Past SZI Class Offerings

Teacher Bios

Advanced Ethical and Effective Leadership: Skills Development for Teachers, Priests and Zen Center Leaders TAUGHT BY Steven Tierney, EdD, LPCC

02/17/26 - 04/21/26

The role of clergy in all denominations and lineages has evolved to include essential ethical standards in all areas of leadership. How we recruit, hire, develop, support and when necessary, terminate staff is an area ripe with ethical concerns.  Zen has paid much needed attention to the safety of Sangha members, volunteers and staff; creating codes of ethic that provide clear moral and legal boundaries and easily accessible access addressing and resolving grievances.

Zen in America has paid much closer attention to ethical leadership in the past several years.  This is important, required, urgent and must be continued.  There are many aspects of ethical leadership that face Zen leaders today.  We will work on issues that include the role of ethical decision making in finance, fundraising, staffing, succession planning, programming and training.  This course broadens ethical excellence and accountability, inviting wise, compassionate, and inclusive leadership.  

One key challenge for Zen Leaders involves recognizing  and responding  to the mental, emotional and spiritual crisis and adversity faced by members of the community.   Deep and careful training in Buddhist principles of wisdom and compassion help teachers, priests and Sangha leaders to respond with care and compassion.  However, as mental and emotional health challenges increase in these difficult times, it is imperative that our spiritual leaders know how to respond effectively. It is also important to know when not to respond, to make referrals and to make these decisions in an informed and ethically clear and reasoned manner. Buddhists seeking care must have access to appropriate, skilled and ethical first responders.  We need to provide engagement with additional professional care when appropriate and necessary for the individual or the community.  The safety of the members, staff, sangha and community must be a priority but not a barrier,

The course will be structured with flexibility so that the real challenges and concerns of students can be brought in and strategies for ethical resolutions can be offered and created in class. 

An Introduction to Chaplaincy: From Zen Practice to Compassionate Service - Taught by Rev. Marta Dabis, MS, MBA, BCC

09/22/25 - 11/24/25

This foundational course guides experienced Zen practitioners in translating their established practice into effective spiritual care. Drawing upon the rich tradition of our lineages and contemporary chaplaincy methodologies, this course explores how solid Zen practice becomes the foundation for serving others across diverse settings including hospitals, hospices, prisons, and educational organizations.

Course Components:

  • Foundations of Buddhist Chaplaincy: Historical development, contemporary applications, and how Zen practice uniquely contributes to spiritual care

  • From Zazen to Presence: Translating meditation experience into therapeutic presence with those who suffer

  • Ethics and Boundaries: Professional standards, confidentiality, and appropriate relationship dynamics in chaplaincy

  • Sustainable Service: Integrating chaplaincy work with lifelong Zen practice

Preaching the Dharma Practicum - taught by Steve Kanji and Daishin McCabe

  • ONLINE: 11 Tuesday evenings: October 24, 2023 - January 9, 2024, 6:00 to 7:30 pm, Pacific Time

  • Fee is $600; M.Div students will earn 3 credits in the Preaching category

  • To register, send an email to registrar@shogakuzen.org. Zoom link will be sent to registrants closer to the start date of the class.

  • For more information, email the instructors at stevekanjiruhl@gmail.com or daishin@zenfields.org.

  • Sign up for our mailing list to receive upcoming class announcements.

Preventing Sexual Misconduct -Recognizing, Responding, Recovering - An ongoing class for Buddhist Community Leaders

  • Five successive Thursdays beginning March 30, 2023, 1:00 to 3:30 pm PST (4:00 to 6:30 pm EST)

  • Legal Issues Instructor: Carol Merchasin, Of Counsel, McAllister Olivarius

  • Sangha Dynamics Issues Instructors: Grace Schireson, Daishin McCabe, Steve Kanji Ruhl, Koshin Steven Tierney

  • No charge for this class

  • MDiv Students: Potential for 2 credits with added paper and fieldwork

  • For more information, email registrar@shogakuzen.org

  • To Register, go to:
    Shogaku Zen Class Registration Form

Preventing and Addressing Sexual Misconduct in Zen Communities - taught by Grace Schireson and Carol Merchasin

Three Class Online Series - May 13, 20, and 27 - from noon to 2 pm

  • Potential for 2 credits with added paper and fieldwork

  • For more information and to register, email registrar@shogakuzen.org

  • Class payment is by donation - the amount that makes sense to you

Asian Buddhist Communities in America: Histories, Issues, and Bridging the Divides taught by Rev. Eric Daishin McCabe and Rev. Steve Kanji Ruhl, M.Div.

In this course we will examine the history of Asian Buddhist immigration to America; the establishing of Buddhist teachers, temples, rituals, and communities here; their complicated success in maintaining Asian traditions (including Confucian) and accommodating American cultural values; their endurance through racial oppression and violence; the rich contributions of Asians to American Buddhism; and ways that we might identify and work to bridge some of the issues that often have kept our Buddhist communities apart.

Psychological First Aid – Creating Safety in the Present Moment - taught by Rev. Koshin Steven Tierney, EdD, LPCC

In this ten-week course students will examine the responses needed to survive and thrive during the past year when Covid-19, quarantine, racial justice crisis and activism and an unprecedented economic downturn deeply impacted every individual and family.   The Buddha taught us to dwell happily in things just as they are.  The past year required us to respond in the moment to a lot of chaos and suffering.

  This course will identify tools of psychological first aid - creating safety, which we can use in our lives, in our work as pastoral counselors and, in our teaching - to assist those with whom we live and practice to meet both the challenges and the joys of living life fully.

Buddhist History, Philosophy, and Racism: Zen Perspectives and Beyond taught by Rev. Eric Daishin McCabe and Rev. Steve Kanji Ruhl

EcoDharma - taught by David Loy and Kritee

Preaching the Dharma - taught by Rev. Steve Kanji Ruhl, M.Div. & Rev. Kuzan Peter Schireson, Ed.D.

The Heart Sutra - taught by Dhamma-dipa Konin May 14 - June 18

Inter-Religious and Cross Cultural Sensitivity - taught by Daishin McCabe May 11 - August 16

Spirituality-based Counseling, Buddhist Psychology and Mindfulness-based Therapy - taught by Steve Tierney August 6 - October 29

Koan Study - taught by Val Szymanski Postponed to a later date

For more information about our classes, email registrar@shogakuzen.org