September 10, 2025
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
** Book Sale at Event “Becoming Yourself” – Special BZC Price: $25 (save $3 from retail) **
Available for purchase during the event only – no shipping Payment options: Cash, Venmo @BrooklynZenCenter, or our donation page (We’ll have a laptop available, or use your phone)
Join us in welcoming Soto Zen Buddhist priest and teacher and Abiding Abbot of Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler for the launch of the long-awaited book from one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the last century, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. The event will include a book talk and signing by Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, who is one of the Editors of the book. There is also an opportunity to hear a Dharma Talk by Sensei Rutschman-Byler on the following Saturday at 11:20 AM.
In Becoming Yourself, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi shares simple, warmhearted teachings on a practice that is fundamentally about becoming yourself.
Edited and compiled by Jiryu Rutschman-Byler and Sojun Mel Weitsman, this new book of teachings on the essence of Zen practice speaks directly to the newest beginners while also serving as a touchstone and a continual source of inspiration for even the most experienced practitioners and Zen teachers. Unearthing new jewels from the late Suzuki’s lectures and bringing to light many of his unpublished teachings, Becoming Yourself is about opening to your life, wherever you are.
For more information, visit www.becomingyourselfbook.com
Jiryu Rutschman-Byler is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest and teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, with dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman. Jiryu has trained residentially in Zen temples since 1996, and currently serves as a co-Abbot of San Francisco Zen Center through his role as Abiding Abbot of Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. Jiryu is the co-editor of a new collection of talks by Suzuki Roshi, Becoming Yourself, forthcoming in July 2025. He is also the author of the book Two Shores of Zen, about his experiences in 2002 to 2004 as an American-trained monk practicing in Japanese Zen monasteries, and his writing has appeared in Buddhist periodicals in print and online. Jiryu is a mentor and preceptor to the Montaña de Silencio Sangha in Medellín, Colombia, and for many years served as the head teacher of the Buddhadharma Sangha of San Quentin State Prison. He holds a master’s degree in Asian Studies from UC Berkeley (2014), where he worked under the mentorship of the Group in Buddhist Studies on Buddhist texts in classical Chinese and modern Japanese, and completed thesis research on the development of Soto Zen in Japan during the Meiji Period (1868-1912).
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We ask that all participants be fully vaccinated and boosted. Masks are optional. Please see the BZC Covid Protocol for more information.