Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast: Recent Episodes
Joan Halifax | Zen Buddhist Teacher Upaya Abbot
The Upaya Dharma Podcast features Wednesday evening Dharma Talks and recordings from Upaya’s diverse array of programs. Our podcasts exemplify Upaya’s focus on socially engaged Buddhism, including prison work, end-of-life care, serving the homeless, training in socially engaged practices, peace & nonviolence, compassionate care training, and delivering healthcare in the Himalayas.
In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, physicist Adam Frank, PhD, admits he came to Buddhism hoping for the infinite cosmic power of his own enlightenment, and maybe more honestly, to face and resolve his own suffering. He stayed for something else entirely. Drawing on a year and a half spent with the Vimalakirti and Avatamsaka Sutras, he traces how these early Mahayana texts reimagined practice…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Valerie Brown discusses how spiritual power and presence are among the greatest forces for healing and transformation, personally and societally. Now, more than ever, we are called to look deeply and to live deeply interconnected to each other and to the more than human world, to cultivate hope grounded in wise, skillful, and compassionate action…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, given on the eve of Hiroshima’s anniversary, Sensei Kodo sits with how easily the mind justifies what it later regrets: “It’s very disturbing, isn’t it?… The beauty of science and of discovering truth and of imagining realities that we just can’t conceive, then being co-opted by just the greed, hatred, and delusion of our minds.” Kodo turns to Einstein’s…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Roshi Norma Wong, a Zen priest of Native Hawaiian and Hakka Chinese descent, offers a Zen and indigenous perspective on spirituality and governance. Norma grounds the talk in an unbroken relationship to place and lineage, opening with the Hawaiian chant E Ho Mai, calling in the ancestors and declaring: “There is no human on the face of the Earth who was not…
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In this session of The Measure of Our Humanity series, Roshi Joan Halifax opens with a guided meditation grounded in stability, breath, and the bodhisattva’s aspiration to meet suffering with mercy and care, before introducing Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi. In the main session, Bhikkhu Bodhi explores what he calls the “world-sustaining Dharma” — the moral order that Buddhist teaching asks us to bring…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Senseis Kodo and Dainin join Roshi Joan Halifax as she explores what it means to live and take refuge in spiritual community. Drawing on decades of building and residing in community herself, she traces valences of the three jewels — Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha — to their most human dimensions. Refuge, she suggests, is not rest in the ideal alone…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Koshin Flint Sparks takes up an old question posed to the Buddha’s disciple Mahakaccana: what drives our conflicts? Mahakaccana answers that conflict arises from our attachment, adherence, fixation, addiction, obsession, and holding firm to our personal views and pleasures. Koshin answers the same question, borrowing language from Joko Beck’s four-line practice…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Genryu Clayton Dalton — emergency physician and novice priest — draws on stories from his hospital work to explore how we can meet suffering without turning away from it. Memories of long-ago encounters in the ER, returned to and turned over again, have become a kind of teacher: moments of violence, grief, and quiet tenderness witnessed at the bedside…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Butsumon Tuck Stibich describes teaching the GRACE program — Roshi Joan’s framework for compassionate action — to a class of cadets training as correctional officers. Butsumon admits to having judgments and expectations going into the training, and his surprise when cadets explained their reasons for being there: faith, family, and a wish to give others the…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, delivered on the eve of the 15th anniversary of her twin sister Ellie’s passing, novice priest Jimon Lorene Flaming tenderly opens the bittersweet space of her sister’s life and death. Jimon traces Ellie’s path — a woman who lived entirely on her own terms, spending her life in nature, deeply embodied, trusting the flow of life — and the shock of losing not…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Fushin takes us through the currents of the Buddha’s raft metaphor — where practice becomes binding together grass, twigs, and branches to cross from a shore that is dangerous and fearful to one that is safe. Drawing on Dogen’s Uji (Being-Time), Fushin challenges the notion of completion, suggesting there is actually no shore to rest on: “There’s no…
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In the 1st part of this closing session of Planting Life, Alonso Mendez — archaeoastronomer, artist, and farmer — opens a window into the ancient Maya wisdom of corn and cosmos. Drawing on twenty years of research at Palenque and recent discoveries still unpublished, Alonso traces the deep roots of a civilization shaped by maize. Our teeth, he observes, are corn seeds — teeth surviving centuries…
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In the 1st part of this closing session of Planting Life, Alonso Mendez — archaeoastronomer, artist, and farmer — opens a window into the ancient Maya wisdom of corn and cosmos. Drawing on twenty years of research at Palenque and recent discoveries still unpublished, Alonso traces the deep roots of a civilization shaped by maize. Our teeth, he observes, are corn seeds — teeth surviving centuries…
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In this fifth session of Planting Life, Roshi Joan Halifax gathers the community around Wendell Berry’s poem “The Person Born to Farming” — reading it aloud, line by line, drawing participants into its imagery of soil as divine drug, of entering death yearly and coming back rejoicing. The poem becomes a lens for the day’s planting, and a doorway into the concept of sympoiesis — the understanding…
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In this fourth session of Planting Life, Porter Swentzell of Santa Clara Pueblo — historian, anthropologist, and executive director of Hapo Community School — brings a thoughtful and generous account of what it means to reclaim education on indigenous terms. At the heart of his talk is a clear distinction: “Education is something we do inherently as human beings that never ends.
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In this third session of Planting Life, Roxanne Swentzell of Santa Clara Pueblo — sculptor, farmer, and founder of Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute — offers a quiet and generous tour of Pueblo agricultural knowledge. Speaking at her first public appearance since a serious accident, Roxanne moves through the ancestral farming methods her people developed for one of the harshest growing…
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In the second session of Planting Life, following the morning’s planting ceremony, Beata Tsosie of Santa Clara Pueblo brings her decades of environmental justice work to bear. Drawing on her work with Tewa Women United and the Food and Seed Sovereignty Alliance, Beata maps the layered environmental violence of the Greater Tewa Basin — nuclear contamination from Los Alamos…
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In this opening session of Planting Life, Roshi Joan Halifax, Wendy Johnson, and Alonso Mendez gather the community around a single, urgent call: to put our hands into the earth and “give life to life.” Wendy brings the teaching down to its most elemental — the seed splitting, root reaching down, shoot reaching up — and names corn, rice, and barley not as crops but as relatives…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, offered during Upaya’s Young Adult Sesshin, Sensei Kodo and Sensei Dainin explore two practices that shape the foundation of sesshin: noble silence and Oryoki. Kodo opens by naming what we’re actually up against: a culture of constant stimulation that makes stillness feel uncomfortable, citing silence as “an alternative to modern culture, i.e., samsara.
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In this session of The Measure of Our Humanity, Roshi Joan Halifax draws on her newly written essay “Mutual Belonging, Compassion, and Social Responsibility” to offer a radical reframing of compassion for a world in crisis. Too often reduced to kindness or pity, Roshi teaches compassion as something far more radical: “Compassion is not an emotion. Compassion is natural courage.
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Monshin Nannette Overley traces an honest question back to its roots: what is determination, and what is its role in our lives? Beginning with her discomfort over the whip-and-tether imagery in the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures from the Spring Practice Period, Monshin describes the path of her earnest inquiry. She moves through the Lojong training’s…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk preceding the weekend retreat Planting Life, longtime teacher and master gardener Wendy Johnson calls the community “to plant life together in utterly dangerous times.” Weaving traditional ecological knowledge, Dogen’s Instructions to the Cook, and more than fifty years of earth dharma practice, Wendy plants us deep in our seats, reminding us planting is: “not…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Dainin — emergency physician turned dharma teacher — explores what western medicine trains us to suppress and what Zen practice invites us to reclaim. Tracing her own path from clinical dissociation to a reawakening of compassion and connection at Upaya’s Being with Dying training, she turns to the well known koan of a water buffalo whose tail catches in…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk during Upaya’s Being with Dying intensive, Frank Ostaseski speaks to participants from the loss of three close friends within a matter of weeks. Rather than offering technique or teaching, he invites open inquiry into grief itself: what it feels like in the body, how it moves, and why we so often push it away. “I think to grieve is to be human,” he says.
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In this session of The Measure of Our Humanity, teacher and author Tara Brach explores imagination as what she calls “an absolute miracle of the human mind” — a capacity that has shaped every evolutionary leap our species has made, from language to civil rights. Drawing on myth, story, and contemplative practice, Brach argues that in dark times, imagination is not a retreat from reality but…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Koshin Flint Sparks — psychologist, Zen teacher, and longtime student of the intersection of mind science and contemplative practice — offers a wide-ranging inquiry into what he calls “the double helix of maturity”: the intertwined work of growing up and waking up. Drawing on attachment theory, interpersonal neurobiology, and teachings from across the Zen…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Kodo reflects on the just-completed Spring Practice Period sesshin as a window into a larger idea of a Dharma Lab. What has been called “Contemplative Residency,” he proposes, is better represented as “Residential Zen Training” — a rousing adaptation that places each practitioner at the center of awakening. “Both a scientific lab and Residential Zen…
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In this final talk of the Spring Practice Period Sesshin, Sensei Ryotan and Sensei Shinzan bring the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures to their close with the tenth stage — Entering the Marketplace — the return to ordinary life, barefoot and unadorned, carrying what was glimpsed back into the world. Ryotan traces the inner movement this stage points to: the small self receding as the larger self comes…
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In this fifth-day talk, offered during the Spring Practice Period Sesshin, Senko and Sensei Monshin explore the ninth ox-herding picture, Returning to the Source — the stage where effort ceases and life simply flows. Drawing on Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, the Xin Xin Ming, and the Song of the Grass Hut, Monshin traces the difference between striving and ease, and how returning to the source is not…
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In this third-day talk, offered during the Spring Practice Period Sesshin, Sensei Ryotan takes up the habit of self-judgment — that familiar contraction after a mistake, the script of not being good enough, and the perfectionism that keeps us small. Framing her teaching through the Lotus Sutra’s Never-Disparaging Bodhisattva, who bows to every being’s capacity for awakening even as rocks and…
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During the second day of the Spring Practice Period Sesshin, Senko takes up the koan of relaxed effort — how effort and ease, far from being opposed, are expressed in the same movement. Drawing on Seung Sahn’s story of a bear who, long after escaping his circus cage, keeps turning somersaults in the mountains hoping to be fed, Senko asks us to look honestly at the conditioning we carry into…
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In this first formal talk of the Spring Practice Period Sesshin, Sensei Monshin takes up virya — the Sanskrit term for joyful effort — as the essential energy of practice. What does it mean to sit day after day with the whole catastrophe of the mind: the boredom, the fear, the stories we tell about ourselves? Drawing on the ox-herding pictures’ imagery of taming, she explores the difference…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, offered during the fourth day of Upaya’s Spring Practice Period sesshin, Sensei Shinzan guides us through the seventh and eighth stages of the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures — two of the most profound moments in the Zen map of awakening. The seventh stage, Forgetting the Ox, marks the end of the seeker: grasping falls away, the division between practice and life…
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In this Zazenkai Day talk during Upaya’s Spring Practice Period, Sensei Shinzan surveys the first six pictures of the ox herding series, from the first pull toward practice to the hard won ease of riding the ox home. He then turns to a recent question a student brought to him: how do I know if I’m practicing correctly, and when is rest just laziness? Shinzan answers through an encounter between…
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In this Zazenkai day dharma talk during the Spring Practice Period, Sensei Ryotan takes up the first two ox-herding images — Searching for the Ox and Finding Traces of the Ox, presenting these images as metaphors for understanding how practice begins and what sustains it. She frames the ox-herding series around a central insight: practice is not about “getting free of the world,” but about “being…
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In this second session of Upaya’s Spring Practice Period, Senseis Shinzan, Monshin, and Ryotan, and Hoshi Senko introduce the text that anchors this practice period — The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures: Our Journey of Awakening — its origins, images, and themes. The ox-herding metaphor traces back to the Buddha’s teachings on mindful practice, traveling through India and China before becoming…
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In this opening session of Upaya’s Spring Practice Period, Senseis Ryotan, Monshin, and Shinzan, and Hoshi Senko welcome residents, guests, and the Cloud Sangha into a month of shared practice. Drawing on the 12th-century ox-herding series and John Daido Loori’s Riding the Ox Home as the program’s central text, the teachers frame the ten pictures not as a linear progression but as a spiral…
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In this session of The Measure of Our Humanity, peacebuilder and Professor Emeritus John Paul Lederach — welcomed by Roshi Joan and Sensei Dainin — opens with the question his life’s work has turned on: “How do we make our way back to a sense of our shared humanity when it has been so damaged, when it has been so harmed?” John observes that while dehumanization fills our dictionaries and research…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, offered during Upaya’s Spring Practice Period, Sensei Ryotan explores a central theme of the ten ox-herding pictures: why is simply being present so difficult? Drawing on John Daido Loori’s Riding the Ox Home and the child psychologist D.W. Winnicott’s concept of “going on being,” Ryotan traces how conditioning — laid down in childhood and reinforced throughout…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, offered during Upaya’s Spring Practice Period, Sensei Monshin and Hoshi Senko guide us through the heart of the oxherding pictures — the ancient Zen metaphor of spiritual maturation. Monshin frames the third and fourth paintings, seeing and catching the ox, as our commitment to the path. Why face the bull? What truly moves us toward such a challenging practice?
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Genryu Clayton Dalton — emergency physician, journalist, and newly ordained novice priest — reflects on what it means to bear witness across the vast distances of suffering that connect us all. Having lost his voice the weekend prior, Genryu’s rough whisper seemed hauntingly appropriate as he described the inexpressible suffering from his recent medical mission…
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In this session of The Measure of Our Humanity, Roshi Joan Halifax opens by reflecting on six years of monthly gatherings exploring socially engaged Buddhism — and on the urgency of the question animating this year’s series: how do we lay down a sane and compassionate path forward in these times? The session turns to Valerie Brown who grounds her teaching in a vision of collective awakening…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Roshi Joan Halifax opens by naming her deep concern for the ongoing wars, displacement, and political upheaval seen throughout the world. Rather than offering direct reassurance, she turns to two stories held in deliberate tension: Kyōgen’s koan “Man Up a Tree,” in which a man hanging by his teeth from a branch is asked a question he cannot answer without…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Butsumon Tuck Stibich — a resident priest at Upaya — opens with a teaching from Thich Nhat Hanh. No stranger to war, Thich Nhat Hanh explains that our anxiety about the world’s suffering is an obstacle to service: that fear and worry do not help us cultivate peace, or become a refuge for others. Reflecting on this and the vows made in Jukai…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Fushin addresses what so many of us are carrying right now — the weight of a world in upheaval, the accumulation of personal grief, and the stories we tell ourselves at three in the morning when everything feels urgent and nothing feels within reach. Drawing on the Lotus Sutra’s parable of the burning house, Fushin reframes the question entirely…
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In the final session of The Poetry of Cold Mountain, participants share their overnight translations of Hanshan’s poems — working from character-to-word guides across five poems. The range and depth of what emerges moves Peter Levitt and Kaz Tanahashi to reflect openly on the nature of creative work. Peter observes that the participants had nothing but seeds — elements borrowed from a poet writing…
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In Part 6 of The Poetry of Cold Mountain, the evening session gathers around two offerings. Kaz Tanahashi gives a live calligraphy demonstration, rendering Hanshan’s poem “You Ask the Way to Cold Mountain” first in formal script, then in semi-cursive — pausing to explain how each style reveals something different about the characters, the poem, and the calligrapher’s mind. Sensei Dainin reads each…
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In Part 5 of The Poetry of Cold Mountain, the session opens with a participant unexpectedly sharing two pieces of calligraphy prepared before the retreat — Hanshan poems rendered by hand as an act of study and care. Kaz Tanahashi and Peter Levitt then open the floor to another round of participant poetry. Kaz offers his own poem, inspired by Hanshan’s eccentricity: As in the previous session…
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In Part 4 of The Poetry of Cold Mountain, the session opens into a shared creative space. Kaz Tanahashi and Peter Levitt shape the afternoon around two fundamental poetry practices — writing from the present moment and listening. Peter offers a generative prompt: use lines from Hanshan as scaffolding, borrowing one to begin a poem, one to anchor the middle, one to close. What follows is an open…
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In Part 3 of The Poetry of Cold Mountain, Peter Levitt offers a deep dive into the craft and consciousness of Hanshan’s poetry. Drawing on three defining qualities of Hanshan’s work — plain speech, imagery that moves between the literal and the symbolic, and last lines of sudden, inevitable surprise — Peter shows how each poem both instructs and enacts the journey it describes.
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Roshi Joan Halifax opens this first full session (Part 2) of The Poetry of Cold Mountain by acknowledging the violence unfolding in Iran, holding the gravity of the world alongside the refuge of practice and community. She then turns the session to Kaz Tanahashi. Kaz introduces the structure of classical Chinese characters and verse — one character, one syllable, one word — before exploring the…
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The Poetry of Cold Mountain weekend program opens with an evening of orientation and anticipation, as world-renowned calligrapher Kazuaki Tanahashi and poet and Zen teacher Peter Levitt — co-translators of The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan — introduce the hermit poet whose words have endured for over a thousand years. Kaz situates Hanshan in his time: the sacred…
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In this Way-Seeking Mind Dharma Talk, resident Tuck Butsumon Stibich offers a moving reflection on his path from intellectual inquiry to embodied Zen practice. Raised in Dayton, Ohio, in a family grounded in both mathematics and Catholic faith, Stibich’s curiosity about the world was nurtured by moments of wonder in nature and study abroad. His life’s arc carried him through Peace Corps service in…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Cynthia Ryotan explores the ancient Zen poem “The Mind of Absolute Trust” or “Xinxin Ming.” She unpacks how our preferences “chop up our lives and create suffering,” from minor choices like vanilla vs. chocolate to major political divisions that can feel “like a cleaver coming down.” Ryotan challenges us to examine our attachment to preferences…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Kodo explores the concept of impermanence as it relates to love, loss, and appreciation through the Portuguese word saudade – the inseparable feelings of sorrow and joy that arise from loss, and the Japanese phrase mono no aware, the slender sadness, or the inseparability of beauty and impermanence. Kodo shares his own recent encounter with saudade and…
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In this compelling Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, writer and activist Rebecca Solnit explores how the Buddhist understanding of interconnection and interdependence offers a vital antidote to what she calls “the ideology of isolation,” which is shaping our current political moment. Drawing on Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of “the single garment of destiny,” contemporary ecological science…
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Kozan takes a Buddhist stance on the current barrage of political actions and cultural chaos we are sitting in. Pulling form Buddhist wisdom and contemporary insights from addiction psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lemke, Kozan explores how radical honesty and genuine trust can serve as antidotes to our collective addiction to self. Through personal stories and…
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In this powerful talk from the Awareness in Action series, diplomat and climate activist Christiana Figueres speaks directly to the interconnected nature of the climate crisis. Amid the overwhelming climate and ecological challenges facing our planet, we are reminded to find beauty in the world as a way to sustain ourselves. Figueres emphasizes the importance to stand firmly against environmental…
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In this profound dharma talk from the Awareness in Action series, meditation teacher and scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn explores how mindfulness practice can help us navigate our current global poly-crisis. Through guided meditation and dialogue with Roshi Joan Halifax, he examines how we can meet this moment of unprecedented planetary challenges—from climate change to democratic instability—with…
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In this session of Awareness in Action, Roshi Joan Halifax, Sensei Kozan, and Dr. Wendy Lau explore how direct engagement with social issues emerges naturally from Buddhist practice. The discussion examines Buddhist practice not as a means of escape, or quietism, but as a path toward addressing systemic violence and injustice in contemporary society. The teachers emphasize that genuine practice…
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In this zazenkai day talk during the Winter Practice Period, Senseis Kozan and Kodo explore and clarify the meaning of “not knowing” through Case 171 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo, also known as “Not Knowing is Most Intimate.” Through the encounter between two Zen masters, Dizang and Fayan, we learn how true intimacy with life emerges when we release our attachment to knowing and certainty.
