When we feel stuck or overwhelmed by society, how can we find joy and courage?

Steven Tierney asks us to challenge the notion that we are stuck with no way out. He emphasizes that rather than avoid the difficult, we can find a way through by embracing Buddhist teachings and practices.

This can include:

1. Living with Intention:
   • Drawing from Victor Frankl and Thich Nhat Hanh, he underscores the importance of embodying the teachings and living with intention.
2. Joy and Bliss in Buddhist Practice:
   • He examines the concept of the "jhanas" or advanced meditative states that lead to joy and bliss, cautioning against quick fixes or commercialized paths to spiritual fulfillment.
3. Investigation and Self-Understanding:
   • Emphasizing the importance of self-investigation (Dharma Vaya), Steven discusses how understanding our true selves, beyond societal expectations or prohibitions, is crucial for personal growth and finding joy.
4. The Role of Courage:
   • He also highlights the role of courage in living authentically and taking action in the world. Steven connects courage to joy, suggesting that joy naturally arises from deep self-understanding, while courage is needed to express this joy in the face of external challenges.
5. Moving Through Pain:
   • He encourages us to face pain fully, without becoming a victim of it, and move through it as a path to deeper understanding.

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Steven Tierney (Kai Po Koshin) is a Dharma transmitted teacher in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. Steven has a new Sangha: Oceans Compassion Sangha and also practices with Gay Buddhist Fellowship, Meditation in Recovery at SFZC, Great Spirit Sangha, SFLGBTQA Sangha, and the Hartford Street Zen Center.

Steven believes that we can find wisdom, compassion and awakening wherever good people come together for practice, healing, service and joy. Dr. Tierney is a psychotherapist in private practice and Professor Emeritus in Counseling Psychology at CIIS.

He is a Certified Addiction Specialist and has been named a Diplomate in Clinical Mental Health by the American Mental Health Counselors Association. He is also a certified suicide prevention and intervention trainer, providing workshops, classes, and consultations. Steven can be reached at 415-235-1061 or steventierneysf@gmail.com

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
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What core Buddhist teachings are reflected in all other wisdom traditions?

As stated in the Kālāma Sutta, known as the Buddha's "charter of free inquiry," Donald Rothberg encourages us not to believe anything simply because we are told to, but rather apply our own experience and discernment. 

He encourages us to embrace the very practical core teachings of Buddhism and consider how those resonate with other religious traditions. 

He explores the foundations of our teachings in familiar Buddhist language, framing them in terms of: 

1. Ethics
2. The heart practices (compassion, loving-kindness, joy, etc.)
3. Wisdom

He then looks at the essence of each and how they can be expressed very simply in ordinary, practical language that goes beyond Buddhism.

WATCH the full talk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1ZLIg05F38
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Donald Rothberg, Ph.D., is a member of the Teachers Council at Spirit Rock Center, a guiding teacher for the Marin Sangha in San Rafael, California, and a regular teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California, Southern Dharma Retreat Center, InsightLA, and New York Insight.

He teaches retreats and groups on concentration and insight meditation practice, lovingkindness practice, transforming the judgmental mind, mindful communication, working skillfully with conflict, and socially engaged Buddhism.

He has practiced insight meditation since 1976, and has also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen, body-based psychotherapy, and trauma work. He has helped guide many six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality, both Buddhist-based and interfaith, and is the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World, and the co-editor of Ken Wilber in Dialogue.

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How can Buddhist philosophy help us address the everyday suffering we encounter in a human body - the accidents, falls, missteps, mistakes, broken bones and broken hearts?

In this talk, Laura Burges recounts her own experience following a recent fall and injury.  She shares practices and reminders that can be helpful when we experience "The thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to" of which Hamlet spoke.  

Among these are:

1. Notice that you are safe in this moment.
2. Love your inner child and past.
3. Remember impermanence and that our troubles will change 
4. Respond rather than react - stop and take 3 deep breaths.
5. Don't take things personally.
6. Find the things you can say yes to.   

