Podcasts about green gulch farm

  Furyu Nancy Schroeder came to the SF Zen Center in the seventies. She was the abbess of Green Gulch Farm from 2014 to 2023 and has been an active supporter of programs for children, people of color, the gay and lesbian community, and the interfaith community. In 2008 she was elected to the Marin Women's Hall of Fame, and in 2010 she was appointed to the Board of the Marin Community Foundation. In addition, she has previously co-led SF Zen Center's Contemplative Caregiver Course. She received Dharma Transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1999. That's from the SFZC bio on her. In this podcast she talks about how she got into Zen and what's happened since and other stuff.

Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler is the abbot of Green Gulch Farm as a co-abbot of the SF Zen Center. In the podcast he talks about Becoming Yourself, an upcoming book of Shunryu Suzuki lectures that he worked on with Mel Weitsman. First he talks briefly about Nicole Baden and Richard Baker's recent stay at the City Center and Green Gulch and Baker's stroke of a week ago. He reads selections from Becoming Yourself: Teachings on the Zen Way of Life and we talk about that and more. Most enjoyable. 

04/13/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler reflects on comments from Suzuki Roshi's talks on Case #36 of the Blue Cliff Record, exploring lines like “Buddhists resign from the world of suffering in order to live in the world of perpetual joy” and “human beings prefer the unreal to the real.”

03/16/2025, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Stories of our Chinese Zen Ancestor Dongshan, and his poem about nonduality: our life is like facing a jewel mirror - form and reflection behold each other. Both our sense of subjectivity and sense of objectivity are merely changing reflections on the unchanging mirror of buddha-nature.

03/09/2025, Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler explores the practice of seeing the present moment, just as it is, as “the mystic peak” of spiritual fulfillment, with reference to Suzuki Roshi's comments on case #23 of the Blue Cliff Record.

Kokyo (AKA Luminous Owl) Henkle is a Soto Zen priest who came to the SF Zen Center in 1990 and is currently leading a practice period at Green Gulch Farm. He and his wife Shoho Kuebast founded the Bright Window Hermitage on Tassajara Road. Check it out at brightwindowhermitage.weebly.com. In his college years Kokyo was a dedicated Deadhead. Listen to this podcast with him and learn more.

03/02/2025, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. An introduction to this ancient Zen poem that is often recited at SF Zen Center and Soto Zen temples around the world. The metaphor of a mirror and its reflections to clarify buddha-nature and the world of experience is offered by the Buddha in various sutras, and by many Zen ancestors as well.

02/16/2025, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Tenzen David Zimmerman explores the nature of the commitment that a priest makes, shares his own journey to ordination, and describes the responsibility that comes with the archetypal role.

02/02/2025, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler suggests that to meet the current moment, we might practice a deep-rooted kindness, like the kindness of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, whose imperturbable compassion is born of the study of perfect wisdom.

Dor Ben-Amotz is a science professor who, in this podcast, talks about his experience teaching a course in Buddhism and Meditation at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont. He also speaks about how he got into Buddhism and meditation, his time at Green Gulch Farm, and more. Here's a link to the syllabus on the course he taught: https://cuke.com/pdf-2015/Fun_Buddhism_Slides.pdf

11/24/2024, Kiku Christina Lehnherr, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Kiku Christina Lehnherr teaches that practicing and overtly expressing appreciation, gratitude and generosity towards all the people, situations and things, great and small, that support our lives and fill them with love and beauty, is a powerful antidote to challenging situations.

11/17/2024, Abbot Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, closing a five day sesshin, Jiryu talks about the unborn, undying aspect of reality, opened to through the practice of stopping, dropping off everything, and just being our ordinary self.

11/10/2024, Zesho Susan O'Connell, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk by Zesho Susan O'Connell examines the vast field of existence, the fabric of our world that can get torn and faded. We are not in control, but we can “clearly observe” the tears.

