08/23/2023, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center. The most striking feature of the famous Koan recorded as Case 1 of the Blue Cliff Record and entitled, in Cleary’s translation, as “The Highest Meaning of the Holy Truths” is what a philosophical set piece it is. The Emperor and the Wandering Monk act flawlessly as the voices of two philosophical and experiential qualities that are at the foundation of Mahayana Buddhism. Hmmm… how did that happen? Is this mythology or history? In either case, it’s a great story.

An Encounter at the Bakery!

Dharma Talks given at San Francisco Zen Center

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04/28/2024, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
In this talk Zoketsu discusses case 19 of Mumonkan, Nanchuan’s Everyday Mind. Our practice is very plain and ordinary, and yet, the plain and ordinary world is also vast and wide, and when we practice zazen regularly we can begin to live in it with that appreciation. To end his talk Zoketsu quotes at length from a commentary to this story by his late teacher Sojun Weitsman, from his new posthumous book Seeing One Thing Through.

Everyday Mind Is The Way

04/27/2024, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at City Center.
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis discusses the Zen text "Harmony of Difference and Equality". Written in the 8th century in China, the "Harmony of Difference and Equality" holds significant importance in Zen history. It is chanted daily in many Zen temples and at the memorial ceremonies of founding teachers. The tone of the poem is an examination of the interactivity of the relative and absolute truths. In his commentary on the poem, Shunryu Suzuki says "The capacity of the human mind has three aspects: potentiality, interrelationship, and appropriateness. ... [T]he 'interrelationship between someone who helps and someone who is helped' is called jihi [which] is usually translated as ‘love.'"

Sekito Kisen's Difference and Equality

04/24/2024, Kodo Conlin, dharma talk at City Center.
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Kodo Conlin discusses this rich topic. Here, we resolve the distance between speaker and listener to turn the questions, "What is the shape of our practice?" and "How do we stay intimate with Dharma?" Also, haiku by Mitsu Suzuki one day after the 110th anniversary of her birth.

Intimacy and the Shape of our Practice

04/17/2024, Anshi Zachary Smith, dharma talk at City Center. 
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Anshi Zachary Smith digs into the well-known Case 17 of the Blue Cliff Record. Here, we discover that there are unexpected and experientially accurate ways to interpret the original text of Hsiang Lin’s response beyond the usual, “Sitting for a long time becomes toilsome.” We explore some of these and talk about what, if anything, the “toil” or work of Zazen might be, both in the course of a single sitting and of a lifetime of practice.

Doing the Work

04/14/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
In this talk, Jiryu suggests that by reflecting on the potential of Artificial Intelligence in Buddhism, in the form, for example, of the Suzuki Roshi chatbot, we can be led to renew our commitment to embodied presence, which is the real purpose and effort of Zen practice, and the real source of Bodhisattvas’ wisdom and compassion.

An Encounter at the Bakery!

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