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In their first talk as Senseis, Fushin and Dainin offer a collaborative talk on Silence and Gathering the Heart/Mind. Fushin begins by talking about his lifelong relationship with silence, from childhood experiences on a mountain rock to Catholic holy hours and Jesuit retreats. He revisits Case 141, where Buddha sits in silence on his teaching seat, and Mahakashyapa strikes a mallet declaring the…
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In this moving Dharma talk, Wendy Johnson commemorates the third anniversary of her teacher Thich Nhat Hanh’s death, celebrating his legacy as a peace activist and founder of the Order of Interbeing during the Vietnam War. She weaves together Hanh’s teaching that “meditation is not an escape” but rather “the courage to look at reality” with the joyful news of two new dharma teachers’ transmission…
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In this intimate Winter Practice Period talk, Sensei Kozan examines of Case 172 from Dogen’s Shobogenzo, where a monk asks “what is Buddha” and Dongshan responds “three pounds of flax”. Through exploring various responses to “what is Buddha?” – from “this very mind is Buddha” to “not mind, not Buddha” – Kozan guides us to recognize that the heart of practice lies not in seeking answers elsewhere…
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In this Winter Practice Period talk, Roshi Joan Halifax explores the rich intersections of everyday life and deep practice, using the evolution of Buddhist monastic traditions as a lens to understand contemporary practice. Through personal reflections and historical perspectives, she illuminates how Buddhism has adapted across cultures while maintaining its essential teachings.
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In this Winter Practice Period talk, Roshi Joan, and Senseis Wendy, Kodo, and Kozan explore Dogen’s life and the Shobogenzo through a lens of commitment to authentic practice. Roshi Joan […]
In this opening session of the Winter Practice Period, Roshi Joan Halifax and Senseis Wendy, Kodo, and Kozan welcome practitioners to the month-long immersion in Zen practice. The session focuses […]
In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk given during the Winter Practice Period, Sensei Kodo explores Case 214 from Dogen’s 300 Koan Shobogenzo: If you raise a particle of dust, the […]
In this intimate Wednesday night Dharma talk during the Winter Practice Period, Sensei Wendy Johnson weaves together themes of resilience, renewal, and radical engagement through the metaphor of a well-worn Buddhist robe. Beginning with acknowledgment […]
In this final session of the 2024 Gathering Dharma series, Roshi Joan Halifax and Sensei Kozan explore how Buddhist practice and social activism are deeply intertwined. Drawing on examples from influential figures like Dr. Ambedkar’s work […]
Natalie Goldberg introduces an extraordinary Wednesday night Dharma talk, in which human rights activist Aviv Tatarsky calls in from Jerusalem to offer his candid view into the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Aviv discloses how his beliefs and views have shifted as he witnesses the ongoing violence and hatred in the region. He reflects on the koan of engaging in conflict, which is either to engage and…
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In this session of Gathering Dharma Roshi Joan Halifax points unwaveringly to the heart of our deeply held questions and commitments, asking, “What is it to connect… to foster community, … to affirm our vows… to engage with the truth of suffering, … [and] to transform suffering in our world…?”. Roshi discusses the pressing issues of our time and asks participants to reflect and share their…
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In this Wednesday night Dharma talk and the first talk in the Fall Chaplaincy Sesshin, we are gracefully reminded by Sensei Monshin of the roots and foundation of practice. Monshin points towards the ground of practice as zazen which is often misunderstood to be a retreat from the world. Monshin clarifies that no matter which direction we face on the cushion our posture is always an expression…
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Sensei Kozan discusses the practice and realization of “suchness” in Zen Buddhism. He explores Dogen’s essay of the same name, and relates the practice of suchness to our work for social justice.
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This “way-seeking mind” Dharma talk given by Tony Back, MD precedes the upcoming G.R.A.C.E. weekend program. Through the context of his work as a medical professional Tony shares his journey of realizing the lack of genuine compassion he found around him in his field. Only in rare cases did he witness genuine in critical moments and he found himself deeply called to understand and mend this…
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This episode is a continuation of the 8/25/24 morning session of Love and Death program where … Frank Ostaseski tenderly leads participants into the concepts and practice of metta. Frank discusses near and far enemies of the four brahmaviharas (loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity) and leads a metta practice to cultivate and stabilize these wholesome states.
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In this Love and Death program session Frank Ostaseski tenderly leads participants into the concepts and practice of metta. Frank discusses near and far enemies of the four brahmaviharas (loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity) and leads a metta practice to cultivate and stabilize these wholesome states. Roshi Joan reminds us we will not always meet challenging circumstances…
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In this Love and Death program session Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan guide participants to notice what attracts them and repels them in a series of photos of dying persons. Frank sobers and grounds participants before the slideshow, “I know these people, I cared for all of them” and reminds us, “Sometimes we have to go to the darkest places to find what heals.” Roshi and Frank then facilitate a…
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Renowned peace activist Father John Dear speaks passionately on the actively nonviolent life and introduces his new book “The Gospel of Peace.” He insists with Martin Luther King: it is not a matter of nonviolence or violence, but nonviolence or nonexistence. John expresses the three embodiments it would take to create a peaceful world: 1) End all internal or self violence 2) End all interpersonal…
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This episode is a continuation of the 8/24/24 afternoon session of Love and Death where … Frank Ostaseski tenderly leads participants into the concepts and practice of metta. Frank discusses near and far enemies of the four brahmaviharas (loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity) and leads a metta practice to cultivate and stabilize these wholesome states. Roshi Joan reminds us…
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In this Love and Death program session Frank Ostaseski tenderly leads participants into the concepts and practice of metta. Frank discusses near and far enemies of the four brahmaviharas (loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity) and leads a metta practice to cultivate and stabilize these wholesome states. Roshi Joan reminds us we will not always meet challenging circumstances…
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This episode is a continuation of the 8/24/24 morning session of Love and Death where … Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan touch into the heart of compassion through grief. Roshi Joan walks us tenderly and skilfully through a journey from her past, a journey which could not be predicted and enters the depths of love through loss. Frank shares his own story of a moment of love, and Roshi and Frank…
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In this session of Love and Death, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan touch into the heart of compassion through grief. Roshi Joan walks us tenderly and skilfully through a journey from her past, a journey which could not be predicted and enters the depths of love through loss. Frank shares his own story of a moment of love, and Roshi and Frank together field questions and stories from participants.
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Roshi Joan and Frank Ostaseski offer their warm welcome in this first session of Love & Death: Opening the Great Gifts. Roshi Joan reflects on the impacts of the pandemic, not only on medicine and the medical field but in our drastic and unmoderated facing of our mortality, which reached not just a few cities or nations, but the whole world. The sensitive nature of this program is hinted at when…
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In this Gathering Dharma 2024 program session, Sensei Kathie Fischer discusses the stories and awakenings of women ancestors. In the midst of these poems of awakening Kathie picks on an important interpretation of meditation as ‘focusing of the heart’, a beautiful image of cultivating compassionate wisdom. Sensei Fischer switches the conversation over to modern issues of politics and population…
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Rebecca Solnit offers a fresh and poetic narrative of hope in which we are urged to view our burning world in a way that acknowledges the deep and well tended seeds of peace that have been planted in various spiritual and political arenas for many years. She calls us to express the vow of the bodhisattva, to free all beings from suffering, returning again and again to the difficulties of practice…
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In this Wednesday night public Dharma talk Cynthia Jurs breathes life into our commitment to caring for the Earth. Cynthia shares her touching story of being called into a practice of Earth stewardship through planting Treasure Vases. She reads from her book Summoned by the Earth and reflects on a Dharma path for these times.
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Sensei Kozan uses the koan Baizhang’s Fox to explore cause and effect. Without an understanding of cause and effect it is impossible to maintain a clear view of what aspects of our lives support or hinder our practice. Without knowing how our actions impact future experience, how can we be in accord with the precepts or our vows?
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This is the closing session of this program stewarded by Roshi Joan Halifax with comments from program participants. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
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In this session Roshi Norman Fischer brings the conversation to the acute point of what we lose when reading material in the non-native language of the text. He highlights the double edge of material becoming accessible to wider communities on one hand, and the necessary ‘watering down’ or loss of meaning on the other. Norman reflects on the natural misunderstandings that arise from imperfect…
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Roshi Joan and the faculty open this session with warm reflections and stories of friendship and gratitude. Sensei Kathie Fischer takes over the session and brings in the topic of trust, sincere trust. She says “Utmost sincerity, and trusting heart is our aspiration for the way”. Kathie invokes two stories of women ancestors, and reflects on how making an enemy of our limitations or ‘fog’ only…
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Sensei Genzan flashes to us in this brief fifty minute session his deep knowledge and love for Dogen. He opens by offering practical study advice which he implements in his own study group, Tea With Dogen. By offering his practical advice Genzan makes clear how deep the waters are when studying this ancient Zen master. This session touches on topics of the relative and absolute, historical context…
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After a delightfully endearing reading of his own fist impressions of Dogen Henry Shukman explores passages of Dogen’s work and their potential implications on practice. A main theme Henry returns to is the two tracks of Zen practice: gradual development and sudden realization. Diving into specific excerpts of Dogen, Shukman teases out meaning and plays with the many facets of Dogen’s writing.
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In this talk Natalie Goldberg puts the focus onto the relevance of Dogen’s writings and teachings in our modern world. She shares anecdotes related to Dogen’s teachings and she embodies her prowess as a writer and teacher to explore the power of words and language. In her natural meandering way, Natalie weaves story telling with self reflection in this inquisitive and joyful session.
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In this session the well of Dogen’s teachings is tapped by the master translator Sensei Kazuaki. Sensei Kozan traverses the path of history with Sensei Kaz, asking questions and clarifying for participants the context of the ancient writings of Dogen. Sensei Kaz reflects on a variety of topics such as meditation, translation challenges, and Dogen’s intentions in creating the large body of…
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Sensei Shinzan explores the story of Bodhidharma and then delves into his teaching on the two paths: that of reason and that of practice. Shinzan emphasizes the importance of connecting with oneself and how practice builds our internal sense of self trust. He suggests that practice is not something we do for a little while and then stop, but that it should be he core of our lives…
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Steven Heine, an expert in Asian Studies and Zen Buddhism, discusses Zen master Dogen’s teachings and the tradition of koan practice. The session explores Dogen’s views on endeavor, exertion, or vinaya. It also examines awakening experiences and the interpretation of Dogen’s writings. Steven digs deep into the metaphor, meaning, and context of what is really being said in a phase spoken often by…
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The 2024 Dogen seminar kicks off with introductions and a warm welcome. The week’s schedule is laid out, and the topics for the weekend discussions are unveiled. Each speaker gives a brief overview of their respective topics. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
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This series features thought leaders Christiana Figueres, Rebecca Solnit, and Roshi Joan Halifax as they explore the complex interplay between climate change, loss, technology, narratives, and action. Throughout the series, these influential voices delve into how we can confront the uncertainties of our environmental future with proactive and positive approaches. Each episode addresses different…
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This series features thought leaders Christiana Figueres, Rebecca Solnit, and Roshi Joan Halifax as they explore the complex interplay between climate change, loss, technology, narratives, and action. Throughout the series, these influential voices delve into how we can confront the uncertainties of our environmental future with proactive and positive approaches. Each episode addresses different…
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This series features thought leaders Christiana Figueres, Rebecca Solnit, and Roshi Joan Halifax as they explore the complex interplay between climate change, loss, technology, narratives, and action. Throughout the series, these influential voices delve into how we can confront the uncertainties of our environmental future with proactive and positive approaches. Each episode addresses different…
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Sensei Genzan shares his deep and transformative relationship with the great Zen poet, practitioner, and Soto founder Dogen Zenji. He discusses the importance of wholehearted practice, receiving precepts, and how sitting up straight and still can change the world. When we realize the interconnectedness of all things, we see that there is no reason to praise or blame self or other, but only to be…
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Sensei Cynthia Kear discusses the parallels between our modern socio-political crisis and those faced by Soto Zen founder Eihei Dogen 800 years ago. Sensei Kear goes over Dogen’s four methods of guidance (generosity, kind speech, beneficial action, and identity action) and how we can apply them to our current crises. Kear explores how we can practice generosity outside of a direct give/
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Natalie Goldberg, best selling author of Writing Down the Bones and fifteen other celebrated works, discusses and reads a selection from her newest publication, Writing on Empty: A Guide to Finding Your Voice, a book about writer’s block, mortality, and Zen. She explores her relationship with her late teacher, Katagiri Roshi, her visit to Leonard Cohen’s grave, and her experience as a Zen…
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In this beautiful talk, Zenshin Florence Caplow introduces us to Keizan Zenji, particularly the deep love between Keizan and his mother, and his subsequent dedication to including women in the Soto tradition as both teachers and lay practitioners. She closes with a quote from Keizan’s Transmission of the Light about the two types of home leavers, those who leave physically and those who leave…
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Wendy Dainin Lau, MD, a Zen priest and emergency medicine physician and addiction specialist, shares her unique journey from software engineering, to working in some of the busiest emergency rooms in New York City, and into the priesthood. Dainin discusses her encounters with the “divine messengers” of suffering, old age, and death in medical practice and how they led her from the anatomy lab to…
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On the anniversary of the emancipation of black slaves in the United States, Sensei Kodo and Sensei Kozan inquire into the meaning of freedom. For black people and many others in this country, freedom is not an event, but a continuous project. The work is never finished. Likewise, our personal liberation is never finished, we continuously practice it. And what is this liberation? For Kodo…
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In this final gathering of Planting Life 2024, Roshi Joan leads an open circle of sharing with the community who participated virtually in this program. The group shares their commit to personal growth and discuss the importance of truth, generosity, and indigenous traditions. Intentions are set to honor life, deepen generosity, and connect with ancestral food ways. Overall the sharing circle…
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In this talk Melissa Nelson shares her deep passion and understanding of economies of wellbeing, regenerative practices, environmental justice movements, and decolonizing philanthropy. Dr. Nelson connects the dots, identifying the importance of ancestral seeds, diverse foodways, and their role in cultural affirmation and healing in our modern systems. Melissa emphasizes the importance of courage…
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In this talk Roxanne Swentzell discusses her work in cultural continuity and the founder of Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute. She speaks to the importance of preserving traditional crops and maintaining traditional foodways. Roxanne also discusses community involvement in land restoration, gardening, and adobe building projects including her own work and visions. Other topics from her talk…
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This is the 2nd half of the session where Porter Swentzell explores the history and culture of Pueblo peoples, focusing on the impact of Spanish colonization and American policies. He discusses the persistence of Pueblo culture, the transformation of architecture, and the adoption of corn agriculture. Porter also brings up contemporary challenges faced by Pueblo communities in maintaining…
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In this talk Porter Swentzell explores the history and culture of Pueblo peoples, focusing on the impact of Spanish colonization and American policies. He discusses the persistence of Pueblo culture, the transformation of architecture, and the adoption of corn agriculture. Porter also brings up contemporary challenges faced by Pueblo communities in maintaining educational sovereignty and…
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The Upaya garden ceremony begins with Wendy Johnson and Alonso Méndez preparing elements of fire, incense, seeds, water, and flowers while discussing their significance and importance in ceremony. The session moves to the practical planting of corn, squash, and other plants. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
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This is a continuation of the May31st afternoon session, where Alonso Méndez explores the intriguing history and relationship between plants, particularly corn, and celestial forces. He delves into the significance of corn as a life-sustainer, its domestication process, and its natural geographic origin. The role of astronomy in agriculture and the influence of celestial movements on planting and…
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In this session, Alonso Méndez explores the intriguing history and relationship between plants, particularly corn, and celestial forces. He delves into the significance of corn as a life-sustainer, its domestication process, and its natural geographic origin. The role of astronomy in agriculture and the influence of celestial movements on planting and harvesting are discussed and Méndez explains…
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This is a continuation of the May31st session with Wendy Johnson and Alonso Méndez where they delve into the symbolism and significance of various elements in indigenous communities of growers and creators. They highlight the importance of caves, prayers, ceremonies, and the three friends of winter. The incredible importance of corn, gourds, tobacco, and seeds in traditions is discussed…
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Wendy Johnson and Alonso Méndez delve into the symbolism and significance of various elements in indigenous communities of growers and creators. They highlight the importance of caves, prayers, ceremonies, and the three friends of winter. The incredible importance of corn, gourds, tobacco, and seeds in traditions is discussed, along with the symbolism of colors and directions.
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Roshi Joan, Wendy Johnson, and Alonso Méndez open this program by sharing their sincere appreciation and commitment to the value of land and ancestors and the importance of bring that value into our conscious lives and practice. The speakers convey the importance of work, meditation, and sustainable food growth within one’s own community and highlight the features of planting and growing in New…
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At the opening of Upaya’s Young Adult retreat, Sensei Shinzan speaks on the practice of beginner’s mind. In our culture, we are deeply conditioned to know, to think linearly, and to expect progress. Zen unravels this conditioning. How much do we expect to gain from our practice? Rather than seeking to advance in our practice, Shinzan reminds us that the basic instructions of Zen meditation is all…
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In this dharma talk, Sensei Kozan dives into Dogen’s “Mountains and Rivers Sutra”. In this esoteric fascicle, Dogen engages in the impossible task of naming the unnamable – the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. Rather than trying to understand the sutra intellectually, Kozan calls us to listen to the present moment through the sutra. We can experience “joy of reading Dogen as if…
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Norman Fischer discusses the profound costs of war and the importance of recognizing humanity and sanity for the sake of all and future generations. He reflects on the both difficulty and ease we have in imagining an end to conflicts and environmental crises. We are encouraged to focus on the possibility of peace and stability through living our the true values in our hearts and actions.
