Adam Beck was living at Tassajara before the SF Zen Center bought it in December of 66 from his parents. He was two at the time. He's an artist now living in San Anselmo. I've known him through the ensuing years so we've got a lot to say to each other and he's got a lot to say about Tassajara, Suzuki, Baker, and more in this podcast. Also at the first I apologize for an errata in the prior Beginner's Mind podcast.

Meiya Wender has practiced at Zen Center since 1972, was ordained as a priest in 1986 (receiving the name Luminous Night, Original Practice, Meiya Honshu), and received Dharma Transmission in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 2002. She has also trained in traditional Soto Zen forms at Zuioji in Shikoku, Japan. She has held many monastic positions at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and Green Gulch, including director, ino (head of the zendo), tenzo (head cook), and tanto (head of practice). She has studied the Way of Tea for many years, including a year at the Urasenke Midorikai program in Kyoto, and teaches Tea in Sowing the Moon Teahouse at Green Gulch. - from the SFZC site

DC reads all extant Shunryu Suzuki on Beginner's Mind, discusses the origins and its spread far beyond the  sphere of Buddhism.

Upasama (formerly Reuven be Yuhmin) was a student of Shunryu Suzuki, a great gardener at Tassajara , who's been living in a Theravada monastery near Perth, Australia, for  the last twelve years. This is the second podcast with Upasama.

Diane Renshaw began Zen practice at Tassajara in 1978, received lay ordination in 1993, and has been working with Tassajara on a native plant project for 25 years. Diane lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is an experienced botanist, birdwatcher, and ecologist.  In this podcast we hear about her  life as a scientist and a Buddhist--and more.

Renshin Bunce began practicing with Steve Stucky  in 1994. In 2013 she received dharma transmission from him.  Her website is renshinbunce.com.  Go there for info on her in-person and Zoom sitting groups. She's published three books on Amazon that one can find listed under her name - on Steve Stucky, hospice work, and practicing at Tassajara. Her cuke.com page has links to her many photos or go to flickr.com/photos/renshin. Listen to this podcast to learn lots more.

Rinso Ed Sattizahn first came to the SF Zen Center in 1970, had a few memorable experiences with Shunryu Suzuki, and returned in 1972. He lived at Tassajara for years, was VP and president of the SFZC, went into the high tech world for over seventeen years, returned to the SF Bay area, got ordained, co-founded Vimala Sangha in Mill Valley with Lew Richmond, was a co-abbot then center abbot of the SFZC for nine years. In this podcast he talks about that and much more.

Kelly Chadwick talks about a week spent at Tassajara in April trimming and removing trees with a crew from his Spirit Pruners biz in Spokane, WA. He was a podcast guest last year after doing the same at Tassajara. He's got new insights to share about Tassajara where he spent a lot of time growing up. Full disclosure--he's my son. - DC

Ben Van Overmeire is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Duke Kunshan University. His research focuses on the study of Zen Buddhist texts. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include ethics and leadership, global China studies, religion and literature. Van Overmeire has a B.A. (cum laude) and M.A. He wrote American Koan: Imagining Zen and Self in Autobiographical Literature. In this podcast we talk about his book (which features my Thank You and OK!)  and how his path has taken him from his native Belgium through the US and to China. - dc

  Furyu Nancy Schroeder came to the SF Zen Center in the seventies. She was the abbess of Green Gulch Farm from 2014 to 2023 and has been an active supporter of programs for children, people of color, the gay and lesbian community, and the interfaith community. In 2008 she was elected to the Marin Women's Hall of Fame, and in 2010 she was appointed to the Board of the Marin Community Foundation. In addition, she has previously co-led SF Zen Center's Contemplative Caregiver Course. She received Dharma Transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1999. That's from the SFZC bio on her. In this podcast she talks about how she got into Zen and what's happened since and other stuff.

Sokaku Kathie Fischer began practicing Zen in 1971 with Sojun Mel Weitsman at the Berkeley Zen Center. She was ordained a Zen priest at San Francisco Zen Center in 1980 by Zentatsu Richard Baker, and continued residential practice at Zen Center for 15 more years. She received Dharma transmission from Sojun Weitsman in 2011 while in the midst of her 28-year career as a school teacher in Mill Valley. Since retiring from teaching science to adolescents she has turned her attention to studying and teaching Dharma. Kathie and her husband Norman are parents of adult twin sons and grandparents of three children.. That's the SFZC bio on her.  In this podcast we hit on various topics , one of them being Richard Baker. This was recorded soon before Baker's stroke from which he's recovering  nicely.

Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler is the abbot of Green Gulch Farm as a co-abbot of the SF Zen Center. In the podcast he talks about Becoming Yourself, an upcoming book of Shunryu Suzuki lectures that he worked on with Mel Weitsman. First he talks briefly about Nicole Baden and Richard Baker's recent stay at the City Center and Green Gulch and Baker's stroke of a week ago. He reads selections from Becoming Yourself: Teachings on the Zen Way of Life and we talk about that and more. Most enjoyable. 

Barbara Horn came to the SFZC in the mid seventies, practiced Insight Meditation with Jack Kornfield at Barr, Mass., studied cooking with Julia Childs, got a graduate degree in mediation and interfaith chaplaincy. She volunteered for the 911 rescue and recovery effort and founded Calling of the Names - callingofthenames.org. Listen to this podcast and learn more about this energetic and benevolent woman.

Tatsudo Nicole Baden is a Dharma Successor of Zentatsu Baker in the Dharma Sangha Soto Zen Lineage. Last September Richard Baker passed on the abbotship of Dharma Sangha in Germany and the US to Nicole. In this podcast she will be talking about the Launch of the Dharma Academy with a free and open event on the weekend of May 23-25--Engaging the Heart of Wisdom and Pathways for Meeting Uncertainty. Participating dharma teachers include Zentatsu Richard Baker, Joan Halifax, Jiryu Rutschuman-Byler, Valerie Brown, Ryuten Paul Rosenblum, Rahshaana Green, Sarabinh Levy-Brightman, Ravi Welch, Lien Shutt, and Tatsudo Nicole Baden. Learn more about the event and sign up at https://courses.dharmaacademy.com/launch-event

Jean Ross began studying with Shunryu Suzuki very soon after he arrived in San Francisco. In this podcast, the second of two on her, I read more from her accounts in the Wind Bell publication of the SFZC about her experience studying Zen in Japan in the early sixties - and more. The podcast concludes with a piece I wrote about her for the Wind Bell in 1997.

Jean Ross began studying with Shunryu Suzuki very soon after he arrived in San Francisco. In this podcast, the first of two on her, I read from what's in Crooked Cucumber and what she wrote about her experience studying Zen in Japan in the early sixties - at Eiheiji, Sojiji, and more.

Wendy Pirsig was for thirty years an archivist and writer featuring extensive web-based history for small Old Berwick Historical Society's Counting House Museum in Maine. She's a student of Myozen Joan Amaral at the Zen Center North Shore in Beverly, Massachusetts. She's done extensive work for Cuke Archives working on verbatim and minimum edit Shunryu Suzuki lectures and carefully scrutinizing DC writings and making sage suggestions. A few years ago she compiled and edited a posthumously published a book of her late husband Robert Pirsig's works: On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings. See more at cuke.com/people/pirsig-wendy including a long piece on her and Robert's six weeks with the SFZC following the murder of her stepson Chris's murder in the neighborhood.

Ryuko Laura Burges is a lay entrusted Dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, teaches classes and lectures and leads retreats in Northern California. - that's from her SFZC bio. In this, her 3rd podcast, Laura tells a story from her latest book: Wisdom Stories of Tibet: Tales of Magic, Adventure, and Bravery. She also tells a Tassajara story and talks about her book on Recovery.

Andy Karr began his formal Buddhist practice in 1971 at the SF Zen Center with Shunryu Suzuki after having devoured Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind many times. In early 1972 he began studying with Chogyam Trungpa. He has written three books, the latest one being Into the Mirror: A Buddhist Journey Through Mind, Matter, and the Nature of Reality. He has been teaching Tibetan Buddhism for years focusing on clearly understanding Mahamudra, Yogachara, Madhyamaka, and so forth. Learn more about him and his teaching at andykarrauthor.com 

Neil Needs a Nudge - Tyson on Religion Stuck in the Literal - The title says it all. I rap on that some more and urge him to talk with me about this topic - not that there wouldn't be a zillion others more qualitied - but I'm asking and could suggest a  broader approach so that his audience isn't misled.