Hartford Street Zen Center | Issan-ji temple
A Sōtō Zen temple for the LGBTQ+ community, friends and allies in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood
As SF kicks off its festivities we hope that you had/have an opportunity to get out or in your own way, celebrate our community, the progress we’ve made and reflect on the hard work and efforts so many made to get us to this point in history. Still more progress to go but a good time to reflect and embrace the joy of acceptance at each step we travel.
LGBTQ+ Pride Month is a month, typically June, dedicated to celebration and commemoration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) pride, observed in the Western world. Pride Month began after the Stonewall riots, a series of gay liberation protests in 1969, and has since spread outside of the United States. Modern-day Pride Month both honors the movement for LGBTQ+ rights and celebrates LGBTQ+ culture.
HSZC came out of the Gay Buddhist Club in response to the feelings of some in the community that their needs were not adequately addressed at SFZC, City Center. The first meetings were held at City Center but soon relocated to the Hartford Street house, which had been in use as a Tibetan Buddhist center since 1973, where the group hosted such speakers as Allen Ginsburg, Ram Dass, and Baker Roshi. On December 8, 1981, the day of Buddha’s enlightenment, a ceremony took place to inaugurate the new zendo in the basement, and the Hartford Street Zen Center began to take form.
We continue still to stand for the LGBTQ+ community and our allies through our ongoing evolution of societal views of our lives.
Rev. Renshin Bunce is a California native, born in Marin County and raised in Southern California. In midlife, yearning for a peaceful mind, she began meditating, and met her teacher Myogen Steve Stücky in January of 1994. She made jukai (took her lay vows) with Myogen at Dharma Eye Zen Center in 1996, was priest ordained by Zenkei Blanche Hartman at San Francisco Zen Center in 2003, served as Shuso (head student) with Myogen at Tassajara in 2008, and received dharma transmission from him at Tassajara in April of 2013. Renshin lived at Zen Center for seven years, and then began training as a chaplain. She moved out of Zen Center in 2008 and worked as a hospice chaplain from 2010 until retiring in 2022. She has written two books, Entering the Monastery, a record of her time at Zen Center, which was published in 2008; and Love and Fear, reflections on chaplaincy, which was published in 2020.
Join us for zazen (seated meditation), with the talk to follow, we offer in-person distanced attendance; We also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. there’s an early session at 6:30am and then the more popular 9:30 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) for 40 minutes and a Dharma talk at 10:30am, followed by Q&A as well as an opportunity to check in and see how you are doing, followed by a ceremony if applicable, then tea and cookies in person after that. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering
And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.
Rev. Daigan Gaither began Buddhist practice in 1995 in the Vipassana (Insight) tradition, and then began to study Zen in 2003 with Ryushin Paul Haller Roshi. He received Lay Ordination in 2006 where he was given the name Daigan or “Great Vow”, and received Priest Ordination in July 2011. Daigan speaks internationally on a variety of topics particularly around gender, sexuality, social justice and their intersections with the Dharma.
He has a BA in Philosophy and Religion from San Francisco State University, and an MA in Buddhist Studies from the Graduate Theological Union and the Institute of Buddhist Studies.
Join us for zazen (seated meditation), with the talk to follow, we offer in-person distanced attendance; We also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. there’s an early session at 6:30am and then the more popular 9:30 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) for 40 minutes and a Dharma talk at 10:30am, followed by Q&A as well as an opportunity to check in and see how you are doing, followed by a ceremony if applicable, then tea and cookies in person after that. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering
And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.
Thank you for joining us through the April series of guest speakers, we will return to most weeks being offered by our Abbot – Rev. Myo Lahey and more occasional guest speakers.
Deep gratitude to all our guests who come and offer words through their life experience of the dharma! —/gassho\—
Please join us for our public offerings!
Updates to our scheduled routines, ceremonies or guest speaker announcements here.
Next Saturday, the 10:30 a.m. Dharma talk will be given by Steven, our good friend and our Sangha council facilitator. Steven is a psychotherapist in private practice, and a Dharma heir or Rev. Cynthia Kear, in addition to being a longtime leader in the Recovery community.
Steven has been studying and practicing Buddhism for more than 25 years and was ordained by Michael Wenger in 2013, serving as Shuso in 2014.
Steven’s commitment is to a community-based Buddhism and he has spent the last twenty years extending Buddha’s teachings to those living with addictions, in recovery and those facing serious physical and mental health challenges. A certified addiction specialist, he is the Co-Founder of the San Francisco Mindfulness Foundation providing training, consultation, psychotherapy mindfulness-based mental health services to individuals and families.
Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering
And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.
Hobu Beata Chapman has practiced Zen with chronic nerve pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for 23 years. She studied with Katherine Thanas at Santa Cruz Zen Center and with Darlene Cohen until her untimely death, and received Dharma transmission from Tony Patchell in 2013. Beata also helped Hartford Street Zen Center with its’ council process for several years and is a great friend of Issan-ji Temple.
Beata continues the Suffering & Delight groups for people with chronic pain that Darlene founded around 15 years ago, and teaches an online S&D group she began for people not able to attend in person. For more information about Beata’s work with chronic pain, you can see sufferinganddelight.net. Beata is an organizational consultant currently doing corporate leadership training and assisting health care organizations to develop compliance systems. She recently started a zazen group in San Mateo (PenZen.net).
Join us for zazen (seated meditation), with the talk to follow, we offer in-person distanced attendance; We also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. there’s an early session at 6:30am and then the more popular 9:30 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) for 40 minutes and a Dharma talk at 10:30am, followed by Q&A as well as an opportunity to check in and see how you are doing, followed by a ceremony if applicable, then tea and cookies in person after that. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering
And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.
Kokyo has served as Head Teacher at Santa Cruz Zen Center spent time in practice in Colorado in Crestone recently. He has been practicing zen since 1990 in residence at Tassajara, Green Gulch Farm, No Abode Hermitage in Mill Valley, and Bukkokuji Monastery in Japan. He was ordained a priest in 1994 by Tenshin Anderson Roshi and received Dharma Transmission from him in 2010.
Kokyo’s interests include looking at how the classic original teachings of Buddha-Dharma from ancient India, China, and Japan are still very much alive and useful in present-day America to bring peace and harmony to this troubled world.
Join us for zazen (seated meditation), with the talk to follow, we offer in-person distanced attendance; We also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. there’s an early session at 6:30am and then the more popular 9:30 zazen (you can log into the conference starting at 9am to socialize) for 40 minutes and a Dharma talk at 10:30am, followed by Q&A as well as an opportunity to check in and see how you are doing, followed by a ceremony if applicable, then tea and cookies in person after that. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering
And as always you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner.