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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270206T083000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270206T100000
DTSTAMP:20260924T020012Z
CREATED:20260923T223241Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T020012Z
UID:10004655-1801902600-1801908000@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Suzuki Roshi at Tassajara\, Online 2/6–2/27
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Saturdays\, February 6–27\, 8:30–10:00 am PT \nWhen Tassajara was purchased at the end of 1966\, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi began creating what would become the first Zen training monastery outside Asia. The idea had been forming for years: early issues of Wind Bell record members of SFZC searching for a monastery site as early as 1962. With Tassajara\, that aspiration suddenly became a lived experiment. \nWhat was Suzuki Roshi’s vision for this new monastery? How did he teach students who were entering a very different practice environment from the one they had known in San Francisco? And what emerged in his teaching when residential monastic practice\, sesshin\, work\, ritual\, and community life became the setting for Zen training? \nIn this series\, Shundo David Haye will explore Suzuki Roshi’s early years at Tassajara through lecture transcripts\, contemporaneous accounts\, recordings\, shuso logs\, and more recent historical publications. Particular attention will be given to material from the first sesshins\, Suzuki Roshi’s shosan encounters with students\, and the near-daily lectures he offered during his final summer at Tassajara. \nTogether\, these sources offer a distinctive view of Suzuki Roshi as a teacher responding to the demands of serious residential practice. They also illuminate the gradual development of forms and expectations that shaped Tassajara in the years that followed\, including the transition from the experimental atmosphere of its earliest seasons toward the more formal training structures introduced under Tatsugami Roshi. \nBy returning to this formative period\, the course will consider not only what happened at Tassajara\, but how Tassajara itself changed Suzuki Roshi’s teaching and helped create the San Francisco Zen Center we know today. \nCourse Outline \nOver four sessions\, the course will move chronologically through Suzuki Roshi’s Tassajara years: \n\nCreating a Zen Monastery — the first and second sesshins\nTeaching the Dharma in a New Setting — Lotus Sutra and other talks from 1968–69\nForm and Freedom — Sandokai\, Eko\, and the practice culture of 197\nThe Last Summer — Suzuki Roshi’s final season of teaching at Tassajara\n\nOptional recommended reading \nBooks by David Chadwick: \n\nCrooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki\nTassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West—The First Year\, 1967\nWhat Happened at Tassajara: Stories of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West\, 1968–1971\n\nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/suzuki-roshi-at-tassajara-online-2-6-2-27/2027-02-06/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270206T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270206T103000
DTSTAMP:20260924T020536Z
CREATED:20260923T223636Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T020536Z
UID:10004656-1801904400-1801909800@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:The Wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine\, Online 2/6–2/20
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nSaturday\, February 6–20\, 9:00–10:30 am PT \nTraditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers a practical framework for understanding the body as a dynamic system of relationships. In this three-part lecture series\, Dr. Liping Zhu will introduce foundational concepts from Chinese medicine and offer accessible ways to observe patterns of balance and disharmony in daily life. \nAcross the series\, participants will explore the following TCM theories: \n\nTCM concepts of Qi and blood\, Yin-Yang\, and Five Elements\nBasic tongue reading\nChinese herbs in the kitchen\nChinese bio-clock: meals\, bedtime\, and exercise\n\nThis course will connect traditional theory with simple\, everyday exercises to promote Qi and blood circulation\, including ways of thinking about food\, movement\, rest\, and the rhythms of the day. Dr. Zhu will also introduce the tongue as one of the traditional diagnostic lenses used in Chinese medicine and discuss how patterns involving internal organ health are understood within this system. \nThis lecture series is designed as an approachable introduction for those curious about Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as for students who have encountered Dr. Zhu’s Qigong teaching and would like a broader grounding in the theory that informs it. \nFor additional online offerings by Dr. Liping Zhu\, please see the SFZC calendar. \nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/the-wisdom-of-traditional-chinese-medicine-online-2-6-2-20/2027-02-06/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270206T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270206T143000
DTSTAMP:20261008T001038Z
CREATED:20261008T001038Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261008T001038Z
UID:10004722-1801918800-1801924200@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Dancing in the Dark Fields of Illness & Pain\, Online 1/9–2/13
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nSix Saturdays\, January 9–February 13\, 1:00–2:30 pm PT \nThis is an online introductory class for people who are working with the fierce teachers of chronic illness or chronic pain. In this six-part interactive class we will share our stories and explore practices that may be useful on the journey. \nOptional readings will be shared during the class. To prepare\, students may wish to read Turning Suffering Inside Out by Darlene Cohen and/or How to Live Well With Chronic Pain and Illness by Toni Bernhard. Students may also wish to read Zenshin Florence Caplow’s essay\, “Dancing in the Dark Fields“\, and listen to her Dharma talk on this subject. \nDharma Talk \nTend to Your Spirit: Teachings from Illness — Zenshin Florence Caplow — Dharma Talk at City Center \n \nThis talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by Zenshin Florence Caplow. Zenshin offers stories and teachings from her life as both a Zen practitioner and person with chronic illness\, and readings from her new book\, Tend to Your Spirit: Mindful Living With Chronic Illness. \nParticipant testimonial: \n\nChronic suffering is impossible to ignore\, often excruciating and isolating. Florence Caplow’s Dancing in the Fields of Chronic Pain workshops\, with her cheerful and enlightened guidance and the open participation of others\, have consistently provided me with refuge\, inspiration\, and comfort. These workshops are subtle\, magical\, gentle\, and transformative. They embody wisdom in service of compassion. It feels less like practice and more like a rally\, opening our hearts. Thanks to everyone participating and to Zenshin Florence; it has been like a prayer flag of compassion touching my countenance.—Barry E. \n\nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/dancing-in-the-dark-fields-of-illness-pain-online-1-9-2-13/2027-02-06/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270209T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270209T193000
DTSTAMP:20261018T225637Z
CREATED:20261018T225637Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261018T225637Z
UID:10004823-1802196000-1802201400@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Fukanzazengi with Shinshu Roberts\, Online 2/9–3/2
