San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks

Public lectures given at San Francisco Zen Center

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.

09-04
34:10

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.

08-16
47:03

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.

08-14
39:35

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."

08-10
39:18

Stories and Silence

08/09/2025, Shundo David Haye, dharma talk at City Center. Shundo David Haye reflects on the way we hold stories about ourselves and others, and how our practice of dwelling in silence can help us change our relationship with them.

08-09
34:34

The Three Poisons: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

08/06/2025, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at City Center. Sozan Michael McCord discusses working with and growing in our awareness of how the three poisons—greed, hatred and delusion—manifest in our lives, on this 80th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

08-07
35:35

Hello, My Other Self

08/03/ 2025, Sessei Meg Levie, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Sessei Meg Levie offers the teaching of the Four Elements and how seeing Dharma in nature can help us open our hearts to all beings.

08-03
43:02

Gratitude and Grief

07/27/2025, Zenshin Greg Fain, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zenshin Greg Fain talks about gratitude and grief in the context of Thusness. Gratitude and grief can both be dharma gates to bring us closer to a felt sense of connection with each other, and all of existence.

07-27
39:28

Finding Awareness in the Everyday

07/23/2025, Yogetsu Akasaka, dharma talk at City Center. Yogetsu Akasaka, a priest from the Sōtō Zen School in Japan, asks What if cleaning a bathroom could be one of your most profound spiritual practices?

07-24
36:26

Goodbye and Hello

07/20/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler reflects on recent departures from Green Gulch of the elder teachers of the founding generation, and how at the same time as that loss, a new flower of teaching blossoms as "Becoming Yourself," the new book of Suzuki Roshi's talks, is released.

07-20
38:02

Introducing "Becoming Yourself"

07/19/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at City Center. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler celebrates together with the sangha the launch of the first new book of Suzuki Roshi's teachings in over 20 years, "Becoming Yourself," sharing about its fundamental teachings and how it came about.

07-19
45:11

Lay Entrustment and Dharma Gates

07/26/2025, Henzan Roger Hillyard, dharma talk at City Center. Roger Hillyard offers a look into the origins of Lay Entrustment and how it has manifested in American Zen.

07-17
31:00

This Human Body

07/12/2025, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at City Center. Kiku Christina Lehnherr explores the dharma of living and practicing in a human body.

07-12
37:47

Chanting the Name of Kanzeon

07/06/2025, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zoketsu Norman Fischer discusses a forthcoming book by the Japanese Zen Master Kosho Uchiyama about his experience practicing chanting the name of Kanzeon Bodhisattva.

07-06
41:24

How To Be Of Service: Breathe, Smile, Live

07/05/2025, Mark Lesser, dharma talk at City Center. Marc Lesser discusses a teaching from Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh: Breathing, smiling and living are three ways to practice.

07-05
27:31

Caught in a Net, Together

07/02/2025, Doshin Dan Gudgel, dharma talk at City Center. Doshin Dan Gudgel explores the image of Indra’s Net and how it relates to life in this complicated, messy modern world.

07-03
32:27

What is Dharma Transmission in Zen?

06/29/2025, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Kokyo Henkel explores what is really transmitted from teacher to student, and some classic Zen stories about Dharma transmission.

06-29
44:04

Harmony Within and Beyond

This talk was given at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center (Zenshinji) by Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道. Lucy reflects on different aspects of harmony. Recorded on June 28, 2025.

06-29
38:30

Not Disregarding A Single Thing

06/22/2025, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. As senior dharma teacher Linda Ruth Cutts prepares to move from Green Gulch and SFZC residency after 54 years she brings up the practice of being upright in the midst of great change.

06-22
52:40

A Larger Bowl

06/21/2025, Chikudo Catherine Spaeth, dharma talk at Tassajara.

06-22
26:01

Keith Gliesman

great talk!

02-01 Reply

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