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In the opening talk for the Varela Symposium, Professor John Dunne explores the relationship between wisdom and intelligence, particularly in the context of artificial intelligence (AI). He differentiates between intelligence as a problem-solving tool and wisdom as encompassing the capacity for compassion. A key concept Dunne introduces is “Bodhisattva AI,” an AI designed to maximize intelligence…
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For many religions and cultures, forgiveness is “the right thing to do.” But outside of moral judgements, why forgive? Frank Ostaseski, approaching forgiveness as a possibility, not an ethical imperative, speaks of forgiveness as “a practice of fierce self-compassion”. When we practice forgiveness, we touch deeply into our wounds of separation with mercy and love and this allows our past to…
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In this closing talk for the Spring practice period sesshin, the teachers reflect on the essence of continuous practice beyond the confines of the retreat environment, emphasizing the importance of integrating the teachings and experiences from sesshin into everyday life. Drawing from personal experiences and the rich traditions of Zen Buddhism, the talk encourages practitioners to bring the…
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In this intimate and reflective Dharma talk, Sensei Alcio emphasizes the joyful and pure essence of Zen practice, countering any misconceptions that Zen involves a somber or stern attitude. Alcio continues with a critique of the Western psychological model’s focus on the individual self and its emotions, advocating for a broader, community-oriented perspective in psychology and Zen practice.
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In this Dharma talk, Sensei Monshin reflects on the second day of a Spring Practice Period Sesshin, acknowledging the variety of experiences participants might have, from elation to frustration. Monshin advises attendees to let teachings land as they will, emphasizing the value of studying our delusions to understand the nature of our minds. She draws from the Vimalakirti Sutra and other texts to…
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Roshi Norman reminds us the method prescribed for touching peace is Zazen. He emphasizes resting deeply to let the true essence emerge naturally without force. Norman speaks to the power of vow, and suggests making an informal vow to focus on breath and posture can foster not only personal benefit but betterment for others as well. Roshi Norman also touches upon the concept of recovering innocence…
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In this talk Sensei Alcio Braz draws from Vasubandu’s teachings, exploring the notion that recognizing and acknowledging the non-self aspects of our experiences—such as sensations, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness—can lead to a deepening of practice. Alcio touches on the socio-political context of Vasubandu’s time, noting the divisions within Buddhism and the emergence of Mahayana’…
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In this talk, Sensei Shinzan explores the teachings of Yogachara, a school of Mahayana Buddhism, emphasizing the union and practice that leads to understanding the self and transcending it towards the realization of non-self. He starts by clarifying potential misconceptions about Yogachara, suggesting it’s less about the physical practice of yoga and more deeply connected to Zen and Buddhist…
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The program opexning warmly welcomes participants to Upaya’s spring practice period. Roshi Joan emphasizes the importance of this practice period, dedicated to exploring the teachings of Vasubandu, a fourth and fifth-century Buddhist scholar. She encourages participants to engage deeply with the practice, both on-site and online, and to familiarize themselves with Vasubandu’s teachings to enhance…
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Sensei Monshin assures us that we are not so different from the Buddhas and ancestors that inspire us. ”The Buddha way has been kept alive in so many cultures, conditions, lifestyles, and expressions all over the world. So how is it that the Buddhas and ancestors of old were as we?”, she asks. “What are the ingredients that we bring to our practice if and when it’s stripped of considerations of…
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Fresh off a two-week pilgrimage to Japan, Roshi Joan and Upaya’s priests share reflections on their experience. For Roshi Joan, this pilgrimage was about connecting to the historical roots of Zen, cultivating relationships with modern-day practitioners, and touching the ethos of care in Japanese culture. Meeting with old and new friends from temples across the country, the trip was an opportunity…
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This is the closing session of this program with Roshi Joan leading it with comments from the participants. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
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In this impassioned talk, Jimmy Baca shares deeply personal experiences to illustrate the transformative power of writing and the significance of engaging with the present through art. He recounts his journey from being “just a number” as an inmate to becoming a profound voice for the marginalized. He tells of realizing a gift and using it to capture emotions and experiences in words to connect…
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Pico Iyer discusses Haiku as a reflection of Japanese culture, highlighting its brevity, impermanence, and communal aspect. He notes Haiku’s integration into modern Japanese life, from education to public displays, underscoring its function as an exercise in mindfulness and a celebration of nature’s rhythms. Through anecdotes, Iyer illustrates how Haiku and Japanese cultural practices emphasize…
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Jane Hirshfield reads a Haiku by Basho about a horse eating roadside rose mallow, highlighting its simplicity, descriptive nature, and the human perception it conveys. She elaborates on the poem’s themes of impermanence, the cycle of life, and the shared experiences of life and death, using it to illustrate how Haiku captures and conveys the essence of human depth and allows for surprising clarity…
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Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt’s discussion on Haiku delves into the depth and nuances of this poetic form, exploring its historical context, cultural significance, and the intricacies of its composition. They discuss the story of a young female poet who impressed one of Basho’s main students with her Haiku, demonstrating the longstanding tradition of Haiku as a revered art form.
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Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt’s discussion on Haiku delves into the depth and nuances of this poetic form, exploring its historical context, cultural significance, and the intricacies of its composition. They discuss the story of a young female poet who impressed one of Basho’s main students with her Haiku, demonstrating the longstanding tradition of Haiku as a revered art form.
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Beth Howard’s talk at a Haiku retreat delves into the transformative power of Haiku writing, both as a practice of mindfulness and as a tool for activism. She shares her own journey with Haiku, integrating this with her appreciation for Haiku’s capacity to capture and appreciate fleeting moments of beauty and peace, even in times of personal or global crisis. Howard also discusses her work with…
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Natalie Goldberg’s talk on Haiku delves into the life of the famous Haiku poet Matsuo Basho, particularly focusing on Basho’s years of suffering, meditation under the guidance of a Zen priest, and the profound impact this had on his ability to perceive and interact with the world. Goldberg emphasizes Basho’s philosophy of staying awake to the moment, transcending the quest for complete…
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In this opening session Roshi Joan outlines the schedule for the weekend. The faculty then discusses the transformative power of Haiku and shares personal experiences of haiku practice. The themes of each introductory talk highlights the significance of Haiku in its ability to capture moments, describe the natural world, and unlock deep intimacy with ourselves. The conversations also reveal the…
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Competitive ultra runner, author, and Zen practitioner Katie Arnold shares how she found Zen through running and, in turn, found running through Zen. Following a traumatic accident that left her running future uncertain, she was introduced to Shunryū Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, which became a companion on her journey of physical and mental recovery. She speaks of “zeroing out”…
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This is part 2 of the Feb 18th session where Osho Zenju and participants engage in Q&A. In the third part of her series “Darkness is Medicine,” Zenju Earthlyn Manuel delves into the ancestral perspectives on darkness, highlighting its importance and application in our lives, especially during challenging times. She discusses the concept of light merging with darkness, as described by Thich Nhat…
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In the third part of her series “Darkness is Medicine,” Zenju Earthlyn Manuel delves into the ancestral perspectives on darkness, highlighting its importance and application in our lives, especially during challenging times. She discusses the concept of light merging with darkness, as described by Thich Nhat Hanh, to emphasize that darkness does not disappear when illuminated but becomes…
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This is part 2 of the Feb 11th session where Osho Zenju and participants engage in Q&A. In the second talk of the series “Darkness as Medicine,” Zenju Earthlyn Manuel begins with Prajnaparamita, an ancient deity representing the perfection of wisdom, often associated with the removal of suffering through enlightenment. Manuel also explores the concept of darkness not as a negative force but as…
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In the second talk of the series “Darkness as Medicine,” Zenju Earthlyn Manuel begins with Prajnaparamita, an ancient deity representing the perfection of wisdom, often associated with the removal of suffering through enlightenment. Manuel also explores the concept of darkness not as a negative force but as an essential aspect of spiritual growth and awakening. She suggests that embracing…
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This is part 2 of the Feb 4th session where Osho Zenju and participants engage in Q&A. “Darkness as Medicine” delves into the concept of societal and personal ailments as opportunities for profound spiritual reflection and transformation. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel articulates a cycle where love can turn into possession, protection, and ultimately annihilation, depicting it as a deep-rooted illness…
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“Darkness as Medicine” delves into the concept of societal and personal ailments as opportunities for profound spiritual reflection and transformation. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel articulates a cycle where love can turn into possession, protection, and ultimately annihilation, depicting it as a deep-rooted illness that parallels the pervasive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. She emphasizes the necessity…
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This is the Q&A with the participants during the final session and the vow ceremony … This final session was a thoughtful discussion on the role and experiences of Bodhisattvas in the modern world. Roshi Joan, Dekila Chungyalpa, and John Dunne emphasize the importance of community, compassion, and the interconnectivity of all beings as realities to be seen and expressed through practice.
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This final session was a thoughtful discussion on the role and experiences of Bodhisattvas in the modern world. Roshi Joan, Dekila Chungyalpa, and John Dunne emphasize the importance of community, compassion, and the interconnectivity of all beings as realities to be seen and expressed through practice. The discussion continues, covering various aspects of Bodhisattva action…
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In this dynamic session Roshi Joan, Dekila Chungyalpa, and John Dunne dig into the ethical dilemmas, mindfulness practices, and nuances of engaged Buddhism. The group explores some difficult questions around the necessity of sometimes engaging in negative actions to prevent greater harms, reflecting on historical and hypothetical scenarios where difficult decisions had to be made.
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In this panel discussion with John Dunne, Dekila Chungyalpa, and program participants the group reflects on various topics from the previous presentations. One main point of focus centers around “eco-anxiety” and how it is impacting native cultures, whose identities are intwined with the environment, and young adults who are despairing over their future. Dekila draws a connection between…
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In this talk Dekila Chungyalpa discusses the relationship between humanity and Earth from the perspective of the Bodhisattva vows in Buddhism. The session begins with Dekila reflecting on her roots in Sikkim, […]
This talk, delivered by John Dunne, discusses the principles and practices of the Bodhisattva path as outlined by Shanti Deva, a revered figure in Mahayana Buddhism. John delves into the philosophical […]
Roshi Joan begins this session with a simple display of how common and closely participants are connected to war (past and present) through familial relationships. She opens the room to […]
In this opening session for The Bodhisattva’s Activism Roshi Joan, John Dunne, and Dekila Chungyalpa plant seeds for the context and importance of this program. Roshi frames the theme of this program […]
This is a continuation of final session which concludes the four part series Four Flavors of Love. Frank Ostaseski reminds us the brahmaviharas are considered powerful and beautiful aspects of […]
This session concludes the four part series Four Flavors of Love. Frank Ostaseski reminds us the brahmaviharas are considered powerful and beautiful aspects of the human mind and heart that […]
In this session of the Four Flavors of Love participants focus on Mudita, the third Brahma vihara, which translates to appreciative joy or sympathetic joy. Mudita involves finding joy in […]
This is a continuation of the second session of this series where Frank Ostaseski emphasizes the interconnectedness of the four brahmaviharas and how they support each other. This talk focus […]
In the second session of this series Frank Ostaseski emphasizes the interconnectedness of the four brahmaviharas and how they support each other. This talk focus on Karuna (Compassion) and includes […]
Two days after the skies darkened from the solar eclipse, Sensei Wendy Johnson reminds us that “in dark times, the eye begins to see.” With her characteristic spirit and tenderness, […]
This session from the Four Flavors of Love is the first session in the series covering the four brahmaviharas. Frank Ostaseski emphasizes the importance of the brahmaviharas and suggests the […]
At the end of Upaya’s practice period studying Vasubandhu’s Yogacara teachings, Sensei Shinzan shares with us the story of Vasubandhu’s awakening. Vasubandhu, a diligent student attached to his ascetic form […]
In this final session the Varela 2023 speakers share their reflections and thoughts on various topics discussed during the symposium. The conversation includes discussions about the relationship between knowledge and […]
Andreas Roepstorff gives a charming talk on world and sense making, noting that precariousness, connectedness, and cooperation, concepts which help define sense making, are not esoteric but real and worth […]
Adam Frank describes his divergence from a quest for an ultimate reality in physics, emphasizing the need to change existing scientific narratives. He discusses the uniqueness of life in contrast […]
Richard Davidson discusses the remarkable impact of short, targeted interventions on human well-being. From addressing loneliness to enhancing empathy, these brief practices can create lasting positive change in individuals and […]
In this talk Molly Crockett explores the transformative power of story telling. She emphasizes how our stories create the boundaries for the kind of world we think is possible. Molly […]
Melissa Nelson guides us on a profound journey through indigenous wisdom and ancient narratives. This talk discusses the deep-rooted lessons of kinship, courage, and cooperation that guide us towards a […]
Laura Candiotto discusses the concept of responsibility in the context of participatory sense-making and ethical environmental concerns. She reflects on the experience of witnessing rivers drying up due to the […]
John Dunne kicks off the Varela talks by discussing the symposium’s theme of inaction and sense-making, drawing parallels to organisms making sense of their environments and constructing categories based on […]
Roshi Joan and the other speakers frame the outline of the program, priming us for a captivating journey through the complexities of life, from indigenous epistemologies to the physics of […]
Ben Connelly takes us on a deep dive into the history and the heart of Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu and the influential Yogacara teachings. Ben describes how the Yogacara school sought […]
Roshi and Frank delve into a deeply reflective exploration of gratitude, generosity, and the profound interconnectedness of life, framed within the context of personal experiences and insights. This program weaves […]
Sharon Salzberg reflects on her early life experiences of feeling fragmented and lacking a sense of coherence, values, and belonging. She discusses the concept of integration symbolized by the Buddha […]
This is a continuation of the morning session (the final session of the program) during which Roshi, Frank, and the participants from the program open up and share their touching […]
In this final session of the program, Roshi, Frank, and the participants from the program open up and share their touching experiences, and final thoughts/ feelings from the sessions. In […]
In this session Frank initiates a discussion about the participants’ reactions to a series of photographs depicting individuals in the process of dying. The participants express what attracts and repels […]
This is a continuation of the afternoon session during which Roshi guides a meditation practice focused on cultivating loving-kindness and compassion. The practice involves extending love and care to oneself […]
Roshi guides a meditation practice focused on cultivating loving-kindness and compassion. The practice involves extending love and care to oneself and others, including those who may be difficult or trigger […]
This is a continuation of the morning session during which Roshi and Frank reflect on personal experiences, teachings, and encounters that shaped their perspectives on life, love, and death. They […]
Roshi and Frank reflect on personal experiences, teachings, and encounters that shaped their perspectives on life, love, and death. They touch on themes of justice, social and environmental issues, personal […]
This opening session of Love and Death touches on themes of love, death, and the profound impact isolation had on us during the pandemic. Roshi and Frank share personal experiences […]
Sensei Kathie Fischer skillfully delves into the teachings of Vasubandhu and the influential Yogacara school of Buddhism. The Yogacara teachings “offer what we call an education, scaffolding, for understanding our […]
Teachers and participants gather for the final session of the Dogen Seminar. Teachers share their final thoughts and reflections on the meaning of Dogen’s work and how it inspires and […]
In this talk Roshi Norman Fischer and Sensei Kathie Fischer talk about Dogen’s Fascicle Continuous Practice. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
In this engaging discussion among Zen practitioners and teachers, profound insights into meditation, Zen philosophy, and the nature of reality are explored. The conversation is filled with humor, wisdom, and […]
In this talk, Sensei Monshin discusses the Yogacara or “Mind Only” teachings of 5th century Buddhist scholar Vasubandhu. Central to Vasubandhu’s teaching is the idea that we create separateness with […]
In this talk Ruth Ozeki shares her reflections on gabio or painted rice cake fascicle. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
In this talk Sensei Kaz discussed various topics, including the concept of perfection, the importance of practice and realization, the role of translation in conveying authenticity, and the personality of […]
In this talk Henry explores Dogen’s work as transcending duality, emphasizing inner peace through Zen practice which is a continuous engagement with the present moment, free from attachment to outcomes […]
In this compassionate talk, Sensei Alcio Braz calls in his ancestors to sit with him and invites us to call in ours, too. This explicit invitation runs counter to the norm in neoliberal culture which is to deny ancestry. Alcio reminds us that we carry the violence and pain of our ancestors whether we acknowledge it or not and that acknowledgement offers the opportunity to liberate this suffering...
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“There’s an integrity to mind if you watch it.” In this fresh talk, Natalie Goldberg shares about giving space to her grief, about her high school friend Phyllis, about time, […]
“Stay close and do nothing.” Frank Ostaseski shares from his deep personal experience walking along so many people in the dying process about what it means to surrender to death. […]
Rev. Zenshin Florence Caplow shares intimate accounts and stories of Kannon or Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion. She shares the story of Julie Pryde, the public health administrator of her […]
Jonathan Watts shares a framework of an iceberg, in which direct violence (the 1st Noble Truth), on the tip of the iceberg, is masked by structural and cultural violence (the […]
In this heartfelt talk, Sensei Monshin Nannette Overley examines the Buddha’s foundational teaching of dependent co-arising in light of our deep responsibility towards our beautiful and fragile earth, and our […]
In this delightfully human talk, Henry Shukman allows us to see how his heart was opened by zen practice. He reflects on the Sattipatthana Sutta and Soko Morinaga’s book “An […]
Peter Levitt loves what he does. That is so clear from the way he shares the stories and works of Li Ye, Xue Tao, and Yu Xuanji, three Daoist women […]
Edoardo Eusepi, who is affectionately known around Upaya by his dharma name “Shoryu,” reflects on his transition back into the “marketplace” after four years of residency at Upaya. He reminds […]
“Can we care? Can we find the joy in that?” Sensei Alan Senauke shares words from teachers throughout his life that turned, or awakened, him. These teachers include his father, […]
In this honest and courageous talk, Sensei Monshin Nannette Overley investigates the relationship between recalling our intention and where we delegate our attention, especially in lay practice. How do we […]
On the summer solstice, James Fushin Bristol encourages us to shine light on those fears we carry everyday, to see what is underneath them, to see what comes alongside them. […]
On the first day of the Young Adult sesshin at Upaya, Sensei Matthew Kozan Palevsky explores each of the Four Great Bodhisattva vows. He helps us understand what is meant […]
“Looking. Seeing. Peace.” Tim Burkett discusses the contents of his new book Enlightenment is an Accident in this richly informative and encouraging talk. Tim walks us through the three phases […]
“And when you go to harvest all that surely will grow, give it away.” Hoshi Keido Troy Fernandez weaves together past and present, questions and stories, dialogue and teachings as he considers “What could my cultural/ancestral lens have to do with the dharma at a zen center?” in this beautiful and rich talk. He explores the dharma of Japanese tea ceremony, helping his father water his orchard...