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Tuesdays\, February 9–March 2\, 6:00–7:30 pm PT \nFukanzazengi\, Dogen’s instructions for zazen\, presents intriguing questions that this class will explore and attempt to answer. \nWhat does it mean when Dogen describes zazen as the “Dharma gate of repose and bliss”? How do we take the backward step\, and what is the meaning of dropping body and mind? And of course\, what is “think non-thinking”? \nThe class will also explore the history of the text itself as well as the question Dogen poses at the beginning: if suchness/buddha-nature is already present\, why do we need to practice? \nFukanzazengi text (PDF) \nCourse Outline \nOver four sessions\, the course will move chronologically through Suzuki Roshi’s Tassajara years: \n\nCreating a Zen Monastery — the first and second sesshins\nTeaching the Dharma in a New Setting — Lotus Sutra and other talks from 1968–69\nForm and Freedom — Sandokai\, Eko\, and the practice culture of 197\nThe Last Summer — Suzuki Roshi’s final season of teaching at Tassajara \n\nOptional recommended reading \nBooks by David Chadwick: \n\nCrooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki\nTassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West—The First Year\, 1967\nWhat Happened at Tassajara: Stories of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West\, 1968–1971\n\nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/fukanzazengi-with-shinshu-roberts-online-2-9-3-2/2027-02-09/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270211T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270211T170000
DTSTAMP:20260924T020915Z
CREATED:20260923T224053Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T020915Z
UID:10004665-1802359800-1802365200@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Coming of Age: The Poetry of Aging\, Online 2/4–2/25
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Thursdays\, February 4–25\, 3:30–5:00 pm PT \nHow can reading and writing poetry support us as we age? \nHow can poetry help us be more aware of changes in our bodies and minds\, deal with transitions\, and strengthen connectedness and community? \nWe will learn from poets who have written about their own aging\, including Jane Hirshfield\, W. S. Merwin\, Stanley Kunitz\, Lucille Clifton\, and Mary Oliver. In each class\, we will read poems that focus on an aspect of aging and illustrate an element of the craft of poetry\, such as observation and description\, imagery\, or the music of poetry. There will be time to write in class and time to share your writing if you wish. \nThis class is for those of any age who wish to explore the experience of aging through poetry\, and for those who are approaching reading and writing poetry for the first time\, as well as those who have a writing practice. \nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/coming-of-age-the-poetry-of-aging-online-2-4-2-25/2027-02-11/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270213T083000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270213T100000
DTSTAMP:20260924T020012Z
CREATED:20260923T223241Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T020012Z
UID:10004660-1802507400-1802512800@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Suzuki Roshi at Tassajara\, Online 2/6–2/27
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Saturdays\, February 6–27\, 8:30–10:00 am PT \nWhen Tassajara was purchased at the end of 1966\, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi began creating what would become the first Zen training monastery outside Asia. The idea had been forming for years: early issues of Wind Bell record members of SFZC searching for a monastery site as early as 1962. With Tassajara\, that aspiration suddenly became a lived experiment. \nWhat was Suzuki Roshi’s vision for this new monastery? How did he teach students who were entering a very different practice environment from the one they had known in San Francisco? And what emerged in his teaching when residential monastic practice\, sesshin\, work\, ritual\, and community life became the setting for Zen training? \nIn this series\, Shundo David Haye will explore Suzuki Roshi’s early years at Tassajara through lecture transcripts\, contemporaneous accounts\, recordings\, shuso logs\, and more recent historical publications. Particular attention will be given to material from the first sesshins\, Suzuki Roshi’s shosan encounters with students\, and the near-daily lectures he offered during his final summer at Tassajara. \nTogether\, these sources offer a distinctive view of Suzuki Roshi as a teacher responding to the demands of serious residential practice. They also illuminate the gradual development of forms and expectations that shaped Tassajara in the years that followed\, including the transition from the experimental atmosphere of its earliest seasons toward the more formal training structures introduced under Tatsugami Roshi. \nBy returning to this formative period\, the course will consider not only what happened at Tassajara\, but how Tassajara itself changed Suzuki Roshi’s teaching and helped create the San Francisco Zen Center we know today. \nCourse Outline \nOver four sessions\, the course will move chronologically through Suzuki Roshi’s Tassajara years: \n\nCreating a Zen Monastery — the first and second sesshins\nTeaching the Dharma in a New Setting — Lotus Sutra and other talks from 1968–69\nForm and Freedom — Sandokai\, Eko\, and the practice culture of 197\nThe Last Summer — Suzuki Roshi’s final season of teaching at Tassajara\n\nOptional recommended reading \nBooks by David Chadwick: \n\nCrooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki\nTassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West—The First Year\, 1967\nWhat Happened at Tassajara: Stories of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West\, 1968–1971\n\nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/suzuki-roshi-at-tassajara-online-2-6-2-27/2027-02-13/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270213T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270213T103000
DTSTAMP:20260924T020536Z
CREATED:20260923T223636Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T020536Z
UID:10004663-1802509200-1802514600@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:The Wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine\, Online 2/6–2/20
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nSaturday\, February 6–20\, 9:00–10:30 am PT \nTraditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers a practical framework for understanding the body as a dynamic system of relationships. In this three-part lecture series\, Dr. Liping Zhu will introduce foundational concepts from Chinese medicine and offer accessible ways to observe patterns of balance and disharmony in daily life. \nAcross the series\, participants will explore the following TCM theories: \n\nTCM concepts of Qi and blood\, Yin-Yang\, and Five Elements\nBasic tongue reading\nChinese herbs in the kitchen\nChinese bio-clock: meals\, bedtime\, and exercise\n\nThis course will connect traditional theory with simple\, everyday exercises to promote Qi and blood circulation\, including ways of thinking about food\, movement\, rest\, and the rhythms of the day. Dr. Zhu will also introduce the tongue as one of the traditional diagnostic lenses used in Chinese medicine and discuss how patterns involving internal organ health are understood within this system. \nThis lecture series is designed as an approachable introduction for those curious about Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as for students who have encountered Dr. Zhu’s Qigong teaching and would like a broader grounding in the theory that informs it. \nFor additional online offerings by Dr. Liping Zhu\, please see the SFZC calendar. \nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/the-wisdom-of-traditional-chinese-medicine-online-2-6-2-20/2027-02-13/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270213T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270213T143000
DTSTAMP:20261008T001038Z
CREATED:20261008T001038Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261008T001038Z
UID:10004723-1802523600-1802529000@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Dancing in the Dark Fields of Illness & Pain\, Online 1/9–2/13
