About
Anshi Daigi Zachary Smith has practiced Zen since 1993 within the San Francisco Zen Center lineage. He received jukai in 1995, served as Shuso (Head Student) in 2007, was ordained as a Zen priest in 2014, and received Dharma Transmission from Ryushin Paul Haller in 2019. Smith directs North Mountain Zendo, a zazenkai sitting group in North Beach, San Francisco. He is also an engineer, musician, and poet.
Teaching focus
Anshi Zachary Smith's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Zen and Mahayana traditions. Several threads come up: silent zazen as the central practice;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Anshi Zachary Smith works with whatever shows up in the room rather than reading from notes, which is part of why these talks land as conversational instead of scripted. Short pauses, longer sits, and questions that come back to direct experience are usual. The bigger move Anshi Zachary Smith keeps making is back toward attention itself: what's happening, how it's being held, and what gets in the way. That keeps the teaching close to practice rather than drifting into commentary about practice. For talks, schedules, and longer essays, the affiliated organization's page is where the live material lives. Anshi Zachary Smith's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Anshi Zachary Smith's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Anshi Zachary Smith's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on.
Background
Anshi Zachary Smith teaches in the Zen and Mahayana traditions. The teaching home is San Francisco Zen Center. From the teacher's own profile: Anshi Daigi Zachary Smith has been practicing Zen since 1993. He took jukai in 1995, was Shuso (Head Student) in 2007, ordained as a Zen priest in 2014 and received Dharma Transmission on April 17, 2019, all with former abbot and Senior Dharma Teacher Ryushin Paul Haller. He currently directs North Mountain Zendo, a zazenkai (sitting) group in North Beach. In addition to his involvement with Zen, Zachary is a husband, a father of four, an engineer, a musician, a bike fanatic, and an avid but mediocre poet. He may be the only person in the history of Zen in the West to have interrupted a residential practice period to tour with a rock band. In a Zen container, what Anshi Zachary Smith offers is steady, mostly silent practice with short pointed teachings. The form is the teaching as much as the words are. Sitting, walking, work practice, and the relationship with a teacher all carry weight. Anshi Zachary Smith's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Anshi Zachary Smith's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Anshi Zachary Smith's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Anshi Zachary Smith's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Anshi Zachary Smith's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Anshi Zachary Smith's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Anshi Zachary Smith's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography.
Lineage
Anshi Zachary Smith teaches as a monastic teacher in the Zen and Mahayana traditions. The institutional home, per the source listing, is San Francisco Zen Center, and that's where most of the public teaching schedule and any retreat offerings will be posted. The Zen lineage frame here, where stated, is what authorizes a teacher to lead practice, and the source page usually names the dharma teacher or root teacher when relevant.
What to expect
On a class or retreat with Anshi Zachary Smith, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. The container is shaped by San Francisco Zen Center, so format details, fees, and access policies follow that organization's norms. Expect plenty of silence, less talking-at-you than you might think, and an emphasis on letting the practice do its work rather than chasing experiences. For exact dates, registration, and any sliding-scale or scholarship information, There's usually a short Q&A window and, on retreats, optional teacher interviews where students can bring specific questions about their practice.
