A meditation community for all people who seek to manifest the values and principles of the Buddha in their daily lives.
Join us for our Weekly Dharma talks!
Sundays 6 to 7:30 PM password: SFISunday — online, every week
In person on second and fourth Sundays, every month, at 37 Bartlett Street
Mondays 7 to 8:30 PM password: SFIWomen — online, every week
Mission
San Francisco Insight aspires to be a welcoming spiritual home for all people who seek to manifest the values and principles of the Buddha in their daily lives; a place of refuge, to come completely as you are.
Guiding Teachers
Eugene Cash
Eugene is the founding teacher of the San Francisco Insight Meditation Community of San Francisco. He teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and leads intensive meditation retreats internationally. His teaching is influenced by both Burmese and Thai streams of the Theravada tradition as well as Zen and Tibetan Buddhist practice. He is also a teacher of the Diamond Approach, a school of spiritual investigation and self-realization developed by A. H. Almaas.
Pamela Weiss
Pamela Weiss is a dual-lineage Buddhist teacher in both Theravada and Soto Zen. She has been practicing since 1987, including several years as a Zen monastic and retreat teacher training through Spirit Rock. Pamela is the author of “A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism,” and is passionate about weaving the stories of voices of Buddhist women into the fabric of Buddhist practice. She is also a pioneer in bringing mindfulness and Dharma principles to human development and organizational transformation.
Victoria Cary
Victoria Cary has been practicing Insight Meditation and studying the Dharma since 2006. Victoria graduated from Spirit Rock Retreat Teacher Training in September of 2020. She has served as a Community Dharma Leader since her graduation from Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders (CDL) program in 2016. Victoria enjoys both teaching large groups and mentoring students one on one. In 2016 she co-founded the San Francisco People of Color Insight Sangha and continues as one of the core teachers. Victoria is particularly interested in the integration of the Mindfulness in everyday life.
Teachers
Deborah Eden Tull
Founder of Mindful Living Revolution, teaches the integration of compassionate awareness into every aspect of our lives, bridging personal and collective awakening in an age of global change. She is an engaged Buddhist teacher, spiritual activist, author, eco-dharma educator, and facilitator of The Work That Reconnects, a field created by Buddhist scholar and eco-philosopher Joanna Macy for transforming our love and pain for our world into compassionate action. Eden teaches dharma intertwined with post-patriarchal thought and practices, resting upon a lived knowledge of our unity with the more than human world. She has practiced meditation for 30 years and trained for seven and a half years as a Buddhist monk at the Zen Monastery Peace Center, a silent Zen monastery in the Sierra foothills. She has been teaching for over 20 years.
nico hase
nico began his meditation practice in 1994, studying with NDR for seven years and regularly attending retreats at his farmhouse in upstate New York. In 2001, they moved to Colorado, where he immersed himself in dharma at Crestone Mountain Zen Center under Zentatsu Richard Baker-Roshi for six years. He has also explored Vajrayana teachings with Tibetan teachers, recently completing the Shangpa teachings alongside his partner, devon. Since 2013, he has studied closely with Joseph Goldstein, integrating his One Dharma Vipassana teachings into his practice. With a PhD in counseling psychology and a commitment to mentoring, he supports emerging meditation teachers and leads retreats in the Insight tradition, welcoming practitioners of all levels and backgrounds.
Rhonda V. Magee
Rhonda V. Magee, M.A., J.D., is Professor of Law (Emeritus), and the founding Director of the Center for Contemplative Law and Ethics, at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of the The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness(Penguin RandomHouse TarcherPerigee: 2019). She accepted authorization as a spiritual guide and teacher in the Zen lineage, Her current writing and teaching explore how culturally-specific practices – including Black cultural spirituality and the quality of soulfulness -- may intersect with and strengthen mindfulness, and consider the way that mindfulness may support ongoing efforts to strengthen communities across difference in these challenging times.
devon hase
Since 2000, devon has been dedicated to meditation and studying dharma, having spent years in retreats within the Insight and Vajrayana traditions under renowned teachers like Joseph Goldstein and Tara Brach. Before becoming a full-time dharma teacher, she taught social and cultural studies for a decade and completed programs at Spirit Rock and the Insight Meditation Society. She offers personal dharma mentoring, leads retreats with nico, and supports aspiring mindfulness teachers through various apprenticeship programs. Passionate about depth practice and grateful to her Asian teachers, she focuses on making lineage traditions accessible and relevant today. Together with nico, they authored How Not To Be A Hot Mess: A Survival Guide for Modern Life, providing practical advice for navigating life's challenges.
