November 14, 2025
All in the Family: City Center’s Shuso On Living at SFZC

 

By Tova Green

Vanessa Able, City Center’s Shuso (Head Student) for the Fall 2025 Practice Period, arrived from France with her husband and ten-year old daughter in September. A Soto Zen priest and a chaplain, Vanessa began her practice in the UK (where she grew up). She teaches chaplaincy at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies, facilitates a sitting group, and publishes an online journal called The Dewdrop. She joined the Branching Streams (Suzuki Roshi lineage) community in 2016.

Sangha News met with Vanessa and her daughter Cora to talk about the transition and what it’s like to live at City Center as a family.

“The way we’ve been received and integrated into life here has been welcoming and easy,” said Vanessa. “I arrived a week before my family to furnish the apartment with borrowed things from friends in the Bay Area. We were lent a car.”

“I’m really happy that we could all come. We much prefer this than being split in two different countries. I feel whole. Everything I love is in the same place—Zen practice and my family. I’ve usually taken myself off to practice, going to Northern Ireland (Black Mountain Zen Centre) for sesshins.”

Early this year, Vanessa began discussing the possibility of coming to City Center with her teacher Paul Haller. “When I asked [my husband] Thor, ‘What would you think about going to San Francisco for two months?’ he was so open to the idea, and said yes. He loves adventures. I was concerned about getting permission from Cora’s school for her to be away, but they agreed.”

“[At City Center] Thor does his own work during the day. Cora is with him in the early mornings, when I’m in the zendo, and often in the afternoons. We usually have meals together with the sangha in the dining room.”

“There’s a steep learning curve for me as Shuso,” Vanessa remarked. “I’m coming into San Francisco Zen Center as a resident for the first time, getting to know everyone all at once. I’m learning the forms, getting comfortable with the schedule and how things are done here.”

Vanessa and Cora both join the kitchen crew in the morning and Cora does homework for her school in France in the afternoons. “I’m surprised that Cora could integrate into life here, that she could be part of the schedule,” Vanessa noted. “She surprised me—that we could go to the kitchen every day. It’s been a wonderful experience, a kind environment for a child.”

Cora chimed in: “I thought it would be boring here, but it is actually really fun. I’m enjoying it much more than I thought I would!”

As we spoke, Cora began making a list on the kitchen whiteboard of the things she likes about being at City Center:

  • No alcohol and no meat
  • Very good food
  • Very nice people
  • Fun in the kitchen
  • The apartment we’re staying in
  • Being able to see all of my old friends [Cora and her family lived in the Bay Area for several years when she was younger]
  • Having my own keys
  • Keith’s ASL classes
  • Going across the street to Koshland Park

Vanessa concluded, “I’m so happy to be here. If you live away from a temple, having a chance to be a monk for a while is such a gift. In my Dharma talk I spoke of motherhood being a big thing for me. Practicing can be a challenge for a mother. I hope to model it for other mothers of young children.”