Michael McCord gives a talk titled "Working with Helplessness: What to Do When the World Needs So Much Change." Michael is a Zen priest and teacher, as well as the director of SFZC's City Center where he lives and practices.
Feeling Stuck
Mei Elliott leads the conversation around the theme of feeling stuck. Whether we feel stuck in a relationship or job, in a stubborn habit pattern or self-view, or are simply feeling stuck sheltering in place, the teachings of the Buddha offer a way to relate to life when things won't seem to budge. We will spend the evening exploring how perceptions and fixed views contribute to a sense of entanglement and how our practice can loosen our sense of feeling stuck.
Encountering Suzuki Roshi: Five Faculties of Zen Practice
Kodo Conlin leads YUZ with a talk titled "Encountering Suzuki Roshi: Five Faculties of Zen Practice." Through the lens of Zen teachings, Kodo discusses an ancient Buddhist practice known as the five faculties--faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. Suzuki Roshi, the founder of San Francisco Zen Center, embodied these qualities for so many people, to transformative effect.
Choice
In honor of voting season, Eli Brown-Stevenson turned around the table and asked the group which topics they’d like him to focus on.
Blue Cliff Record Case #9, “Chao Chou’s 4 Gates”
Zachary Smith leads YUZ in an exploration of Blue Cliff Record Case #9, “Chao Chou’s 4 Gates.” Without giving too much away in advance (never a good idea when Koans are involved) suffice it to say that Chao Chou invites us all to consider what it actually means to be a “self” - this self - and that we’ll take up the invitation.
Loneliness
Mei Elliott explores the topic of loneliness. Given the increased social isolation many are experiencing during this time, she speaks about the way we can integrate loneliness into our practice such that it too becomes a Dharma gate. Regardless of whether you are working with loneliness or are meeting other challenges in your life, the teachings will center around skillful ways for meeting difficulty, whether that happens to be loneliness or otherwise.
Be Kind to Your Practice
Eli weaves together traditional Zen teachings from Suzuki Roshi with modern sources like Pixar's Inside Out.
Don't Hold Your Breath
Michael McCord explores how Every Day is Actually your Life, Even in a Pandemic.
Joy
Mei Elliott reflects on the theme of Joy. Despite spending a lifetime seeking joy, many people are still befuddled about where to find it, and often find themselves chasing after it, without realizing they're running in the wrong direction. During this talk we explore what joy is, where we can reliably find it, why joy is needed now, and how we can invite it into our lives.
During this time of great challenge and tragedy, joy can not be a mere accessory nor can it be seen as self-indulgent. On the contrary, joy is a necessary requisite on the path of liberation, and a necessary nourishment for bodhisattva activity. If we are to save all beings, we need the buoyancy that joy provides. The Buddha spoke abundantly about joy, and as such, we'll explore where this topic appears in the core Buddhist teachings.
The Dharma of Strong Emotion
Any therapists worth their salt will tell you that the full range of human emotion should be within the realm of experience on a daily basis and especially in times like these emotions can run high. Emotions carry a message - something to teach us - and the request of practice is to stand up close enough to them to hear that message in full without being overwhelmed or spun off into habitual response or defense.
Holding and Being Held: Race, Grief, and Balance
How do you envision, in specific ways, a more peaceful and just community? Can you see it? You're invited to describe one specific aspect of your vision of what possible, an aspect that feels nourishing for you to consider. What felt sense arises in you as you hold this vision? Is this nourishing for you, and how do you know? How could this inform your approach to activity, conversation, and community?
Practices for Well-being
Eli Brown-Stevenson leads a YUZ meeting on Practices for Well-being.
Holding our Pain for the World: Racism in America
Mei Elliott speaks about the many recent tragedies, both related to racism and the pandemic, and how to hold our pain for the world.
Martin Luther King Jr. said that "a riot is the language of the unheard." How can we learn to truly listen to the "riot" within, without turning away or suppressing it? When anger, grief, numbness, or despair rise up, how can we meet it with wisdom and kindness? This talk explores meditation training as an anti-racist response to injustice, highlighting how it can begin to dissolve implicit bias.
The Three Pure Precepts →
Zachary Smith leads YUZ on the three pure precepts, which are an integral part of the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts.
The Fifth Precept - Refraining from Intoxicants →
Heather Iarusso speaks about the 5th precept often translated as “I vow to refrain from intoxicants” and Heather writes, “Usually when we think of intoxicants, we think of drugs and alcohol. However, viewed through the lens of the Dharma, and amid the crucible of the pandemic, we will explore how the number one intoxicant is our resolved karmic conditioning
The Fourth Precept - I vow not to lie
Eli Brown-Stevenson hosts a discussion about the 4th precept, often translated as “I vow not to lie“.
Practice with Pandemic & the First Precept
Eli Brown-Stevenson hosts a discussion about practice during the pandemic. While the evening focuses on this theme, it also ties in the first precept, I vow not to kill (also framed as I vow to support life), which is the first grave precept in the Bodhisattva Precept Series.
The Liberating Power of the Bodhisattva Precepts
Mei Elliott introduced the 13-week series on the Bodhisattva Precepts. She spoke about the complexity and applicability of the precepts, and illuminated how precept practice is a pivotal component of liberation. To learn more about the theme, see the email below.
If you are interested in engaging in a deeper study of this topic, consider reading Being Upright by Reb Anderson or Waking Up to What You Do by Diane Eshin Rizzetto.
The Relative and Absolute
Zachary discusses important features of the mental landscape that are revealed through zazen and how they relate to our everyday lives.
He explores two major modes of being - normally translated as “the relative” and “the absolute” - that become apparent when we sit, and talks about how to talk about the relationship(s) between them. There are a number of texts from the ancient literature, notably the Sandokai and Tozan’s 5 Ranks, that explore this relationship and how it develops with practice. Zachary speaks, in concrete terms, about how these modes of being show up in zazen and why they’re of interest.
正中偏
三更初夜月明前
莫怪相逢不相识
隐隐犹怀旧日嫌
偏中正
失晓老婆逢古镜
分明觌面别无真
休更迷头犹认影
正中來
无中有路出尘埃
但能不触当今讳
也胜前朝断舌才
偏中至
两刃交锋不须避
好手犹如火里莲
宛然自有冲天志
兼中到
不落有无谁敢和
人人尽欲出常流
折合还归炭里坐
Zachary’s Translation:
The Crooked in the Straight
Around Midnight, before moonrise on that first night
No wonder you don’t know it when you see it
You’re still reminiscing on your sketchy past
The Straight in the Crooked
Rising late, she stumbles across an old mirror
She clearly meets herself face-to-face - no separation
But still mistakes her reflection for her head
Straight On Through
Within nothingness is a road out of the dust
If you just avoid the obvious faux pas
You’ll surpass the past masters who left everyone speechless
Arriving at the Crooked
There’s no need to shrink from sharp confrontation
An adept is like a lotus in the land of fire
As though you can soar at will
Arriving at Both
If you don’t fall into “is” or “is not”, who dares to chime in?
Everyone wants to be extraordinary
All the same, you come home and sit by the hearth.
Zen in the Real Life
Maggie Brewer discusses Zen in the Real World: no separation, meditation, and encouragement.