Frank Ostaseski
Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and a visionary pioneer in end of life care. In 1987 he cofounded of the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist Hospice in America. He guided that groundbreaking work for almost 20 years establishing a longstanding model for mindful and compassionate care. In 2005, he founded the Metta Institute training countless healthcare clinicians and caregivers and building a national network of educators, advocates and guides for those facing life-threatening illness. He has lectured at Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic, Wisdom.2.0 and teaches at major spiritual centers around the globe.
His groundbreaking work has been featured on the Bill Moyers PBS series On Our Own Terms, highlighted on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and honored by H.H. the Dalai Lama. He is the author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully.
Juliana Sloane
Juliana Sloane first encountered the Dharma as a teenager and felt a deep resonance with the practice. Over the years, she participated in Buddhist Chaplaincy training with the Sati Center, spent many years teaching classes and staffing retreats for teens through Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Family Program, and co-founded a meditation group for women in the fall of 2016. Juliana participated in the sixth iteration of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader Program in 2019 and completed this training with an 11-month Dharma Mentoring Program with Erin Treat and Pamela Weiss. Today, Juliana works one-on-one with individuals as a hypnotherapist and spiritual counselor, and teaches with SF Insight, Spirit Rock, and the Durango Dharma Center. She is thrilled to be a part of the SF Insight community!
Syra Smith
Syra Smith is an artist, facilitator, mindfulness educator and earth wisdom keeper interested in deep ecology and manifesting a culture where we can turn toward fearless abundance, generosity and personal sanctity. Her grandmothers are Choctaw-Chickasaw and include those among the first freed black African women to steward land in her country. Syra's studies and practices are deeply rooted in the heart and along the path toward awakening more fully to the truth of freedom in our lives. A lifelong meditator and SF Bay Area native, Syra began her personal meditation practice as a teen in 1988 and has been practicing in the Theravada Buddhist tradition since 2009. She graduated East Bay Meditation Center’s Commit to Dharma program in 2011 and became a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader in 2017.
Kitty Costello
Kitty Costello began practicing Insight Meditation in 2000, and she is a graduate of Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leaders Program (2017). She is a psychotherapist, a chi gung teacher, and a writer, and has volunteered for 30 years with Freedom Voices Publications, whose mission is "to publish works that speak to and from communities on the margins.
Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Appreciating your age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and mental and physical abilities, we welcome you. Acknowledging your income, religion, nationality, education, geographic location, economic background, work experience, family status, and political views, we welcome you. We also look beyond demographics and acknowledge the gifts of our differing perspectives, life experiences, and personalities as an invaluable support of a vibrant sangha.
At SFI, we believe that a commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is more than a statement. It requires a shift in culture. It takes time to make a meaningful impact and ultimately should be embedded in the DNA of our community. We are a work in progress, and we recognize this is an ever-evolving long-term commitment.
In support of our commitment to foster a community where all feel welcome, SFI
Centers BIPOC voices by inviting teachers from diverse backgrounds, as well as Buddhist teachers from diverse lineages, to share their wisdom in our weekly and monthly meetings.
Intentionally increased the diversity of our board of directors with the addition of two new board members who self-identify as BIPOC and LGBTQIA++, respectively.
Normalizes conversations about race and systemic racism by bringing these issues into our space regularly and with compassion. Please see this link for the curriculum, Investigating White Identity through the Dharma, developed in 2022.
Invites students from underrepresented communities to lean in and add their voices into the sangha, while asking those from dominant communities to step back and hold noble space.
Offers audio recordings of most Sunday dharma talks for those who are unable or do not prefer to attend in-person gatherings. To access the recordings, please go to Dharma Seed and search for the date or the name of the dharma teacher that spoke to our SFI community.
Board Members
The SF Insight Board of Directors exists to nurture the development of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha within the practice of lay life by:
Overseeing the practical functioning of SF Insight.
Facilitating the implementation of practice and learning opportunities throughout the year.
Supporting our teachers in their efforts to bring the Dharma to our community.
Serving the community by listening to the practical and spiritual concerns of Sangha members and supporting efforts of the community to address those concerns.
Cultivating opportunities to connect our individual practice with the needs of the broader community, including other practice groups, through service.
