Tag: peakperformance

  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…

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…

  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…

  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…

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…

  “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…

  By Tova Green “The Tassajara Bread Book changed bread baking in America,” reflects author Edward Espe Brown. “Part of making bread is learning the legacy and the history of breadbaking, appreciating ancestry. When we bake today, we renew that ancestry.” This month, Shambhala published the 55th Anniversary Edition of Brown’s legendary cookbook, with a…

Lucy Xiao and Paul Haller. Photo by Robert-Lyons   Gendō Lucy Xiao received Dharma Transmission from Senior Dharma Teacher Ryūshin Paul Haller at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center on September 20, 2025. Lucy’s Dharma name is Furyū Gendō — Wind Dragon, Subtle (or Mysterious) Way. She has practiced at SFZC City Center and Tassajara since 2000,…

  Think the fold. Become the fold. Forget the fold. Everything in my art is about interconnectedness …coming alive, like a dreamcatcher that lures the true self to a place of deep intimacy. The closeness of this connection is what inspires me, because intimate togetherness with oneself, with others, and with the world can be…

Left to right: Thiemo Blank, Abbot Jiryu, Cam Esaryk and Meiya Wender. Photos by Steph-Blank Congratulations to Cam Esaryk who received priest ordination from Abiding Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, with supporting preceptors Thiemo Blank and Meiya Wender, at Green Gulch Farm on September 28. Cam’s Dharma name is Chōtan Shōgetsu (Deep Clear Pool, Radiating Moonlight).