Shows
San Francisco Zen CenterAn Oath We Take, A Vow We Make05/25/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Shosan Victoria Austin examines the Memorial Day holiday through a Buddhist lens, particularly looking at the ethical dilemmas in the oaths taken in our society.2025-07-2941 min
San Francisco Zen Center Dharma TalksAn Oath We Take, A Vow We Make05/25/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Shosan Victoria Austin examines the Memorial Day holiday through a Buddhist lens, particularly looking at the ethical dilemmas in the oaths taken in our society.2025-05-2541 minSan Francisco Zen CenterRenewal01/04/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.
Shosan Victoria Austin asks: How does Zen training help us find a sense of refreshment in ordinary, simple activities?2025-02-1144 minSan Francisco Zen Center Dharma TalksRenewal01/04/2025, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.
Shosan Victoria Austin asks: How does Zen training help us find a sense of refreshment in ordinary, simple activities?2025-01-0444 min
Podcasts – Valley Streams Zen SanghaSeptember 23rd, 2024 – Dharma Talk by Shosan Victoria Austin
Dharma Talk given on Monday, September 23rd, 2024 – Shosan Victoria Austin (13.1 MB, 52 min).
Shosan Victoria Austin
Visiting Teacher
Shosan Victoria Austin began practicing both Zen and yoga in 1971. In the Soto Zen tradition, she is entrusted as a Dharma heir in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, an international priest of the Soto School, and a Dharma teacher at San Francisco Zen Center. She trained in the U.S., in India, and in Japan. In the Iyengar tradition, she is certified as an Intermediate teacher.
Contact
Website: http://victoriaaustin.org/about-victoria/
Right-click to...2024-11-1200 minSan Francisco Zen CenterZen Practices for Anger10/05/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.
This dharma talk was given at Beginner’s Mind Temple by Shosan Victoria Austin. When we are challenged by anger, it's easy to react and difficult to respond. How might Zen practices of giving, tolerance and enthusiasm help us let go of relational barriers, transforming them into gateways to increased intimacy? In times of conflict and unwanted change, what tools might the tradition offer to refresh our deeper intention? What do we need to remember and to do, to nourish ourselves, the other, and the space of trust that we share?2024-11-0635 min
Paths of Practice: Conversations on Journeys into BuddhismPaths of Practice with Shosan Victoria AustinShosan Victoria Austin is an international Soto Zen priest that serves the San Francisco Zen Center sangha as a Dharma teacher, previously fulfilling the roles of Work Leader, Tenzo, Tanto, and President. Victoria is also a certified Senior Intermediate teacher within the Iyengar Yoga tradition.
We talk about participating in abbot stepping up and down ceremonies, the differences between guilt and responsibility, Iyengar Yoga, developing and providing accessible zazen postures for all bodies, viewing the body as organized by committee, and acting on what you feel is true and needed.2024-10-091h 08San Francisco Zen CenterNot Doing Group Harm07/28/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
Studying Zen precepts, our tradition transmits a wealth of teachings to help us stop harming at personal and interpersonal levels. At this time in the West, we need to develop our ability to stop supporting harm and evil in groups and systems. Understanding and admitting how we may have supported collective harm actively, by collusion or tolerance, consciously or unconsciously, we can remove the hidden supports of collective harm. Humility in our group roles and behaviors opens our hearts and mind to what gives life to our participation in institutions, systems...2024-09-0738 minSan Francisco Zen CenterGrandmotherly Kindness: Models for Practice06/29/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.
This talk was given by Shosan Victoria Austin at one of Beginner’s Mind Temple’s pop-up events at Unity Church on Page St in San Francisco. Sōtō Zen teaches that compassion underlies wisdom, and wisdom underlies compassion. When we take up the question of how to become compassionate humans, it helps to have role models such as The Bodhisattva "Hearer of the Cries of the World" (Kannon Bosatsu), our grandmothers and grandfathers. Some contemporary methods of skill in compassion include Paula Arai's Way of Healing, David Treleaven's Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, and Roshi...2024-07-2040 minSan Francisco Zen CenterFlame of Great Strength04/13/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.
