Author: zenzdragon
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All in the Family: City Center’s Shuso On Living at SFZC
By Tova Green Vanessa Able, City Center’s Shuso (Head Student) for the Fall 2025 Practice Period, arrived from France with her husband and ten-year old daughter in September. A Soto Zen priest and a chaplain, Vanessa began her practice in the UK (where she grew up). She teaches chaplaincy at the Sati Center for…
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zen: the authentic gate
We cannot attain genuine enlightenment unless we practice under an authentic teacher; we will be led to a spurious experience if we practice under a false teacher. ― Kōun Yamada, Zen: The Authentic Gate When I started my practice I received a very specific imprint, a very specific instruction on working with a teacher.…
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An Invitation to Join the Tassajara Summer 2026 Community
Tassajara Director, Ashley Ng, and City Center Abiding Abbot, Dōshin Mako Voelkel. As I watch the sunlight begin to wane and the valley’s leaves turn red, orange, yellow, and brown, I feel deep gratitude for the seasons and how each turning brings its own purpose and beauty. This morning, my mind goes to our…
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Holiday Gifts for Compass Clara House Children
Compass Clara House, located just down Page Street from City Center, is a family shelter with which San Francisco Zen Center has been involved for many years. It has been our tradition for City Center to host a holiday party for the families where each child is given a gift bag that includes, among…
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Illuminating the Path of Family Practice at SFZC
I found my way to Green Gulch Farm through becoming a parent two decades ago. Here, my daughter and I discovered that apple trees and compost piles also give Dharma talks. In this place, between rows of lavender and lettuces, we received the balm of practicing Zen as a family. Arriving before dawn to…
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DONUTS AND DOJOS
Satori is like a thief breaking into an empty house. There is nothing to steal. —Kodo Sawaki It’s just like at the office when no one else shows and there’s a box full of Krispy Kreme all for me. This morning an empty dojo full of zafus and zazen all alone with the cosmos more…
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Lay Initiation Ceremony at City Center
Left to right: Victor Grajski, Adam Paul, Central Abbot David Zimmerman, Ryushin Paul Haller, Sozan Michael McCord, Isabel Peñaranda, Matthew Golino, Claire deChivre and Catherine Spaeth. Photo by Tova Green. Congratulations to the initiates who received the Bodhisattva precepts in a Lay Initiation Ceremony at City Center on September 20. Receiving the precepts from…
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I Had a Good Teacher: An Interview with Les Kayes’ Student and Editor, Giuseppe Prisco
“I had a good teacher.” These are the words of Les Kaye, spoken about his teacher, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Les Kaye’s new book, I Had a Good Teacher, interweaves his Dharma talks with personal stories that illuminate how he integrated Zen practice into a full life of corporate work and family responsibilities. Les began…
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The practice of veneration
In the closing line of his poem “Sandstone Keepsake,” the Irish poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney describes himself as “one of the venerators.” That line is striking, not only because the verb venerate has largely disappeared from everyday discourse but also because the spirit of veneration itself, like water in certain parts of the…
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SITTING IN THE STREAM
Richard Collins at the Fall Equinox Eclipse Sesshin 19-21 Sept 2025 My senior year in high school in Southern California I failed two classes, English and Social Studies. Two teachers, Mrs Holman and Miss Lahewn, made me a proposal: if I promised not to attend their summer school classes, they would give me a passing…