Alan Block gives the Dharma talk to the All Day Sitting on "Three Marks of Humans" at Green Gulch Farm. Suggested donation: $7 https://bit.ly/donate-edz-online-teachings We cannot continue offering teachings online without it. Thank you! https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/edz.assets/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Three-Marks-of-Humans-Alan-Block-All-Day-Sitting-November-2024.mp3

11/03/2024, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this practice period talk, Senior Dharma Teacher Eijun asks: how do we practice when we are anxious and fearful —especially when there are great challenges in our life. Back to the basics!

10/27/2024, Furyu Nancy Schroeder, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Senior dharma teacher Furyu Schroeder examines a variety of approaches for working with the difficulties in our life, all of them include bringing our attention to our thoughts and to our feelings.

10/20/2024, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Linda explores how the mind of a Bodhisattva is able to meet the challenges of our lives, and celebrates the traditional forms of Practice Period, that help us to be able to fully express an “appropriate response” to our world.

10/13/2024, Sozan Michael McCord, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This dharma talk was given at Green Gulch Farm by San Francisco Zen Center president Sozan Michael McCord. While we honor and treasure the memories, lessons and times with people who we knew in the past, it is that very memory of how temporary this life is — that everything is changing — which helps us treasure those we have in our lives today. This also serves as scaffolding to do the work of being here now, in this moment. It helps us take into our bones the beating heart of now, and turn our complete attention to the seemingly special or mundane that the moment in front of us is offering.

10/06/2024, Gyokuden Stephanie Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, from Green Gulch Farm by Gyokuden Steph Blank, Steph reflects on practice in the temple and in the marketplace with an abiding love for both environments.

This talk was given at Green Gulch Farm by Gendo Lucy Xiao 玄道. The talk is an exploration of taking refuge in our true nature as we navigate the seasons of life.

09/22/2024, Thiemo Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This dharma talk was given at Green Gulch Farm by Tanto Thiemo Blank. ​The talk gives an introduction into the precepts of the Zen lineage ​as well as T​hiemo's ​p​ersonal path in finding meaning in the precepts beyond a seemingly rule-driven moral guideline.

09/15/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk given at Green Gulch Farm, Abiding Abbott Jiryu Rutschman-Byler continues to explore four core elements of zazen practice: low belly, upright spine, clear mind, and wide-open welcoming. He focuses in particular on the practice of "clearing the mind," using teachings of the Buddha and from the Platform Sutra to discuss the dynamic between, on the one hand, welcoming everything including thought, and on the other hand, the fact that without a clear, empty mind the practice of welcoming often feels inaccessible to us.

09/08/2024, Stephanie Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk was given at Green Gulch Farm by Gyokuden Steph Blank. In the talk, Gyokuden invokes dragon energies and invites us to awaken together right now; heartbreak welcome, dharma companions manifest, failure being no obstacle to practice. Discussing the role of intention as the determiner of karmic consequences, she encourages us to plunge into the stream of practice and express ourselves fully for the benefit of All Beings… and — TO VOTE!

09/01/2024, Gil Fronsdal, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This extemporaneous talk was given at Green Gulch Farm by Gil Fronsdal. In the talk, Gil brings forward the teachings that arose in that moment.

08/25/2024, Onryu Mary Stares, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk Onryu Mary Stares discusses reality: how our attachments and karma lead us to obscure reality; how practice guides us to seek what is real in each moment.

Kelly Bernard Chadwick grew up in and around Tassajara, the SFZC City Center, and Green Gulch Farm. He is my older son. His mother is my first wife, Daya Goldschlag, called Dianne back in 1973 when Kelly was born at Green Gulch Farm. Dianne has a Zen group now in Spokane Washington and Kelly is an arborist in Spokane and has a business there called Spirit Pruners - . In this podcast he talks about his youthful ZC memories but more about his recent experience of Tassajara where he takes a crew in the spring to trim trees. Deep stuff.

08/18/2024, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. The Sixth Chinese Zen Ancestor, defining "zazen" (sitting meditation), said " 'za' (sitting) means not to be obstructed by anything and not to activate thoughts about objects, and 'zen' means to see our original nature without being confused." In this talk, Kokyo explores what it means to reify thoughts and to see true nature by not seeing anything.