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In light of the Verala Symposium and his travels, Sensei Matthew Kozan Palevsky is interested in study and knowledge and different ways of knowing. He considers the pitfalls of knowing—how we can become separated from what we seek to know through our study of it. How do we let ourselves be porous and not try to own something, including ourselves, through study? In his investigation...
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In this photo-worthy and delightfully diagram-aided talk, Rev. Issho Fujita shares his personal story and perspective on zen practice, with an emphasis on the somatic. Issho talks about how zazen is different from human-made meditation, which tends to be goal-oriented and forceful. Zazen is about harmonizing body/posture, breath, and mind. He discusses three characteristics of this harmonizing...
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Bhante Sanathavihari enthusiastically and joyfully shares the Ummaggasutta as a way of considering that the Buddhist metaphor of a bird, with one wing of compassion and one wing of wisdom, might be more like a UFO, compassion and wisdom being one: two sides of a coin of wisdom— “penetrative” and “great.” He especially focuses on illuminating “great wisdom,” or mahaprajna...
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How do we move towards the light of absolute truth while accepting and honoring our very human nature?” In this vulnerable, raw talk, Frank Ostaseski shares his heart with us following his brother’s death ten days prior. He talks about how his experience of such a personal loss differs from his experience of witnessing the deaths of people he sat beside while working in hospice.
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“The practice was literally saving my life.” In Part 2 of her way seeking mind talk, Sensei Amie Diller recounts heart-filled stories about her time as a resident at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the 1980s, working with trauma during a time when it was so little understood, meeting shamans and traveling around India with brahmans, receiving ordination from Maureen Stewart Roshi and not being...
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In this timely dharma talk in our final days of Spring Sesshin, Sensei Kathie Fischer shares teachings from three wise women who offer a powerful dharmic lesson when faced with marginalization and disrespect. Each encounters monks who are likely blinded by a sense of superior rank and gender, leaving them unable to meet these women as equals—let alone see them for the teachers and adepts they were.
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Zenshin Florence Caplow’s dharma talk discusses Lingzhao’s helping, a koan from The Sayings of Layman P’ang which has served as our source text for the Spring Practice Period. In this beloved story, Lingzhao demonstrates a form of helping that is at once unconventional, tender, and hilarious. Expounding on this story, Zenshin discusses both the joys and the pitfalls we may find in helping.
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In this improvisational jazz duet-style dharma talk, Senseis Amie Diller and Kathie Fischer explore the resonance between one of their shared teachers Maurine Stuart, Roshi, and the 7th Century celebrated lay practitioner Layman Pang, who is the focus of Upaya’s spring practice period. Sensei Amie begins with a rich biography of Maurine Stuart, Roshi and both Senseis Amie and Kathie share the deep...
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In this honest and courageous talk, Sensei Monshin Nannette Overley investigates the relationship between recalling our intention and where we delegate our attention, especially in lay practice. How do we divide up our lives into trivial and sacred, difficult and easy moments? She explores Lingzhao’s comment about studying the sutras: “Neither difficult nor easy. It’s like the teachings of the...
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“Haiku is about paying attention.” Natalie Goldberg offers a deep dive into the work of Tim Roberts who found haiku after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s at 49. His haiku in his new book Busted: Reflections of Police Life reveal that you can write haiku about anything. “One shot gun/Three of us walking/Doing the math.” Often, but not always, there is a leap in haiku, which “allows us to...
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A talk that came to her in the middle of several nights, Dr. Laurie Leitch offers us a “bedtime story” style dharma talk. She shares five stories about attention ranging from an intimate moment with a stranger on the NYC subway at rush hour to appreciation for clouds to “chat lines” at a grocery store in the UK during the pandemic. She shows how where we focus our attention can completely change...
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“How is practicing the precepts like waking up?” In this practical and story-flush talk, on the night of the first of two jukai ceremonies in 2023, Sensei Mathew Kozan Palevsky reflects on continuous practice in our day-to-day life. He draws on Dogen, Roshi Joan, Dolpo Tulku Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dr. Rachel Zoffness, the teachings of Walgreens’ pharmacy and LA traffic at their...
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“Once bodhichitta is awakened in us, it is a treasure that continues to open.” In this beautiful exploration, Monshin Nannette Overley characterizes bodhichitta as “the first impulse or intention towards awakening,” as “a longing for the end of suffering,” and as “a longing for connection.” She offers examples from The Hidden Lamp and from her own life of times when she and other women were able...
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“We teach what we need to learn the most.” In this humble, participatory, and open-hearted talk, Valerie Brown explores four of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings on building beloved community: volition, the art of suffering, the practice of conscious breathing, and flower watering. She tells personal stories of times when these teachings woke her up to her life and cites quotes from writer Anne Morrow...
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In Part 4 of this multipart series, John Dunne discusses some more of Nagarjuna’s policies around leadership and considers how they can create personal and world transformation. Roshi Joan Halifax and John take questions from the Zoom participants at the end.
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
John Dunne, PhD
John Dunne (PhD 1999, Harvard University) holds the Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Humanities at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds a...
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Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD
Abbot
Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D. is a Buddhist teacher, Founder and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a social activist, author, and in...
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In this wonderful talk, Dorotea Mendoza “walks the talk” of showing rather than telling by sharing some of her personal experiences, e.g. how she misses the Philippines, the country of her origin, and how to actualize writing and service from a vulnerable place. She encourages us to meet ourselves where we are, and reminds us that “agency does not mean control, it means taking responsibility for where we are, and to start, word by word, making alive this imagined world we want to see.”
Dorotea Mendoza
Dorotea Mendoza is a writer, community organizer, and Zen practitioner. Though she mostly writes fiction, and loves the flash form, she has also written More
Series Description: Upaya’s Abbot and social activist Roshi Joan Halifax and the wonderful Buddhist scholar Dr. John Dunne guide participants through a unique and rich exploration of Buddhist visions of leadership. They draw on classical and contemporary Buddhist perspectives, including the early teachings in the Pali Canon on leadership and social responsibility, an exploration of […]
Sensei Monshin Nannette Overley explores the provoking Lojong slogan “Always maintain a joyful mind.” She examines perspectives on joy that go beyond our cultural view of “happy happy joy joy.” She considers how joy can manifest as and be born from challenging the desire to make everything a big deal, taking a wider view, noticing […]
Sensei Wendy Johnson gives a characteristically energizing, inspiring, and poetic talk on ecology and Dharma practice. She discusses the process and practice of planting and harvesting Upaya’s garden this past year and the relationship she and Upaya have built with indigenous knowledge holders like Roxanne Swentzell and her family over time. Dharma practice, Sensei Wendy insists, […]
Sensei Noah Kodo Roen reports on his first year of fatherhood and what he’s learned from his daughter Skyla. Try to imagine what it would be like to be a newborn baby meeting each thing for the first time, without any concept of self to separate you from these things. “Without a concept of self, […]
“Sometimes it’s good to just shut up and pay attention.” Natalie Goldberg reminds us that it’s important to know human suffering, to not run away from it. Zen is about experiencing ourselves in the world as it is. “The world is us and the world is painful and crazy.” Natalie implores us: Don’t ignore the […]
In part 5 of Training the Mind to Transform, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, continues her deep dive into the four slogans below, explaining phrases in the slogans that may be unfamiliar. It’s vital in this training to not let esoteric terms get in between us and the profoundly practical implications of the slogans. Rev. […]
In part 4 of Training the Mind to Transform, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, takes a deep dive into the four slogans below, explaining phrases in the slogans that may be unfamiliar. It’s vital in this training to not let esoteric terms get in between us and the profoundly practical implications of the slogans. Rev. […]
Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, provides a practice for engaging Atisha’s mind training slogans. She suggests writing down a slogan or training, pausing, reading the slogan again, and then writing a brief reflection on how the slogan applies to your own life. Do not analyze the slogan or think about the slogan, just write down […]
Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, talks about the importance of approaching practice, Lojong and otherwise, as actual practice rather than mere intellectual speculation or performance. To this end, she substitutes the traditional Lojong “slogans” with Lojong “trainings,” empathizing that these teachings are meant to be engaged in our daily lives, not merely verbalized. Lojong mind training, […]
Series Description: Rev. Angel Kyodo williams, Roshi, is one of the most remarkable Buddhist teachers in our world today. Her unique and powerful approach to practice has transformed the lives of so many. We are fortunate to welcome her to teach this unusual online program on the Seven Point Thought Transformation and invite you to […]
In the final portion of Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts, Frank and Roshi have an extended conversation with program participants about their experiences of love, death, and grief. Frank assures us that when we lose a loved one, we are reconstituted, no longer the same person, and we can never go back, but out […]
In part seven of Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax discuss grief as a natural response to both loss of what we’ve cherished and to what we’ve wanted but never gotten. Frank assures us that grief, when fully felt, is yet another face of love.We also hear a beautiful […]
Sensei Matthew Kozan Palevsky gives the final Dharma talk of Upaya’s 2022 Fall Practice Period and sesshin. He discusses atoning and renewing vows on this last day of Ango during the ceremony of Fusatsu, and continuing to practice with sincerity, vitality, and love all the way through practice period, right up to the very last bell, […]
Sensei Shinzan Palma talks about how to deal with discomfort and pain during sesshin, and asks the question, why do we put ourselves through a process that is so difficult? If we made it easier, we may have moments of peace, but there is no guarantee that we’re not going to see ourselves and experience […]
Sensei Kathie Fischer continues Upaya’s in depth investigation of Hongzhi’s teachings on silent illumination during its Fall Practice Period of 2022. Kathie explores the relationship between stepping back into awareness, prior to any “distinctions of shadow and light,” and stepping out into the world of delusion in a spirit of service, non-judgment, and love. To access […]
Sensei Matthew Kozan Palevsky continues Upaya’s exploration of the teachings of Hongzhi, looking at the text “Thirty Years of Emptiness and Existence,” in which Hongzhi references the koan, Juzhi’s One Finger. “No place can be other than myself,” Hongzhi writes, referencing the famous story of Juzhi and his realization that he is filled with all that […]
In part 6 of Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts, Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski converse with program participants about grieving personal loss, including the tragic loss of suicide. The question is, how do we continue to love life, which Frank insists is the whole point of living, in the midst of such suffering? […]
In part five of Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts, Frank Ostaseksi discusses the four Brahma Viharas or Divine Emotions (loving-kindness, compassion, joy with others, equanimity) as practices through which we cultivate a concentrated mind meeting an ever expanding heart, unbound by an preference. Roshi Joan Halifax describes how her contact with the Brahma Viharas […]
“It seems that you’re all getting attached to the empty field!” Sensei Shinzan Palma jokes when he asks the community in the zendo and online how they’re doing and gets only silence in return. Upaya has been studying the Hongzhi’s teachings on silent illumination as compiled in Dan Leighton’s Cultivating the Empty Field. Shinzan’s guiding […]
Sensei Kathie Fischer gives the first Dharma talk of Upaya’s Fall Practice Period 2022 sesshin. She generously shares her experience and wisdom with us on sitting a sesshin, including how to practice with emotional turbulence, repressed thoughts and feelings rising to the surface, physical pain, the formal eating ritual of oryoki, and the much needed […]
As we’ve explored the practice of silent illumination this Fall Practice Period we’ve come across the phrases “take the backward step” and “turn the light around.”. But what do these phrases, used by both Hongzhi and Dogen, actually mean? And how do we practice them? In his first Dharma talk as Sensei, Noah Kodo Roen […]
In part four of Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts, Roshi Joan Halifax guides us through a meditation designed to cut through the sense of loneliness and separateness that pervades so many of our lives. Frank Ostaseski and Roshi both share powerful stories of being with people who are dying, and how it is in facing death, […]
In the third part of Roshi Joan Halifax’s and Frank Ostaseski’s “Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts,” Roshi Joan tells a story about her teacher Thich Nhat Hanh falling in love as a young monk and how he learned about interbeing through the experience. Frank tells stories about lovers separating at the time of death and the healing, as painful as it […]
“Love and death are the great gifts that are given to us; mostly, they are passed on unopened” -Rainer Maria Rilke This whole life is a place where we make real our dedication to awakening, in living and dying, in caring and being cared for, in loving and receiving love. Being completely and vividly present […]
Upaya is in the middle of Fall Practice Period, studying the teachings of Hongzhi and the practice of silent illumination. The Caodong/Soto school of Hongzhi and Dogen, with its emphasis on just sitting, traces itself back to the 8th Century Chan (Zen) Master Shitou. Sensei Monshin Nannette Overlay brings her characteristic honesty, gentleness, and care […]
Sensei Kathie Fischer continues Upaya’s exploration of Zen Master Hongzhi’s teachings on the practice of silent illumination. She describes how Hongzhi, teaching during China’s Song Dynasty, bridges the gap between the early Chan (Zen) of the Tang Dynasty and that of Dogen, the founder of the Soto school of Zen. Kathie reads Hongzhi’s poetic teachings […]
“The practice of true reality is simply to sit.” Matthew Kozan Palevsky continues Upaya’s exploration of silent illumination, or just sitting, discussing Taigen Dan Leighton’s collection of Zen Master Hongzhi’s writings, “Cultivating the Empty Field.” He invites us to consider what it could mean for us to cultivate the empty field, especially given that Hongzhi […]
Sensei Jose Shinzan Palma gives the opening Dharma talk of Upaya’s Fall Practice Period 2022. He provides a primer on shikantaza, or just sitting, and an introduction to Zen Master Hongzhi and his revitalization of this practice, foundational to the Soto school of zen. You may have heard that shikantaza is an especially advanced practice, […]
Upaya Zen Center welcomes beloved Buddhist author and visionary activist/scholar, Joanna Macy, to address our Socially Engaged Buddhist Training Program, along with the extended Upaya world community. With her are close colleagues Roshi Joan Halifax, Stephanie Kaza and Wendy Johnson. In this challenging time of unresolved war and environmental crisis, Joanna Macy’s work is informed […]
Upaya Zen Center welcomes beloved Buddhist author and visionary activist/scholar, Joanna Macy, to address our Socially Engaged Buddhist Training Program, along with the extended Upaya world community. With her are close colleagues Roshi Joan Halifax, Stephanie Kaza and Wendy Johnson. In this challenging time of unresolved war and environmental crisis, Joanna Macy’s work is informed […]
Many of us experience disturbing emotions that drive harmful behaviors causing unnecessary suffering to others and ourselves. In this program, we explore the powerful resources that make it possible for us to meet uncertainty, fear, failure, and futility with compassion, strength, and equanimity. Both Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax bring decades of experience working […]
Dekila Chungyalpa is an environmental scientist, Buddhist practitioner, and director of the Loka Initiative, an environment and climate education platform for faith leaders. She talks about how Buddhist perspectives and practices can contribute to climate activism, how Mother Wisdom, or Prajna Paramita, has inspired her environmental work, and how our relationship with water is always […]
Matthew Kozan Palevsky and Dorotea Mendoza provide the following three topics for writing practice: 3 ideas I’m attached to List of 3 things – you avoid bearing witness to 3 actions that heal myself and others Dorotea discusses how through writing practice we can become present to our lives and of service to others. To […]
Matthew Kozan Palevsky guides a seated meditation and Dorotea provides the following topic for writing: Quote from Zen monk Ikkyu: “I’d love to give you something, but what would help?” Dorotea then talks about how to integrate writing practice into your daily life, how to make writing practice communal, and why writing practice is a political […]
Matthew Kozan Palevsky reads a koan about two birds fighting over a frog and the beginning of Dogen’s Time-Being (Uji), exploring the question of what it means to bear witness. He then provides this topic for writing: Take an object at hand that is not your notebook. What is included in this object? Dorotea Mendoza gives […]
Matthew Kozan Palevsky begins the morning with a guided meditation, encouraging us to be present to whatever arises. He then suggests a writing topic on the practice of bearing witness: recall someone or something that you fully bore witness to – pet, object, person. What did you see in their eyes? Also: Dorotea Mendoza gives […]
Dorotea Mendoza and Matthew Kozan Palevsky take questions from program participants. Then program participants read excerpts of their writing while other participants practice listening without judgment. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
Beloved Tibetan Buddhist teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche and bestselling science author Daniel Goleman are interviewed by Roshi Joan Halifax about their new book, Why We Meditate. Some of the questions explored by these renowned teachers include: How do we go beyond our initial introduction to mindfulness practice? How do we approach our own minds compassionately and not aggressively? […]
Matthew Kozan Palevsky leads a guided meditation. Dorotea Mendoza and Kozan provide the following topics for writing practice: What has found you? 5 minutes See the blank page as something unfamiliar. You don’t know what is going to show up. What will you ask the wind? 5 minutes What request for forgiveness have you not […]
Dorotea Mendoza gives more tips on writing practice and provides the following writing topics: What has found you? See the blank page as something unfamiliar. You don’t know what is going to show up. What will you ask the wind? What request for forgiveness have you not given voice to? Tell me about a time […]
Roshi Joan Halifax discusses the Three Tenets in light of her journey through zen practice, including her relationships with her teachers Seung Sahn, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Bernie Glassman. She also goes over Zen Master Keizan’s difficult teaching: “Do not find fault with the present.” To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by […]
Series Description: Sometimes the weight of suffering—personal, interpersonal, universal—and our desire to alleviate it can either be paralyzing or make us go into overdrive. Sometimes we may be doing more harm than good, to ourselves, to those around us, to this planet. Sometimes we may cling to ideas of how the world should be fixed, […]
Months of isolation exacerbate a pre-existing crisis of loneliness that poses a threat to public health for many. Isolation and loneliness can give rise to a deep yearning for community. Something within each of us cries out for belonging. The Buddha taught that good spiritual friends are the whole of the holy life. He encouraged […]
The Persian poet Hafiz wrote that between now and death he knows of no better topic to discuss than love. Frank Ostaseski agrees. Echoing the Prayer of St. Francis, Frank tells us how amidst suffering he learned that love would not save him by coming toward him but by coming through him. It is when we allow our own […]
An invisible virus has changed our world and our lives, as most of us find ourselves in the process of meeting a pervasive sense of loss, a reshaping of the experience of death, and what it means to care and to love. The practice of turning toward our losses and meeting our suffering with kindness […]
Teiwa sculptor Roxanne Swentzell hasn’t owned a refrigerator for 26 years and reminds us that humans have lived without refrigerators for much longer than they’ve lived with them. It turns out that when we’re mindful of the way we prepare, store, and consume food, we really don’t need them. “Nothing is closer to us than […]
“Truth is like corn. If you give it time it will appear.” Keido Troy Fernandez’s family has been in New Mexico for 13 centuries. He shares the history of his ancestors in New Mexico, including a fascinating connection between the Teiwa and Arab peoples and encourages us to consider the lands each of us are on […]