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Ryuko Laura Burges, a lay entrusted dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, teaches classes, lectures, and leads retreats in Northern California. She received monastic training at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Laura co-founded the Sangha in Recovery Program at the San Francisco Zen Center and is the abiding teacher at Lenox House Meditation Group in Oakland. Shambhala Publications offers her Buddhist children’s books, Buddhist Stories for Kids and Zen for Kids. Her most recent book from Shambhala is The Zen Way of Recovery: An Illuminated Path Out of the Darkness of Addiction. Laura lives in San Francisco.

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What is it about retreats that can facilitate wholeness?

At the heart of the retreat process is our inner life and various stages of development. These stages can lead us through purification of not only the body, mind and heart, but also our very identity and who we conceive ourselves to be. As we come to know both our inner and outer story it points to what brought us to the dharma. Retreats can lead us to unify the inner with the outer and bring us closer to wholeness.

Listen in as Amida helps us examine this inner life, the stages of development, and the four pillars of retreat:

1. Silence
2. Fasting
3. Solitude
4. Watchfulness

Amida Cary directs the Retreat Guide Training and the Retreat Concentration of the Inayatiyya Inner School of North America. She supports a network of retreat guides and oversees training for those interested in becoming retreat guides. A primary focus is encouraging retreatants to enter deeply into the transformative process. Amida has immersed herself in the study of the ancient art of alchemy and the Sufi retreat process with Pir Zia and Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, and has taken and guided many retreats. She worked closely with Pir Vilayat developing and publishing his curriculum. Amida helped Pir Zia found the Suluk Academy and served as a mentor and teacher within it. Currently she lives in New Mexico where she is exploring the path of light and rewilding a small patch of land in her environs.
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Watch the video version at:
https://youtu.be/pwV4V426IU8 

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Padmatara began meditating in 1989 and became interested in Buddhism in Brighton, England around the same time. She was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2005. She loves to share her practice with others through teaching and study, especially on retreats. She has also trained as a focusing guide - a kind of mindful, body-oriented therapy. Padmatara became Center Director of the SFBC in 2010, and shares the role of chair with other members of the Council. 

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Conflict can exist internally and externally to ourselves. How can we bring mindfulness to the experience of this conflict? If we allow compassion for this conflict to enter our hearts, how does this express itself both internally and externally? As an adolescent, I found that I was expressing violence externally and causing others pain and suffering. I recognized that I didn't want to cause others pain, and found a way to be compassionate to myself. 
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René Rivera is a meditation teacher, restorative justice facilitator, and leader, working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer, mixed-race, trans man. René teaches heart-centered, trauma-informed meditation, at the East Bay Meditation Center and other meditation centers. He has co-led the first residential meditation retreats for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people. René is a restorative justice facilitator for the Ahimsa Collective, working to heal sexual and gender-based violence.

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Bob Isaacson is president and co-founder of Dharma Voices for Animals, an organization of those committed both to practicing the teachings of the Buddha (the Dharma) and to speaking out when animal suffering is supported by the actions of those in Dharma communities and by the policies of Dharma centers. He has practiced the Dharma in the Vipassana/Theravada tradition for more than 17 years. Bob currently teaches the Dharma, leads two sanghas, and leads day-long and weekend retreats in the San Diego area, having been trained in Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader program. He was a civil rights-human rights attorney for 25 years, specializing in defending people against the death penalty. 

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Eve Decker has been practicing Insight Meditation since 1991, and has taught groups, daylongs, and short retreats since 2006, particularly at Spirit Rock, the East Bay Meditation Center, and elsewhere in the Bay Area. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and of Spirit Rock’s Path of Engagement and Community Dharma Leader training programs, and has been trained in the Hakomi approach to body-based psychotherapy. Eve is also a singer/songwriter who has combined the power of music and dharma practice. Her most recent CDs are “In: Chants of Mindfulness and Compassion,” and “Awakening Joy - The Music.”
 Find her at www.evedecker.com/

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Bill Weber is a senior Vipassana practitioner and a graduate from Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders program. He has twenty-five years of extensive retreat practice and currently practices at home with his husband or sits with a small group of gay men. He is also a documentary filmmaker and video editor, whose latest projects are “To Be Takei” and “The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin.”