Zen forms work both in clear and hidden ways. In this interactive lecture, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Shosan Victoria Austin discusses the ancient chants, called dharanis, which sound like magic spells. At a deeper level, they function as rituals that hold teachings. Chanted with faith and energy, they build safe internal space — physically through posture, physiologically through sound, and mentally through key words of wisdom and compassion. Recited daily in Zen temples throughout the world, the Sho Sai Myo Kichijo Dharani (Jvala-Maha-Ugra Dharani, “Flame of Great Strength Dharani”) empowers us in resources...2024-05-1436 minSan Francisco Zen CenterBeginner’s Mind Zendo: An Embodied Mandala of Sangha01/17/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.
In this talk, given at Beginner's Mind Temple, Shosan explores how we are practicing with the current physical changes to the temple space. This year, our urban temple is “residents out, contractors in.” Dogen Zenji once taught that Sangha Treasure appears equally in the vast openness of being or within a particle of dust; that to help people it can transform to an Ocean Storehouse or to sutras written on shells and leaves.2024-02-0324 minSan Francisco Zen CenterThe Challenge of Anger, the Power of the ParamitasIn this talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, Shosan Victoria Austin discusses working skillfully with anger. Many ancient texts mention anger as an unwholesome emotion that undercuts or destroys our relationships and our true intention. However, we can practice using anger in wholesome ways, as an internal warning system for unmet needs, violated boundaries, and withheld respect. Developing skill with the energy of anger, we drop harmful habits of perception and action to cultivate appropriate response in ways that give life, embodying generosity, morality, tolerance and wise effort. Recorded on Oct. 28, 2023.2023-12-2642 minSan Francisco Zen CenterInviting Meditative Ease: Steps to AccessIn this dharma talk from Beginner's Mind Temple, Shosan Victoria Austin asks: How do we approach barriers and obstacles to meditation, to invite steadiness and comfort in these times? How do we serve our varied abilities and needs to establish a life of peaceful, harmonious practice?2023-07-1939 minSan Francisco Zen CenterGiving Life to Zen Forms03/18/2023, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. Shosan Victoria Austin explores the life and liveliness of Zen forms. How do the traditional forms of Soto Zen help us understand the teachings of the Buddha? How can we as Westerners practice them in accessible, life-giving ways that truly help us and those whose lives we touch?2023-04-1340 minSan Francisco Zen CenterBreathing: Studying Self and World02/25/2023, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center. How does mindfulness of breathing help untangle our experience of the self and the world? Guided meditations and commentary based on ancient words of the Buddha, Prajnatara, and Bodhidharma; on contemporary teachings from Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and on personal study with Tenshin Reb Anderson and Sojun Mel Weitsman.2023-02-2852 minSan Francisco Zen CenterPower and Control: Letting GoA Dharma talk exploring the themes of karma, love, power and control and the Dharma practices of non-attaching or letting go.
10/16/2021, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.2021-11-0552 minSan Francisco Zen CenterWhen Dharma and Karma UniteIf we hurry the important and urgent nature of studying the self we are likely to miss "this" - the entire truth of who we are.
08/14/2021, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at City Center.2021-08-2343 min
The Gay Buddhist Forum by GBFVictoria AustinVictoria Austin (Shosan Gigen—“Sunlight Mountain Honoring the Mystery”) started practicing Zen in 1971. She came to the San Francisco Zen Center in 1975, received precepts in the seventies, was ordained a priest in January 1982, and received dharma transmission from Mel Weitsman in 1999. She has been teaching Iyengar yoga for 20 years, is a past president of the San Francisco Zen Center, and is a past tanto (head of practice) at Tassajara. She currently is serving as outreach director of SF Zen Center, helping make dharma accessible in a variety of settings. ______________ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQI...2006-09-2452 min