About
Shosan Victoria Austin began Zen practice in 1971 and trained in the U.S., India, and Japan. She is a Dharma heir in the Shunryu Suzuki Roshi lineage (designated 1999), an international Soto Zen priest (2005), and a Dharma teacher at San Francisco Zen Center since 1999. She held several leadership roles at SFZC including Tenzo, Tanto, and President. Austin also teaches as an Iyengar yoga teacher (certified 1988), teacher educator (2003), and Right Use of Power facilitator (2019). Her teaching emphasizes the yogic aspects of meditation across diverse settings including workplaces and institutions, with attention to accessibility and trauma sensitivity.
Teaching focus
Shosan Victoria Austin's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Zen and Mahayana traditions. Several threads come up: trauma-aware mindfulness that pays attention to the nervous system as part of the practice;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Shosan Victoria Austin 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 trauma, corporate. The bigger move Shosan Victoria Austin 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. Shosan Victoria Austin'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. Shosan Victoria Austin'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
Shosan Victoria Austin teaches in the Zen and Mahayana traditions. The teaching home is San Francisco Zen Center. From the teacher's own profile: Shosan Victoria Austin began practicing Zen in 1971. She trained in the U.S., in India, and in Japan, and is entrusted as a Dharma heir in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (1999), an international Soto Zen priest (2005), and a Dharma teacher at San Francisco Zen Center (1999). Some of her previous San Francisco Zen Center roles include Work Leader, Tenzo, Tanto, and President. In 2022, she co-led the training and participation of the Ryoban (ceremonial assembly) for the Zenshuji 100th Anniversary Jukai-e in Los Angeles, a five-day retreat in which over 100 people received precept teachings and vows. In addition to her deep study and daily teaching of yogic aspects of meditation, in diverse settings including workplaces, institutions, and homes, Shosan serves as an Iyengar yoga teacher (1988), teacher educator (2003), assessor of new yoga teachers (2005), and Right Use of Power facilitator (2019). In her offerings, she emphasizes inclusion, accessibility, trauma sensitivity, and appropriate challenge, grounded in awareness of the possibility and presence of liberation. In a Zen container, what Shosan Victoria Austin 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. Shosan Victoria Austin'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. Shosan Victoria Austin'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. Shosan Victoria Austin'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. Shosan Victoria Austin'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. Shosan Victoria Austin'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
Shosan Victoria Austin 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 Shosan Victoria Austin, 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.