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Ann Gleig is an associate professor of Religion and Cultural Studies at the University of Central Florida. She is the author of American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity (Yale University Press, 2019). She is currently working on a collaborative book with Amy Langenberg on sexual misconduct and abuse in contemporary Buddhism, which is under advance contract with Yale University Press. Learn more about Ann, with links to many of her published articles, at https://philosophy.cah.ucf.edu/faculty-staff/profile/569

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Trip Weil has been practicing in the Theravadan tradition since 2004. He is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader and Dedicated Practitioner programs. Trip serves on the board of San Francisco Insight, where he also leads sitting groups and teaches meditation classes. He is a psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco and a former attorney.

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Linda Galijan was ordained as a Zen priest by Sojun Mel Weitsman in 2004 and received Dharma Transmission from him in 2012. She has been a professional musician and licensed clinical psychologist, and has practiced Buddhism and yoga for over 30 years. Linda has been President of San Francisco Zen Center, Tassajara Director, and co-chair of the SFZC Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Committee.  She is currently the Tanto (Head of Practice) at Tassajara.

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Sean Feit Oakes, PhD (he/him, queer, Puerto Rican and English ancestry, living on unceded Pomo land in NorCal), teaches Buddhism and somatic practice focusing on the integration of meditation, trauma resolution, and social justice. He received teaching authorization from Jack Kornfield, and wrote his dissertation on extraordinary states in Buddhist meditation and experimental dance. He teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, East Bay Meditation Center, Insight Timer, and locally. SeanFeitOakes.com

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Can turning away from pleasurable experiences actually limit our practice?

In this talk René Rivera shares that there are wholesome states that signal we are on the path to awakening. However the pleasurable states often get a "bad rap" in Buddhism as something to be avoided so as not to trigger craving.  

René summarizes the importance of pleasure by quoting Betty Martin:

"Pleasure is a powerful change agent. Pleasure helps you make friends with your body and that changes the sense of who you are in the world, and your sense of self worth, value and compassion. Many fears and inner conflicts resolve. That is why it is often said that pleasure heals."

He also leads the sangha in an exercise to explore an everyday object with one's hands. The intent is to find the ways in which we may find nourishment by introducing the act of noticing. Focusing on pleasurable sensations is a good way to begin because that's where our mind naturally gravitates anyway. 
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René Rivera is a meditation teacher, restorative justice facilitator, and leader, working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer, mixed-race, trans man.

René teaches heart-centered, trauma-informed meditation, at the East Bay Meditation Center and other meditation centers. He has co-led the first residential meditation retreats for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people. René is a restorative justice facilitator for the Ahimsa Collective, working to heal sexual and gender-based violence.

______________
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Ryuko Laura Burges, a lay entrusted dharma teacher in the SotoZen tradition, teaches classes and lectures, and leads retreats in Northern California. A teacher of children for 35 years, she now mentors aspiring teachers. Laura co-founded the Sangha in Recovery Program at the San Francisco Zen Center and is the abiding teacher at Lenox House Meditation Group in Oakland. Shambhala Publishers will be offering two of her Buddhist children’s books next year, a collection of Jataka Tales reimagined for today’s readers, and a book about Zen Buddhism for kids. Laura is currently working on a book about Zen Buddhism for adults.

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David Richo, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist, writer, and workshop leader. He shares his time between Santa Barbara and San Francisco, California. Dave combines psychological and spiritual perspectives in his work. His latest book is Ready: How to Know When to Go and When to Stay. (Shambhala, 2022). The website for books, talks, and events is davericho.com.

