Earlier this year, I read the brutal, beautiful, and inspiring biography of Issan Dorsey, a San Francisco Zen Monk who created the first Buddhist AIDS Hospice during the height of the crisis in the 80’s Castro District. On this, World AIDS Day 2025, his story feels as important as ever.

While his world was burning down all around him, he selflessly built a space for people in his community to pass with dignity and care: the Maitri Hospice at Hartford Street Zen Center. This would be challenging in the best of circumstances. Doing so in a time when people who were already berated and abandoned by mainstream culture were being struck down with a disease shunned by the medical establishment required willpower that is beyond most of us.

His was one of many heroic narratives which emerged from that time. It is one of the most exceptional, I feel, for his having seemingly moved heaven and earth to create a space for peaceful transition for people who didn’t have access to it otherwise. And he did so, really, without any resources at all.

I’m of a different generation, ours wasn’t decimated in the same way as those who are a little older. It’s now been 35 years since Issan died, his Dharma name meaning “one mountain”. I wish more people knew his name in our age of spiritual bypassing and digital distraction. His optimism and generosity of spirit during unimaginable times seem otherworldly, yet so rooted in this one.

If you would like to learn more about Issan Dorsey, I highly recommend the book Street Zen by David Schneider.

Until next time,

Roddy