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nSix Saturdays\, January 9–February 13\, 1:00–2:30 pm PT \nThis is an online introductory class for people who are working with the fierce teachers of chronic illness or chronic pain. In this six-part interactive class we will share our stories and explore practices that may be useful on the journey. \nOptional readings will be shared during the class. To prepare\, students may wish to read Turning Suffering Inside Out by Darlene Cohen and/or How to Live Well With Chronic Pain and Illness by Toni Bernhard. Students may also wish to read Zenshin Florence Caplow’s essay\, “Dancing in the Dark Fields“\, and listen to her Dharma talk on this subject. \nDharma Talk \nTend to Your Spirit: Teachings from Illness — Zenshin Florence Caplow — Dharma Talk at City Center \n \nThis talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by Zenshin Florence Caplow. Zenshin offers stories and teachings from her life as both a Zen practitioner and person with chronic illness\, and readings from her new book\, Tend to Your Spirit: Mindful Living With Chronic Illness. \nParticipant testimonial: \n\nChronic suffering is impossible to ignore\, often excruciating and isolating. Florence Caplow’s Dancing in the Fields of Chronic Pain workshops\, with her cheerful and enlightened guidance and the open participation of others\, have consistently provided me with refuge\, inspiration\, and comfort. These workshops are subtle\, magical\, gentle\, and transformative. They embody wisdom in service of compassion. It feels less like practice and more like a rally\, opening our hearts. Thanks to everyone participating and to Zenshin Florence; it has been like a prayer flag of compassion touching my countenance.—Barry E. \n\nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/dancing-in-the-dark-fields-of-illness-pain-online-1-9-2-13/2027-02-13/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270216T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270216T193000
DTSTAMP:20261018T225637Z
CREATED:20261018T225637Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261018T225637Z
UID:10004824-1802800800-1802806200@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Fukanzazengi with Shinshu Roberts\, Online 2/9–3/2
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Tuesdays\, February 9–March 2\, 6:00–7:30 pm PT \nFukanzazengi\, Dogen’s instructions for zazen\, presents intriguing questions that this class will explore and attempt to answer. \nWhat does it mean when Dogen describes zazen as the “Dharma gate of repose and bliss”? How do we take the backward step\, and what is the meaning of dropping body and mind? And of course\, what is “think non-thinking”? \nThe class will also explore the history of the text itself as well as the question Dogen poses at the beginning: if suchness/buddha-nature is already present\, why do we need to practice? \nFukanzazengi text (PDF) \nCourse Outline \nOver four sessions\, the course will move chronologically through Suzuki Roshi’s Tassajara years: \n\nCreating a Zen Monastery — the first and second sesshins\nTeaching the Dharma in a New Setting — Lotus Sutra and other talks from 1968–69\nForm and Freedom — Sandokai\, Eko\, and the practice culture of 197\nThe Last Summer — Suzuki Roshi’s final season of teaching at Tassajara \n\nOptional recommended reading \nBooks by David Chadwick: \n\nCrooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki\nTassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West—The First Year\, 1967\nWhat Happened at Tassajara: Stories of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West\, 1968–1971\n\nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/fukanzazengi-with-shinshu-roberts-online-2-9-3-2/2027-02-16/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270218T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270218T170000
DTSTAMP:20260924T020915Z
CREATED:20260923T224053Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T020915Z
UID:10004666-1802964600-1802970000@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Coming of Age: The Poetry of Aging\, Online 2/4–2/25
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Thursdays\, February 4–25\, 3:30–5:00 pm PT \nHow can reading and writing poetry support us as we age? \nHow can poetry help us be more aware of changes in our bodies and minds\, deal with transitions\, and strengthen connectedness and community? \nWe will learn from poets who have written about their own aging\, including Jane Hirshfield\, W. S. Merwin\, Stanley Kunitz\, Lucille Clifton\, and Mary Oliver. In each class\, we will read poems that focus on an aspect of aging and illustrate an element of the craft of poetry\, such as observation and description\, imagery\, or the music of poetry. There will be time to write in class and time to share your writing if you wish. \nThis class is for those of any age who wish to explore the experience of aging through poetry\, and for those who are approaching reading and writing poetry for the first time\, as well as those who have a writing practice. \nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/coming-of-age-the-poetry-of-aging-online-2-4-2-25/2027-02-18/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270220T083000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270220T100000
DTSTAMP:20260924T020012Z
CREATED:20260923T223241Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T020012Z
UID:10004661-1803112200-1803117600@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Suzuki Roshi at Tassajara\, Online 2/6–2/27
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Saturdays\, February 6–27\, 8:30–10:00 am PT \nWhen Tassajara was purchased at the end of 1966\, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi began creating what would become the first Zen training monastery outside Asia. The idea had been forming for years: early issues of Wind Bell record members of SFZC searching for a monastery site as early as 1962. With Tassajara\, that aspiration suddenly became a lived experiment. \nWhat was Suzuki Roshi’s vision for this new monastery? How did he teach students who were entering a very different practice environment from the one they had known in San Francisco? And what emerged in his teaching when residential monastic practice\, sesshin\, work\, ritual\, and community life became the setting for Zen training? \nIn this series\, Shundo David Haye will explore Suzuki Roshi’s early years at Tassajara through lecture transcripts\, contemporaneous accounts\, recordings\, shuso logs\, and more recent historical publications. Particular attention will be given to material from the first sesshins\, Suzuki Roshi’s shosan encounters with students\, and the near-daily lectures he offered during his final summer at Tassajara. \nTogether\, these sources offer a distinctive view of Suzuki Roshi as a teacher responding to the demands of serious residential practice. They also illuminate the gradual development of forms and expectations that shaped Tassajara in the years that followed\, including the transition from the experimental atmosphere of its earliest seasons toward the more formal training structures introduced under Tatsugami Roshi. \nBy returning to this formative period\, the course will consider not only what happened at Tassajara\, but how Tassajara itself changed Suzuki Roshi’s teaching and helped create the San Francisco Zen Center we know today. \nCourse Outline \nOver four sessions\, the course will move chronologically through Suzuki Roshi’s Tassajara years: \n\nCreating a Zen Monastery — the first and second sesshins\nTeaching the Dharma in a New Setting — Lotus Sutra and other talks from 1968–69\nForm and Freedom — Sandokai\, Eko\, and the practice culture of 197\nThe Last Summer — Suzuki Roshi’s final season of teaching at Tassajara\n\nOptional recommended reading \nBooks by David Chadwick: \n\nCrooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki\nTassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West—The First Year\, 1967\nWhat Happened at Tassajara: Stories of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West\, 1968–1971\n\nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/suzuki-roshi-at-tassajara-online-2-6-2-27/2027-02-20/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270220T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270220T103000
