New Voices of San Francisco Zen Center: Conversations on Difference and Equality, CC 2/3

Teachers

Practice Center

City Center

Date / Time

Feb 3, 2025 / 7:15pm - Mar 17, 2025 / 8:45pm

Event Type

Classes & Extended Courses

Description

Six mondays: February 3, 10 and 24. March 3, 10 and 17.

In conventional reality, we perceive difference; in absolute reality, we perceive equality. How do we find harmony between these two realities? In this event, Eli Brown-Stevenson, Dan Gudgel, Hiro Ikushima, Michael McCord, and Roger Hillyard, the most recently authorized practice leaders at City Center, will each propose a particular lens through which the apparent dualism of difference and equality can be seen and addressed, and encourage conversations among all participants to explore aspects of difference and equality that arise in our daily lives. The last meeting of the series will see five practice leaders explore together their various approaches to the theme.

Fee Information

This event is offered at no change. Donations gratefully accepted at the time of the event.

Sozan Michael McCord

President

Sozan Michael McCord has been a resident practitioner at San Francisco Zen Center since 2009, and served as Ino (Head of Meditation Hall) and Tenzo (Head Cook) at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He was ordained as a Zen priest by Ryushin Paul Haller in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki in 2014.

Dōshin Dan Gudgel

Dōshin Dan Gudgel has been practicing in the Soto Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki since 2006, when he was introduced to the Mountain Source Sangha in Marin County, CA.

So-on Eli Brown-Stevenson

Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

Greeting the world with a warm bow, Eli has spent the past decade living at the San Francisco Zen Center’s Tassajara and City Center. He is currently a resident priest in the city and serves as the Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging for the three temples.

Hiro Ikushima

Corporate Secretary

Hiro Ikushima came to San Francisco Zen Center in the spring of 2014 with a background in technology. He began his residency at Tassajara, where he lived and practiced for five years before moving to City Center.

Roger Hillyard

Roger Hillyard first came to Zen practice in 2007, and studied as a nonresident at City Center for four years. During that time he became the jiko (attendant) for his teacher Shosan Victoria Austin and continued in that role for six years.

New Voices of San Francisco Zen Center: Conversations on Difference and Equality, CC 2/3–3/17