A BOOK CLUB is a new teaching/learning format for us. It will be ongoing, every second and fourth Tuesday evening, from 6:30 until 7:30 pm. Please make a commitment to attend whenever you can. No fee.

Note: I have pre-ordered the book from SFZC Bookstore, where we will get a discount.

A new book of talks by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi is coming out that has been in the works for seven years. The current abbot at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, write this:

In 2018, I had the good fortune to begin work with Sojun Mel Weitsman on a new book of talks by Suzuki Roshi, drawn from jewels of his teachings that Sojun had been squirreling aside over the decades to someday publish. In the years that followed, we spent countless hours at his desk at Berkeley Zen Center, over tea at Green Gulch, and, through the pandemic, over Zoom, puzzling over Suzuki Roshi’s words, laughing, appreciating—always moved by the depth, joy, and subtlety of his teaching. After Sojun’s death in 2021, I continued as best I could to complete the project in the spirit that he had so kindly shown me.

Now, finally, the fruit of our efforts is ready to share: Becoming Yourself: Teachings on the Zen Way of Life by Shunryu Suzuki will be published by Tarcher/Penguin Random House on July 15, 2025. This first new collection of Suzuki Roshi’s talks in over two decades—which, in addition to sections on zazen and daily life practice, collects for the first time his teachings on the Bodhisattva Precepts—is truly a big moment for our sangha and lineage.

In deep gratitude to all those who have kept Suzuki Roshi’s words and practice alive over the decades,

Abbot Jiryu