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Pamela Weiss is a dual-lineage Buddhist teacher in Soto Zen and Theravada, and the author of “A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism." She sits on the Spirit Rock Teacher Council, and teaches through San Francisco Insight, San Francisco Zen Center and Brooklyn Zen Center. Pamela lives in San Francisco with her husband and little dog, Grover.

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Heather Sundberg began teaching meditation in 1999. She has completed the four-year Spirit Rock’s Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training. Beginning her own meditation practice in her late teens, for 20+ years, Heather has studied with senior teachers in the Insight Meditation and Tibetan traditions, and has sat 1-3 months of retreat a year for the last 15+ years. She is a teacher for Mountain Stream Meditation Center in the Sierra Foothills, and also teaches classes, daylongs, and retreats nationally, especially at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. For more info, visit http://www.heathersundberg.com.

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Devin Berry has been practicing Insight meditation since 1999. He regularly teaches at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS). Devin has undertaken many periods of silent long-term retreat practice. He is a community teacher at East Bay Meditation center in Oakland, CA where he co-founded both the teen and men of color sanghas. Devin recently relocated to western Massachusetts from the San Francisco Bay Area. He is deeply committed to the personal and collective liberation of marginalized communities knowing that the integration of reflection and insight, clarity, and wisdom give rise to wise action.

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Steven Tierney is Professor Emeritus of Counseling Psychology at CIIS. Steven began his Buddhist practice in 1993 and is now an ordained priest in the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi. He is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco, specializing in addiction and recovery, life transitions and resilience. His therapeutic approaches are grounded in mindfulness-based, trauma-informed therapies. He is the co-founder and CEO of the San Francisco Mindfulness Foundation. Dr. Tierney is a certified suicide prevention and intervention trainer and offers community based workshops to promote safer, healthier communities.

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David Lewis has been following the dharma path for 45 years, has a degree in comparative religious studies, and is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Dedicated Practitioners Program. He teaches Insight Meditation and enjoys sharing the dharma at several sanghas around the Bay Area. He is a proud long-time member of GBF.

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Melvin Escobar is a bilingual/bicultural Dharma teacher, licensed psychotherapist, and certified yoga instructor. He is a graduate of EBMC’s Commit to Dharma, and for more than a decade has served EBMC in a variety of roles, including on the development team for Resilience, Refuge and (R)evolution, a six-month leadership program for people of color. He has devoted 25 years to serving people from marginalized communities, drawing on his life experience as a queer man of color from an immigrant working-class background. Having encountered the priceless wisdom embodied in Buddhism and Yoga, he continues daily to learn the revolutionary potential of body-centered contemplative practices for personal and social healing.

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Steven Tierney is Professor Emeritus of Counseling Psychology at CIIS. Steven began his Buddhist practice in 1993 and is now an ordained priest in the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi. He is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco, specializing in addiction and recovery, life transitions and resilience. His therapeutic approaches are grounded in mindfulness-based, trauma-informed therapies. He is the co-founder and CEO of the San Francisco Mindfulness Foundation. Dr. Tierney is a certified suicide prevention and intervention trainer and offers community based workshops to promote safer, healthier communities.

______________
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Tim Wicks – Born in Utah and raised in London, Gengyoko Tim Wicks studied fine art at San Francisco State University and received his MFA with distinction from California College of Arts and Crafts. He studied for four years with Spirit Rock teacher Eugene Cash and was a steering committee member of the Insight Meditation Community of San Francisco. Impressed with Mahayana Buddhism and the bodhisattva ideal, he studied with Michael Wenger and received Lay ordination (Jukai) in 2006. He trained in the sewing of Buddha's robe with Zenkei Blanche Hartman since 2007 and now teaches sewing at City Center. Tim received Priest Ordination from Michael Wenger in 2013 and has completed the Shogaku Priest Ongoing Training program. He is a now student of Rinso Ed Sattizahn.

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How can our relationship with fear deepen our practice?
In this rich talk, Dale Borglum explains that in fear, we are separated from our feeling of unity. Yet, all true contemplative traditions teach that the end of the spiritual path brings us to the realization that all is one. 