DTSTAMP:20260924T020536Z
CREATED:20260923T223636Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T020536Z
UID:10004664-1803114000-1803119400@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:The Wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine\, Online 2/6–2/20
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nSaturday\, February 6–20\, 9:00–10:30 am PT \nTraditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers a practical framework for understanding the body as a dynamic system of relationships. In this three-part lecture series\, Dr. Liping Zhu will introduce foundational concepts from Chinese medicine and offer accessible ways to observe patterns of balance and disharmony in daily life. \nAcross the series\, participants will explore the following TCM theories: \n\nTCM concepts of Qi and blood\, Yin-Yang\, and Five Elements\nBasic tongue reading\nChinese herbs in the kitchen\nChinese bio-clock: meals\, bedtime\, and exercise\n\nThis course will connect traditional theory with simple\, everyday exercises to promote Qi and blood circulation\, including ways of thinking about food\, movement\, rest\, and the rhythms of the day. Dr. Zhu will also introduce the tongue as one of the traditional diagnostic lenses used in Chinese medicine and discuss how patterns involving internal organ health are understood within this system. \nThis lecture series is designed as an approachable introduction for those curious about Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as for students who have encountered Dr. Zhu’s Qigong teaching and would like a broader grounding in the theory that informs it. \nFor additional online offerings by Dr. Liping Zhu\, please see the SFZC calendar. \nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/the-wisdom-of-traditional-chinese-medicine-online-2-6-2-20/2027-02-20/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270220T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270220T123000
DTSTAMP:20261008T025856Z
CREATED:20261008T025856Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261008T025856Z
UID:10004749-1803121200-1803126600@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Dancing with Chronic Illness and Pain: Ongoing Group\, Online 12/19–5/15
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nMonthly\, Saturdays\, December 19–May 15\, 11:00–12:30 pm PT \nIf you have previously participated in any of the “Dancing in the Dark Fields” series\, we invite you to consider this ongoing monthly practice group\, which will expand on those teachings and community. \nZenshin Florence Caplow\, who will be teaching the class\, has “danced” with auto-immune illness for the last two decades\, including rheumatoid arthritis. She is also a Zen priest and teacher\, co-editor of The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty Five Centuries of Awakened Women\, and a Unitarian Universalist minister. \nZenshin Florence Caplow’s book\, Tend to Your Spirit: Mindful Living With Chronic Illness\, is available to order from the SFZC online bookstore. She also recommends Darlene Cohen’s book\, Turning Suffering Inside Out. These books are also available as e-books. \nRegistration is available on a rolling basis. Please contact onlineprograms@sfzc.org if registering after January 16. \nAn introductory course and prerequisite for the ongoing group\, Dancing with Chronic Illness and Pain\, will be held for six Saturdays starting January 9\, 2027. \nList other dates if necessary.: \n\nDecember 19\, 2026\nJanuary 16\, 2027 \nFebruary 20\nMarch 20\nApril 17\nMay 15\n\nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/dancing-with-chronic-illness-and-pain-ongoing-group-online-12-19-5-15/2027-02-20/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270220T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270220T160000
DTSTAMP:20261019T224822Z
CREATED:20261019T224610Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261019T224822Z
UID:10004829-1803132000-1803139200@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:The Gifts and Challenges of Empathy\, Online 2/20
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nSaturday\, February 20\, 2:00–4:00 pm PT \nMost of us have a natural capacity for empathy\, the ability to understand and share others’ emotions\, allowing us to see things from their perspective and connect with their feelings. While this crucial skill has many benefits\, including enhancing our relationships with others and the world\, it can also leave us feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Have you ever felt this and wondered what to do? \nThis workshop is for anyone who feels at times taxed or exhausted by negotiating the energy and emotions of others. We might even feel so hyper-attuned to others that we identify as “empaths” or “highly sensitive people.” It’s vital for sensitive people to know how to avoid taking on an individual’s physical and emotional energy\, including their pain. \nDuring this two-hour workshop\, we’ll focus on the process and practice of working with being highly empathetic to others’ emotional states in a more grounded\, conscious\, and balanced way that avoids overwhelm. We’ll also explore the many gifts of being an empath\, including an open heart\, intuition\, and the ability to connect with nature\, animals\, and other humans. \nEmpathy without boundaries is self-sabotage. Participants will learn how to set boundaries and hold space for those we care about without taking on their pain. The secret is to find balance as a sensitive person and learn strategies to avoid absorbing other people’s stress. \nBased on her book\, The Genius of Empathy\, Dr. Judith Orloff\, a UCLA-trained psychiatrist\, New York Times bestselling author\, and an empath herself\, will discuss strategies for how to stop absorbing the energy of others and protect yourself in your relationships\, family\, work\, and from the negative voices in your own head. \nSFZC Central Abbot & Abiding Abbot of City Center David Zimmerman will help to situate this process within a Zen context and weave in meditation\, mindfulness\, and practice elements where naturally supportive. \nIn this live online workshop\, learn to stay grounded and balanced by: \n• Staying centered\n• Setting healthy boundaries\n• Meditating to stay balanced\n• Listening to your body and intuition\n• Identifying people we feel drained around and how to cope with them\n• Healing emotional triggers and release resentments\, anxiety\, and negative energy you absorbed\n• Saying no to oversharers\, narcissists\, or others who drain your energy\n• Taking in the positive\, nurturing energy of nature and people \nSuggested reading: The Genius of Empathy: Practical Skills to Heal Your Sensitive Self\, Your Relationships and the World\, by Judith Orloff\, MD\, foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. \nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/the-gifts-and-challenges-of-empathy-online-2-20/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270223T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270223T193000
DTSTAMP:20260925T000955Z
CREATED:20260918T224210Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260925T000955Z
UID:10004615-1803403800-1803411000@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Transforming Depression and Anxiety Practice Group\, Online 2/23–5/4
