Upcoming

Our apologies but in our very limited resource temple a person missing is an impact to schedule and activities. Wed night will not have its usual resource this week and we hope you can instead make our next scheduled offering

Dr Steven Tierney (Rev. Kai Po Koshin) is a Dharma transmitted teacher in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. Steven is the guiding teacher at Oceans Compassion Zen Community, Meditation in Recovery Sangha at SFZC and the SFLGBTQA+ Sangha.  Rev. Tierney is currently the president of the Soto Zen Budhist Association.

Dr. Tierney is a psychotherapist in private practice and Professor Emeritus in Counseling Psychology at CIIS. He has been integrating meditation, mindfulness, and breath-based wellness initiatives since 1995.  For further information: Steventierneysf@gmail.com

Please have a safe and enjoyable Halloween if you celebrate it, but the Castro center is rather festive especially when it will be combined with the final street market for the Castro Neighborhood in 2025. Abbot & Priest and Students will need some extra morning hours to catch up on sleep after a neighborhood party.

In the west often zen centers often combine the Halloween most closely related to Samhaim from the Celtic people with a Japanese tradition often celebrated in O-bon season known as Sejiki, the feeding of hungry Ghosts.

PLEASE DONT ALSO FORGET TO sign up for the Winter Light Retreat Dec 5th through 7th

Fugan Eugene (Gene) Bush began formal Zen practice in 1982 and received Dharma transmission from the late Rev. Katherine Thanas in 2010. Gene serves as one of the Practice Leaders of Santa Cruz Zen Center.

He also became a teacher for the Arcata Zen Group in 2013, with occasional forays to Hartford Street Zen Center and to Queer Dharma at San Francisco Zen Center.

Join us for zazen (seated meditation) at 6:30am and/or 9:30am, with the Dharma talk to follow at 10:30. We offer in-person distanced attendance, and we also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events. Please click here to be routed to our Zoom gathering  

A period of zazen is typically 40 minutes, and it’s ok to adjust your sitting posture as needed. The Dharma talk includes time for questions and answers, occasionally followed by a particular ceremony such as the celebration of Buddha’s Birthday. We enjoy tea and cookies together afterwards.

And as always, you can contact us to arrange an introductory session ~8:45am if you are a beginner. As a reminder any week you do not see a speaker announced it is our Abbot, Rev. Myo Lahey.

Save the date – Arrange the time off from daily home, work and busy worldly market life:

 December 5th into December 7th 

For 2025, we hope to offer a three-day retreat and need your attendance to make it happen. 

We will have zoom presence. We are finalizing the schedule and offerings that will be included. We will communicate more details and your options and ways to join in the weeks ahead.

We hope you will join us for this annual event for deepening our practice, opportunity.

Stay tuned in email for another announcement in weeks ahead and on hszc.org or our facebook page for more info. 

Suggested Attendance is $80 for the full retreat, $30 per day – or – an amount of your own choosing, or you can afford. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Questions or ready to RSVP now?  Please email:  info@hszc.org  – or – sign the sign-up sheet in the zendo

It was a great pleasure to welcome the Valley Streams Sangha from the Sacramento area who commuted to San Francisco to join or Saturday program. Thank you for the visit and connection with the wider Soto Zen community of Northern California.

Valley Streams can be learned more about here.

From Abbot Rev Myo: “I returned from my morning walk. It turned out they were from variety of educational institutions around Japan, all of them interested in LGBTQ+ life and issues. I gave them a brief tour and answered their questions etc.” 

A nice surprise visit.

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 Saturdays for zazen (seated meditation) at 9:30am, with the Dharma talk to follow at 10:30. We offer in-person distanced attendance, and we also will continue to offer a Zoom web conferencing for video and/or audio presence for the scheduled events.

There’s an earlier sitting at 6:30am, in addition to the later one at 9:30am (you can log into the conference starting at ~9am). A period of zazen is typically 40 minutes, and it’s ok to adjust your sitting posture as needed. The Dharma talk includes time for questions and answers, occasionally followed by a particular ceremony such as the celebration of Buddha’s Birthday. We enjoy tea and cookies together afterwards. 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.

As a reminder any week you do not see a speaker announced it is our Abbot, Rev. Myo Lahey.