Porter Swentzell talks about Pueblo Country in northern New Mexico. He takes us through his lineage of teachers, including his mother, sculptor Roxanne Swentzell, and tells us what it was like to grow up in Santa Clara Pueblo. He discusses who and what Pueblos are and gives us an overview of Pueblo languages. Porter also […]
Professor Melissa K. Nelson speaks about indigenous knowledge systems, indigenous sciences, and traditional ecological knowledges. She explains how these “nested ways of knowing” are rooted in the Earth’s natural cycles rather than human made calendars. Melissa also discusses her work with The Cultural Conservancy and their goals of creating healthy individuals, communities, and ecosystems. To […]
In this follow up to her talk, Pueblo Culture and Food Experience, Roxanne Swentzell has a discussion with Roshi Joan Halifax and Sensei Wendy Johnson and answers questions from the sangha. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
Hoshi Jill De La Hunt, who is a hospice social worker and bereavement counselor, talks about embodiment as a practice of openness in a culture that often encourages us to constrict. When we embody a soft front and strong back, and really live into it, we will experience a love that overflows and creates true intimacy. […]
Roxanne Swentzell talks about her life as a sculptor, grandmother, and president of Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute in the Santa Clara Pueblo in northern New Mexico. The Pueblo people have survived in northern New Mexico for thousands of years by caring for each other and the environment around them. Roxanne wants us to know that […]
Sensei Wendy Johnson reflects with the sangha on Stephanie Kaza’s talk, Dharma and Ecology, and tells a story about joining other faith leaders at Standing Rock in North Dakota to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
Dr. Stephanie Kaza tells us how we can draw from our Buddhist roots in caring for this Earth. She explains how Buddhist traditions provide strong foundations for doing the work of planting life, sustaining life, and making sure that life continues. At this critical moment, Dr. Kaza insists, Buddhists must partner with others to work […]
Series Description: Upaya Zen Center’s Planting Life is a yearly program grounded in the fields of environmental activism, engaged spiritual practice, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Planting Life: Learning from Traditional Ecological Knowledges and Cultivating the Dharma (2022) opens with an introductory teaching on Dharma and Ecology and Systems Theory by Stephanie Kaza, PhD, author of Green Buddhism and […]
To love ourselves, we must know ourselves. To love one another, we must know one another. But our assumptions, distractions, fears, expectations, and personal sense of unworthiness obscure these kernels of truth. We yearn for connection with others — but our minds get in the way, constantly spinning judgments about how we are fundamentally alienated […]
Our world is on fire and Sensei Alan Senauke reminds us that it is nothing new. 2,500 years ago, the Buddha said that everything is burning with the fires of greed, hatred, delusion. And now in the midst of our climate catastrophe the fires are both figurative and literal. In the grip of greed, hatred, […]
At the end of the previous Varela 2022 talk, John Dunne asks the Varela faculty, namely those coming from an enactive perspective, the questions listed below. These questions are explored here, especially in their ethical implications. Listening first to Varela 2022 Part 7 is recommended. Varela faculty explore the following questions from John Dunne: What is the purpose of enaction as […]
The only things that are real are things that we can actually touch, taste, smell—particulars: things that we actually come into contact with. There is no such thing as a universal. John Dunne explains why all “sameness” is constructed, and done so in order to get what we want and avoid what we don’t. We […]
Abeba Birhane believes that human behavior is ambiguous and indeterminable. Human social structures are complex systems of freedom and necessity. Machine learning systems that attempt to predict human behavior by reducing it to algorithms are currently in vogue. Abeba explains why this approach to predicting and engaging with behavior is not only scientifically erroneous but […]
Physicist and Zen practitioner Adam Frank gives a characteristically energetic, humorous, and enlightening overview of the state of physics in the West and how Buddhism may and may not be able to contribute to its understanding of the universe. He contrasts what he calls the “blind spots” of certain forms of physics, which include objective […]
Shoryu Eddie Eusepi talks about how rituals, Zen and otherwise, can subvert our narcissistic tendencies. When we participate in rituals we engage with others in movements of reciprocity. In this sense, there is a socio-political dimension to ritual. Ritual can teach us how to create a world based not on getting what we want and […]
In this talk on contemplative practices and neurophenomenology, Professor Richie Davidson issues a call to action. According to research, 15% of the population in Western countries regards transforming their minds as possible and has engaged in some practice to that end. 85% of people in Western countries have not engaged in transformative practices and vary […]
“Living is sense-making in precarious conditions.” Professor Evan Thompson, co-author with Francisco Varela and Eleanor Rosch of The Embodied Mind, offers thoughts on the origins of the enactive view as well as how he sees enaction moving forward. Evan focuses especially on the role that Buddhism played, namely the ideas of no-self, emptiness, and meditation, in […]
Hanne De Jaegher explores the enactive view (introduced by Ezequiel Di Paolo here) in the context of social justice by investigating the following questions: Why do we human beings keep gathering? How do we, together, participate in sense-making? And how do we experience our particular, unique, ever-changing, interactions with each other? Have you ever asked yourself […]
Series Description: Over the past three decades, a transformative view of life, now known as “the enactive view,” has been developed and expanded by thinkers in philosophy and the sciences of mind; prominent among them was the late Chilean neuroscientist, philosopher, and Buddhist practitioner, Francisco Varela, for whom this symposium is named. The Varela International […]
The day of emergence. This is what Sensei Kathie Fischer calls the final day of Upaya’s Spring Practice Period 2022 sesshin. She compares the process of sesshin to that of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. “We come together in this unusual setting, and sit and eat in this unusual way, and something happens that […]
Kigaku Kodo Noah Roen gives a talk celebrating Roshi Joan Halifax during the week of her 80th birthday. He encourages each one of us to look at her life of commitment to compassionate action and ask: How do I want to live? What is my great matter of life and death? Kodo looks around the […]
Why do we chant in Zen? What does chanting have to do with Zazen and practicing awareness in our everyday lives? These are the questions that Kigaku Kodo Noah Roen explores in this Spring Practice Period dharma talk, one part of a larger series on Zen forms and liturgy. Kodo takes us through the chants […]
How can the practice of oryoki inform our everyday lives? Sensei Jose´ Shinzan Palma explores this question with us in this talk on the practice of formal eating known as oryoki. Oryoki translates to “just enough.” The practice, Shinzan explains, is all about learning to receive just the right amount—not too little or too much. And how […]
Roshi Norman Fischer explores three big questions in this talk on the practice of bowing: What does it mean to be a teacher? What does it mean to be a student? And what does it mean to bow? Norman provides a characteristically insightful reading of Dogen and his fascicle “Bowing to the Attain the Marrow,” […]
Sensei Monshin Nannette Overley talks about the Zen ritual of sesshin, a period of intensive practice over a number of days. Monshin reminds us that even though the forms of sesshin have been handed down to us through generations of practitioners, each sesshin is new, created moment by moment by those participating in it. Monshin […]
Sensei Fugan Eugene Bush and Marilyn Whitney continue Upaya’s series on Zen liturgy and ritual with a talk on the practice of sewing Buddha’s robes. Both Eugene and Marilyn teach the traditional practice of sewing robes, and here they discuss the meanings of the practice and its origins in the sangha of the historical Buddha. […]
Creations are numberless, I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to transform them. Reality is boundless, I vow to perceive it. The awakened way is unsurpassable, I vow to embody it. These are The Four Great Bodhisattva Vows as they are chanted at Upaya Zen Center. In this talk, Sensei Monshin Nannette […]
Roshi Paul Kisho Stern, founding teacher of Dharma River Manitou Center, talks about how our sense of separation from each other and our environment is a matter of our perspective. Through embodied practices of intimacy with our own minds, such as zazen, we cultivate perspectival flexibility. We realize, as Dogen put it, shinzo: the ever-intimate, […]
Everything is given to us. This life, this body, the breakfast we ate this morning, the technology that allows us to listen to this talk, and even the great difficulties we encounter throughout our lives, including death itself, are given to us. And every day, every moment, in fact, we have the opportunity to care […]
Anyone who has participated in or even just witnessed The Gate of Sweet Nectar knows that it’s not a typical liturgy. Upaya’s version includes incantations, transfigurations, wild drumming, and even dancing. Roshi Enkyo O’Hara of The Village Zendo in New York City gives a characteristically poetic talk on The Gate of Sweet Nectar liturgy, which […]
The central koan of Ruth Ozeki’s life has been the relationship between Zen practice and creativity, specifically writing. How can a serious Zen practitioner spend their days producing pages and pages of words when Zen consistently emphasizes going beyond language? The renowned novelist (A Tale for the Time Being; The Book of Form and Emptiness) […]
Dogen’s paradoxes are all pointing us toward freedom, says Sensei Kazuaki Tanahashi. Kaz talks about Dogen’s use of paradoxical language and explains how Dogen’s rhetorical approach fits into the world of 13th century Japanese Buddhism. Kaz also discusses Dogen’s positive attitude toward Buddhist scripture, unique at a time in which koan study and dropping all […]
This episode is all about Dogen and poetry. Roshi Enkyo O’Hara, Abbott of The Village Zendo in New York, talks about Dogen as a poet. She reads poetry that Dogen likely read and recited as a three year old child, and discusses Dogen’s very early relationship with language that expresses the obscure, the difficult, and […]
Series Description: Zen Master Dogen initiated an uncompromised Zen monastic tradition in Japan almost eight hundred years ago. In addition, he was a sublime thinker. How he came up with his most creative and thought-provoking writings is a matter of great wonder. In celebration of Steven Heine’s definitive research, Dogen: Japan’s Original Zen Teacher, we explored Dogen’s […]
When one flame is used to light another, what is actually transmitted between the flames? Kigaku Kodo Noah Roen explores the meaning(s) of transmission, from the transmission of electricity to a light bulb, to a car transmission, to Dharma Transmission (Denbo), by which a teacher recognizes her student’s understanding and gives him authority to teach. […]
In episodes eight and nine of The Way of Haiku, Clark Strand, a former senior editor at Tricycle and author of Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey, provides extensive commentary on the best of the haiku submitted by participants in Upaya’s The Way of Haiku program. For you haikuists who are […]
In episodes eight and nine of The Way of Haiku, Clark Strand, a former senior editor at Tricycle and author of Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey, provides extensive commentary on the best of the haiku submitted by participants in Upaya’s The Way of Haiku program. For you haikuists who are […]
Clark Strand, a former senior editor at Tricycle and author of Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey, talks about the state of contemporary haiku. Clark guides us through the different types of haiku that are being written at the moment, and (especially helpful for aspiring haikuists) provides a document with the […]
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, publisher, and New York Times Bestselling author of 35 books, including his Newbery medal-winning middle grade novel, The Crossover. If you are a poet, writer, artist of any kind, supporter of the arts, activist, or just interested in haiku, listen to this episode! Kwame Alexander tells the story of the first […]
In part five of Upaya’s The Way of Haiku series, artist, author/translator (whose publications include Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo and Painting Peace: Art in a Time of Global Crisis), and activist, Sensei Kazuaki Tanahashi tells us about the cultural roots of haiku. The poetic form grew out of a satirical, humorous, and even vulgar style of […]
Sensei Monshin Nanette Overley talks about Zen, love, and work. Why do we work? Is our work merely a means to an end, such as a paycheck or praise? Or do we experience our work as a worthy end in itself? How can we bring the attitude of ease and joy that we cultivate on […]
In part four of Upaya’s The Way of Haiku program, Natalie Goldberg (author of Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku) provides us with exercises and prompts for writing our own haiku. We also get to listen to participants in The Way of Haiku program read their haiku to Natalie and then […]
In Part 3 of Upaya’s The Way of Haiku series, Natalie Goldberg (author of Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku), explores the relationship between haiku and Zen. When we practice haiku, as when we practice Zazen, we practice dropping below the discursive mind. Writing haiku, Natalie explains, is about dropping right […]
Clark Strand, author of Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey, introduces us to the practice of writing haiku. Haiku, Clark explains, is a communal practice, sometimes humorous, often sorrowful, and traditionally grounded in the natural world. While some haiku masters did write in solitary mountain retreats, even the most reclusive of […]
Dr. Wendy Dainin Lau speaks about her journey from working as an Emergency Medicine physician in some of New York’s busiest hospitals to living at the Prajna Mountain Refuge with Roshi Joan Halifax, travelling to Nepal with Upaya’s Nomad’s Clinic (of which she is now co-director), and ordaining as a Zen priest. For Dainin, the path has […]
Taking a cue from Bonnie Myotai Treace’s essay Will You Sit with Me?, Sensei Monshin Overley explores the matter of diligence in love. What does it mean to love diligently? Is it even possible to love without diligence? While our popular culture often represents love as a passive feeling, Monshin suggests that we consider love as a […]
When you lose all that defines you, what is left? Hoshi Fushin James Bristol invites us to an intimate exploration of loss, or what he calls breathlessness. In this space of loss, confusion, and unknowing, we are invited to ask the fundamental question of a life: Who am I? Prior to everything I’ve gained–my career, my family, my […]
Join celebrated author and Buddhist teacher Zenju Earthlyn Manuel for a journey through The Shamanic Bones of Zen, her new book on the connections between and Zen practice and shamanic or indigenous spirituality. In this first of a three part series, Zenju encourages us to explore and cultivate the shamanic or magical elements of Buddhism, and to experience […]
Join Matthew Kozan Palevsky for a deep dive into Dogen’s great question: if everything is already Buddha, that is, Awake just as it is, then why practice? Why do anything? Kozan explores Dogen’s early and later teachings on the vital importance of taking cause and effect seriously, and never using the “absolute view” as an […]
In this final talk of Upaya’s 2021 Rohatsu Sesshin, Roshi Joan Halifax suggests that we will never discover who we really are by running away from our pain, but only in lovingly touching our difficulties, just as they appear in the present moment. When we’re really present to what is happening right now, we will […]
Roshi Enkyo O’Hara continues Upaya’s Rohatsu series on Dogen’s Mountains and Rivers Sutra, exploring the challenging teaching that each moment is perfect just as it is. Whether we are washing dishes, meditating, or in a challenging conversation with a friend or partner, the present provides us with the opportunity to realize the dharma and remember who we really […]
Sensei Wendy Johnson kicks off Upaya’s Planting Life 2022 with this talk on disintegration, growth, and persistence. “When human codes and established organizing principles are no longer valid, then only disintegration may allow for a more adaptive and resilient sense of inner-being to emerge from calamity.” With these words, Sensei Wendy Johnson, author of Gardening […]
Writer, historian, and activist, Rebecca Solnit, invites us to consider that action informed by a wise hope, rather than passive despair or optimism, is what we need to effectively engage the climate crisis. Roshi Joan Halifax joins Rebecca, discussing how Buddhist ethics, namely in the form of the precepts, bears on climate activism. Rebecca Solnit’s […]
In this talk from Rohatsu 2021, Roshi Joan Halifax suggests that in order to save our planet from further catastrophe we must learn to find our homes amidst struggle. When we meditate, especially during an intensive period such as in sesshin, we learn about showing up and staying the course even when we don’t want […]
Reigetsu Susan Moon discusses and reads from her new book, Alive Until You’re Dead: Notes on the Home Stretch. Susan’s big question is: How do we live given that we’re most definitely going to die? Susan tells stories from her own life about getting lost, becoming a grandmother, and adopting ancestors from both Zen and Western literary […]
In this fourth talk from Rohatsu 2021, Roshi Enkyo O’Hara of Village Zendo in New York takes us deeper into Dogen’s Mountains and Rivers Sutra. Dogen’s Sutra insists that we recognize our interconnectedness with the mountains and rivers flowing over Earth, ever-present and ever-changing. Dogen’s message is one against despair: everything is always changing; sometimes it can […]
In this “confession” of a Zen multitasker, Kigaku Noah Roen talks about what we lose when work on multiple projects at once and gives tips on practicing uni-tasking and even zero-tasking. He explains how the uni-task of meditation prepares us to take care of one thing at a time in our daily lives and how […]
In this talk from Rohatsu 2021, Roshi Joan Halifax explores the interplay of stillness and motion, asking the question: How do we remain in stillness while moving through the ever changing phenomenal world? Roshi Joan calls Rohatsu a time of reckoning in which we ask ourselves, “How do we move in this world? How do we treat […]
Series Description: In these Rohatsu Dharma talks, Roshis Enkyo O’Hara and Joan Halifax explore Dogen’s Mountains and Rivers Sutra, as well as other works by great Zen masters and poets that extol the power and teachings of mountains and rivers and the power of the natural world. In this second talk of Rohatsu 2021, Roshi […]
Series Description: Gratefulness is not simply a response to life’s blessings. It is a cultivated attitude of heart and mind, a natural expression of generosity, a way that we share love and joy. Gratefulness fosters a spirit of belonging and nourishes positive social and cultural change. In this special program, Frank and Roshi explored the […]
Series Description: Gratefulness is not simply a response to life’s blessings. It is a cultivated attitude of heart and mind, a natural expression of generosity, a way that we share love and joy. Gratefulness fosters a spirit of belonging and nourishes positive social and cultural change. In this special program, Frank and Roshi explored the […]
Lama Rod Owens, author, activist, and authorized Lama in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, invites us to a radical self-care, based not on cutting ourselves off from the world, but rather on engaging with it fully. We do this through the recognition and practice of spaciousness, first by waking up to the space between […]
Rhonda Magee, M.A., J.D., known as the mother of the movement to integrate mindfulness and racial justice, discusses three components that are necessary to a socially engaged Buddhism. First, there is the personal, or the way we care for ourselves. Second, there is the interpersonal, or the way we care for each other. And third, there […]
This is the final part of Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021
This part is a continuation of Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021
This part is a continuation of Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021
This part is a continuation of Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021
This part is a continuation of Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021
This part is a continuation of Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021
This part is a continuation of Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021
This part is a continuation of Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021
Series Description: As a text, Xin Xin Ming, Verses of the Faith Mind, composed in the 7th century, might be as Zen as it gets. It’s also as now as it gets if one is interested in developing a fundamental trust. In what? In awareness. In one’s direct experience. In life. Rev. angel says, “If […]
In this sesshin talk on Buddha ancestors, Sensei Kathie Fischer takes us way, way back, reminding us that long before any of our human ancestors there were the ancestors of earth, water, fire, air, and space. When we sit in zazen and feel our breaths grounding our bodies into the earth and then rising and […]
In this talk about Fusatsu, the full moon ceremony of repentance and vow-renewal, Sensei Kathie Fischer implores us to, as the old folk song says, “study war no more.” Rather than waging battle against our so-called negative emotions, such as anger and jealousy, Kathie suggests that, first, we show them respect (after all, she reminds […]
This is the 2nd and the final segment of the final session of The Wisdom of Zen Crones program and is led by Zenshin Florence Caplow and Reigetsu Susan Moon with Roshi Joan Halifax joining in. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access […]
This is the 1st segment of the final session of The Wisdom of Zen Crones program and is led by Zenshin Florence Caplow and Reigetsu Susan Moon with Roshi Joan Halifax joining in. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, […]
This part is a continuation of The Wisdom of Zen Crones program and is led by Reigetsu Susan Moon. She speaks about authenticity after which the participants join in. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the […]
This part is a continuation of The Wisdom of Zen Crones program and is led by Reigetsu Susan Moon and Zenshin Florence Caplow. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: The […]
This part is a continuation of The Wisdom of Zen Crones program and the participants share their experiences of Part 4 that was led by Zenshin Florence Caplow. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link […]
