San Francisco Zen Center — Attraction in San Francisco

At SFZC, everyone is welcome. This is my experience.

I attended a sewing sesshin for 3 days, staying in the student housing, eating and meditating with the community.

The sewing priest/instructor (Tim Wicks) is an amazing teacher, as well as a real human being. He could not have been more supportive or kind and was this way with everyone who walked through his sewing room door, keeping track of everyone's process, stage in sewing, and gently guiding each. Tim is a treasure and what he teaches in the sewing is Zen practice, from the ground (actually, the basement) up. Important work. I hope he knows this.

The sewing sesshin included people from all over the world, with former, very experienced sewing teachers, new sewing teachers in training and resident Zen students all there to support the process. A group of total strangers became Sangha in that sewing room. The support was so touching. I carry them all with me. It was an inspiring sesshin and for me, an impressive example of a Zen Center.

Everyone at SFZC was friendly, kind, helpful whenever I had questions. The food, not meant to be indulgently good, was generally delicious. My bedroom was simple, clean and comfortable. The dorm bathroom was clean and functional. The zendo, Buddha hall, library, and bookstore each have their immeasurable charms and gifts.

I highly recommend SFZC for anyone, Zen student or not, who wants a safe, welcoming place to stay in the City. The building is a Julia Morgan masterpiece by the way, with an amazing history. Of course, SFZC's history in Zen in America, the lineage and legacy of Suzuki Roshi, is profound and rich.

And if you are lucky enough to be sewing a rakusu or okesa, you will find yourself in the sewing room, with a real, authentic human being for a sewing teacher.... Together... one...

A true island of calm reassurance. For the seeker in all of us there is a place on the edge of Hayes Valley on the corner of page and Steiner. A couple of buildings who’s silence beckons the need to be be-long, the need to be-quiet, the need to be. The Zen Buddhists have a sanctuary that has opened its arms for decades. For the beginner there are classes, for the struggling there are meditation in recovery meetings for the advanced there just is. There just is. From the concepts of mindfulness to the real benefits of living a life from a loving and kind perspective there is hope of understanding. For the students there are noble truths just four of them that lay the path. For the student still the path is lit by 8 ways to live life. The 8 fold path lightens your heart. For the zen purists there is the sound of the tree falling alone. The quietude of nothing fills the heart of everyone who walks into this very special place, into a very beautiful zendo to hear the gong and the silence continue forever and ever and ever smiling a little smile only just perceived at the corners of the would be Buddha’s mouth. Welcome now for you are home at last. Have a cookie and a sit and leave a dollar if you can for The riches you seek are found in here...

Teachers were nice when attending a paid for retreat. However, I felt extremely discriminated and uncomfortable when visiting as a guest. I was one of the few people of color and perhaps it was my skin color, the way I dressed (not fancy at all), or my brown eyes, but it was ironic and opposed the whole idea of mindfulness and the philosophy of Buddhism itself. Another time, I actually did pay, but a female teacher with blue eyes assumed I did not and was about to disbar me from going into one of the areas that our teacher told us to take a lunch break in had this teacher not told her I paid. I felt extremely hurt because I am a native SF Buddhist and just could not believe this type of discrimination to occur in a Zen Center (of all places!!!) and coming from a teacher in San Francisco (one of the most progressive cities in the world?!). SFZC could definitely do so much better. We could do better. Then, perhaps, these teachings will not just be taught or learned, but enacted in daily life and maybe there could be less brutality, less hate, and...