He speaks of the two main spiritual paths: Devotion and Self-Inquiry.
Both share the practice of meditation to realize oneness and the fact that we are not the contents of our thoughts or experiences. 

To approach that sense of oneness, Dale shares several methods for dealing with fear, including:

1. BECOME GROUNDED - inhabit the part of our body that is supported by the ground beneath us, even as we experience life events. The goal is to pay attention FROM being grounded, rather than paying attention TO being grounded.
2. THE TANTRIC 3-STEP
   • Be mindful of the feeling: feel the fear rather than just think about it. 
   • Feel compassion for the part of yourself that has become lost in fear; 
   • Tantra practice, experiencing being at one with an enlightened being.   
3. DEEPEN YOUR FAITH - believing that we are whole already and can let go of the concept that everything needs to be fixed. 

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Dale Borglum founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first residential facility in the United States to support conscious dying. Working with Ram Dass and Stephen Levine, Dale helped found the conscious dying movement in the West. He has been the Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project in Santa Fe and since 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the co-author with Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman and Dwarka Bonner of "Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook," Bantam Books and has taught meditation since 1974. Dale lectures and gives workshops on the topics of meditation, healing, spiritual support for those with life-threatening illness, and on caregiving as spiritual practice. He has taught with Ram Dass, Stephen Levine, Joan Halifax, Robert Thurman, Joanna Macy, Jack Kornfield, Annie Lamott, Jai Uttal and many others. He has a doctorate degree from Stanford University.
Learn more at www.livingdying.org

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Dale Borglum founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first residential facility in the United States to support conscious dying. Working with Ram Dass and Stephen Levine, Dale helped found the conscious dying movement in the West. He has been the Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project in Santa Fe and since 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the co-author with Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman and Dwarka Bonner of "Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook," Bantam Books and has taught meditation since 1974. Dale lectures and gives workshops on the topics of meditation, healing, spiritual support for those with life-threatening illness, and on caregiving as spiritual practice. He has taught with Ram Dass, Stephen Levine, Joan Halifax, Robert Thurman, Joanna Macy, Jack Kornfield, Annie Lamott, Jai Uttal and many others. He has a doctorate degree from Stanford University.

______________
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Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Alan Levin, M.A. L.M.F.T., is a long time explorer of the interface of psychological and spiritual development, social/political activism and the ceremonial use of entheogenic plants and other substances. He has been a licensed psychotherapist since 1985 and established a non-profit ecopsychology training program, Holos Institute, in California. He has been meditating and teaching different forms of meditation for several decades. He now resides with his wife in Rockland County, NY and together they work as Sacred River Healing. He is the author of Crossing the Boundary - Stories of Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths and leads a webinar series, Staying Sane While Making the World Better.

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Given the large amount of dukkha (difficulty) that most of us encounter during our lives, how do we deal with it with grace? How do we relax with the reality of the present moment? How do we respond skillfully in the face of our own suffering or that of others? Through the practice, we can learn to let go of our reactivity. We can learn to use wisdom to stay in the moment and respond with compassion. 
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Eugene Cash is the founding teacher of the San Francisco Insight Meditation Community of San Francisco. He teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and leads intensive meditation retreats internationally. His teaching is influenced by both Burmese and Thai streams of the Theravada tradition as well as Zen and Tibetan Buddhist practice. He is also a teacher of the Diamond Approach, a school of spiritual investigation and self-realization developed by A. H. Almaas.

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
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Prasadachitta was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2011 and he became the Chair of the San Francisco Buddhist Center in April 2022. He was born on a “back to the land” commune in rural Northern California and that background has inspired his engagement with others in building the SFBC’s rural meditation center called Dharmadhara. He also helped to establish a community of sangha members who support the retreats there. He supports himself as a documentary filmmaker and photographer but his real life’s work is training others who want to practice Buddhism within the Triratna Buddhist Community.

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an on-going weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. John is also currently serving as Interim Executive Director for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice projects.

