Zen and the Soul of Service: Nurturing Ourselves While Caring for Others [public]

​Join us for a fireside conversation with Roy Remer, author of Zen Caregiving: How to Care for Yourself While Caring for Others and Executive Director of the Zen Caregiving Project, as we explore what it means to show up for others without losing ourselves in the process. We'll examine the inner life of service, from the difference between helping and truly serving, to the freedom that comes when we release our attachment to fixing or having the right answer. We'll explore how mindfulness and compassion can ground us in our roles as caregivers and community members, and we'll get curious about the role of intention in our service to others: Why do you show up? What keeps you coming back? How do you move through resistance?

​Whether you serve professionally, volunteer in your community, or simply want to care more sustainably for the people in your life, we look forward to this conversation with you. ​We will have a lively fireside chat with Roy in the first hour, followed by an interactive skill-building workshop in the second hour where we will craft and affirm a short intention for your service to others.

​Roy Remer has served as an end-of-life caregiver and educator since 1997 and is the Executive Director of Zen Caregiving Project. A dedicated practitioner of the Soto Zen lineage, he is a student at the San Francisco Zen Center. Roy is certified as a Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT©) instructor, having completed the certification through the Compassion Institute and the Stanford University School of Medicine's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE). He also serves on the board of directors for Enso Village, a Zen-inspired senior living community located in Healdsburg, CA. Roy guides wilderness-based rites of passage programs in partnership with EarthWaysLLC of Sebastopol, CA. He is the author of Zen Caregiving: How to Care for Yourself While Caring for Others (New World Library, April 2026).

​This session is part of the Flamekeeper Workshop series, and will be moderated by Seanan Fong, Founding Director of the SF Contemplarium.

​​🕕 Agenda

• ​​2–2:10pm: Arrive & Check-in

• ​2:10pm: Fireside Chat begins

• ​​3pm: Q&A

• ​3:15: Interactive Workshop

​​📍 Finding 550 Laguna

​​We'll meet in 550 Laguna (the corner of Hayes & Laguna). Once you arrive, go down the stairs to the basement level to enter space, check in, and please take your shoes off at the door.

​​​We are grateful to partner with The Commons to host this event in their incredible space. The Commons is a modern-day town square for communal meaning-making, personal discovery, and self-expression in the heart of San Francisco. Learn more about The Commons here.

​​About the SF Contemplarium

​​​​Presented by the San Francisco Contemplarium, a neighborhood institution creating space for honoring our human journey.