San Francisco Zen Center
About Zen
San Francisco Zen Center
Plum Village - Thich Nhat Hanh
Special Live Events with Monastics
27
Sep
2023
The Spiritual Athlete’s Path to Enlightenment
Throughout this world, there are many mysterious and amazing feats that can be found. People are capable of doing most incredible things that we have never deemed possible.
Only by truly believing in ourselves can we accomplish what were thought as impossible goals.
Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei
In Mount Hiei of Japan, there can be found a small group of monks who live in a monastery and can accomplish many remarkable challenges. This mountain had .
Peaceful and Wrathful Vajrapani in Arts
ne of Mahayana Buddhism's first bodhisattvas. He is the Buddha's defender and adviser, and he rose to represent the Buddha's might. .
Explaining Goddess of Dawn and Light Marichi
The Goddess of the Dawn is depicted in many different forms. Sometimes Marichi rides a white horse through the sky, banishing the darkness and driving back the night with the orb of the sun in the outstretched right hand.
More commonly Marichi is yellow or red in color, with one, three or more faces and six to twelve arms, seated on a chariot drawn by seven pigs, or horses, removing all obstacles to happiness and .
8 Benefits of Walking meditation
Walking meditation that is practiced between long periods of the sitting meditation known as zazen. The practice is common in Zen, Chan Buddhism, Korean Seon, and Vietnamese.
One of the most useful and grounding ways of attending to our body is the practice of walking meditation. Walking meditation is a simple and universal practice for developing calm, connectedness, and embodied awareness.
Time Required
10 minutes daily for at least a week. Evidence suggests that mindfulness increases the .
Who is Padmasambhava?
For 2,500 years Buddhists have considered with awe the achievement of Siddhartha Gautama. What induces such tremendous respect in them is not just that he gained Enlightenment, but that he did so without a teacher. Contemplating the difficulties that the Buddha had to overcome has given Buddhism a very great appreciation of the value of a spiritual teacher.
As Buddhism developed, and the three yanas unfolded, the role and significance of the spiritual teacher changed. .
Buddhist Ritual Items and Symbols
Buddhism is one of the most established world religions that history has ever seen. Over the great expanse of time, it has quietly established its own set of symbolisms – symbols that are as old as time itself. This is only but natural with all the religions of the civilized world. And as such, many of these Buddhist religious symbols are considered recognizable icons of Buddhist Art and Tibetan Art. The more prominent symbols .
Questions & answers about meditation for beginners
Meditation can be an effective form of stress reduction and has the potential to improve quality of life and decrease health care costs.
Meditation involves achieving a state of 'thoughtless awareness' in which the excessive stress producing activity of the mind is neutralized without reducing alertness and effectiveness.
When did meditation start?
Traditionally, the practice of meditation has been used in most Asian countries, but cultures all over the world have used it for various reasons. .
The Himalayan Yoga Tradation
The Himalayan Mountains have been the home of sages for millennia. These great sages have lived and passed on knowledge of the yogic teachings to disciples who then became masters passing on the teachings in an unbroken lineage since the Vedic period.
Twelve hundred years ago Shankaracharya organized his teaching into five centers of the Himalayan Tradition. As one of those five, our tradition is the Bharati lineage connected with the Shankaracharya at the Shringeri .