This part is a continuation of The Wisdom of Zen Crones program and is led by Zenshin Florence Caplow. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: The Wisdom of Zen Crones […]
This part is a continuation of The Wisdom of Zen Crones program and the speaker is Roshi Joan Halifax. Note: The recording of this part is somewhat uneven. We have leveled it as best as we can – and it is fully “listenable.” You may have to adjust volume at your end while listening. Our […]
Sensei Wendy Johnson instructs us in the art of forming a zen altar. In her characteristic poetic style, Wendy talks about the elements that make up a Zen altar, sharing stories and photos of altars that she’s created or encountered throughout her Zen practice. Wendy invites us to see the components of a Zen altar, such […]
This part is a continuation of The Wisdom of Zen Crones program and is led by Reigetsu Susan Moon and Zenshin Florence Caplow. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: The […]
Series Description: In this weekend online retreat, we explored a few of the “Old Women Koans” from The Hidden Lamp, so full of laughter, clarity, and spiritual power. Whatever our age or our gender, we can be inspired by these no-nonsense old women, who showed monks, and even famous Zen masters, the limits of their […]
Sensei Shinzan Palma opens Upaya’s 2022 Spring Practice Period with a talk on the intimacy of Zen liturgy. Shinzan suggests that our individualistic Western culture is deficient in community rituals. He proposes that the practice of Zen liturgy can play a part in revealing our interconnectedness with all beings, past, present, and future. Liturgy, Shinzan insists, […]
We don’t have adequate language to describe the incomprehensible presence we meet in deep spiritual practice or the time of dying. We choose to name it Mystery with a capital M. The word Mystery points to depth, to liberation, a kind of beauty and truth that can’t be fully defined. Yet, Mystery is not something […]
‘In light of the horror in the world, what will sustain us? What can sustain us enough to love the world as it is and stay engaged?’ In this Dharma talk the question of trust, right here and right now, in light of a heavy, and distant heart, comes to the fore for Monshin Nanette […]
In this program, Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski remind us that we can use the experiences of our lives, even those of great suffering, to awaken to our true nature. Frank Ostaseski reminds us that impermanence is the truth of life, and that it is painful to try to deny this fundamental truth. Roshi […]
In this evening’s Wednesday night Dharma Talk, poet, essayist, and translator Jane Hirshfield, gives a moving talk to the realms of activity in our lives. She begins by calling in the realm of compassion of Avalokitschvara, where we see and hear the cries of the world ever so much more today. To the practice of […]
Rhonda Magee, M.A., J.D., who is called by some the mother of the movement to integrate mindfulness and racial justice efforts, invites us to explore the practice of loving-kindness in a time of war. Rhonda discusses the practice of Metta in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but also asks us to consider the other […]
Natalie Golderg (Writing Down the Bones, Three Simple Lines) tells us how the practice of Haiku can change the way we interact with our world. She discusses her own haiku practice, including the story of finding a “Haiku mentor,” and how she began to see haiku everywhere. Finally, Natalie raises the question: what practice, or […]
In this final session, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax continue with the audience interactions from the previous Part 8. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Love and Death 2021
In this session, Roshi Joan Halifax reminds us of the importance of equanimity. She leads us in a practice and participants share their experience of this program. Frank Ostaseski joins in during the audience interactions. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access […]
After, Frank Ostaseski’s exploration of the importance of service (Part 6), the participants are split into breakout groups that’s followed with a Q&A. Roshi Joan Halifax joins in during the audience interactions. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the […]
In this session, Frank Ostaseski explores the importance of service. He asks us to meet love and death well by moving beyond the polarity of I and other. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the […]
In this session, questions and answers from participants are shared. Roshi Joan Halifax shares a metta practice and invites us to come alongside our pain in order to experience the fullness of our life. Frank Ostaseski joins in during the audience interactions. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking […]
In this session Frank Ostaseski delves into the concept of Love. He introduces us to the four boundless abodes, or the four immeasurables and encourages us to cultivate these practices in order to share them with others. Roshi Joan Halifax joins in during the audience interactions. To access the resources page for this program, please […]
Frank Ostaseski encourages our realization of non separateness, that can “be grounded in everyday observation.” He shares his experience of a heart attack and how he experienced a lack of compassion from caregivers, which led him to lose contact with himself. Roshi Joan Halifax shares her experience of care and connection and how impactful it […]
In this fourth and final talk in Upaya’s Dharma talk series on the precepts, Matthew Kozan Palevsky explores the Ten Grave Precepts. He suggests that we look at these precepts not primarily as “do’s and don’ts” but rather as guides as to what living out of an awakened mind would look like. Kozan invites us […]
In this talk, Roshi Joan Halifax calls us to commit to practice to “uphold ourselves in the midst of suffering,” in order to perceive clearly and build more capacity so that we may spend our lives being of benefit to others. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. […]
Series Description: This online, donation-based program explored the powerful equation of love and death. This whole life is a place where we make real our dedication to awakening, in living and dying, in caring and being cared for, in loving and receiving love. Being completely and vividly present for the rich details of our lives […]
In the concluding part of the final session Roshi Joan Halifax reflects on perspectives coming from the spirit of practice. Roshi Joan reminds us that Dogen’s teacher Rujing seemed to have seen that Dogen realized non-separateness, the non duality of beingness and of time in a radical intimacy, or the wholeness of all of life. […]
In the first part of the final session of Dogen and Non-Duality, Steven Heine shares his upcoming book and unpacks koans that help us to realize non duality. Steven’s talk is followed by a discussion amongst all four instructors. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series […]
In the second part of this program, Roshi Enkyo O’Hara shares her perspective on Dogen’s views and realization in relation to non-duality. She shares texts that support and inform her practice and realization of non-duality. Roshi Enkyo’s talk is followed by a discussion amongst all four instructors. To access the resources page for this program, please […]
Series Description: Zen Master Dogen’s writings are prolific and profound. In this intensive, we followed his practice of meditation and explored the essential meaning of his teaching in relation to the direct experience of nonduality. The power of studying Dogen’s ideas involving the oneness of practice and realization, the unity of being-time, and the universality […]
Hoshi Kigaku Noah Roen continues Upaya’s series on the precepts with a talk on the Three Pure Precepts: doing no harm; doing good; doing good for others. In dialogue with the texts of Bernie Glassman, Reb Anderson, and Shohaku Okumura, Kigaku suggests that rather than looking at these precepts as means to enlightenment, we see […]
Months of isolation exacerbate a pre-existing crisis of loneliness that poses as grave a threat to public health. For many it gives rise to a distinct yearning for community. Something within each of us cries out for belonging. The Buddha taught that good spiritual friends are the whole of the holy life. He encouraged us […]
In this final dharma talk of winter practice period, Roshi Joan Halifax and Sensei Wendy Johnson recite the couplets of the Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi. They reflect on the time that we spent together in practice period and the importance of practicing together to create intimacy and entrust ourselves to belong to […]
Sensei Al Kaszniak shares a poem by Ryokan and discusses its relationship to suchness and The Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi. Sensei Al poses the question: “do the causes and conditions [of our lives] cause our suffering or do we have agency?” He reminds us through personal experiences of pain and suffering we […]
Hoshi Matthew Kozan Palevsky explores the nature of atonement in our practice. Taking cues from Shohaku Okumura’s Living by Vow, he discusses zazen as one part vow, one part atonement. These two aspects arise together as one, like Dogen’s expression of practice-realization. Kozan then turns to the three perspectives of atonement before applying these perspectives to the […]
In this talk, Matthew Kozan Palevsky takes up the question, “what is space?” through an exploration of Dogen’s fascicle “Koku.” He implores us to become intimate with it rather than our mere idea of it. In exploring two koans on the subject we meet Yunyan and his famous phrase “Just this is it” echoed in Master […]
In this talk, Hoshi Kigaku Noah Roen talks about the aspects of a mirror and reflects on the mirror as a metaphor for our practice. He reminds us that we settle our minds through zazen which helps us to calm our body and mind so that the natural mind of clarity, emptiness, and luminosity can […]
In this talk, Roshi Joan Halifax delves into the term “intimate” which appears in the Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi. She asks us to become truly intimate with the nature of our minds and offers us a framework of returning to who we really are through the 3 valences of intimacy. To access […]
What does it mean to become a Buddhist? Hoshi Kigaku Noah Roen kicks off a series of talks on the precepts with a discussion on the ceremony of taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. He explores various ways of understanding the meaning of “taking refuge” and invites us to consider that we all take refuge in something, whether it’s a spiritual path, good or bad habits, or relationships. And for those of us allergic to “isms” and “ists” of all kinds, is it possible to take refuge in the Three Treasures without calling oneself a Buddhist at all?
Hoshi Kigaku Noah Roen
Executive Director of Upaya. Kigaku first came to Upaya for the 2010 Winter Practice Period, and later in the summer, he attended a Wilderness Fast at the Prajna Mountain...
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In this dharma talk, Hoshi Matthew Kozan Palevsky explores case 21, in the Book of Serenity, a koan between Dao Wu and Yun Yan about suchness. Kozan equates suffering with busyness. He explores what constitutes busyness and proposes the practice of suchness as an alternative to our collective enculturation to busyness. He invites us to “put down delusions and enlightenment, busy and not busy … [so] we can return to this experience and remember who we are and not make a big deal of it.”
Hoshi Matthew Kozan Palevsky
Matthew Kozan Palevsky first traveled to Upaya in 2006 for a weeklong silent retreat, or sesshin. After eight years of practicing in the marketplace as a political activist and...
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In this beautiful talk, Sensei Wendy Johnson recalls her love story with Thich Nhat Hanh after his death just days earlier. Beginning with Dogen’s Fukanzazengi, she calls us into deep practice with our root teachers and admonishes us to show up like freshly unearthed turnips, all our roots showing. Wendy speaks of her deep and transformative journey with Thay, including his first visit to Green Gulch and their two hour walk to sea and back when he said: “You all have the most beautiful place for walking meditation, yet you’re most grim practitioners. Please find joy.” She ends with a guided meditation that she learned from Thay, recalling his love of sunflowers and the depth of his commitment to the world.
Sensei Wendy Johnson
Wendy Johnson is a Buddhist meditation teacher and organic gardening mentor who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Wendy has been practicing Zen meditation for thirty-five years and has led...
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Roshi Enkyo O’Hara speaks on the relevance of the Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi to our everyday lives. She calls us to the middle way, to recognize that in the midst of our life and our relationships is our opportunity to practice. She invites us to see that “as long as we are living beings in the midst of this life, of complexity, of the relativity, we are called to neither turn way nor touch; to face the oneness but not be absorbed by it.” It is through the middle way, that we can be a “bodhisattva citizen, turning towards suffering, fully engaging in our world to offer service and our presence.”
Roshi Enkyo O'Hara, PhD
Abbot of Village Zendo in New York City
Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, PhD, is the Abbot of The Village Zendo in downtown Manhattan. A Soto Zen priest and...
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Sensei Wendy Johnson begins by sharing with us the history and tradition of the Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi. She reminds us that this song lives in us, and we are spending this month integrating and allowing it to become part of us. She tells us that “we shine by perishing” and invites us to “burn ourselves up completely and keep going” through our dedication to practice and service.
Sensei Wendy Johnson
Wendy Johnson is a Buddhist meditation teacher and organic gardening mentor who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Wendy has been practicing Zen meditation for thirty-five years and has led...
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Korin Charlie Pokorny speaks to the couplets of the Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi,
“It is like facing a jewel mirror,
form and image behold each other,
You are not it,
yet it is you. “
He explores ways of relating and engaging this teaching of non-duality through various allegories, and suggests we can use ongoing inquiry and practice realization to embody a spirit of inquiry which always moves us towards integration. He explains that “non duality affirms we are not separate, and we are also distinct and individuated beings.”
Korin Charlie Pokorny
Korin Charlie Pokorny was ordained as a priest by Reb Anderson in 1999 and received dharma transmission in 2018. He practiced as a resident at Tassajara and Green Gulch Farm for 12 years (1994...
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Korin Charlie Pokorny introduces us to three intertwining aspects of how to care for the dharma of suchness: embodied practice realization, inquiry, and communal relational practice. He invites us to care for the dharma of suchness rather than efforting to attain anything. He asks us to allow it to “bring us to practice and to help us through practice.”
Korin Charlie Pokorny
Korin Charlie Pokorny was ordained as a priest by Reb Anderson in 1999 and received dharma transmission in 2018. He practiced as a resident at Tassajara and Green Gulch Farm for 12 years (1994...
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Day 2 Afternoon Session: Further exploration of the practice of Lojong and how to use it practically to support your life as a life informed by the dharma. Knowing that “I” am not a story, once we are free from the story, then we don’t have to behave in accord with that story, now we have the option to change it .
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Upaya Podcast Series: Exploring the Power of Lojong
John Dunne, PhD
John Dunne (PhD 1999, Harvard University) holds the Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Humanities at Center for Healthy Minds of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds a...
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Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD
Abbot
Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D., is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of...
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In this Day 2 Morning Session, Roshi Joan Halifax introduces the slogan “Drive all blames into one.” John Dunne asks us to work on what we most need to work on, to uncover our deepest issues to work on and to use the aphorisms of Lojong to support our practice.
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Upaya Podcast Series: Exploring the Power of Lojong
John Dunne, PhD
John Dunne (PhD 1999, Harvard University) holds the Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Humanities at Center for Healthy Minds of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds a...
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Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD
Abbot
Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D., is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of...
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In this Day 1 Afternoon Session, John Dunne and Roshi Joan Halifax further explore the Lojong. In this session we come to understand the two different kinds of bodhichitta, the aspirational and the actual.
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Upaya Podcast Series: Exploring the Power of Lojong
John Dunne, PhD
John Dunne (PhD 1999, Harvard University) holds the Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Humanities at Center for Healthy Minds of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds a...
More
Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD
Abbot
Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D., is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of...
More
In this dharma talk, Taigen Dan Leighton explains the history and context of Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. He goes over the five main themes of this poem and asks us to recognize that the nature of reality itself is awakening. He ends this dharma talk with the invitation to sit and come to […]
In this Day 1 Morning Session, John Dunne introduces us to the preliminaries of Tibetan “mind training” or the Lojong tradition in this morning session. Roshi Joan Halifax ends the morning with the preliminary practice of the four thoughts that turn the mind. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by […]
This special weekend with Buddhist scholar Dr. John Dunne and Upaya’s Abbot Roshi Joan Halifax was a deep dive into the practices of the Tibetan “mind training” or Lojong tradition. Inspired by Indian masters such as Śāntideva, Lojong practice radiates out of the rich, pithy slogans, composed as early as the 11th century, that are […]
In this Dharma Talk, Natalie Goldberg reflects on loss, loneliness, and suffering. She invites us to practice with the three marks of existence to be in our lives fully. For our lives to bloom, she asks us to “sit with our own lives, our own pain and the pain we see around us.”
In this conversation between two veteran Zen practitioners and old friends. The master cook, Deborah Madison, and the master gardener, Wendy Johnson speak about their time practicing together over the years, the lessons they still take with them today, and the projects which still enthuse their lives. Join us for this warm conversation.
Can the Dharma really flourish in our own lands if it does not become native? This is the guiding question to Alcio Braz’s Wednesday night Dharma talk. By discussing his rich ancestry, spiritual practice, and life, he emphasizes the importance of not allowing ‘… another layer of colonization …’ into a practice of liberation. The joyful, […]
Hoshi Kigaku Noah Rossetter Roen takes us on a journey of studying the role of silence in the sutra of Vimalakirti, in various texts by Dogen, and in stories of the Tatagatha. He claims that silence is the only way to uphold non-duality, and thus is the answer and the truth. He invites us to […]
Hoshi Matthew Kozan Palevsky invites us to see our vows and liturgical chants as a key and compass to the map of our life. pointing us to the territory of our immediate experience. He asks us not to add anything to the numberless creations, allowing things to be as they are. He reminds us that […]
Monshin Nannette Overley invites us to view sickness and medicine beyond duality. She asks us to consider that the whole world can be viewed as medicine if we are able to cultivate equanimity of perspective. In this dharma talk, we are called to drop our assumptions about sickness and lean into bearing witness and not […]
Reigetsu Susan Moon introduces us to the concept of Upaya, the creative or artistic expression of compassion. She shares the myriad of ways that upaya can be found in the Vimalakirti’s sutra and also in our own lives. She reminds us that sesshin is an opportunity to not turn away from our own broken heartedness […]
Sensei Shinzan Palma welcomes us to the first day of sesshin. He reminds us that we are building our own container and to show up to practice for ourselves, coming back to the moment over and over again. Shinzan reframes a pivotal question in chapter 6 of the sutra of Vimalakirti by inviting us to ask […]
Roshi Joan Halifax unpacks the three doors of liberation, Vimalakirti’s gift to us: emptiness, signless, and aimlessness. She reminds us that “liberation isn’t just about freeing your body or mind from suffering, liberation is actually about being free from all preferences, [it’s about] being radically open to what is.” She calls us to practice beyond […]
Roshis Joan Halifax & Enkyo O’Hara orient us to the beginning of Rohatsu, a ceremony marking the enlightenment of the Buddha. Pat Enkyo O’Hara invites us into remembering the medicine of sitting in fellowship with others. She also introduces us to Dogen’s Mountains and Rivers Sutra, the text that we will be studying for this year’s sesshin. Roshi Joan reminds […]
In the last part of this 4 part series daylong with Roshi Norman Fischer, he begins to talk about engagement or spiritual activism. For Roshi Norman spirituality itself is active and it intertwines itself with every aspect of our lives. ‘When we sit in zazen, we’re not escaping from the world,… we’re not leaving a world behind…but […]
In part 3 of this daylong with Roshi Norman Fischer, he takes on questions from the audience. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: When You Greet Me I Bow
In the second part of the morning session, Roshi Norman asks us to speak with a partner about our sense-experience of time. For this shorter session, there is a discussion with the audience. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: When You Greet Me […]
When you Greet Me I Bow, Roshi Norman Fischer’s latest book came about differently from his past writing endeavors. For Norman, and his editor, the past four decades of writing can be condensed into four main themes: A) Relationships; B) Buddhist Emptiness teachings; C) Culture & its Shapings, and D) Engagement. Continuing from his Wednesday […]
Ruth Ozeki introduces us to her new novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness” based on the question and her own investigation “Do insentient beings speak the Dharma?” She reads to us from the beginning of her novel and invites us into her writing process as a writer and a zen practitioner.
