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How do we discover and trust our innate luminous nature when our lived experience feels dark, messy, or entirely obscured by everyday challenges?
Roshi David Blackwell explores the famous Zen koan from Master Yunmen, "Everyone has a light." He leads us into an exploration of what a luminous mind really means in the context of our ordinary daily lives.
David invites us to drop our rigid, idealized concepts of enlightenment and stop searching for some grand external epiphany. Instead, we learn how our luminous nature is constantly present—not despite our darkness or difficulties, but directly within them.
He unpacks several key aspects of this teaching to help us recognize and embody this light:
By exploring this deeply, we can bring the core Zen teachings within the koan directly into the texture of our daily life.
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Roshi David Blackwell is a Zen teacher in the White Plum Asanga lineage. He received Dharma Transmission and the lineage name Tenryū Jōkai (天龍浄海) from Charles Tenshin Fletcher Roshi in 2014, and Inka — final seal of approval and independence — in 2022.
Originally from Wales, David moved to Southern California in 2000 to train full time. His teaching is grounded in traditional Zen forms and woven into the texture of ordinary life. He emphasizes the direct experience of awakening using contemporary language and time-honored methods. Learn more at https://becomingordinary.org/
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
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CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
What does it truly mean to look beyond our conceptual labels and rest in the direct, unmediated experience of awareness?
In this illuminating talk, Dorothy Hunt invites us to explore how true seeing shatters the illusion of separation and brings us home to the present moment. She gently guides us to recognize that awareness is not something we achieve, but rather what we fundamentally are when we stop searching and simply notice what is here.
As Dorothy explains, softening into this deep inquiry involves a few essential shifts in perception:
Recognizing that our thoughts, sensations, and emotions are simply passing expressions of a vast, welcoming mystery rather than fixed identities to defend.
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Dorothy Hunt serves as spiritual director of Moon Mountain Sangha and was the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy. She is the author of Only This!, Leaves from Moon Mountain, and Ending the Search: From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness, as well as articles published on nondual wisdom and psychotherapy.
She teaches at the request and in the spiritual lineage of Adyashanti, who invited her to share the dharma in 2004. Dorothy has a long and deep connection to the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and the nondual teachings of Zen, Advaita, and the Christian mystics. She invites a deep welcoming of the human expressions of the mystery. A licensed psychotherapist since 1967, Dorothy has now retired from her private practice. She is a mother and a grandmother. For more information, please visit: https://dorothyhunt.org or Dorothy Hunt - Moon Mountain Sangha on YouTube.
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
Tom Moon addresses the challenge we face of staying grounded, peaceful, and resilient when our world feels overwhelmed by political turmoil, cruelty, and constant outrage.
How? By inviting us to reframe our spiritual focus: true liberation doesn't come from trying to suppress negative emotions or forcing empty, feel-good affirmations, but from intentionally cultivating what is wholesome. Tom draws on Buddhist history, Mary Oliver's poetry, and his own experience recovering from a stroke to remind us that while evil and suffering are real, our brains are also hardwired with a "negativity bias"—acting like velcro for bad experiences and teflon for good ones.
Additionally, when we fall into "survivor guilt" by believing that experiencing happiness during hard times is selfish or disloyal, we actually drain ourselves of the vitality needed to resist harm and care for others.
Tom offers several key insights and practices to help us counteract this bias and incline our minds toward genuine light and joy:
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Tom Moon is a native San Franciscan who lives within walking distance of where he was born, with Craig Wenzl, his husband of 21 years. His engagement with Buddhism began in 1995 when he learned Vipassana and Metta meditation from Jack Kornfield. He is a psychotherapist who works primarily with gay men. and his professional commitment is exploring the interface between Buddhist practice and psychotherapy.
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
In this reflection on retreat life, four GBF community members explore how taking time away from our relentless routines, news cycles, and digital devices offers a quiet sanctuary to examine our habits and cultivate genuine peace.
Rather than an escape, a retreat serves as a vital "laboratory for daily life"—a container where the cloudy, stirred-up waters of our busy minds can finally settle so we can see the deep substrate beneath. By immersing ourselves in extended silence, noble heart practices, and simple daily rituals, we reconnect with a thousands-year-old lineage and experience the profound benefits of collective practice:
Ultimately, going on retreat gives us a powerful chance to "level up" our practice and return to our daily lives re-energized, softer, and more present. Whether we are chanting ancient Pali verses or engaging in heartfelt group sharing when silence is released, the gifts we receive on retreat naturally ripple out to benefit everyone around us.
