Big Heart City Meditation SF

04/08/2026

Matthew Brensilver leads the group IN PERSON this week in San Francisco.

He’ll share a talk titled “Ways of Approaching Emotional Pain”.

Join us Friday, April 10
7:30pm - 9pm 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/

04/02/2026

We’re on ZOOM this week with Vinny Ferraro!

Join us Friday, April 3
7:30-9pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83169872447

Meeting ID: 831 6987 2447
sangha

03/25/2026

Sydney Reece leads the group this week on Zoom with a talk titled “Stand Up in It; It’s Just Us.”

Join us Friday, March 27
7:30pm - 9pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88350400362

Meeting ID: 883 5040 0362

Sydney Reece, M.Ed., is an international educator, meditation teacher, and social justice advocate whose work lives at the intersection of trauma healing, addiction recovery, and collective liberation. She creates spaces where people can slow down enough to feel—where awareness becomes embodied, equanimity becomes lived experience, and compassion begins to take root from the inside out. Her work bridges inner development with social context, with a particular focus on loosening trauma responses, navigating addiction triggers, and tending to the embodied impact of American racial history. She has worked across school districts, nonprofit organizations, meditation centers, and universities, expanding access to mindfulness-based practices and training others to carry this work forward. To learn more about Sydney, visit: sydneyreece.com

03/24/2026

Let the Heart Meet the Mind
Saturday, April 4
10am-4pm Pacific on Zoom

Many of us feel pulled in different directions by what’s happening around us and by the stories the mind builds in response. It’s easy to become reactive, overwhelmed, or caught in a swirl of thoughts trying to make sense of it all.
Mindfulness practice offers another possibility. Instead of being completely inside every thought and emotion, we begin learning how to relate to what’s happening rather than from those reactions. This shift opens a surprising amount of freedom that includes both clarity of the mind and wisdom of the heart. When the heart meets the mind, those stories don’t get to run the show.

This daylong retreat offers a chance to slow down and explore this together. Practicing in community can remind us that we’re not alone in the stories of the mind. Through periods of sitting and walking meditation, Dharma reflections, and time for questions, we’ll practice meeting experience with balance and care, learning how to work with the mind’s stories without being completely carried away by them.

$40 Registration fee + dana to Vinny

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

Learn more at bigheartcity.org/daylong-retreat

Online daylong retreat with VINNY FERRAROLet the Heart Meet the MindSaturday, April 4, 202610am-4pm Pacific on Zoom Register Here Many of us feel pulled in different directions by what’s happening around us and by the stories the mind builds in response. It’s easy to become reactive, overwhelmed...

03/18/2026

Vinny Ferraro leads the group this week!

Join us Friday, March 20
7:30 PM Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87857791297

Meeting ID: 878 5779 1297

03/11/2026

Gary Sanders leads the group this week with a talk titled “Off the Cushion and Into Our Lives”.

Join us Friday, March 13
7:30pm - 9pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89264763578

Meeting ID: 892 6476 3578

Gary Sanders is a seasoned meditation teacher, dhamma guide, and sobriety coach who has shared Buddhist practice with diverse communities across North America close to two decades. Founder of SCV Mindfulness, Heavy Metta PDX, and Boundless Heart, he was also a founding member of Refuge Recovery, a Buddhist based program for all forms of addiction now practiced worldwide. Authorized to lead Buddhist meditation groups at Against the Stream in Los Angeles, Gary later joined the Teachers Council at Portland Insight Meditation Community, where he was empowered to teach in the lineage of Ruth Denison. His heart-based, accessible approach integrates Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation, inviting students into spaces of kindness, clarity, and genuine transformation.

03/04/2026

Vinny Ferraro leads the group IN PERSON in San Francisco!

Friday, March 6
7:30pm - 9pm 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

02/25/2026

Matthew Hahn leads the group this week with a talk titled “Refuge in the Fire”.

Join us Friday, February 27
7:30p-9:00p Pacific 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89404233497

Meeting ID: 894 0423 3497

Practicing the Dharma since 2005, Matthew Hahn sat with his first sangha as a prisoner in Folsom State Prison. He is a co-founder of the Recovery Dharma program and offers teachings for people with histories of addiction and incarceration. Matthew has been mentored for many years by his principal teacher, Matthew Brensilver, received lay ordination from Venerable Pannavati and the late Ashin U Pannadipa, and is a Dharma Leader at Spirit Rock and the Insight Meditation Center. He teaches at San Jose Insight Meditation. Learn more at matthewhahn.com

02/18/2026

Rhonda V. Magee leads the group this week on Zoom with a talk titled, “Seeing Shadow, Living in Light: Mindfully Relating with the Muck, Madness, and Magic of these Times.”

Join us Friday, February 20
7:30pm - 9pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86467612945

Meeting ID: 864 6761 2945

Rhonda V. Magee is a Professor, Emeritus and founding Director of the Center for Contemplative Law and Ethics at the University of San Francisco, and the Founder of the Mount Iris Meditation Community, dedicated to “Soulhearted Mindfulness” for healing ourselves and transforming the world. Professor Magee is a leading mindfulness teacher and practice innovator with a focus on applying mindfulness to the multiple interlocking challenges of our times, including climate distress, political polarization, migration, war and their effects on us all. She draws on law and legal history to weave storytelling, poetry, analysis and practices into inspiration for changing how we think, act and live better together in a rapidly changing world. Learn more at mountiris.com and rhondavmagee.com.

02/12/2026

Vinny Ferraro leads the group this week on Zoom!

Join us Friday, February 13
7:30pm - 9pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87337464261

Meeting ID: 873 3746 4261

02/04/2026

Vinny Ferraro leads the group IN PERSON in San Francisco!

Join us Friday, February 6
7:30pm - 9pm 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 (link at bigheartcity.org)

01/28/2026

Anthony “T” Maes leads the group this week with a talk titled “Inspired by Sila.”

Join us Friday, January 30
7:30pm-9pm Pacific

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89102592350

Meeting ID: 891 0259 2350

Anthony “T” Maes was born and raised in the East Bay. He has practiced Buddhist meditation since 2003, primarily as a student of the Thai Forest lineage. He is a teacher at UC Berkeley, Inward Bound Mindfulness, EBMC, and is a founding teacher of Dharma Homies Teacher Collective where he specializes in trauma-informed relational mindfulness. “T” graduated from UC Berkeley in 2004, completed the yearlong Commit2Dharma program at EBMC in 2011, the Facilitator-1 training with JoAnna Hardy and Vinny Ferraro in 2017, and the 3-year Organic Intelligence trauma resilience practitioner training. He is currently in the 4-year Teacher Training program at Spirit Rock & IMS. For more information about “T”, visit https://www.anthonymaes.com/