Renowned professor of law and mindfulness teacher, Rhonda Magee, speaks to our task today to heal all separations. ‘The separation from our body to this planet, the separation from each other, elitism, borders, fascism, etc.’ We need to heal ourselves so that we can hold ourselves accountable. ‘The courts are not going to save us.’ By bringing intentionality […]
In this powerful talk, Sensei and Climate Scientist Kritee Kanko begins by underscoring the importance of addressing trauma for activism. To hear each other we need to be in our comfort zones. ‘Our communities need to have the skills to face and compost trauma… for communities of color, the climate crisis is another layer of […]
In the second talk of the morning session, Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the Loka Initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, differentiates between eco-anxiety, and solastalgia. She speaks about her work in the Loka Initiative, empowering faith leaders from around the world to take environmental action. She ends her talk by encouraging us to ‘…reclaim our relationship […]
The first talk of the Social & Environmental Justice day long at Upaya, ‘recovering politician’ Heather Mcteer Toney, points to the critical role of identity in climate solutions. Because of this nation’s history, Communities’ of Color’s mistrust has left them out of participating in local and national climate solutions. In response, she recommends 3 points to regain community trust: 1) Deep […]
Self-hate is a particularly modern, western phenomenon. Buddhist literature up until the 21st century lacks any notion of self-compassion. Why is that? Compassion garners a large role with the advent of the Mahayana movement, in its capacity to liberate us from the second veil of ignorance, the distinction between self and other, self and world. Going […]
In this Wednesday night Dharma Talk, Dr. Richard Schwartz starts us off by orienting the audience with the fundamentals of Internal Family Systems. He further expands, by suggesting that we can only be compassionate with others if we learn how to be calm, curious, and compassionate with our internal parts. He ends the discussion with a small […]
Here, Stephanie Kaza braids all the previous talks to present a conceptual lens in showcasing how farming, gardening, and ecology are fundamentally issues of justice. What is the role of an awakened action? How do justice and culture regenerate the soil and human health? How can we reckon with the past, be responsible today and […]
In this beautiful and eye-opening presentation, Konda Mason speaks about her work with Jubilee Justice in addressing wealth and inequality because of black land loss. To remedy the exploitation and loss of black land, Jubilee Justice’s work focuses on three main spheres: Journeys, the Rice Project, and Potlikker Capital. Journey convenes transformative gatherings in addressing the internalized racism and capitalism we […]
Wendy Johnson begins by reminding us of the previous day’s planting of the three sisters in the Upaya garden. The ancient sisters of squash, beans, and corn. In such difficult times, gardening as a practice allows us to not look away from our grief. It is of the utmost importance to stop, not turn away, and […]
In the first talk of the day, renowned artist, sculptress, and Tewa leader, Roxanne Swentzell, speaks to the incredible journey of re-establishing the pre-European Tewa diet. Through the process of re-encountering mother-salt, re-learning the ancient methods of processing and storing food, and doing it in community, Roxanne shows us how inextricably linked our very blood […]
‘First, we braid grasses and play tug of war; then we take turns singing and keeping a kickball in the air. I kick the ball and they sing, they kick and I sing, time is forgotten the hours fly. People passing by point at me and laugh, ‘why are you acting like such a fool’. […]
Sensei Kathie Fischer explores the core tenets of Mahayana Buddhism, inviting us into deeper dialogue regarding the principles of non-duality, form, emptiness, and self. She brings us into the depth of Vilmalakirti’s thunderous silence, reminding us that it penetrates our lives and that it is close at hand when we drop the preferential mind. She […]
Wendy Johnson discusses the Vimalakirti sutra and connects this text and its teachings with the living teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh. She explains that Vimalakirti is a wounded healer boddhisatva, “dangerous to settled life in every way and alive with the feral vow to benefit all beings.” She shares with us that bodhisattvas become sick due […]
Monshin Nannette Overley weaves together the talks we’ve heard during the Fall Practice Period on emptiness and compassion, while exploring the difference between sentimental compassion and true compassion. She calls us to remember the true gift of having a practice, in this world, to wake up. She reminds us that our practice is a treasure which […]
Matthew Kozan Palevsky delves into Chapter 5 of the Vimalakirti sutra. He begins by reminding us how sickness can open up the possibility for connection and healing, saying “In illness we can feel uniquely undefended, unpretentious, unmitigated, unquestioning, undone. At times this can feel like overwhelming intimacy with whomever is with us, or with all […]
Reigetsu Susan Moon reviews chapter 7 of Vimalakirti, The Goddess. She shares the story of the Goddess and Shariputra and illuminates insights from the sutra involving non-duality, opposites being necessary and complementary, gender as a social construct, and body as an illusory form. She encourages us to put ourselves in other people shoes in order to […]
Robert Thurman reads from his translation of The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti, summarizing this sutra as a text of discovering inconceivable liberation through direct realization of the interconnectedness of all beings. He reminds us that to understand this text is to understand that we are buddha, and to realize this we have to go beyond dualistic thinking. […]
Sensei Shinzan Palma speaks to us of the importance of practice to wake up. He teaches us that whether we are monastic or lay practitioners, the dharma is available to us in every aspect of our lives. He reminds us that we have the opportunity in every moment to realize the dharma despite the conditions […]
Zenshin Florence Caplow and Reigetsu Sue Moon offer us the wisdom of Zen Crones through storytelling and reference of their collaboration The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women. They encourage Zen practice and teaching as medicine for the anxieties of the 21st century. They encourage us to turn to Zen crones who hold the […]
Heather McTeer Toney speaks on recovery from climate disasters as a pathway to building resilient communities. She reminds us that people of color know this pathway well and have been engaged in the fight for climate justice long before today. She encourages us to take collective action that follows the lead of community organizers who […]
In this classic Dharma Talk with Venerable Pannavati Bikkhuni from the Heartwood Refuge in North Carolina, we are reminded of the deep interconnectedness of generosity and gratitude, and ultimately, equanimity, and how this timeless practice of meditation and ethics can help us navigate in the modern world.
Frank Ostaseski invites us back into the body to experience the fullness of life, in order to lean into the mystery of life and death. He invites us to look at life and death through the lens of the elements, and into the realization of the interconnectedness of all things.
The eyes of a dying patient are clear mirrors. In their gaze there is simply no place to hide. Coming face to face with dying requires a fierce compassion and self-awareness that is best supported by mindfulness, emotional balance and equanimity. These two pioneers in contemplative care of the dying are offering this special intensive [...]
The eyes of a dying patient are clear mirrors. In their gaze there is simply no place to hide. Coming face to face with dying requires a fierce compassion and self-awareness that is best supported by mindfulness, emotional balance and equanimity. These two pioneers in contemplative care of the dying are offering this special intensive [...]
The eyes of a dying patient are clear mirrors. In their gaze there is simply no place to hide. Coming face to face with dying requires a fierce compassion and self-awareness that is best supported by mindfulness, emotional balance and equanimity. These two pioneers in contemplative care of the dying are offering this special intensive [...]
Sensei Fleet Maull invites us to embrace the fullness of our lives, especially the aspects of our lives that we are most fearful of. He speaks about how we all have a sense that we’re in prison due to our mind of preferences. Sensei shares intimately how he has dealt with grief and everyday life [...]
The eyes of a dying patient are clear mirrors. In their gaze there is simply no place to hide. Coming face to face with dying requires a fierce compassion and self-awareness that is best supported by mindfulness, emotional balance and equanimity. These two pioneers in contemplative care of the dying are offering this special intensive [...]
The eyes of a dying patient are clear mirrors. In their gaze there is simply no place to hide. Coming face to face with dying requires a fierce compassion and self-awareness that is best supported by mindfulness, emotional balance and equanimity. These two pioneers in contemplative care of the dying are offering this special intensive [...]
The eyes of a dying patient are clear mirrors. In their gaze there is simply no place to hide. Coming face to face with dying requires a fierce compassion and self-awareness that is best supported by mindfulness, emotional balance and equanimity. These two pioneers in contemplative care of the dying are offering this special intensive [...]
here was a slideshow at the end of this sessionThe eyes of a dying patient are clear mirrors. In their gaze there is simply no place to hide. Coming face to face with dying requires a fierce compassion and self-awareness that is best supported by mindfulness, emotional balance and equanimity. These two pioneers in contemplative [...]
Compassion is one of the most positive and fulfilling emotions we can experience. Various studies have shown that people who are the most altruistic also appear to be the happiest. There is always, deep within ourselves, a potential for loving kindness, compassion and inner peace. This potential needs to be actualized and matured in order [...]
Compassion is one of the most positive and fulfilling emotions we can experience. Various studies have shown that people who are the most altruistic also appear to be the happiest. There is always, deep within ourselves, a potential for loving kindness, compassion and inner peace. This potential needs to be actualized and matured in order [...]
Michael Stone begins by saying that in many of today's popular magazines, yoga is reduced to a body practice and dharma is reduced to mind practice. This way of looking at Yoga and Dharma is insufficient because it doesn't capture how it can penetrate our lives. Michael says that what really connects yoga and dharma [...]
Compassion is one of the most positive and fulfilling emotions we can experience. Various studies have shown that people who are the most altruistic also appear to be the happiest. There is always, deep within ourselves, a potential for loving kindness, compassion and inner peace. This potential needs to be actualized and matured in order [...]
Compassion is one of the most positive and fulfilling emotions we can experience. Various studies have shown that people who are the most altruistic also appear to be the happiest. There is always, deep within ourselves, a potential for loving kindness, compassion and inner peace. This potential needs to be actualized and matured in order [...]
Compassion is one of the most positive and fulfilling emotions we can experience. Various studies have shown that people who are the most altruistic also appear to be the happiest. There is always, deep within ourselves, a potential for loving kindness, compassion and inner peace. This potential needs to be actualized and matured in order [...]
Compassion is one of the most positive and fulfilling emotions we can experience. Various studies have shown that people who are the most altruistic also appear to be the happiest. There is always, deep within ourselves, a potential for loving kindness, compassion and inner peace. This potential needs to be actualized and matured in order [...]
Compassion is one of the most positive and fulfilling emotions we can experience. Various studies have shown that people who are the most altruistic also appear to be the happiest. There is always, deep within ourselves, a potential for loving kindness, compassion and inner peace. This potential needs to be actualized and matured in order [...]
Roshi leads a meditation on mindfulness of the body and lovingkindness, goes through the stages of a rite of passage, and talks about leading with our hearts and not our roles in the world. Mary Catherine talks about "liminality," that stage between falling apart and coming back together, and suggests that our civilization as a [...]
In a heartfelt and funny talk ranging in topic from roasting turkeys to boat anchors, Natalie and Wendy speak about their lives as Zen practitioners, teachers, students, and members of community, sharing stories and insights about past retreats, interactions with teachers, and family.
David begins the session by leading a guided meditation on gratitude. The participants then have a chance to ask the faculty some questions and share some insights. The Wisdom & Time Faculty: Al Kaszniak, David Chernikoff, The Wisdom & Time Faculty: Al Kaszniak, David Chernikoff, Jane Fonda, Malka Druker, Mary Catherine Bateson, Roshi Joan Halifax. To access [...]
Roshi Joan leads a meditation on mindfulness of and appreciation for the body, and offers a view of four vectors of human development, emphasizing the importance of embodiment in affecting positive change in the world. Jane continues this examination of embodiment, noting some reasons why people may become "disembodied" at various points in their lives. [...]
Mary Catherine leads a session on improvisation, offering that we are "artists of our own lives." She leads some of the participants in an improvisation game called "the ball of energy." After the game, the participants note what they felt and noticed during their participation. Mary Catherine concludes with some notes about seeing life as [...]
Malka opens by offering reflections on and personal experiences pertinent to Mary Catherine's addition of "Adulthood II" within the context of Erikson's model, then offers a model of aging as seen in the Jewish tradition. Roshi then introduces Jane Fonda. Jane offers her own view of this “second adulthood" which she calls "The Third Act," [...]
David opens with a partner meditation in which one person holds the other's hand, meditating on the hand's nature and capabilities as if it were a completely foreign object. In a talk entitled "Wisdom, Neuroscience and Lifespan Development," Al Kaszniak offers some functional definitions of wisdom, noting that there is not yet a "neuroscience of [...]
Roshi opens by offering a view of maturation as seen by the Lacandon people of Mexico and speaks to the phenomenon of prolonged childhood in America. Mary Catherine leads an examination of Eric Erikson's view of development, adding "Adulthood II" between "Adulthood I" and "Old Age," noting that a large part of "Adulthood II" is [...]
Roshi Joan Halifax begins by introducing Mind and Life Institute faculty and she facilitates the discussion. Adam Engle shares how the Mind and Life Institute began and how the institute shifted its focus to researching the benefits of meditation. Jon Kabat-Zinn speaks of how Mind and Life brings the notion that the mind is 'trainable' [...]
The session begins with small group discussions around one of the questions posed the night before by Mary Catherine, after which the participants share some of the salient points raised in those groups. After a break, Mary Catherine explores in more depth the phenomenon of "Adulthood II," noting that this is a time to deepen [...]
The session begins with small group discussions around one of the questions posed the night before by Mary Catherine, after which the participants share some of the salient points raised in those groups. After a break, Mary Catherine explores in more depth the phenomenon of "Adulthood II," noting that this is a time to deepen [...]
Roshi introduces Mary Catherine and the panel and explains the genesis of the retreat. Mary Catherine starts the discussion by stating the fact that in the last 100 years the average life expectancy has gone from 47 to 77, and that these 30 added years are not added at the end of life but somewhere [...]
Roshi guides a powerful meditation on breathing in the suffering of ourselves and the world and breathing out compassion. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness 7 part series
Roshi speaks of balance, both emotional and physical. Part of opening up fearless compassion is to view our own limits with compassion, just as we view the suffering of others. Our own self talk is so important, grounding ourselves, learning how to slow down effects our self compassion. How do we take in the suffering [...]
Roshi asks how do we nourish our beginners mind, or not knowing. The audience breaks up into groups to discuss what has helped support or sustains them. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness 7 part series
Henry Shukman begins by asking the audience to reflect on why they are here. He says that whatever it is that brought you to this practice, we all want to end suffering. He says that as long as suffering exists (universal loss), and we have this goal of liberation, we are looking in the wrong [...]
Sharon says it's not the thoughts that are the problem ... It's the "glue." Our job is to sit and rest attention on the feeling and learn to let go. She then leads a guided meditation. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness 7 part series
Sharon guides a loving kindness meditation and Roshi and Sharon answer questions from the audience. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness 7 part series
Roshi Joan kicks off the Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness retreat by recalling 2 powerful issues that brought her to Buddhism ... the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam. She speaks about relationships and says that Buddhism is about relationships, with ourselves and with the world. She recommends using an experience of deep suffering [...]
Roshi guides a meditation on equanimity. She then speaks of the shadow of caregiving, by reviewing different archetypes. She then goes into boundary violation, going over transference and counter transference. This episode (#10 of 10) is a continuation of the previous episode (#9 of 10) and is the concluding part from the Aug [...]
Roshi guides a meditation on equanimity. She then speaks of the shadow of caregiving, by reviewing different archetypes. She then goes into boundary violation, going over transference and counter transference. This episode (#9 of 10) is from the Aug 8th session. It continues and concludes in the next episode, i.e., Part 10 of 10. To access [...]
Jane opens by offering a definition of wisdom and noting some of the fields of growth possible with aging. She talks about her experience of writing memoir and some things that were helpful for her in that practice, and closes by mentioning neuroscience has shown that it is actually possible to change our neural pathways. [...]
Roshi begins the evening session by speaking about servant leadership and the importance of developing a deep grounding in the core teachings of the Buddha. She says how important it is for us to face our own suffering. She differentiates between guilt and regret. Fleet answers questions from the participants. To access the entire series, please click [...]
Fleet goes into the classic system dynamics and change work. He speaks about the prison industrial complex as a system and then has participants divide into groups to discuss the systems they are in. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Dharma on the Edge 10 part series
Roshi asks what happens when our ability to serve is compromises? What are the outcomes when one is not able to actualize healthy compassion? Roshi introduces 3 attitudes toward caregiving: helping, fixing, and saving. Roshi then presents the Algorithm of Personal Distress. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Dharma on the Edge [...]
The group discusses the movie from the prior evening, "The Dhamma Brothers." Fleet asks if people noticed signs of trauma in the prisoners. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Dharma on the Edge 10 part series
Important Note: Due to a problem with the audio, this episode (show # 316, or Part 4 of 10) was re published. The "auto download option (in iTunes, iPods etc.)" subscribers, will see a "second download" of this episode. Please use this updated version (duration: [...]
Roshi begins by reading a letter to Fleet from Jimmy Santiago Baca. Fleet continues to explore the first tenet, "not knowing" and leads participants in a powerful guided exercise. This episode (#3 of 10) is a continuation of episode #2, i.e., from Fri Aug 6th morning session and is the part after [...]
In a talk inspired by two days of hiking with Upaya's residents and guests, Sensei Beate speaks about the power and importance of being in nature. She asks us to call to mind a place that we liked as a child, suggesting that often these places were those where we most felt easy, confident and [...]
Recorded at Upaya Zen Center December 5th, 2006
In this podcast Enkyo uses the legend of Ashoka to point out the insanity of today's dualistic culture. She talks with dismay of the separation created by our ideological constructs - about how America, in the middle of an age of polarism and intolerance, had a pluralistic beginning. The founders of the US were iconoclastic but made an effort to be peaceful and amiable.
However, since our culture feeds off identities - the-built-up ego, the false house as she calls it - Enkyo urges us to practice so we can see our true nature and deconstruct this flimsy house.
Recorded at Upaya Zen Center December 4th, 2006
Talk 4
In this talk, Roshi Joan talks more about the legend of King Ashoka's war-time conversion. After causing the deaths of as much as 100,000, Ashoka sees the bodies of men women and children and presents to himself and the world a dark koan:
What have I done?
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya,
Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Olympic Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
Recorded at Upaya Zen Center December 3rd, 2006
Talk 3
In this talk, Enkyo revisits the tale of Jaya as a giver - one who has a
spontaneous sense of generosity after his conversion. Throughout his career of
philanthropy, King Ashoka was plagued by the imperfection foretold by his
perfect gift of dirt to the Buddha.