With our upcoming Fall Retreat September 25-27, 2026 featuring teacher Prasadachitta, we have a wonderful opportunity to step back into this transformative space, test these teachings in our own lives, and bring the Dharma vividly to life.
SPEAKERS:
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
Donald Rothberg helps us lean into dharma wisdom to navigate the difficult realities of our world without becoming numb, overwhelmed, or cynical.
We often focus our Buddhist practice solely on personal meditation, but Donald reminds us that true path-walking spans wisdom, meditation, and ethical care for the broader world. Looking back to early Buddhist history and figures like Emperor Ashoka, Donald shows us that spiritual practice has always held a vital social dimension alongside individual awakening. He offers a practical eight-part framework for modern times, guiding us to bring clarity, deep heart, and active care to today's complex landscape.
Donald outlines eight key principles to help us weave our spiritual practice into daily life and social action:
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Donald Rothberg, Ph.D., is a member of the Teachers Council at Spirit Rock Center, a guiding teacher for the Marin Sangha in San Rafael, California, and a regular teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California, Southern Dharma Retreat Center, InsightLA, and New York Insight.
He teaches retreats and groups on concentration and insight meditation practice, lovingkindness practice, transforming the judgmental mind, mindful communication, working skillfully with conflict, and socially engaged Buddhism.
He has practiced insight meditation since 1976, and has also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen, body-based psychotherapy, and trauma work. He has helped guide many six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality, both Buddhist-based and interfaith, and is the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World, and the co-editor of Ken Wilber in Dialogue.
Learn more at https://donaldrothberg.com
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
John Martin explores how we can find a steadfast sense of peace and trust when life brings us unexpected pain, uncertainty, and constant change.
John defines Buddhist faith not as blind adherence to dogmas or rigid beliefs, but as pasada—a radical, wholehearted trusting of our own direct experience. He reminds us that true freedom isn't dependent on having perfect health, ideal finances, or flawless circumstances, but on cultivating an inner contentment that cannot be shaken by the ups and downs of the world. Instead of running away from difficult emotions or physical discomfort, we are invited to turn toward our direct experience with mindfulness and self-compassion, discovering that when we stop fighting reality, peace is immediately available right here in the present moment.
John outlines several core practices and insights that illuminate how this deep trust in the heart can transform our daily lives:
By leaning into this practice together, we can cultivate an unshakable refuge within ourselves and navigate life's inevitable shifts with an open, compassionate heart.
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John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an ongoing weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer, including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis and seven years with the Zen Hospice project.
Find his upcoming events at: https://calendar.spiritrock.org/event-speaker/john-martin/
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
This talk is a preview of the GBF Fall Retreat: Our Belonging to Kindness: Awakening to the World We Carry Together, September 25-27, 2026.
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How do we take ancient, highly analytical Buddhist teachings and make them truly land in our everyday, modern lives?
In this warm and deeply personal talk, Prasadachitta helps us imagine what it must have been like to be in the presence of the Buddha, hearing him speak directly to us in language that is easily understood. He invites us to step away from academic perfectionism and instead embrace the Buddha’s “come and see” invitation to experience a colloquial relationship with the Dharma.
Prasadachitta explains that he isn’t concerned with strict historical or translation accuracy. Instead, he feels empowered as a practitioner to make these teachings real in his own life, letting the translated phrases of the Karaniya Metta Sutta shift and be rephrased depending on how they “hit” him, trusting that actual practice will naturally self-correct any misunderstandings. To remind us that the Dharma is built to be accessible, he shares the traditional qualities of teaching from the Dharma Vandana, proving that the truth is always meant to be practical:
With this open-minded, personal approach, Prasadachitta guides us directly into the Karaniya Metta Sutta as a highly practical roadmap for our spiritual growth. Rather than treating its instructions as abstract rules, he encourages us to relate to them through our own physical, lived experiences.
Ultimately, Prasadachitta promises that as we rest in this unlimited kindness, we naturally let go of our rigid views, become spontaneously ethical, and experience a quiet, complete sense of freedom.
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Prasadachitta was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2011 and he became the Chair of the San Francisco Buddhist Center in April 2022. He was born on a “back to the land” commune in rural Northern California and that background has inspired his engagement with others in building the SFBC’s rural meditation center called Dharmadhara. He also helped to establish a community of sangha members who support the retreats there. He supports himself as a documentary filmmaker and photographer but his real life’s work is training others who want to practice Buddhism within the Triratna Buddhist Community.
