The Inner Prison, Koans and Freedom

The Inner Prison, Koans and Freedom is a three-week online course from San Francisco Zen Center running October 10–31, 2026. The premise is stated plainly in the description: our deepest prisons are often built by our own minds. The working material is koans — the brief dialogues and phrases Zen practice uses to cut through habitual thinking — alongside wisdom from Dōgen, the thirteenth-century founder of the Soto Zen tradition, and Suzuki Roshi.

The distinguishing source is Dario Doshin Girolami's experience bringing Zen practice into Rebibbia Prison in Rome. The course uses stories of inmates, so the material is anchored in practice lived inside an actual prison — a different register from koan study drawn purely from classical texts, and directly on point for a course about confinement and freedom.

The listing is spare beyond that. It gives the dates, the online format, and a $101 price, but doesn't say how sessions run — live or recorded, how often the group meets, or what participation includes — and it states no prerequisites and no biography of Girolami. Check SFZC's registration page or contact the center for those details before signing up.