Eugene Cash, Founder
Eugene is the founding teacher of San Francisco Insight. He is a member of the Spirit Rock teacher council, where he co-leads the Community Dharma Leader training and teaches intensive meditation retreats. Eugene’s teaching is influenced by many streams of Buddhism–– Theravadan, Zen and Tibetan. He is also a Diamond Heart teacher. He’s passionate about practicing 24/7, weaving awareness, investigation and realization into our life.
Pamela Weiss
Pamela Weiss has been practicing in the Zen and Theravada traditions since 1987. She spent several years in a Zen monastery, is trained by Jack Kornfield through Spirit Rock, and co-leads the Wednesday evening sangha for SF Insight. Pamela is also an executive coach, and pioneer in bringing the principles and practices of Buddhist teaching into leadership development inside organizations. Her passion is in bringing the richness and depth of Buddhist teachings to the world of work and relationships, as well as articulating a feminine expression of the dharma.
Paul Irving, Treasurer
Paul Irving has practiced in Eastern and Western contemplative traditions for over 50 years. Having completed Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader Program in 2012, he holds Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s certification to teach in the community. In addition to his work at SF Insight, Paul has been a workshop leader for East Bay Meditation Center’s White Awakening and Sangha program, and at SF Zen Center, a co-leader of the Transforming Anxiety and Depression, and the Finding Ease workshops since 2016. He is now retired after a first career in non-profit arts management and a second career in the allied health field. Paul lives and is engaged in moment-to-moment life practice in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.
Grant
Grant has been a dedicated insight meditation practitioner since sitting his first retreat in 2018.
Frank Buffum
Frank Buffum first came to SF Insight, and to meditation practice, back in the last millennium. His practice is influenced by teachers ranging from Zen to Kashmir Shaivism. Whether watching elephants (as pictured), or washing dishes, he aspires to always align his awareness to the availability of awakening.
“Only From the heart can you touch the sky.”
History
San Francisco Insight Meditation Community (SFI) offers the teachings of the Buddha, including classes, retreats, and other events, as a community devoted to the embodiment of awakening in daily life.
SFI began in 1992 as a group of 8-12 practitioners meeting weekly to meditate in the living room of one of the original members. SFI’s founding teacher, Eugene Cash, was an early student of Jack Kornfield, one of the first Americans to be ordained as a Buddhist monk in Burma in the 1970’s who co-founded Sprit Rock Meditation Center, a widely recognized Buddhist retreat center in Woodacre, California.
By 1996 the group had grown too large to meet in a home and sought space to accommodate greater attendance. Through alliance with the Unitarian Universalist Church of San Francisco (UUSF), the group was able to rent space for a regular weekly meeting. As the years went by, attendance at the weekly Sunday meeting grew considerably. An additional Wednesday night meeting, taught by Pamela Weiss, was added, and retreats and class series have been hosted over the years. The growing needs and potential of the community sparked the intention for finding our own space and creating an urban Insight center where sits, classes, and retreats can be offered 7 days a week. This vision remains, and is now shared with the allied sanghas and teachers that comprise the SFInsight Dharma Center.
The 2020 pandemic interrupted in-person meetings for an extended time. SFI (along with just about everything and everyone) went entirely online, continuing the weekly offering of Sunday sits, along with the Women’s Weekly Sangha, and until February 2025, a weekly Midday Dharma gathering, all on Zoom. Starting in 2024, in-person Sunday sits resumed — at first once a month, then twice a month, while still sharing the teachings online every Sunday.
SFI maintains a strong orientation to the Theravadan tradition of Buddhism and Insight Meditation. Over the years, sangha members with a desire to put Buddhist values into action have initiated various community-support efforts, such as: the Caring Committee, serving the homeless through the city’s Project Homeless Connect program, tutoring children through the UUSF’s Up-on-Top after school program, and raising funds for victims of natural disasters in New Orleans, Sri Lanka, and Haiti. In conjunction with our Sister Sangha, Dharmagiri, in South Africa, founded by our friends Thanisara and Kittisaro, SFI helped fund and support the launch of the Woza Moya and Khuphuka Projects, which serve people affected by AIDS in rural KwaZulu-Natal. Currently Dharmagiri supports the Kulungile Project, an initiative of Sister Abegail Ntleko, which provides a loving home for vulnerable children. Sister Abe was hosted by SFI during her receipt of the Unsung Hero Award presented to her by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2009.
SFI operates as an independent religious non-profit, and is a member of the Buddhist Insight Network, an emerging consortium of Insight Communities in North America and beyond.