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
Eli Talen invites us to examine our endless pursuit of perfection and the exhausting habit of waiting until everything is organized before we allow ourselves to start living.
We can easily get caught wishing for ideal conditions—whether waiting for smooth traffic, perfect relationships, or orderly cupboards—rather than meeting the messy reality of the present moment. Recalling a phrase from Emily Dickinson, that we "believe and disbelieve a hundred times an hour," Eli explains that this constant back-and-forth doesn't mean we are failing; rather, it keeps our minds flexible and serves as a living, nimble form of faith in an unpredictable world.
To help us step out of the trap of postponing our lives until things are flawless, Eli shares several practical insights for navigating uncertainty with greater heart:
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Eli Talen has practiced insight meditation for a couple of decades and has taught meditation in prisons and free communities for the past ten. Mindfulness is for him an innate awakening to the present and a refuge from fear and self-centeredness. He is inspired to engage with others who are open to building faith in the here and now and are oriented toward an ethical care and intimacy with the world. He lives in Berkeley, California, works as a psychotherapist, plays the organ. In prior lives he also served as an attorney and professor of German literature.
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
How can we remember that we were created for joy when our minds are busy and our hearts feel weighed down by the world's troubles?
In this uplifting talk, JD Doyle invites us to explore mudita—traditionally translated as appreciative, altruistic, or relational joy—as one of the four essential heart practices (brahma viharas) in Buddhism.
Opening with the Persian poet Hafez's poem The Sacred Dance for Life, JD reminds us that joy is not a performance or something we must force, but an inherent capacity of the heart waiting to be uncovered when we step out of our habitual anxiety. Drawing on Thich Nhat Hanh's insight that happiness has the nature of "interbeing," JD emphasizes that mudita is fundamentally relational—shifting us away from the narrow, individualistic "what's in it for me?" mindset and inviting us to take genuine delight in the well-being of others and the world around us.
To help us navigate the mental habits that block this natural warmth, JD breaks down the traditional frameworks and practical obstacles we encounter on the path to joy:
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JD Doyle serves as a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) and has served as a board member and was the cofounder of the LGBTQI meditation group. JD is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center teacher-training program and was in the Dedicated Practitioner Program (DPP2) and the Community Dharma Leader Program (CDL4). JD has practiced Buddhism since 1995 in the U.S., Thailand, and Burma.
For over twenty-five years, they worked as a public school teacher focusing on issues of equity and access. JD holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Cornell University and a master’s degree in Language and Literacy and Sociocultural Studies from the University of New Mexico. JD identifies as gender non-conforming. They are committed to celebrating the diversity of our human sangha, addressing the impact of racism on our communities, expanding concepts of gender, and living in ways that honor the sacredness of the Earth.
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
Ryuko Laura Burges invites us to consider how our words shape our reality and whether they serve as a force for division or healing in a troubled world.
Laura demonstrates the profound weight our speech carries, by drawing on a tender story about giving her hundred-year-old mother permission to let go, as well as an ancient tale of the Sufi weaver-poet Kabir whose gentle prayers calmed a sick child while his sharp words exposed a priest's rage.
She frames Right Speech—one of the foundational spokes of the Noble Eightfold Path—not as a set of rigid restrictions, but as an encouraging mental guide to ease suffering for ourselves and others. Laura shows us how mindful communication is woven through all ten traditional Buddhist precepts, warning against the subtle ways we can "kill" someone's enthusiasm with harshness, "steal" time through repetitive complaining, or use slander to elevate ourselves above others.
To help us navigate our everyday conversations with greater integrity and compassion, Laura offers a clear roadmap for reflection before we speak. She encourages us to pause and examine our inner motivations, highlighting several key practices for bringing our speech into harmony:
By cultivating a mindful pause through meditation, Laura reminds us that we can catch our habitual reactions and choose words that foster connection, ease ragged hearts, and bring genuine peace.
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Ryuko Laura Burges is a lay entrusted dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, teaching and leading retreats in Northern California. A longtime educator, she co-founded the Meditation in Recovery programs at San Francisco Zen Center.
Her books include Wisdom Stories of Tibet (2025), the first volume in a three-part series that will also feature wisdom stories from India and Japan, The Zen Way of Recovery: An Illuminated Path Out of the Darkness of Addiction (2023), Zen for Kids (2023), and Buddhist Stories for Kids (2022)
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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:
CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter
From the publisher's feed
Buddhism for Liberation and Social Action - especially for LGBTQIA audiences.
We invite teachers from all schools of Buddhism to offer their perspective on its application in modern times.…

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