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Eugene Cash teaches Buddhism and the Diamond Approach.

Eugene has practiced meditation since 1983. His teachers include Atmananda (Zen Master Rama), Jack Kornfield, Hameed Ali (A.H. Almaas), Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Bhikkhu Analayo, Sayadaw U Tejaniya, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and Thānissaro Bhikkhu.

He has taught in California at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts, in Canada, England, France, Holland and South Africa. Currently Eugene is a senior teacher at SRMC. He founded and led San Francisco Insight from 1990 to 2025. Eugene also co-founded Diamond Approach San Francisco and Diamond Approach Los Angeles, co-led Diamond Heart Eight, and currently co-leads Diamond Heart Ten. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Buddhist teacher, Pamela Weiss. His daughter, Aya, is successful in the creative arts.

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About Eugene

Eugene grew up in Detroit in the 1950s. He moved to New York at 18 becoming an actor, musician & conductor doing Radical Political Street Theater in the 60s. Later Eugene lived on a commune in Oregon where he studied flute & learned to be a woodwind musical instrument repairman. In the 70’s, living in San Francisco, he created a performing space in his house called Temple Max where musicians from all over the world performed free jazz, improvised & ethnic musics. Eugene received a BA & MA in 4 years becoming a psychotherapist in the 80s. He started meditating & was asked & trained to teach Vipassana (Insight meditation) by Jack Kornfield. In the 90’s he studied and became a teacher of the Diamond Approach. Eugene loves practicing and teaching both Buddhism and the Diamond Approach. He understands and lives life as an ongoing practice of discovery and awakening.

Coming in 2026

The Unhardening of the Heart
Freedom is Everywhere

Eugene Cash’s wild and beautiful memoir feels like reading pure jazz.  This is appropriate for a teacher in both an ancient and a modern spiritual tradition whose soul has always listened to its own music.  Through rebellion, madness, street theater, being a musician, drugs, fatherhood, sex, meditation, and more sex, Eugene takes us through his inner unfoldment, getting ever closer to the heart of who we all are.  It is, to use one of his favorite terms, good,  really good.

Sandra Maitri, author of The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram: Nine Faces of the Soul and The Enneagram of Passions & Virtues: Finding the Way Home

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  • "Eugene Cash’s wild and beautiful memoir feels like reading pure jazz. This is appropriate for a teacher in both an ancient and a modern spiritual tradition whose soul has always listened to its own music. Through rebellion, madness, street theater, being a musician, drugs, fatherhood, sex, meditation, and more sex, Eugene takes us through his inner unfoldment, getting ever closer to the heart of who we all are. It is, to use one of his favorite terms, good. Really good. Sandra Maitri, author of The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram: Nine Faces of the Soul and The Enneagram of Passions & Virtues: Finding the Way Home"

    — Sandra Maitri

  • "The Unhardening of the Heart is a breath of fresh air in ‘spiritual’ literature, writing and teaching. Wildly diverse, filled with wacky, pointed humor, and lessons drawn from many realms of uninhibited living, it is all stabilized by Eugene Cash’s discipline, hard work and study, particularly in Zen Buddhism, the Diamond Approach and Vipassana in which he is a formal teacher. His book is a ‘way-seeking mind’ biography, charting his path to spiritual practice without ever claiming that his way is THE way. It appears that from the first he was wide-open to the deeper significance of both positive and negative events in his life. The reader who can’t identify with much in this book has not lived enough."

    — Hosho Peter Coyote, Zen Teacher, writer, actor

  • "The Unhardening of the Heart is a rollicking account of one person's journey toward the present moment and greater awareness. Eugene recounts his forays into drugs and street theater and music, and later into devoted meditation practice, fatherhood, and recovery from a traumatic brain injury. With eyes and heart wide open, he leads us through the highs and lows of spiritual seeking—and finding—with honesty and wonder and the pure joy of life itself."

    — Kim Addonizio, poet

  • "The Unhardening of the Heart sparkles and pops as it exposes how choice, risk, commitment, accident, humor, and grace have shaped Eugene Cash’s life in wild and unpredictable ways. Along the way, he gathered profound teachings which he shares skillfully, honestly, and humbly. This book feels like an intimate conversation, inviting us to listen more deeply to our own unique, wondrous, and wondrously-ordinary stories."

    — John Davis

  • "I loved this book. Addictive, I’d have to say. I was pulled into the improv Motown beat of Eugene Cash’s telling of his wild bucking bronco ride as he sets out to find what really matters to him. Real, that’s what he’s looking for, and the trouble a boy can get into when he sets his heart on finding that Realness, that’s where he’s headed. As you travel with him, the rhythms of the telling shift and shift again. So there are the adventures and the search for meaning, and there is the music underneath it all, carrying you along. I found myself trusting the genuine voice, so immediate and honest, as Eugene wrestled with his angels and reflected and grew into a deep maturity. By the end, I felt privileged that I’d been travelling with a master story- teller of wisdom for our time and the time ahead."

    — Sherry Ruth Anderson, Author of The Feminine Face of God, and The Cultural Creatives.

  • "This book is real as it gets. A unique memoir of a spiritual journey that unfolds through a love of truth. Not an exclusive truth held by a select few but the freedom that can be found in every step.  Unlike the typical searching tale full of guidance and abstract ideas that inevitably lead to some distant, glorified transpersonal state, this book is unpredictable, embodied, up close and personal.  Eugene and his writing are full of paradox. He doesn’t solve the apparent contradictions or provide tidy solutions. He lives into them.  His life story encourages us all to remember that true freedom means no part left out. We are reminded that the authentic path is right beneath our feet. As Eugene writes “The real living of Reality is improvised in each moment. Boom! that’s the gift."

    — Frank Ostaseski, Author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully.

  • "I remember many of nights walking down the hill of Spirit Rock Meditation Center after a Eugene dharma talk and saying to him you need to write a book, and every time he would just laugh and say “I'm not a writer” but I told him that people need to hear these stories, there is so much Dharma that we can all relate to in these tales. Here’s what finally came out: Whether it’s the Eugene as a beatnik, lover, listening to Sun Ra and Bob Dylan, Eugene as a hippy, playing in street theater in NYC, Eugene who became a father or the Eugene who discovered Buddhism and would later became a teacher, this powerful, funny, personal and deeply enriching memoir serves as a beautiful testament of resilience, devotion and the blossoming of the heart that is possible for all of us."

    — Hakim Tafari, Tai Gi and Qi Gong teacher

    Buddhist Facilitator, BIPOC consultant at The North Face

Upcoming Retreats & Programs

  • Buddha statue in a meditative pose surrounded by lush greenery.

    Rooted in Connection: Embodying the Ten Pāramīs

    January 27 - February 2, 2026
    Tuesday - Monday | 6 nights

    The Ten Perfections of the Heart, or pāramīs, offer a practical framework for living with compassion, resilience, and purpose. These teachings—generosity, ethics, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolve, loving-kindness, and equanimity—were cultivated by the Buddha over many lifetimes in preparation for awakening. In this residential retreat, we’ll explore and practice the pāramīs both on and off the cushion, focusing on how to embody them in daily life within a community dedicated to belonging and collective liberation.

    Register

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