08/11/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk Jiryu discusses four fundamental, inter-related aspects of the Zen posture of body and mind which we can care for in sitting and in daily life: 1) grounded in the belly, 2) upright and strong in our spine, 3) clear and empty in our mind, and 4) warmly welcoming of the whole wide, bright, constantly changing, utterly unknowable field of experience.

08/04/2024, Rinso Ed Sattizahn, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. An exploration of the the koan: Zhaozhou's Cypress Tree in the Courtyard.

07/28/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Studying Zen precepts, our tradition transmits a wealth of teachings to help us stop harming at personal and interpersonal levels. At this time in the West, we need to develop our ability to stop supporting harm and evil in groups and systems. Understanding and admitting how we may have supported collective harm actively, by collusion or tolerance, consciously or unconsciously, we can remove the hidden supports of collective harm. Humility in our group roles and behaviors opens our hearts and mind to what gives life to our participation in institutions, systems, and shared culture. When we scale up our practice of compassion and skillful means to plant our group behavior in the sensitive, responsive ground of the precepts, we find new ways to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings.

What is forest bathing?  How does forest bathing impact mental health? How does it impact physical health?  Nature is medicine. Forest = For Rest There have been many studies to show that forest bathing and simply being in nature is a way to decrease stress and improve well-being. It improves mental and physical health conditions. It impacts both our vital signs and our outlook. Dr. Suzanne Bartlett Hackenmille, MD, FACOG, ABoIM is board-certified in integrative medicine and ObGyn. She has additional certifications in herbal medicine, Ayurveda, and meditation. She is also certified as a Forest Bathing Therapist through The Association of Nature and Forest Bathing and she is the author of The Outdoor Adventurer's Guide to Forest Bathing.   In this episode, Doc Suzy shares her compelling and emotional story.  She discovered integrative medicine and forest bathing. when she began seeking answers to burnout as an ObGYN on top of navigating having an autistic child and a husband diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. Forest bathing, just like mindfulness, is primarily about noticing. It is also a practice of using all your senses. Listen to the episode to learn how to forest bathe. Suzy recommends a pyramid approach to forest bathing.  This means, if possible, we should celebrate the awe and wonder of what we notice in nature amidst significant natural wonders (such as national parks) regularly. A plug to join us in Muir Woods, at Muir Beach, and in the gardens of the Green Gulch Farm and Zen Center for Connect in Nature. Our location is a site of much awe-inspiring nature. This is the last year we will host Connect in Nature in this location. Next year we will be moving this event to a TBD different spectacular spot in nature.  Dr. Bartlett Hackenmille explains that we can also practice forest bathing weekly in urban local parks, botanical gardens, arboretums, and/or daily in our backyard. We can even practice nature therapy/nature medicine with a potted plant and/or on a construction site.  We highly recommend Suzy's gorgeous book which is full of color pictures and a myriad of invitations to practice forest bathing.  How might you like to practice more “nature medicine”?  Where could you forest bathe today? This week? This year? Why not forest bathe with us in Muir Woods at Connect in Nature Sept 6-8th. ? If those dates don't work for you, consider signing up to forest bathe with Jessie at a Nicasio Creek Farm Wellness Retreat in October or, November 2024 or at Sagrada Wellness in November 2024, There are also many date options for Pause & Presence nature-based retreats in 2025. Today's Mindful Moment offering is a forest bathing meditation guided by Dr. Suzanne Bartlett Hackenmiller. For podcast listeners, please find a photo of your ideal forest space for this practice or listen outside. You can find Dr Suzanne at @docsuzy on IG or at her website www.integrativeinitiative.com. Move beyond consuming this amazing podcast. True change happens when you work with us - virtually and/or in-person. If you can't make it to a retreat soon, coach with Jessie virtually 1:1 or in a small group.  Coaching also helps you become happier and healthier. www.jessiemahoneymd.com Hire Ni-Cheng, Jessie, or both of us to give a keynote talk or lead a workshop or breakout session on any topic covered in the Mindful Healers Podcast. We also create team retreats, teach yoga, and offer experiential mindfulness for teams, groups, grand rounds, institutions, and conferences. www.jessiemahoneymd.com/mindful-healers-podcast www.awakenbreath.org  www.jessiemahoneymd.com/speaking *Nothing shared in the Mindful Healers Podcast is medical advice. #physicianwellness #mindfulnesscoach #pauseandpresence #physiciancoach  

07/21/2024, Dr. Grace Dammann, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Dr. Grace Dammann, a previouse Green Gulch Resident and physician, who was honored by the Dalai Lama for her extraordinary work speaks about the difference between suffering and pain from her experience as a doctor, practitioner and patient.

07/14/2024, Jisan Tova Green, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Each life is a journey and we are all travelers. Some are forced to travel, displaced by wars or the climate crisis, others are unhoused, others travel for work, study, or recreation. The roles of host and guest are heightened by travel. Many come to Green Gulch and other Zen centers for refuge and renewal. How can we welcome these travelers?

07/07/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Jiryu discusses traditional Zen practices of generating doubt and wonder - through meditating on "huatou" questions like "who drags this corpse around?" - and discusses how Soto Zen practice expresses that same wonder in a more subtle way as a point of posture in sitting and daily life.

06/30/2024, Myoju Erin Merk, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk was given at Green Gulch Farm by Myoju Shinjin Erin Merk on Pride Day 2024 in a celebration of gratitude and Queer Joy. This is Erin's first talk following her three week Dharma Transmission ceremony at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center.

06/23/2024, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Case 35 in the Gateless Barrier koan collection tells the story of Qian's spirit being divided between following her heart and being responsible by following obligations. Is one path more true than the other or not?

06/16/2024, Ryuko Laura Burges, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Laura talks about how we can practice with grief, loss, and ordinary everyday suffering, She weaves in stories from her recent book from Shambhala, The Zen Way of Recovery, and shares practices that can help us--no matter what we may be recovering from.

06/09/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Jiryu reflects on the practice of shikantaza, just sitting, as a Way that is fundamentally different than technique-based meditation.

05/12/2024, Thiemo Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk was presented by Thiemo on Mothers Day at the end of an introductory Sesshin (meditation retreat) at Green Dragon Temple. The Investigation of - “the true dragon” (Reality / Thusness) - in Sesshin is likened to the ancient story of the blind men investigating an Elephant. The speaker suggests that Forms and Ceremonies offer a path to wholeheartedly and intimately connect to the “dragon”. As babies we were in accord with the flow of Reality but as adults we lost connection by our focus on conceptual thinking. Returning to our original intimacy we need to learn the “backward step” that Dogen is teaching.

05/05/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Offering a talk on the day of a funeral service for Caroline Meister, Jiryu observes that in the subtle, tender mind that is truly open and present in not-knowing, we cannot even say "alive or dead".

04/28/2024, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk Zoketsu discusses case 19 of Mumonkan, Nanchuan's Everyday Mind. Our practice is very plain and ordinary, and yet, the plain and ordinary world is also vast and wide, and when we practice zazen regularly we can begin to live in it with that appreciation. To end his talk Zoketsu quotes at length from a commentary to this story by his late teacher Sojun Weitsman, from his new posthumous book Seeing One Thing Through.

04/14/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Jiryu suggests that by reflecting on the potential of Artificial Intelligence in Buddhism, in the form, for example, of the Suzuki Roshi chatbot, we can be led to renew our commitment to embodied presence, which is the real purpose and effort of Zen practice, and the real source of Bodhisattvas' wisdom and compassion.

03/24/2024, Eijun Linda Cutts, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. This talk by Eijun Linda Cutts was offered and dedicated to Caroline Meister, a Tassajara resident whose accidental death touched so many with sorrow. The talk looks at the Koan “Daowu's Condolence Call” Case 55 in the Blue Cliff Record, and the non-dual life of zazen and precepts.