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CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Rev. Keiryū Liên Shutt is a lineage holder in the Shunryu Suzuki tradition. Born to a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she received her meditation training in the Insight and Zen traditions in the US, Thailand, Japan, and Vietnam. She was a founding member of the Buddhists of Color in 1998 and currently is the guiding teacher of Access to Zen, an anti-racist, inclusive sangha and non-profit in the SF Bay Area. She lives in San Francisco with her partner, exploring waterways and forests as often as they can.  

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
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Dorothy Hunt serves as spiritual director of Moon Mountain Sangha and was the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy. She is the author of Only This!, Leaves from Moon Mountain, and Ending the Search: From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness, as well as articles published on nondual wisdom and psychotherapy. She teaches at the request and in the spiritual lineage of Adyashanti, who invited her to share the dharma in 2004. Dorothy has a long and deep connection to the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and the nondual teachings of Zen, Advaita, and the Christian mystics. She invites a deep welcoming of the human expressions of the mystery. A licensed psychotherapist since 1967, Dorothy has now retired from her private practice. She is a mother and a grandmother. For more information, please visit: dorothyhunt.org or Dorothy Hunt - Moon Mountain Sangha on YouTube. 

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Jennifer Berezan is a unique blend of singer/songwriter, producer, and activist. Over the course of ten albums, she has developed and explored recurring themes with a rare wisdom. Her lifelong involvement in environmental, women’s, and other justice movements as well as an interest in Buddhism and earth-based spirituality are at the heart of her writing.

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
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In this question/response session, Vimalasara highlights the 8-Step Recovery Program, consisting of:
1. Accepting that this human life will bring suffering
2. Seeing how we create extra suffering in our lives
3. Recognizing impermanence shows us that our suffering can end
4. Being willing to step onto the path of recovery, and discover freedom
5. Transforming our speech, actions, and livelihood
6. Placing positive values at the center of our lives
7. Making every effort to stay on the path of recovery
8. Helping others to share the benefits I have gained
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Dr. Vimalasara (Valerie) Mason-John MA (hon. doc) is a senior teacher in the Triratna Buddhist Community. She is the award-winning author of 9 books, including her most recently published in 2020 "I'm Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin," and is currently editing an anthology "Afrikan Wisdom: Black Liberation, Buddhism, and Beyond" published in 2021. She is also the author of "Detox Your Heart - Meditations for Emotional Trauma," and the award-winning book, "Eight-Step Recovery Using the Buddha's Teachings to Overcome Addiction," with 8-Step meetings in several continents. 

Named as one of the leading African-descent voices in the field of mindfulness approaches for addiction, she has co-founded the accredited program Mindfulness-Based Addiction Recovery MBAR. She works as a dharma teacher, public speaker, professional trainer, and mindfulness teacher. Learn more at https://www.valeriemason-john.com/  

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
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Donald Rothberg, Ph.D., a member of the Teachers Council at Spirit Rock Center, and a teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center, teaches retreats and groups on concentration and insight meditation practice, lovingkindness practice, transforming the judgmental mind, mindful communication, working skillfully with conflict, and socially engaged Buddhism. He has practiced insight meditation since 1976, and has also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen, body-based psychotherapy, and trauma work. He has helped guide many six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality, both Buddhist-based and interfaith, and is the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World, and the co-editor of Ken Wilber in Dialogue.

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Why is wholesome speech one of the hardest precepts to navigate?

Using the present Israeli / Palestinian conflict as an example, Tom Baker explores the many nuances of wise conversation, including:

• The ways our words cause suffering
• The intoxicating aspect of slander and gossip
• The mindfulness component of watching our speech
• Listening with our whole presence
• Our responsibility to speak out against injustice
• Overcoming our reluctance to speak up for ourselves
• A Buddhist perspective on freedom of speech

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Tetsugen Tom Baker is a Soto Zen priest in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi. He was ordained by Shinki Mark Lancaster at Dragon’s Leap Temple in 2017. He practices in the “Marketplace Priest” tradition. Long active in the Meditation in Recovery group, he was a founder of the off-shoot monthly Zen Men in 2015.