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nAlternate Tuesdays\, February 23–May 4\, 5:30–7:30 pm PT \nIn SFZC’s Transforming Depression and Anxiety offerings\, kindness\, mindfulness\, and tools from contemporary psychology are engaged to shift our relationship with depression\, anxiety\, and their companions\, judgment and self-criticism. These offerings include the core TDA course\, offered in January\, Transforming Depression and Anxiety: A Path of Skillful Compassion\, Online 1/12–2/2\, and Finding Ease: A Zen and Mindfulness Approach to Anxiety\, an annual workshop at Green Gulch Farm and City Center. \nThis 3-month virtual practice community class is open to previous TDA participants and anyone who feels they might benefit from these teachings. We will engage Buddhist practices and use TDA tools to disrupt reactive thought patterns that threaten to steal our peace of mind-heart. We will also work with questioning old stories that can poison our perceptions of self\, others\, and reality. \nFinally\, we’ll explore Buddha’s teaching that within our suffering lies the seeds of its healing and transformation\, and how this teaching intersects with TDA practices. \nOur purpose is to live more fully in the present moment\, less affected by reactivity\, rumination\, and worry. Living this way is a powerful antidote to lowered and agitated moods\, helping us see the good in our lives. \n2027 Dates:February 23March 9March 23April 6April 20May 4 \nLed by Jisho Lisa Beth Hoffman\, each class will include a brief guided meditation\, a short TDA Buddhist teaching\, discussion\, and a closing guided meditation. \nIf you have taken a TDA offering\, we encourage you to try this practice group. If you haven’t\, you are also warmly welcomed to join. We do request that you prepare for the group\, and there are two easy ways you can do so: \n\nTake the self-paced online course Befriending Your Pain\, taught by the late Dr. Lee Lipp\, who created the TDA-FE offerings and was a wise and delightful teacher.\nRead The Mindful Way Through Depression\, which Dr. Lipp used in designing the TDA offerings.\nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/transforming-depression-and-anxiety-practice-group-online-2-23-5-4/2027-02-23/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270223T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270223T193000
DTSTAMP:20261018T225637Z
CREATED:20261018T225637Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261018T225637Z
UID:10004825-1803405600-1803411000@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Fukanzazengi with Shinshu Roberts\, Online 2/9–3/2
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Tuesdays\, February 9–March 2\, 6:00–7:30 pm PT \nFukanzazengi\, Dogen’s instructions for zazen\, presents intriguing questions that this class will explore and attempt to answer. \nWhat does it mean when Dogen describes zazen as the “Dharma gate of repose and bliss”? How do we take the backward step\, and what is the meaning of dropping body and mind? And of course\, what is “think non-thinking”? \nThe class will also explore the history of the text itself as well as the question Dogen poses at the beginning: if suchness/buddha-nature is already present\, why do we need to practice? \nFukanzazengi text (PDF) \nCourse Outline \nOver four sessions\, the course will move chronologically through Suzuki Roshi’s Tassajara years: \n\nCreating a Zen Monastery — the first and second sesshins\nTeaching the Dharma in a New Setting — Lotus Sutra and other talks from 1968–69\nForm and Freedom — Sandokai\, Eko\, and the practice culture of 197\nThe Last Summer — Suzuki Roshi’s final season of teaching at Tassajara \n\nOptional recommended reading \nBooks by David Chadwick: \n\nCrooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki\nTassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West—The First Year\, 1967\nWhat Happened at Tassajara: Stories of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West\, 1968–1971\n\nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/fukanzazengi-with-shinshu-roberts-online-2-9-3-2/2027-02-23/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270225T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270225T170000
DTSTAMP:20260924T020915Z
CREATED:20260923T224053Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T020915Z
UID:10004667-1803569400-1803574800@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Coming of Age: The Poetry of Aging\, Online 2/4–2/25
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Thursdays\, February 4–25\, 3:30–5:00 pm PT \nHow can reading and writing poetry support us as we age? \nHow can poetry help us be more aware of changes in our bodies and minds\, deal with transitions\, and strengthen connectedness and community? \nWe will learn from poets who have written about their own aging\, including Jane Hirshfield\, W. S. Merwin\, Stanley Kunitz\, Lucille Clifton\, and Mary Oliver. In each class\, we will read poems that focus on an aspect of aging and illustrate an element of the craft of poetry\, such as observation and description\, imagery\, or the music of poetry. There will be time to write in class and time to share your writing if you wish. \nThis class is for those of any age who wish to explore the experience of aging through poetry\, and for those who are approaching reading and writing poetry for the first time\, as well as those who have a writing practice. \nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/coming-of-age-the-poetry-of-aging-online-2-4-2-25/2027-02-25/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270225T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270225T200000
DTSTAMP:20260923T222346Z
CREATED:20260923T222345Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260923T222346Z
UID:10004653-1803578400-1803585600@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Lessons from Minneapolis: Zen Practice and Interfaith Organizing\, Online 2/25
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nThursday\, February 25\, 6:00–8:00 pm PT \nBen Connelly will present stories and lessons from a wide variety of Buddhist and Interfaith work as part of the nonviolent response to the violence brought by federal officers to the Minnesota community in 2026. \nHe will tie these lessons to a variety of Buddhist teachings and practices\, as well as long lineages of practice for countering state violence and creating collective liberation. This two-hour\, online session will include a variety of modes of dialogue and meditation practice. \nExplore this topic further in the SFZC archives: \nDoshin Mako Voelkel’s dharma talk at City Center\, Agents of Peace and Change. Abiding Abbot Dōshin Mako Voelkel discusses her January 2026 visit to Minneapolis with MARCH (Multifaith Antiracism\, Change & Healing). \nBearing Witness in Minneapolis: A Letter to the Sangha from Abbot Mako. Sangha News\, January 27\, 2026. \nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/lessons-from-minneapolis-zen-practice-and-interfaith-organizing-online-2-25/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270227T083000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270227T100000
DTSTAMP:20260924T020012Z
CREATED:20260923T223241Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T020012Z
UID:10004662-1803717000-1803722400@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Suzuki Roshi at Tassajara\, Online 2/6–2/27
