The Essential Dogen, edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt, provides readers with a comprehensive array of the most salient and primary themes Dogen explored throughout his teaching career. Organized according to subject matter for the first time, Dogen’s understanding, insights and views are made readily accessible to experienced and new readers alike. The text draws from all previous Dogen translations supported by San Francisco Zen Center.
Know Yourself, Forget Yourself, CC 5/25/13 Saturday, May 25, 2013, 1 - 4pm
with Marc Lesser
Conference Center at 308 Page Street
Naming and embracing your life’s contradictory truths and authentic paradoxes is essential to creating an inspired and effective life. Humans are inescapable storytellers, and we can hold many conflicting and contradictory stories at the same time. The elasticity of the human mind and heart is not only capable of this but seems to welcome the chance.
The posture we take affects everything about meditation from its ease or difficulty to the thinking process; there are infinite ways to study it. This 9-session series is offered to provide a guided apprenticeship in the yoga of meditation.
How does “me, myself and I” contribute to a sense of suffering? In this one-day workshop, we’ll look at when the concept of “I” arises and how our effort to justify, verify, or solidify an idea of “me as X-person” is a point in which dis-ease/suffering can typically reside.
Public Dharma Talk
10 - 11 am
In the Buddha Hall at 300 Page Street
Workshop
1 - 4:30 pm
In the Conference Center at 308 Page Street
Relationships form based on many factors. Underlying our rational assumptions of who is "friend" or "enemy" or what types of people we "like" or "dislike" are subtle factors, karmic influences, and unrecognized perceptions based on the 6 senses.
Join former guest cook Melinda Miller and Zen teacher Mark Lancaster as we prepare a simple summer meal together while deepening the practice of attention and mindfulness.
“Breath from the nose is stealthily spreading all over the body” This short sentence is an only description of the breath during zazen by Dogen Zenji in Fukanzazengi(Universal Promotion of the Principles of Zazen).
Located at ZaZEN, 2219 Filbert Street, San Franciscoview map
Find your way back to the present moment in this healing afternoon retreat combining the nourishing practice of restorative yoga with the gentle, upright presence of Zen meditation.
Finding our own truth in living this one human life.
The founding teacher of San Francisco Zen Center, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, had a unique genius for presenting subtle and profound teachings in simple, accessible ways that continue to inspire generations of people on a path of practice.
Suzuki Roshi said, "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities ..."
Combining mindfulness and specific therapeutic approaches, this workshop will examine how to best take care of ourselves by relating to depression and anxiety with compassion. The aim of the workshop is for participants to practice identifying, relating to, and interrupting conditionings that are hindrances to feeling better.
Are you at a point in your life in which you feel like it's time for a change, but you're not sure how to proceed?
Change can be hard. Especially a change that we haven't chosen at this time, such as job or relationship loss. Or perhaps this is a life-transition time.
The inner life appears on the page in many forms, and at its heart is the quest for truth.
This workshop uses the raw material of your life to reveal the deeper intelligence of your inner journey. We explore in writing what lies in your heart, your aspirations and fears, your ways of seeing both your past and your present.
Located at ZaZEN, 2219 Filbert Street, San Franciscoview map
Let yourself fully ripen in this healing afternoon retreat combining the nourishing practice of restorative yoga with the gentle, upright presence of Zen meditation.
“You open a door to a dark room and you think you know what’s there, where everything is arranged, but you really don’t know until you step inside.” - Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Vol. 1
Aversion to anxiety is often accompanied by reactivity and actions that worsen how we feel. We suffer. This workshop, taught from the perspectives of Zen and Mindfulness meditation practices, is supported by the latest neuroscience and psychological research.
Located at ZaZEN, 2219 Filbert Street, San Franciscoview map
Settle into the deepness of the autumn season in this healing afternoon retreat combining the nourishing practice of restorative yoga with the gentle, upright presence of Zen meditation.
Suzuki Roshi said, "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities ..."
Combining mindfulness meditation, yogic breathing and postures, and specific therapeutic approaches such as cognitive therapy, this 1½-day workshop will examine how to best take care of ourselves by relating to depression and anxiety with compassion.
2013
January 11
February 15
March 15
April 12
May 10
The posture we take affects everything about meditation from its ease or difficulty to the thinking process; there are infinite ways to study it. This 9-session series is offered to provide a guided apprenticeship in the yoga of meditation.
For those who have participated in the Transforming Depression and Anxiety basic introductory workshops. These 1½-hour practice classes are offered to those who are interested in fine-tuning the practices introduced in the basic skills workshops taught throughout the year at SFZC and at other venues.
“You open a door to a dark room and you think you know what’s there, where everything is arranged, but you really don’t know until you step inside.” - Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Vol. 1
Aversion to anxiety is often accompanied by reactivity and actions that worsen how we feel. We suffer. This workshop, taught from the perspectives of Zen and Mindfulness meditation practices, is supported by the latest neuroscience and psychological research.
Interims During the interim break the regular schedule is optional for residents. The zendo (meditation hall) will continue to be open for meditation, staffed by volunteers. Sign up on the volunteer sheet near the zendo or contact the ino if you would like to volunteer to be doan or doorwatch in the morning or evening during the interim. Thank you.
Dharma Discussion Groups On the Wednesday evenings when City Center schedules Dharma Discussion Groups, those attending the Wednesday evening program, 7:30-8:30 pm, are offered an introductory statement and then divide into small groups to discuss a topic. Everyone comes together again at the end of the evening to share the content of each group's discussion.
When the Full Moon Ceremony coincides with our usual Wednesday evening Dharma talk, the ceremony is preceded by small group meetings in which the participants discuss their reflections on the precepts. The ceremony is a formal confession, repentance, and reavowal, accompanied by several bows. An example of the ceremony can be downloaded here.