Hartford Street Zen Center | Issan-ji temple
A Sōtō Zen temple for the LGBTQ+ community, friends and allies in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood
We are nearing 2/3 of our Ango – Study Period and want to encourage and invite you once again to our current heavier schedule carrying and into the Winter Light Retreat (schedule here). 
Please feel free to join any of these times to help maintain the energy and effort of this period. Keep also in mind we still have our normal Saturday talks, Thursday night Study Hour of Text along with the added activities for the Study Period.
Join us the next upcoming Saturday for a Full Moon Ceremony, Sangha Council and keep in mind there are still added practice opportunities to practice for our Fall Study Period (Schedule Here) going on right now.
Full Moon Ceremony at around 11:00am — The ceremony takes about a half-hour and involves some thirty full prostrations, but simple standing bows are also all right if prostrations are too strenuous. All are welcome to join in this ceremony/celebration. This month according to the Farmer’s Almanac is the Full Frosty or Beaver Moon. The ceremony will begin around 11am roughly after the Dharma Talk.
Sangha Council will commence around 12:30pm and run for 90 minutes with a break mid-way — We’re continuing this format that is flexible enough for a diversity of needs. The scaffold we’ll be working from is based on the Council process developed by the Ojai Foundation.
You do not need to have an ‘issue’ or overt concern to attend. Council is sangha building, connection and healing. All are welcome to all of these events including our Fall Practice/Study Period!
Jisan Tova Green, LCSW, currently serves on the Board of Directors as Vice President of San Francisco Zen Center. Before being named vice president, she served as the Director.
She received priest ordination from Eijun Linda Cutts in 2003. Tova is a practice leader at San Francisco Zen Center and co-founded Zen Center’s Queer Dharma Group.
Tova received her MSW from Smith College School for Social Work and completed Smith’s certificate program in Contemplative Social Work in 2008. Tova was a social worker at Hospice by the Bay until April 2011.
Please join us for this wonderful event and we will be in week 1 of 6 of our Fall Practice Period and thus a great opportunity to take advantage of the additional sittings and offerings we have until early December!
Following the Dharma talk we’ll celebrate the ancient ceremony known in Japanese as Sejiki, or “Feeding the Jiki (wandering spirits)”. 
This ceremony addresses our connection to the “unseen world”, typically overlooked in the West. All aspects of our life that have been disowned, disrespected and denied are invited to come forth from exile and be nourished, a gesture that may have particular significance for members of the LGBTiQQ community, whose own place in the social order has been undermined by fear, prejudice and violence. Costumes and sundry noisemaking devices are encouraged, and everyone is invited to participate. (Time approximate after the Dharma talk, at about 11 a.m.)
Every Saturday we offer early morning zazen (seated meditation), a brief drop-in meditation instruction at 8:30 am. And again zazen at 9:25 am. We wrap up with a dharma talk at 10:15 am followed by a ceremony if applicable, then tea and cookies.
Please join us Saturdays and we hope to see you often through out the rest of the week!
Shuso Ceremony to be added soon… Click here for details and to sign up!
Thursdays @7:30pm, we study the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, also called Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra. There are multiple translations, we focus a bit on the Dr Robert Thurman version, but welcome any version to compare the translations. We can share books for anyone who wants to join in, or feel free to purchase a copy and join us (many are very low cost online). Check our twitter page for any changes in schedule.
click here for further details and schedule Modeled on the traditional 90 Day Ango (Practice Period) the Study Period will include opportunities for private interviews with Rev. Myo (dokusan), lectures and special ceremonies, as well as semi-formal meals (oryoki style), teas, and additional periods of meditation.