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Saturdays\, February 6–27\, 8:30–10:00 am PT \nWhen Tassajara was purchased at the end of 1966\, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi began creating what would become the first Zen training monastery outside Asia. The idea had been forming for years: early issues of Wind Bell record members of SFZC searching for a monastery site as early as 1962. With Tassajara\, that aspiration suddenly became a lived experiment. \nWhat was Suzuki Roshi’s vision for this new monastery? How did he teach students who were entering a very different practice environment from the one they had known in San Francisco? And what emerged in his teaching when residential monastic practice\, sesshin\, work\, ritual\, and community life became the setting for Zen training? \nIn this series\, Shundo David Haye will explore Suzuki Roshi’s early years at Tassajara through lecture transcripts\, contemporaneous accounts\, recordings\, shuso logs\, and more recent historical publications. Particular attention will be given to material from the first sesshins\, Suzuki Roshi’s shosan encounters with students\, and the near-daily lectures he offered during his final summer at Tassajara. \nTogether\, these sources offer a distinctive view of Suzuki Roshi as a teacher responding to the demands of serious residential practice. They also illuminate the gradual development of forms and expectations that shaped Tassajara in the years that followed\, including the transition from the experimental atmosphere of its earliest seasons toward the more formal training structures introduced under Tatsugami Roshi. \nBy returning to this formative period\, the course will consider not only what happened at Tassajara\, but how Tassajara itself changed Suzuki Roshi’s teaching and helped create the San Francisco Zen Center we know today. \nCourse Outline \nOver four sessions\, the course will move chronologically through Suzuki Roshi’s Tassajara years: \n\nCreating a Zen Monastery — the first and second sesshins\nTeaching the Dharma in a New Setting — Lotus Sutra and other talks from 1968–69\nForm and Freedom — Sandokai\, Eko\, and the practice culture of 197\nThe Last Summer — Suzuki Roshi’s final season of teaching at Tassajara\n\nOptional recommended reading \nBooks by David Chadwick: \n\nCrooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki\nTassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West—The First Year\, 1967\nWhat Happened at Tassajara: Stories of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West\, 1968–1971\n\nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/suzuki-roshi-at-tassajara-online-2-6-2-27/2027-02-27/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270302T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270302T193000
DTSTAMP:20261018T225637Z
CREATED:20261018T225637Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261018T225637Z
UID:10004826-1804010400-1804015800@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Fukanzazengi with Shinshu Roberts\, Online 2/9–3/2
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Tuesdays\, February 9–March 2\, 6:00–7:30 pm PT \nFukanzazengi\, Dogen’s instructions for zazen\, presents intriguing questions that this class will explore and attempt to answer. \nWhat does it mean when Dogen describes zazen as the “Dharma gate of repose and bliss”? How do we take the backward step\, and what is the meaning of dropping body and mind? And of course\, what is “think non-thinking”? \nThe class will also explore the history of the text itself as well as the question Dogen poses at the beginning: if suchness/buddha-nature is already present\, why do we need to practice? \nFukanzazengi text (PDF) \nCourse Outline \nOver four sessions\, the course will move chronologically through Suzuki Roshi’s Tassajara years: \n\nCreating a Zen Monastery — the first and second sesshins\nTeaching the Dharma in a New Setting — Lotus Sutra and other talks from 1968–69\nForm and Freedom — Sandokai\, Eko\, and the practice culture of 197\nThe Last Summer — Suzuki Roshi’s final season of teaching at Tassajara \n\nOptional recommended reading \nBooks by David Chadwick: \n\nCrooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki\nTassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West—The First Year\, 1967\nWhat Happened at Tassajara: Stories of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West\, 1968–1971\n\nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/fukanzazengi-with-shinshu-roberts-online-2-9-3-2/2027-03-02/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270306T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270306T110000
DTSTAMP:20260924T015449Z
CREATED:20260923T222846Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T015449Z
UID:10004654-1804323600-1804330800@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Uji and Time-Being\, Online 3/6–3/20
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nThree Saturdays\, March 6–20\, 9:00–11:00 am PT  \nTime can feel fleeting\, relentless\, or surprisingly spacious. Our conventional sense that nothing lasts shapes our relationship with time\, sometimes bringing a sense of urgency or unease. We interpret impermanence as change\, and we resist it. \nIn Uji\, Dogen encourages us to see time from a radically unique perspective. To Dogen\, impermanence is not change\, rather it refers to the momentary existence of everything. While we have to live in accordance with time conventionally\, we can come to realize that time is not a real thing. The only real thing is this moment. \nWe will explore how Dogen’s Uji can help us heal the painful separation we feel far too often between ourselves\, time\, and our very lives. When we realize that we are time\, time no longer flies by. \n“Since there is nothing but just this moment\, the time-being is all the time there is.” — Dogen \nPlease join Cynthia and Diane in what promises to be a radical yet liberating exploration of time and how Dogen’s insights might help us find more ease in our lives. \nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/uji-and-time-being-online-3-6-3-20/2027-03-06/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270309T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270309T193000
DTSTAMP:20260925T000955Z
CREATED:20260918T224210Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260925T000955Z
UID:10004622-1804613400-1804620600@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Transforming Depression and Anxiety Practice Group\, Online 2/23–5/4
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nAlternate Tuesdays\, February 23–May 4\, 5:30–7:30 pm PT \nIn SFZC’s Transforming Depression and Anxiety offerings\, kindness\, mindfulness\, and tools from contemporary psychology are engaged to shift our relationship with depression\, anxiety\, and their companions\, judgment and self-criticism. These offerings include the core TDA course\, offered in January\, Transforming Depression and Anxiety: A Path of Skillful Compassion\, Online 1/12–2/2\, and Finding Ease: A Zen and Mindfulness Approach to Anxiety\, an annual workshop at Green Gulch Farm and City Center. \nThis 3-month virtual practice community class is open to previous TDA participants and anyone who feels they might benefit from these teachings. We will engage Buddhist practices and use TDA tools to disrupt reactive thought patterns that threaten to steal our peace of mind-heart. We will also work with questioning old stories that can poison our perceptions of self\, others\, and reality. \nFinally\, we’ll explore Buddha’s teaching that within our suffering lies the seeds of its healing and transformation\, and how this teaching intersects with TDA practices. \nOur purpose is to live more fully in the present moment\, less affected by reactivity\, rumination\, and worry. Living this way is a powerful antidote to lowered and agitated moods\, helping us see the good in our lives. \n2027 Dates:February 23March 9March 23April 6April 20May 4 \nLed by Jisho Lisa Beth Hoffman\, each class will include a brief guided meditation\, a short TDA Buddhist teaching\, discussion\, and a closing guided meditation. \nIf you have taken a TDA offering\, we encourage you to try this practice group. If you haven’t\, you are also warmly welcomed to join. We do request that you prepare for the group\, and there are two easy ways you can do so: \n\nTake the self-paced online course Befriending Your Pain\, taught by the late Dr. Lee Lipp\, who created the TDA-FE offerings and was a wise and delightful teacher.\nRead The Mindful Way Through Depression\, which Dr. Lipp used in designing the TDA offerings.\nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/transforming-depression-and-anxiety-practice-group-online-2-23-5-4/2027-03-09/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270311T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270311T173000
DTSTAMP:20261008T020623Z
CREATED:20261008T020623Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261008T020623Z
UID:10004724-1804780800-1804786200@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:The Shobogenzo in Translation\, Online 3/11–4/1
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Thursdays\, March 11–April 1\, 4:00–5:30 pm PT / 7:00–8:30 pm ET \nHow does the translation we read shape our understanding of Dogen? \nThe growing worldwide interest in Dogen’s Shobogenzo has produced six complete English translations\, along with numerous versions in European and Asian languages. Each translation approaches this famously challenging and evocative work differently\, offering readers distinct pathways into Dogen’s language and teaching. \nIn this four-session course\, we will focus particularly on two major English editions: the widely-read translation produced by Kazuaki Tanahashi and a group of collaborators\, and the recent eight-volume translation by the Soto Zen Text Project. \nBoth are immensely valuable\, but they differ in their source texts\, organization\, treatment of chronology\, and approach to annotation. The course’s primary focus will be “Ikka Myoju” (One Bright Pearl)\, “Inmo” (Suchness)\, “Komyo” (Radiant Light)\, “Shunju” (Spring and Autumn)\, and “Sansuikyo” (Mountains and Rivers Sutras)\, while ranging more widely where helpful for exploring questions of translation and interpretation. \nTogether\, we will: \n\nSurvey the history and variety of English translations of the Shobogenzo since the 1970s.\nCompare how the Tanahashi and Soto Zen Text Project editions approach several exemplary fascicles.\nExplore how significant passages have been rendered differently across translations.\nDevelop practical ways of consulting multiple translations to engage Doogen’s subtle and paradoxical writing with greater confidence and appreciation.\n\nThrough close reading and discussion\, participants in this four-session online class will gain a clearer understanding of how translation choices shape our encounter with Dogen\, as well as new tools for approaching the Shobogenzo in their own study and practice.  \nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/the-shobogenzo-in-translation-online-3-11-4-1/2027-03-11/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270313T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270313T110000
DTSTAMP:20260924T015449Z
CREATED:20260923T222846Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T015449Z
UID:10004658-1804928400-1804935600@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Uji and Time-Being\, Online 3/6–3/20
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nThree Saturdays\, March 6–20\, 9:00–11:00 am PT  \nTime can feel fleeting\, relentless\, or surprisingly spacious. Our conventional sense that nothing lasts shapes our relationship with time\, sometimes bringing a sense of urgency or unease. We interpret impermanence as change\, and we resist it. \nIn Uji\, Dogen encourages us to see time from a radically unique perspective. To Dogen\, impermanence is not change\, rather it refers to the momentary existence of everything. While we have to live in accordance with time conventionally\, we can come to realize that time is not a real thing. The only real thing is this moment. \nWe will explore how Dogen’s Uji can help us heal the painful separation we feel far too often between ourselves\, time\, and our very lives. When we realize that we are time\, time no longer flies by. \n“Since there is nothing but just this moment\, the time-being is all the time there is.” — Dogen \nPlease join Cynthia and Diane in what promises to be a radical yet liberating exploration of time and how Dogen’s insights might help us find more ease in our lives. \nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/uji-and-time-being-online-3-6-3-20/2027-03-13/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270313T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270313T153000
DTSTAMP:20261008T021116Z
CREATED:20261008T021116Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261008T021116Z
UID:10004728-1804946400-1804951800@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Freedom in Tradition\, Freedom from Tradition: A Conversation with Jiryu Rutschman-Byler and Joan Tollifson\, Online 3/13
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nSaturday\, March 13\, 2:00–3:30 pm PT \nWhat can traditional\, formal Zen practice and less structured\, more open approaches to awakening illuminate in one another? \nAuthor and teacher Joan Tollifson\, who left formal Zen practice to work with Toni Packer and went on to even less structured approaches\, and Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler meet for a wide-ranging conversation about different approaches to practice. \nTogether\, Abbot Jiryu and Joan will explore the possibilities and the potential limitations of formal Zen practice and of more open\, nontraditional ways of waking up to the wonder of what is and seeing through what seems to get in the way. \nThey will consider how structure\, ritual\, lineage\, and disciplined practice might solidify rather than soften self-centeredness and separation; what can be revealed or hidden by these forms; and what a less formal approach may open up or miss. \nTheir dialogue invites us to appreciate many different possibilities and to recognize the strengths and weaknesses in each of them. Above all\, the conversation will remind us of the wonder of the present\, the unknowable\, ungraspable miracle that is this moment as it is.  \nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/freedom-in-tradition-freedom-from-tradition-a-conversation-with-jiryu-rutschman-byler-and-joan-tollifson-online-3-13/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270315T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270315T200000
DTSTAMP:20261008T231212Z
CREATED:20261008T021646Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261008T231212Z
UID:10004753-1805133600-1805140800@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Ancestral Presence: Zen Practice as Family Healing\, Online 3/15–3/22
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nTwo Mondays\, March 15–22\, 6:00–8:00 pm PT \nA new offering from the SFZC Family Sangha \nThis two-part online series invites exploration into the intersection of Zen practice\, ancestral memory\, and the liberation of our personal and collective family systems. \nDuring our time together\, we will frame family practice as a radical form of ancestral engagement\, a way to tend the living ecology of our lineages. \nDrawing inspiration from the works of Bayo Akomolafe\, Lama Rod Owens\, and Zenju Earthlyn Manuel\, we will examine how ancestral currents flow through our present-day family systems. We will explore the entanglements of our history and the ways in which our practice can become a site of collective healing. \nGuided by the insights of Dr. Paula Arai and others\, we will look to the Japanese tradition of the butsudan (home altar) to emphasize the potential impacts of lay practice. In this tradition\, ancestors are not distant memories but active\, personal Buddhas\, sources of guidance\, support\, and ongoing relationship. By centering these practices in our own homes\, we move from a place of disconnection to one of deep\, ancestral intimacy. \nWe will explore: \n\nThe Ancestral Ecology: How our individual practice ripples outward\, placing us within a lineage that extends far beyond the boundaries of our own lives.\nReframing Karma: Moving from a view of trauma to one of tending\, we will investigate how intentional practice can help us transform\, heal\, and ultimately free our family lines from cycles of ancient\, inherited karma.\nThe Home as Practice Ground: Practical ways to integrate ancestral remembrance into daily life\, turning our family systems into a dynamic space for liberation.\n\nBy bringing our ancestors into the center of our practice\, we participate in a process of collective liberation\, healing not just for ourselves\, but for the larger web of life from which we emerge. \nThis class is appropriate for parents\, caregivers\, aunties\, and uncles\, grandparents\, adult children\, people of all backgrounds\, people in chosen families\, people without children\, and those grieving and tending to family estrangement and cut-offs. It is best suited for people age 18 and older. \nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/ancestral-presence-zen-practice-as-family-healing-online-3-15-3-22/2027-03-15/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270317T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270317T190000