03/10/2024, Kokyo Henkel, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. The great Way is not difficult for those who hold no preferences, it is like vast space with nothing lacking and nothing extra. At the moment awareness turns around and illuminates itself, there is going beyond appearance and emptiness.

Norman gives the fourth talk of the" Zen Mind Beginner's Mind"  2024 series based on Suzuki Roshi's book of the same name to the March 2nd All Day Sitting at Green Gulch Farm. Suggested donation: $7 https://bit.ly/donate-edz-online-teachings We cannot continue offering teachings online without it. Thank you! https://everydayzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Mind-Suzuki-Roshi-Talk-4-March-2-All-Day-Sitting.mp3

03/03/2024, Thiemo Blank, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk Thiemo Blank uses a scene from "Harry Potter" to playfully teach about penetrating the "Walls" in our lives as a journey of liberation.

What is good medicine? What is the medicine you actually need? How do you want to live?  Who is your Obi-Won-Kenobi teacher? Who are you?  What does it mean to be upright in your life? How do we create connections? We discuss all this and more in this very special guest episode with Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison who is Co-Founder, President, & Guiding Teacher of the New York Zen Center an educational non-profit dedicated to integrating contemplative approaches to care with contemporary medicine.   Through Koshin's leadership and vision, New York Zen Center has developed transformative training experiences like the Foundations in Contemplative Care and the Contemplative Medicine Fellowship. He is a renowned thought leader in contemplative care, and his work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, and CBS amongst other media outlets. Koshin is the author of Untangled: Walking the Eightfold Path to Clarity, Courage, and Compassion (Balance/Hachette, 2022); Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up (Wisdom Publications, 2019), and the co-editor of Awake at Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care (Wisdom Publications, 2016).     Pearls of wisdom shared in this episode It is not enough to simply continue to put on bandaids. You will never be free until you can be still with your pain. Love is a discipline. The armor we create can become a cage of the size of our own body and mind. Begin again. Don't wait. Don't wait to join us at the San Francisco Zen Center at Green Gulch Farm for The Mindful Healers Connect in Nature Retreat. September 6-8, 2024. www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreat-connect-in-nature Stop putting on bandaids and begin again- sign up for coaching with Dr. Mahoney www.jessiemahoneymd.com Set yourself free with mindfulness- work with Ni-Cheng www.awakenbreath.org or Jessie www.jessiemahoneymd.com Need a speaker for your group on any topic covered in the Mindful Healers Podcast? Reach out to Dr. Liang at www.awakenbreath.org  or Dr. Mahoney at www.jessiemahoneymd.com/speaking Check out the hot off-the-press article published by our dear friend and colleague Dr. Anne Kennard, a graduate of the Contemplative Medicine Fellowship.  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550830723002604?via%3Dihub https://zencare.org/contemplative-medicine-fellowship/ *Nothing in this episode should be considered medical advice. #physicianwellness #mindfulnesscoach #alifebetterlived  

02/25/2024, Tenzen David Zimmerman, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. The first of the four Great Bodhisattva Vows is to “save all beings”, but what exactly does this mean and how might I engage in such an impossible endeavor? Abbot David explores the concept of “salvation” from a Zen perspective, using as a springboard an amusing koan in which Zen master Nanquan saves his disciple Zhaozhou from falling into a well.

02/18/2024, Sonja Gardenswarz, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Zazen, a yogic practice, a word, an invitation, a posture, a pause in time, a space, a clearing between the edges of here and then. A space to breathe, to feel, to connect. What we choose to emphasize determines our lives. To be a disciple to and enact in each moment what matters is building a Seamless Monument, is living like a river flows. "To live as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a Marvelous Victory" ( Howard Zinn)

02/11/2024, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Abbot Jiryu reflects on Suzuki Roshi's core teaching that Zen practice is fundamentally about "becoming yourself," and explores the strong resonance there with the Silent Illumination teaching that awakening is right there when we sit still, exactly as we are.