Young Urban Zen SF

Hiro Ikushima discusses preferences and resistance through Dogen's teaching in Genjōkōan: "Yet in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread."

We explore how Zen practice helps us recognize our preferences and resistances, allowing us to meet life more fully, just as it is.

The topic for the talk by Kogetsu will be an exploration of time, money, and the energy of this precious life.

What does it mean to say, “I don’t have enough time” or “I don’t have enough money”? How much would actually be enough?

We’ll look at some of Dōgen’s teachings on time and explore the familiar ways we experience scarcity in our everyday lives: feeling impatient, worrying about money or the future, or believing that once we get through the next thing, we can finally relax.

Michael reflects on the way that ancient practices immersed in Zen are not only still relevant in today's work life but are key tools to staying grounded and making practice a 24/7 event.

In this short talk by Tim discusses Zen and art covering a little bit of history of the Zen tradition as well as the western tradition as a counter to this form.

Hiro Ikushima leads us through a simple form of self-inquiry: noticing the difference between what is happening and what our mind adds to it.

What actually happened? What story am I telling myself about it? And what changes when I notice the difference?

He explores how meditation can help us become more curious about our thoughts and reactions without immediately believing them.

There are a lot of situations that we will not be able to solve by the end of the day, either with ourselves or with others. There will be a lot of things that we are not going to be able to solve by the end of the week in regard to our society, our environment, our family, our colleagues at work, etc. And some things might just be years away or seem unsolvable. In Zen, we talk a lot about being here now, being with this moment, but sometimes it's so hard because it feels like we're holding our breath due to a situation that's not resolved or resolving. What are the teachings in the Zen school that directly address being with our upset, our bother, the thing that isn't going away, so that we can actually be alive in this moment today and touch the beating heart of now?

These days, between work, crazy housing, dating and loneliness, AI changing the world faster than we can keep up with, the endless stream of news, and feeling like we're a self-improvement project, there really is plenty to feel anxious about. But what happens when the mind responds by working overtime?

Kogetsu Mok discusses Suzuki Roshi’s teaching on “mind waves” and explores how meditation can bring us back and help us relate differently to anxious thoughts. We don’t need to fight our minds, figure it all out, force ourselves to be calm, or make uncertainty disappear. We can begin to recognize that every thought is not a fact or an emergency. They need not take the wheel.

Michael McCord leads the YUZ Sangha through a talk about one of the ten grave precepts: “I vow to refrain from false speech.”

This precept asks us to look closely at the space between what is true and what we say — not only outright falsehoods, but exaggeration, spin, flattery, and the small ways we shade our words to manage how others see us or how we feel about ourselves. Practicing with it means learning to notice the impulse to speak before we've checked whether what we're about to say is accurate, kind, and necessary. It's less a rule about lying and more an invitation to bring honesty — with others and with ourselves — into every corner of how we communicate.  And primarily, what was the motivation to misrepresent reality?

This is a reupload of Michael’s talk a couple weeks ago, both with improved quality and to let you know about his workshop happening this month on AI and what it means to be human. Please see below for the original description:

Tomorrow evening I'll be leading the Young Urban Zen gathering, and it will be a preview of this online workshop that I'm teaching in August: Being Human in the Age of AI. Please feel free to sign up or ask me any questions about this online offering.

This is a course that I've been teaching for about three years, and it is constantly being updated, as you can imagine. I look forward to turning the subject over with all of you.

Eli explores Attention in an Age of Distraction. Before asking what distracts us, we’ll look at what captures our attention in the first place particularly the subtle ways our preferences, what we like and don’t like, shape where our attention goes and how we experience the world.