Tom works in the Geriatrics Division at UCSF and specializes in Palliative Care and end-of-life issues. He married his husband Gary Dexter in November 2021.

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Initially interested in exploring non-duality, cosmology and quantum mechanics, Jokai found the universe full of paradox. 

In this talk, he shares his own discovery of Buddhism and the practice of meditation. Through his initial work with Zen koans he arrived at a sense of emptiness, non-being and 'becoming nobody'. Jokai recounts his strong attraction to early practitioners of meditation and their understanding of the world. 

After studying intensely for many years, Jokai gradually realized that he wanted to bring his learning to the community at large by balancing worldly engagement with spaciousness and emptiness.
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Jokai relocated to California from the UK in 2000 to study with Tenshin Fletcher Roshi at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center. After completing formal study, encompassing over a decade of residential training and service, he received Dharma Transmission (full authorization to teach) in the White Plum Lineage of Zen Buddhism in 2014, and Inka (final seal of approval) in 2022. Jokai Roshi emphasizes the direct experience of awakening using contemporary language and time-honored methods.

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

David Richo, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist, writer, and workshop leader. He shares his time between Santa Barbara and San Francisco, California. Dave combines psychological and spiritual perspectives in his work. His latest book is Ready: How to Know When to Go and When to Stay. (Shambhala, 2022). The website for books, talks, and events is davericho.com.

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Bill Weber is a senior Vipassana practitioner and a graduate from Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders program. He has twenty-five years of extensive retreat practice and currently practices at home with his husband or sits with a small group of gay men. He is also a documentary filmmaker and video editor, whose latest projects are “To Be Takei” and “The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin.”

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

René Rivera is a meditation teacher, restorative justice facilitator, and leader, working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer, mixed-race, trans man. René teaches heart-centered, trauma-informed meditation, at the East Bay Meditation Center and other meditation centers. He has co-led the first residential meditation retreats for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people. René is a restorative justice facilitator for the Ahimsa Collective, working to heal sexual and gender-based violence.

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

David Lewis has been following the dharma path for 45 years, has a degree in comparative religious studies, and is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Dedicated Practitioners Program. He teaches Insight Meditation and enjoys sharing the dharma at several sanghas around the Bay Area. He is a proud long-time member of GBF.

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CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Ryuko Laura Burges, a lay entrusted dharma teacher in the SotoZen tradition, teaches classes and lectures, and leads retreats in Northern California. A teacher of children for 35 years, she now mentors aspiring teachers. Laura co-founded the Sangha in Recovery Program at the San Francisco Zen Center and is the abiding teacher at Lenox House Meditation Group in Oakland. Shambhala Publishers will be offering two of her Buddhist children’s books next year, a collection of Jataka Tales reimagined for today’s readers, and a book about Zen Buddhism for kids. Laura is currently working on a book about Zen Buddhism for adults.

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CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

JD Doyle serves as a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) and has served as a board member and was the cofounder of the LGBTQI meditation group. JD is in the Spirit Rock Meditation Center teacher-training program and was in the Dedicated Practitioner Program (DPP2) and the Community Dharma Leader Program (CDL4). JD has practiced Buddhism since 1995 in the U.S., Thailand, and Burma. For over twenty-five years, they worked as a public school teacher focusing on issues of equity and access. JD holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Cornell University and a master’s degree in Language and Literacy and Sociocultural Studies from the University of New Mexico. JD identifies as gender non-conforming. They are committed to celebrating the diversity of our human sangha, addressing the impact of racism on our communities, expanding concepts of gender, and living in ways that honor the sacredness of the Earth.

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CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
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Tempel Smith has been practicing Insight and Metta meditation since 1989, including a year as a fully ordained monk in Burma. He is the founder of BASE (Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement) House, a collective of socially engaged dharma practitioners. In 2003, while directing young adult programs for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in Oakland, Calif.,Tempel launched the West Coast teen retreat program that has become MAYA (Mindful Awareness for Young Adults). He is in the teacher training program at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California and Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts.

