Big Heart City Meditation SF

01/07/2026

Caverly Morgan leads the group this week with a talk titled “Acting from Being.”

We all hear “just be,” but what does it mean to act from being?

Come join Caverly as we explore the act of being. It’s a phrase that’s been used to describe many different knowings—from the ideas of philosophers like St. Thomas Aquinas to those of Islamic mystic, philosopher, and theologian Mullā Ṣadrā. Basically, it’s about knowing a happiness that you can’t explain because you don’t have a reason to point to. It’s the joy of just being, knowing who you are, resting in the present moment, and acting in the world based on this deep knowing. Everyone is welcome to join us!


Friday, January 9
7:30p - 9pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84531480974

Meeting ID: 845 3148 0974

Caverly Morgan is a spiritual teacher, non-profit founder, speaker and writer who blends the original spirit of Zen with a modern nondual approach. She is the author of The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together as well as A Kids Book About Mindfulness. Caverly’s practice began in 1995 and has included eight years of training in a silent Zen monastery. She is the founder of Peace in Schools, a nonprofit that created the nation’s first for-credit mindfulness class in public high schools. Caverly has been teaching contemplative practice since 2001. She leads meditation retreats, workshops and online classes internationally. Learn more at caverlymorgan.org.

12/31/2025

We’re taking Friday, January 2 off. We look forward to being with you next week on Zoom — Friday, January 9 at 7:30pm Pacific.

12/24/2025

Vinny Ferraro leads the group this week!

Join Us! Friday, December 26
7:30pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85726371293

Meeting ID: 857 2637 1293

12/17/2025

Vinny Ferraro leads the group this week!

Join Us Friday, December 19 • 7:30pm - 9pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84859388207

Meeting ID: 848 5938 8207

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Our Annual BHC Apparel Fundraiser ends next Thursday Dec 25! Check out the store here: https://www.customink.com/s/bigheartcity 🙏

12/16/2025

Our Annual apparel sale is here for another week! We have a brand new batch of things including sweatpants, sweatshirts, t-shirts including a new design with Vinny’s take on the First Noble Truth — “It’s always something.”

All orders must be placed by December 25th, which means they unfortunately will not ship in time for holiday gift giving. But feel free to share this link with friends and loved ones, so you can be be the best dressed Bodhisattva in the New Year.

The most important thing: 100% of the funds raised help keep Big Heart City going strong. We appreciate your support.

Check out the store at www.customink.com/s/bigheartcity

Big heart CityAnnual Fundraiser Once a year we offer some BHC swag, so folks can represent and support our beloved Sangha. The items are available to purchase for ONE MONTH. The online store closes on December 25 and items will ship out in the New Year. We hope you check it out -- 100% of proceeds s...

12/10/2025

Vinny Ferraro leads the group this week!

Join Us Friday, December 12
7:30pm - 9pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86712009538

Meeting ID: 867 1200 9538

12/03/2025

Matthew Brensilver leads the group this week with a talk titled “Four Types of Grief and their Relationship to Love.”

Join Us Friday, December 5
7:30pm - 9:00pm Pacific
St. Gregory of Nyssa
500 De Haro Street at Mariposa
Potrero Hill, San Francisco

There is plenty of street parking and MUNI bus lines 10, 19, 22 and 55 stop within one block. (Please double check MUNI schedules.)

Not in San Francisco? Tune into the live stream on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSTwQ1vM2h5gMmrdjEtCqNg)

11/26/2025

We are thrilled to welcome Rhonda V. Magee back to Big Heart City this week! She’ll lead a sit and give a talk titled “Mindfulness for Good in a Time of Disillusionment, Despair and Destruction.”

Join Us Friday, November 28
7:30pm - 9pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84805089284

Meeting ID: 848 0508 9284

Rhonda V. Magee, M.A., J.D., is Professor of Law, Emerita, and Founding Director of the Center for Contemplative Law and Ethics at the University of San Francisco School of Law. Professor Magee is an internationally-recognized mindfulness teacher and prolific author who has spent more than twenty years exploring the intersections of anti-racist education, social justice, and contemplative practices, garnering international acclaim for her work. She is the author of the award-winning The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness, which broke new ground in bringing mindfulness together with diversity and inclusion theory and practice. Her current writing and teaching integrates contemplative ways of knowing, teaching, skill-building and leading as the foundation for wiser, more meaningful and ethically-grounded action for creatively growing together through the greatest challenges of our times in an approach to practice she calls Soulful Engaged Mindfulness.

11/21/2025

Nothing focuses the heart like remembering we won’t be here forever.

Every year, a group of us commits to spending twelve months exploring what it means to die — and what it means to truly live while we still can.

It’s honest work. Courageous work. And we don’t have to do it alone. Every time I guide this, I’m reminded that death isn’t the opposite of life — it’s what makes life so precious.

It’s been such an honor to walk this path with so many of y’all.

If you’ve been part of our Year to Live course, I’d love if you’d share a few words from your own experience in the comments. What you say might be exactly what someone else needs to hear to take that next step.

And,if you feel inspired to help me spread the word, please share, like, or pass it on to someone who might need it.

With a deep low bow,
Vinny

To learn more details and register, visit https://bit.ly/AYeartoLive2026

11/19/2025

You’re invited for a day of practice with Vinny Ferraro & Big Heart City

Why We Practice & How to Remember When We Forget

Saturday, November 29
10am - 4pm Pacific
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We forget. We remember. We forget again. Practice is how we return, with kindness, with humor, and with heart. This daylong is an invitation to come home, to reconnect, and to rediscover what drew us to practice in the first place.

Through meditation, reflection, and conversation, we’ll explore what it means to wake up in the middle of our beautifully imperfect lives — the forgetting, the returning, and the grace that runs through it all.

Whether you’re new to mindfulness or have practiced long enough to know you still forget, this day is for you. If you’ve lost touch with your practice or with yourself, come join us — for the whole day if you can, or for whatever part you’re able. What matters is showing up. No perfect people needed, just the one who knows we can always begin again.

And through it all, remember this: no matter how much suffering tries to convince us otherwise, we don’t have to do it alone. Whatever you’re holding, let’s hold it together.

$40 Registration fee + dana to Vinny

If the registration fee is prohibitive for you, email info@bigheartcity.org and we will get you registered.

Register at bigheartcity.org/daylong-retreat

Online daylong retreat with VINNY FERRAROWhy We Practice and How to Remember When We ForgetSaturday, November 29, 202510am-4pm Pacific on Zoom Register Here We forget. We remember. We forget again. Practice is how we return, with kindness, with humor, and with heart.This daylong is an invitation to....

11/19/2025

Norman Fischer leads the group this week with a talk titled, “Flowers, Dhammapada Chapter 4.”

Join Us Friday, November 21• 7:30pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87574951803

Meeting ID: 875 7495 1803

Norman Fischer is a poet and Zen Buddhist priest. His recent poetry titles include Selected Poems 1980-2013, Through a Window, and Nature. His latest Buddhist titles are The World Could be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path; and When You Greet Me I Bow: Notes and Reflections from a Life in Zen. His translation of the Hebrew psalms, Opening to You, is widely read in both Jewish and Christian circles. The University of Alabama Press Poetics Series brought out his Experience: Essays on Thinking, Writing, Language, and Religion in 2016. He lives in Muir Beach California with his wife Kathie, who is also a Zen priest. For more information see www.everydayzen.org, and www.normanfischer.org.

11/13/2025

Vinny Ferraro leads the group this week!

We hope you can join us!
Friday, November 14
7:30pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87205569906

Meeting ID: 872 0556 9906