DTSTAMP:20261008T231442Z
CREATED:20261008T022429Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261008T231442Z
UID:10004731-1805304600-1805310000@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Treatise on Awakening Mahayana Faith\, Online 3/17–4/21
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nSix Wednesdays\, March 17–April 21\, 5:30–7:00 pm PT \nTreatise on Awakening Mahayana Faith is text of unknown origin. It appeared in China in the sixth century\, around the time of Bodhidharma\, and quickly became very influential for all schools of Chinese and Japanese Buddha-Dharma\, especially Huayan\, Tiantai\, and Chan (Zen). \nIt harmonizes the Indian Yogachara (mind-only) and Tathagatagarbha (buddha-nature) teachings into a new understanding based on “one mind in two aspects”: undivided suchness and distorted samsara\, from which the whole world of experience arises. \nOver six weeks\, Kokyo Henkel will explore the treatise’s distinctive East Asian understanding of the Mahayana (great vehicle)\, including its teachings on faith or trust\, practice\, buddha-nature\, and the relationship between suchness and samsara. \nRecommended Reading:We will be mainly looking at the Jorgensen\, Lusthaus\, et al translation\, and there is also a similar free translation by Hakeda (PDF) available. \nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/treatise-on-awakening-mahayana-faith-online-3-17-4-21/2027-03-17/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270318T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270318T173000
DTSTAMP:20261008T020623Z
CREATED:20261008T020623Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261008T020623Z
UID:10004725-1805385600-1805391000@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:The Shobogenzo in Translation\, Online 3/11–4/1
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nFour Thursdays\, March 11–April 1\, 4:00–5:30 pm PT / 7:00–8:30 pm ET \nHow does the translation we read shape our understanding of Dogen? \nThe growing worldwide interest in Dogen’s Shobogenzo has produced six complete English translations\, along with numerous versions in European and Asian languages. Each translation approaches this famously challenging and evocative work differently\, offering readers distinct pathways into Dogen’s language and teaching. \nIn this four-session course\, we will focus particularly on two major English editions: the widely-read translation produced by Kazuaki Tanahashi and a group of collaborators\, and the recent eight-volume translation by the Soto Zen Text Project. \nBoth are immensely valuable\, but they differ in their source texts\, organization\, treatment of chronology\, and approach to annotation. The course’s primary focus will be “Ikka Myoju” (One Bright Pearl)\, “Inmo” (Suchness)\, “Komyo” (Radiant Light)\, “Shunju” (Spring and Autumn)\, and “Sansuikyo” (Mountains and Rivers Sutras)\, while ranging more widely where helpful for exploring questions of translation and interpretation. \nTogether\, we will: \n\nSurvey the history and variety of English translations of the Shobogenzo since the 1970s.\nCompare how the Tanahashi and Soto Zen Text Project editions approach several exemplary fascicles.\nExplore how significant passages have been rendered differently across translations.\nDevelop practical ways of consulting multiple translations to engage Doogen’s subtle and paradoxical writing with greater confidence and appreciation.\n\nThrough close reading and discussion\, participants in this four-session online class will gain a clearer understanding of how translation choices shape our encounter with Dogen\, as well as new tools for approaching the Shobogenzo in their own study and practice.  \nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/the-shobogenzo-in-translation-online-3-11-4-1/2027-03-18/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270320T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270320T110000
DTSTAMP:20260924T015449Z
CREATED:20260923T222846Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T015449Z
UID:10004659-1805533200-1805540400@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Uji and Time-Being\, Online 3/6–3/20
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nThree Saturdays\, March 6–20\, 9:00–11:00 am PT  \nTime can feel fleeting\, relentless\, or surprisingly spacious. Our conventional sense that nothing lasts shapes our relationship with time\, sometimes bringing a sense of urgency or unease. We interpret impermanence as change\, and we resist it. \nIn Uji\, Dogen encourages us to see time from a radically unique perspective. To Dogen\, impermanence is not change\, rather it refers to the momentary existence of everything. While we have to live in accordance with time conventionally\, we can come to realize that time is not a real thing. The only real thing is this moment. \nWe will explore how Dogen’s Uji can help us heal the painful separation we feel far too often between ourselves\, time\, and our very lives. When we realize that we are time\, time no longer flies by. \n“Since there is nothing but just this moment\, the time-being is all the time there is.” — Dogen \nPlease join Cynthia and Diane in what promises to be a radical yet liberating exploration of time and how Dogen’s insights might help us find more ease in our lives. \nRecordings:\nAll course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/uji-and-time-being-online-3-6-3-20/2027-03-20/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270320T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270320T123000
DTSTAMP:20261008T025856Z
CREATED:20261008T025856Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261008T025856Z
UID:10004750-1805540400-1805545800@www.sfzc.org
SUMMARY:Dancing with Chronic Illness and Pain: Ongoing Group\, Online 12/19–5/15
DESCRIPTION:The Zoom link to participate in this event will be provided at least 24 hours before it begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. \n\nMonthly\, Saturdays\, December 19–May 15\, 11:00–12:30 pm PT \nIf you have previously participated in any of the “Dancing in the Dark Fields” series\, we invite you to consider this ongoing monthly practice group\, which will expand on those teachings and community. \nZenshin Florence Caplow\, who will be teaching the class\, has “danced” with auto-immune illness for the last two decades\, including rheumatoid arthritis. She is also a Zen priest and teacher\, co-editor of The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty Five Centuries of Awakened Women\, and a Unitarian Universalist minister. \nZenshin Florence Caplow’s book\, Tend to Your Spirit: Mindful Living With Chronic Illness\, is available to order from the SFZC online bookstore. She also recommends Darlene Cohen’s book\, Turning Suffering Inside Out. These books are also available as e-books. \nRegistration is available on a rolling basis. Please contact onlineprograms@sfzc.org if registering after January 16. \nAn introductory course and prerequisite for the ongoing group\, Dancing with Chronic Illness and Pain\, will be held for six Saturdays starting January 9\, 2027. \nList other dates if necessary.: \n\nDecember 19\, 2026\nJanuary 16\, 2027 \nFebruary 20\nMarch 20\nApril 17\nMay 15\n\nRecordings:All course sessions will be recorded\, and registered participants will receive temporary access to the recordings for later viewing.
URL:https://www.sfzc.org/event/dancing-with-chronic-illness-and-pain-ongoing-group-online-12-19-5-15/2027-03-20/
CATEGORIES:Classes & Extended Courses
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END:VCALENDAR