About
Ryushin Paul Haller is a Zen teacher in the Soto tradition who has practiced at San Francisco Zen Center since the 1970s. He received Dharma Transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and has taught for over 30 years. Haller served as Abiding Abbot at City Center from 2003 to 2012 and is currently Urban Temple Dharma Teacher there. He founded and directed the Outreach program at SFZC and has led mindfulness programs addressing depression and recovery, taught in correctional facilities, and worked with the Zen Hospice Project. He teaches at Black Mountain Zen Centre in Belfast and conducts classes throughout the US and Europe. He has practiced yoga for over 30 years.
Teaching focus
Ryushin Paul Haller's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Zen and Mahayana traditions. Several threads come up: compassion training that doesn't collapse into pity or burnout;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Ryushin Paul Haller 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. Listed specialties on the source profile include stress, grief, advanced practice. The bigger move Ryushin Paul Haller 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. Ryushin Paul Haller'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. Ryushin Paul Haller'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
Ryushin Paul Haller teaches in the Zen and Mahayana traditions. The teaching home is San Francisco Zen Center. From the teacher's own profile: Ryushin Paul Haller served as Abiding Abbot at City Center from 2003 to 2012, and is currently the Urban Temple Dharma Teacher at City Center. He has lived and practiced at San Francisco Zen Center since the 1970s and held many positions at Tassajara and City Center. He received Dharma Transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and has been teaching for over 30 years. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, he teaches throughout the US and Europe and has led mindfulness programs to assist with depression and recovery. Paul has also taught in prisons and had a long involvement with the Zen Hospice Project. He has been practicing yoga for over 30 years. Paul teaches at the Black Mountain Zen Centre in Belfast. Founder and former Director of Outreach at SFZC, Paul is interested in finding ways of expressing our practice in society, both as compassionate service and making it available to as many people as possible. In a Zen container, what Ryushin Paul Haller 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. Ryushin Paul Haller'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. Ryushin Paul Haller'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. Ryushin Paul Haller'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. Ryushin Paul Haller'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. Ryushin Paul Haller'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. Ryushin Paul Haller'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
Ryushin Paul Haller teaches as a lay 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 Ryushin Paul Haller, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. Retreats are part of the offering, usually a few days to a week, mostly silent. 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.