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
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Kevin Griffin is a Buddhist teacher and author known for his innovative work connecting dharma and recovery, especially through his 2004 book "One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps." He has been a Buddhist practitioner for over thirty-five years and a teacher for two decades. He reaches a broad range of audiences in dharma centers, wellness centers, and secular mindfulness settings. His latest book is "Buddhism and the Twelve Steps: Daily Reflections." To learn more and to see his teaching schedule, visit www.kevingriffin.net.

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CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Melvin Escobar is a bilingual/bicultural Dharma teacher, licensed psychotherapist, and certified yoga instructor. He is a graduate of EBMC’s Commit to Dharma, and for more than a decade has served EBMC in a variety of roles, including on the development team for Resilience, Refuge and (R)evolution, a six-month leadership program for people of color. He has devoted 25 years to serving people from marginalized communities, drawing on his life experience as a queer man of color from an immigrant working-class background. Having encountered the priceless wisdom embodied in Buddhism and Yoga, he continues daily to learn the revolutionary potential of body-centered contemplative practices for personal and social healing.

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CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

What is humanity's relationship to change?
In this talk, Syra Smith shares her thoughts on impermanence, leading with this quote:

"Change is the thread woven through the fabric of Human existence, a constant force shaping our journey. In transition, we navigate the spectrum of emotions, from the excitement of new beginnings to the discomfort of uncertainty. It is in these moments that growth unfurls, pushing us beyond familiar boundaries. Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon we transform, shedding old layers to reveal the evolving tapestry of our identity.  The dance of change, though challenging, whispers the promise of resilience and the beauty of embracing the unknown."
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Syra Smith is an artist, facilitator and Dharma Teacher interested in deep ecology and manifesting a culture where we can turn toward fearless abundance and generosity. Her grandmothers are Choctaw-Chickasaw and include those among the first freed black African women to own land in her country. Syra's studies and practices are deeply rooted in the heart and along the path toward awakening more fully to the truth of freedom in our lives.

A lifelong meditator and SF Bay Area native, Syra began her personal meditation practice as a teen in 1988 and has been practicing in the Theravada Buddhist tradition since 2009. She graduated East Bay Meditation Center’s Commit to Dharma program in 2011 and became a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader in 2017. Syra teaches Insight Meditation and mindfulness throughout the SF Bay Area and beyond and proudly serves as Core Teacher with the San Francisco LGBT Sangha. Syra is honored to serve as Board President as well as on the Guiding Teachers Council with San Francisco Insight.  More information and her teaching calendar are available at https://projectroot.org/

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Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Devin Berry has been practicing Insight meditation since 1999. He regularly teaches at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS). Devin has undertaken many periods of silent long-term retreat practice. He is a community teacher at East Bay Meditation center in Oakland, CA where he co-founded both the teen and men of color sanghas. Devin recently relocated to western Massachusetts from the San Francisco Bay Area. He is deeply committed to the personal and collective liberation of marginalized communities knowing that the integration of reflection and insight, clarity, and wisdom give rise to wise action.

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CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
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James Baraz has been a meditation teacher since 1978. He is creator and teacher of the Awakening Joy course (since 2003). He leads retreats, workshops and classes in U.S and abroad. He is a Co-founding Teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and co-author of Awakening Joy, the book based on the course (with Shoshana Alexander). He is a Guiding Teacher for One Earth Sangha, a website devoted to expressing a Buddhist response to Climate Change.

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CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
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Dhammachari Danadasa has been practicing with the San Francisco Buddhist Center (SFBC) community since 1993 and was ordained in 2011. His current area of exploration is the cultivation of metta (universal loving kindness) as a response to all the hatred, discrimination, and bigotry in the world out there. Through personal anecdotes and experiential exercises, Danadasa will explore our relationship to ourselves and others, with a particular emphasis on our deeply ingrained tendency to see others as different from us.

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CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter