. He was two at the time. He's an artist now living in San Anselmo. I've known him through the ensuing years so we've got a lot to say to each other and he's got a lot to say about Tassajara, Suzuki, Baker, and more in this podcast. Also at the first I apologize for an errata in the prior Beginner's Mind podcast.
Meiya Wender has practiced at Zen Center since 1972, was ordained as a priest in 1986 (receiving the name Luminous Night, Original Practice, Meiya Honshu), and received Dharma Transmission in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 2002. She has also trained in traditional Soto Zen forms at Zuioji in Shikoku, Japan. She has held many monastic positions at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and Green Gulch, including director, ino (head of the zendo), tenzo (head cook), and tanto (head of practice). She has studied the Way of Tea for many years, including a year at the Urasenke Midorikai program in Kyoto, and teaches Tea in Sowing the Moon Teahouse at Green Gulch. - from the SFZC site
DC reads all extant Shunryu Suzuki on Beginner's Mind, discusses the origins and its spread far beyond the sphere of Buddhism.
Upasama (formerly Reuven be Yuhmin) was a student of Shunryu Suzuki, a great gardener at Tassajara , who's been living in a Theravada monastery near Perth, Australia, for the last twelve years. This is the second podcast with Upasama.
Diane Renshaw began Zen practice at Tassajara in 1978, received lay ordination in 1993, and has been working with Tassajara on a native plant project for 25 years. Diane lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is an experienced botanist, birdwatcher, and ecologist. In this podcast we hear about her life as a scientist and a Buddhist--and more.
Renshin Bunce began practicing with Steve Stucky in 1994. In 2013 she received dharma transmission from him. Her website is renshinbunce.com. Go there for info on her in-person and Zoom sitting groups. She's published three books on Amazon that one can find listed under her name - on Steve Stucky, hospice work, and practicing at Tassajara. Her cuke.com page has links to her many photos or go to flickr.com/photos/renshin. Listen to this podcast to learn lots more.
Rinso Ed Sattizahn first came to the SF Zen Center in 1970, had a few memorable experiences with Shunryu Suzuki, and returned in 1972. He lived at Tassajara for years, was VP and president of the SFZC, went into the high tech world for over seventeen years, returned to the SF Bay area, got ordained, co-founded Vimala Sangha in Mill Valley with Lew Richmond, was a co-abbot then center abbot of the SFZC for nine years. In this podcast he talks about that and much more.
Kelly Chadwick talks about a week spent at Tassajara in April trimming and removing trees with a crew from his Spirit Pruners biz in Spokane, WA. He was a podcast guest last year after doing the same at Tassajara. He's got new insights to share about Tassajara where he spent a lot of time growing up. Full disclosure--he's my son. - DC
Ben Van Overmeire is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Duke Kunshan University. His research focuses on the study of Zen Buddhist texts. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include ethics and leadership, global China studies, religion and literature. Van Overmeire has a B.A. (cum laude) and M.A. He wrote American Koan: Imagining Zen and Self in Autobiographical Literature. In this podcast we talk about his book (which features my Thank You and OK!) and how his path has taken him from his native Belgium through the US and to China. - dc
Furyu Nancy Schroeder came to the SF Zen Center in the seventies. She was the abbess of Green Gulch Farm from 2014 to 2023 and has been an active supporter of programs for children, people of color, the gay and lesbian community, and the interfaith community. In 2008 she was elected to the Marin Women's Hall of Fame, and in 2010 she was appointed to the Board of the Marin Community Foundation. In addition, she has previously co-led SF Zen Center's Contemplative Caregiver Course. She received Dharma Transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1999. That's from the SFZC bio on her. In this podcast she talks about how she got into Zen and what's happened since and other stuff.
Sokaku Kathie Fischer began practicing Zen in 1971 with Sojun Mel Weitsman at the Berkeley Zen Center. She was ordained a Zen priest at San Francisco Zen Center in 1980 by Zentatsu Richard Baker, and continued residential practice at Zen Center for 15 more years. She received Dharma transmission from Sojun Weitsman in 2011 while in the midst of her 28-year career as a school teacher in Mill Valley. Since retiring from teaching science to adolescents she has turned her attention to studying and teaching Dharma. Kathie and her husband Norman are parents of adult twin sons and grandparents of three children.. That's the SFZC bio on her. In this podcast we hit on various topics , one of them being Richard Baker. This was recorded soon before Baker's stroke from which he's recovering nicely.
Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler is the abbot of Green Gulch Farm as a co-abbot of the SF Zen Center. In the podcast he talks about Becoming Yourself, an upcoming book of Shunryu Suzuki lectures that he worked on with Mel Weitsman. First he talks briefly about Nicole Baden and Richard Baker's recent stay at the City Center and Green Gulch and Baker's stroke of a week ago. He reads selections from Becoming Yourself: Teachings on the Zen Way of Life and we talk about that and more. Most enjoyable.