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Kodo surveyed 10 Dharma teachers for a brief teaching that clarifies the practice of Zazen. Here’s what he heard.

Hiro Ikushima continues his series of talks on the Tenzo Kyokun (the Instructions to the Cook). This time, he focuses on the "Three Minds" that are essential to Dogen's teaching in this text.

Michael McCord shares reflections on finding balance in our practice.

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Sometimes our practice drifts to the back burner. For YUZ’s return to in-person community night, Kodo Conlin introduces three Working Grounds that can be the basis of a focused practice for the coming months.

Hiro Ikushima shares reflections on one of Dogen Zenji’s classic themes.

The Bodhisattva Precepts are the path and heritage of Zen. How can we practice them when conditions seem less than ideal? Kodo Conlin discusses an approach to practice with the Precepts that emphasizes community, self-awareness, trust, and growth. https://www.yuz-sf.org/

Anshi Zachary Smith delivers a talk that asks, and attempts to address, the eternal question, “The Dharma Gate of Repose and Bliss? What Zazen is Dogen talking about?” Many practitioners are baffled by the claim, made in Dogen’s Fukanzazengi, that Zazen is not meditation in the traditional sense but simply the doorway to an experience that is translated as above but also as “ease and joy” in some version of the liturgy. They might (rightly) ask, “How is me sitting here with my knees aching and my mind running off like a dog in a dog park ‘the Dharma Gate of anything?” We’ll get into why, and how it works. Zachary is a priest at City Center who started practicing here in 1993, was ordained as a priest in 2014 and received Dharma Transmission in 2019. One might reasonably ask what took him so long. You can find his bio here: https://www.sfzc.org/teachers/anshi-zachary-smith

After a practice period in the Ventana Wilderness, Kodo Conlin returns to discuss a vision of urban practice as seen through mountain eyes, gleaning five commitments we can make to transformational practice.

Myles Cowherd shares about the koan, Hyakujo's Fox, and how all this chatter about staying in the moment might be the remedy for our suffering.

This week Eli speaks about “Whatever We Experience at YUZ”

With Seigen Johnson, we'll spend some time considering how we find ourselves reflected in our theology and balancing our responsibility to past, present, and future.In the talk the poem, “Still I Rise”, by Maya Angelou is referenced. You can read the poem’s text here:https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise You can also listen to the exact musical recording played by Seigen during the talk here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UFMB4i1AJo

On this two-year anniversary of the closing of the SF Zen Center’s due to the pandemic, Michael McCord speaks about being prepared for life. Being prepared for life in such a way that you have spaciousness to take care of yourself and others.

This week, Eli shares words about the spirit of practice. As always a cup of tea is welcome!

Anshi Zachary Smith speaks on the topic of, "The philosophical heritage of Zen and the bind that it puts all of us in as practitioners.”Anshi Daigi Zachary Smith has been practicing Zen since 1993. He took jukai in 1995, was Shuso (Head Student) in 2007, ordained as a Zen priest in 2014 and received Dharma Transmission on April 17, 2019, all with former abbot and Senior Dharma Teacher Ryushin Paul Haller. He currently directs North Mountain Zendo, a zazenkai (sitting) group in North Beach. In addition to his involvement with Zen, Zachary is a husband, a father of four, an engineer, a musician, a bike fanatic, and an avid but mediocre poet. He may be the only person in the history of Zen in the West to have interrupted a residential practice period to tour with a rock band.

Horin Nancy Petrin explores the concept of refuge, inspired by the line from the Sandokai, "If you don't know the way right before you, how will you know the path as you walk?" You can find an English translation of the Sandokai (The Harmony of Difference and Samesness) here.

This week, Myles Cowherd talks about Suffering: What is it all about, and can we make friends with it?He also discusses the Four Noble Truths, "the truths of the Noble Ones" in both Theravada and Zen buddhism, see them compared here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ALdRZQVNJngHxgmCD5Mbg6WaPhNyUJTQMuGfGllqVyw/edit

Sandwiched between some light commentary, Eli Brown-Stevenson hosts a very special guest, Suzuki Roshi time traveling from 1965, who will be giving a lecture on Beginner's Mind. As always a cup of tea is welcome!Eli is a resident priest at City Center and has lived between City Center and Tassajara since 2012. He currently serves as Zen Center's Corporate Secretary and will be starting a new role as Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging for Zen Center in February. You can find his bio here.

“Why cooking rice and making soup in the kitchen are as valuable as practicing in the zendo, and how this practice can be applied to any kind of work.”