Ashoka gives food, clothing, shelter and stupas to all kinds of people - not even Buddhists but to Jains, Hindus, etc, alike. But he still struggles. Enkyo also talks about giving and receiving merit - even if it is a mere consequence of putting all of oneself into whatever activity in which they partake.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Olympic Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, December 2, 2006
Time: 53:15
In this teisho, Kaz Sensei expounds on the history of Ashoka and his conquests while giving the background of his conversion to Buddhism. Roshi Joan discusses the myth of Buddha's encounter with the previous incarnation of Ashoka exemplified by the following quote from the Ashokavadana:
"A hundred years after my death there will be an emperor named Ashoka in Pataliputra. He will rule one of the four continents and adorn Jambudvipa with my relics building 84,000 stupas for the welfare of people. He will have them honored by gods and men. His fame will be widespread. His meritorious gift was just this: Jaya [the small boy who would become Ashoka] threw a handful of earth into the Tathagata's bowl."
She relates the story of Ashoka's virya to expand Buddhism in Asia to a practitioner's virya to explore the intrapsychic process of creating internal ease and acceptance of things as they are.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Olympic Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
Time: 35:10 Talk 1:
Recorded December 01, 2006, Upaya Zen Center
In this introductory talk, the teachers give inspiring words about the heart of practice: Kaz Sensei provides background explanation of Rohatsu; Enkyo Roshi gives a talk on concentration meditation, and Roshi Joan provides instruction for meditation, intentionality, and precautions for sesshin.
In this series of talks given by Kazuaki Tanahashi Sensei, Enkyo O'Hara Roshi, and Joan Halifax Roshi, the practice sangha formed by Rohatsu sesshin explores the topic of King Ashoka. King Ashoka was responsible for many atrocities, including the deaths of thousands. However, he experienced a profound change of heart that led him to form a peaceful and benevolent empire. He was the most prolific benefactor of ancient Buddhism, devoting a great deal of his life to the spread of Buddhism throughout Asia and reaching into the Middle East.
Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, November 23rd, 2006
Time: 47:11
Roshi Joan Halifax gives her annual Thanksgiving Dharma talk beginning a poem by Billy Collins, Aimless Love:
This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,
I fell in love with a wren
and later in the day with a mouse
the cat had dropped under the dining room table.
In the shadows of an autumn evening,
I fell for a seamstress
still at her machine in the tailor's window,
and later for a bowl of broth,
steam rising like smoke from a naval battle.
This is the best kind of love, I thought,
without recompense, without gifts,
or unkind words, without suspicion,
or silence on the telephone.
The love of the chestnut,
the jazz cap and one hand on the wheel.
No lust, no slam of the door -
the love of the miniature orange tree,
the clean white shirt, the hot evening shower,
the highway that cuts across Florida.
No waiting, no huffiness, or rancor -
just a twinge every now and then
for the wren who had built her nest
on a low branch overhanging the water
and for the dead mouse,
still dressed in its light brown suit.
But my heart is always propped up
in a field on its tripod,
ready for the next arrow.
After I carried the mouse by the tail
to a pile of leaves in the woods,
I found myself standing at the bathroom sink
gazing down affectionately at the soap,
so patient and soluble,
so at home in its pale green soap dish.
I could feel myself falling again
as I felt its turning in my wet hands
and caught the scent of lavender and stone.
- Billy Collins -
She introduces the poem reminding us that the Buddha and all teachers since have used the things of daily life and immediate circumstances as the source of teachings. She moves from the poem into the experience of appreciation and then into the story of the original thanksgiving, reminding of us Squanto, who helped the pilgrim-refugees who were struggling to survive. She touches the themes of betrayal and resilience, suffering and gratitude, as she weaves her talk.
She then offers the Koan: Case 6 from the Blue Cliff Record, Every Day is a Good Day, and finally completes this wonderful talk with a reread of the Billy Collin's poem.
(Nine Horses) with the theme of appreciation.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Olympic Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, November 1st, 2006
Time: 47:11
"Having just returned from Tibet, Roshi Joan Halifax discusses her experiences. She is joined by Charla Malamed, who served as Roshi's anja and personal assistant during the pilgrimage. From their respective perspectives, the two discuss the essence of pilgrimage as they describe their journey to Kham." Tibet, a place of great altitude, reminds us of our highest aspirations. Even the word "altar" points toward the power of high places. The pilgrimage that she returned from was not an "instant" one, she notes. The travel was hard, the community powerful, and the intention was to bring benefit to Tibetans in the remote eastern regions of Tibet through the Nomads Clinic that she established in the early 1980s. The clinic this year provided medical services at Sechen, Palpung, Dzogchen, and Dzongsar monasteries. Hundreds of people were given medical support. Five children received surgery through the support of the clinic. Thousands of vitamins were given to schools, orphanages and monasteries. Medical supplies were distributed to remote clinics all over eastern Tibet.
The Buddha, as he was dying, encouraged his disciples to make pilgrimage to the sites associated with his life. Pilgrimage has been important not only for Buddhists, but also for peoples around the world. The pilgrimage that Roshi took with clinicians and dharma friends was one of many challenges and also profoundly inspiring. In the best of conditions, Roshi notes, pilgrimage engenders humility, as well as awe.
Roshi then showed images from the pilgrimage. They can be accessed through: http://www.flickr.com/photos/upaya/
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Olympic Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, October 12th, 2006
Time: 56:39
"In my bowl
violets and dandelions are mixed
Together with the Buddhas of the three worlds."
-Ryokan
In this talk, Eido Roshi gives personal insight into the way of begging and ownership. She has a powerful premise - it's not new, but we have to constantly remind ourselves: we don't own anything. Nothing actually belongs to us. We simply use goods while we are alive. Not only does this empower us to give freely in a material sense, but it also teaches us to give in spirit to our own lives with every ounce of energy.
Ryokan-san did many rounds of begging to help support his life in his monk's existence. While Eido-san was training, she had the opportunity to participate in the begging rounds of her temple and walk in Ryokan-san's footsteps. This is a practice she still employs at Olympia Zen Center. In the tiny exchange of coins, both parties are acknowledging their equality and gratitude in the Buddha Dharma. In this moving talk Eido-san presses us all to be beggars.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Olympic Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, September 28th, 2006
Time: 53:13**
In this talk, Eido Frances Carney Roshi discusses the ways of opening the heart and the subtle work required to perform this act. She uses one of Ryokansan's poems to show this as a basic teaching of an enigmatic master. Eido Roshi is excellent at correlating this Chinese-style prosody-an approach typical of Ryokansan-to everyday experience.
The poem explored was:
"In its innocence, the heart is like water pure and bright, boundless it presents itself to the sight of its beholder. Should a proud desire rise, however, to disturb its peace, Millions of wicked thoughts and pictures will bog it down. If you take these fancies to be real enough to engage you, you will be led farther and farther away from tranquility. How sore it is to see a person crazed about earthly thoughts, a heart bound closely by the chords of the ten temptations. To hear the words of truth, you must wash your ears clean. You will not otherwise stand true to what you hear. You will ask what it is I mean by washing your ears clean It means to rid yourself of all you have heard beforehand.
If only one word of your previous learning remains within, You will fail to embrace the words when they come to you. Resembling what you know, a plain lie may sound acceptable and a simple truth strange to your ears may sound false. How often, alas, we have our judgments made in our hearts When truth lies outside, in a place beyond our conception. Let us not commit such folly as to steep a stone in water, to hide it for a moment knowing it will show in due time. "
Translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa in THE POETRY OF RYOKAN
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, September 13th, 2006
Time: 43:13**
In this talk recorded during their writing retreat held at Upaya, Natalie Goldberg and Wendy Johnson speak on writing and Zen. They use the interdependence of these domains to show that living through writing is natural and can be fluid.
Natalie discusses her time teaching children - her most treasured occupation. She also delves into the aspect of writing without separation, or "closing the gap." This entails writing and reading without judgments.
Wendy talks of growing up in Connecticut and shares her fondness of farming communities and families. She reads from her upcoming book, Gardening At The Dragon's Gate, and with this excerpt, brings alive family life in the 1950s.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 6th, 2006
Time: 1:02:16**
Roshi begins her talk with a quote from Shantideva: This entire world is disturbed with insanity, due to the exertions of those who are confused about themselves. - Santideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva's Life.
She then reminds us of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's words: "Universal responsibility is the feeling for other people's suffering just as we feel our own." "The rationale for universal compassion is based on the same principle of spiritual democracy. It is the recognition of the fact that every living being has an equal right to and desire for happiness. The true acceptance of the principle of democracy requires that we think and act in terms of the common good."
She notes that the term Engaged Buddhism was coined by Thich Nhat Hanh during the Vietnam War, when he and his sangha responded to the suffering they saw around them.
She points out the distinction between social service; social action.
She explores the work of Johan Galtung in the area of structural violence, a form of violence as that which violates basic human needs and rights.
Johan Galtung distinguishes three forms of violence: direct, structural, and cultural.
Direct violence: deliberate attempt to cause injury to a person's physical and psychological integrity through brutal treatment, homicide, imprisonment, forced labor.
Structural violence: a form of violence which corresponds with the systematic ways in which a given social structure or social institution prevents individuals from achieving their full potential. In other words, institutionalized elitism, ethnocentricism, classism, racism, sexism, nationalism, heterosexism and ageism, including disempowerment, oppressive passive social policy, and active marginalizing polic and a lack of access to power to protect oneself from the detrimental effects of the economic, social, and political order.
Cultural violence includes racism, sexism, and homophobia, and the devaluation of particular groups and cultures. It may justify and inform structural and direct violence.
She reminds us of the essence of Zen:
Monk: what is the essence of your practice?
Basho: whatever is needed
She reminds us of Bernie Glassman's work and his five course meal: spirituality, study, livelihood, service, community related to the five Buddha families.
And finally she points out that we cannot be passive but must take sides: Elie Weisel: "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
Gandhi reminds us that "[n]oncooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good."
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
Upcoming Programs
Upaya Zen Center
1404 Cerro Gordo Road
Santa Fe, NM, 87501
Phone: 505-986-8518
Fax: 505-986-8528
upaya@upaya.org
**Tibet Pilgrimage to Kham: Mountain, Monastery, Meditation, Medicine
(Joan Halifax Roshi, Judith Chase, Tenzin Norbu)**September 25 - October 25
Contact Upaya for a program application and data about cost.
**Metta Refuge Retreat: Living with Illness
October 7-12
Instructors: Jean Wilkins; Susan Benjamin, LPAT, RMHC; and Daniel Bruce, DOM**
Facing a chronic or catastrophic illness can bring us to a moment when we need to slow down and look deeply into our lives, a time to find acceptance of a diagnosis, to review healing and coping strategies, and make peace with one's mortality. This retreat provides an exploration of the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and creative resources that lead to spaciousness and peace within which illness/healing can be engaged. The retreat includes meditations, teachings, art therapy, drawing, bodywork, group sessions, and councils. Retreatants must be able manage tasks of everyday living.
Tuition: $495 members; $595 non-members; includes lodging. Dana to teachers. Contact Upaya about scholarships.
How to listen to this Podcast:
Click on the
icon next to the show title to "stream" the show.
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**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 23rd, 2006
Time: 55:45**
Roshi Joan Halifax reminds us of Milarepa's words: "To sum up: First, a vivid state of mental tranquility and a sustaining energy together with a discerning intellect are indispensable requirements for attaining perfect insight. They are like the first steps of a staircase. Second, all meditation, with or without form, must begin from deeply aroused compassion and love. Whatever one does must emerge from a loving attitude for the benefit of others. Third, through perfect seeing, all discrimination is dissolved into a non-conceptual state. Finally, with an awareness of the void, one sincerely dedicates the results for the benefit of others. I have understood this to be the best of ways." --The Life of Milarepa, trans. by Lobsang P. Lhalunga.
She unpacks the words of Milarepa in our meditational experience. She then goes on to explore why is it important to train the mind, developing awareness through mindfulness, cultivating reflectivity (stability and insight), and prosocial states of mind (four boundless abodes). She describes the three outcomes we train for: mental stability, vividness, and relaxation.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
Upcoming Programs
Upaya Zen Center
1404 Cerro Gordo Road
Santa Fe, NM, 87501
Phone: 505-986-8518
Fax: 505-986-8528
upaya@upaya.org
**Tibet Pilgrimage to Kham: Mountain, Monastery, Meditation, Medicine
(Joan Halifax Roshi, Judith Chase, Tenzin Norbu)**September 25 - October 25
Contact Upaya for a program application and data about cost.
**Metta Refuge Retreat: Living with Illness
October 7-12
Instructors: Jean Wilkins; Susan Benjamin, LPAT, RMHC; and Daniel Bruce, DOM**
Facing a chronic or catastrophic illness can bring us to a moment when we need to slow down and look deeply into our lives, a time to find acceptance of a diagnosis, to review healing and coping strategies, and make peace with one's mortality. This retreat provides an exploration of the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and creative resources that lead to spaciousness and peace within which illness/healing can be engaged. The retreat includes meditations, teachings, art therapy, drawing, bodywork, group sessions, and councils. Retreatants must be able manage tasks of everyday living.
Tuition: $495 members; $595 non-members; includes lodging. Dana to teachers. Contact Upaya about scholarships.
How to listen to this Podcast:
Click on the
icon next to the show title to "stream" the show.
Click on the player to listen to the "most current" Podcast.
OR make it simple and subscribe via iTunes, which makes it very easy.
To download the MP3 audio file, click on the Direct download link below.
Install iTunes:
In preparation for subscription and playback of the Dharma Podcast, click here to download and install iTunes.
Notification list:
We also suggest you JOIN the notification list. This way you will receive a notice when a new Podcast has been posted.
**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 16th, 2006
Time: 51:13**
Photo by Patrick Rentsch
In this dharma talk, Kyojo Bakker and Roshi Joan explore Jukai, the conferring of the Buddhist precepts. They speak about their own experience of receiving the precepts and review the precepts. Jukai, according to Roshi Joan, is a way that we not only protect our mind but also protect the world. She reminds us that the precepts are practices.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
Upcoming Programs
Upaya Zen Center
1404 Cerro Gordo Road
Santa Fe, NM, 87501
Phone: 505-986-8518
Fax: 505-986-8528
upaya@upaya.org
**Wave and Water: Two Roads at Russ Island, Maine
September 7 - 10
Instructors: Stephen Anzan Hyde and David Hyde**
In early September, with the first blush of color reddening the coastal wetlands, Two Roads travels by kayak to beautiful Russ Island in Penobscot Bay. The group will gather at the Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, Maine early in the morning on September 7th and travel together to Stonington, Maine before embarking in the kayaks. The paddle to Russ Island is approximately two miles, and sightings of seals, eagles, and dolphins are a possibility, but the deeper journey is to a new land, to the unknown place, where the solitude of the sea invites exploration and personal reflection. This edge of the Atlantic is rich and raw, a compelling setting in which to practice contemplation and council, as we each seek to come into an understanding of the nature of healing. Previous kayaking experience is not required. Anzan Hyde is a poet, environmentalist, and longtime Zen practitioner.
Tuition: $725; includes lodging.
**The World Comes Home: The Practice of Writing, Sitting and Walking
September 12-17
Instructors: Natalie Goldberg and Wendy Johnson**
The first day and a half will be devoted to hands-on, hard-core writing practice (Assignments like: I remember; I'm not thinking of; my third grade experience; first kiss; last time I saw someone; etc.). This will provide a strong spine to move into the zendo for the second half of the retreat. In order to create we must have quiet peace at our back; otherwise, we will burn up. This combination of walking, sitting and writing will strengthen the power and direction of one's writing at the same time as developing a steady foundation. Open to all levels of sitters, walkers, and writers. Sitting and slow walking instruction will also be given. Bring notebooks and fast writing pens. Upon registration, a reading list will be mailed out.
Tuition: $750 members; $850 non-members; plus lodging.
**Tibet Pilgrimage to Kham: Mountain, Monastery, Meditation, Medicine
(Joan Halifax Roshi, Judith Chase, Tenzin Norbu)
September 25 - October 25
Contact Upaya for a program application and data about cost.**
**Metta Refuge Retreat: Living with Illness
October 7-12
Instructors: Jean Wilkins; Susan Benjamin, LPAT, RMHC; and Daniel Bruce, DOM**
Facing a chronic or catastrophic illness can bring us to a moment when we need to slow down and look deeply into our lives, a time to find acceptance of a diagnosis, to review healing and coping strategies, and make peace with one's mortality. This retreat provides an exploration of the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and creative resources that lead to spaciousness and peace within which illness/healing can be engaged. The retreat includes meditations, teachings, art therapy, drawing, bodywork, group sessions, and councils. Retreatants must be able manage tasks of everyday living.
Tuition: $495 members; $595 non-members; includes lodging. Dana to teachers. Contact Upaya about scholarships.
As of August 9th, we are now in 42 countries:
USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, Brazil, New Zealand, Belgium, Austria, South Korea, Netherlands, Malaysia, India, France, Taiwan, Spain, Iceland, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Mexico, China, Colombia, Uruguay, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Malta, Italy, Satellite Provider, South Africa.
How to listen to this Podcast:
Click on the
icon next to the show title to "stream" the show.
Click on the player to listen to the "most current" Podcast.
OR make it simple and subscribe via iTunes, which makes it very easy.
To download the MP3 audio file, click on the Direct download link below.
Install iTunes:
In preparation for subscription and playback of the Dharma Podcast, click here to download and install iTunes.
Notification list:
We also suggest you JOIN the notification list. This way you will receive a notice when a new Podcast has been posted.
**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 15th, 2006
Time: 1:11:44**
In this dharma talk, Roshi Joan explores the koan of Sunfaced Buddha, Moonfaced Buddha. Master Ma is ill, and his accountant comes visits him and asks him how he is doing. Master Ma replied: Sunfaced Buddha, Moonfaced Buddha. She explores with students why it is that the accountant is present in this koan. Who is this "accountant" to us.
She then goes into the elements that support our spiritual maturation, i.e. make it possible for us to hold equally: sunfaced, moonfaced buddha. These elements include having a strong container, teacher, practice, and community.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
Upcoming Programs
Upaya Zen Center
1404 Cerro Gordo Road
Santa Fe, NM, 87501
Phone: 505-986-8518
Fax: 505-986-8528
upaya@upaya.org
**Sustaining the Caregiving Impulse September 2
Instructor: Troy Fernandez**
This one-day retreat/workshop offers insights into the challenges of "empathy fatigue" and practical solutions for those who work with and live in a multicultural context. A powerful step in achieving "oneness" involves reflecting deeply into the "otherness" that exists in our world. Human service workers, teachers, and counselors will acquire the contemplative tools they need to enhance and sustain their ability to nurture others while nurturing themselves. Participants will also leave having established a supportive network of professional and personal friendships. Troy Fernandez is deputy director for the National Hispanic Cultural Center, formerly with the New Mexico Department of Health.
Tuition: $75 members; $100 non-members; includes lunch
As of August 9th, we are now in 42 countries:
USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, Brazil, New Zealand, Belgium, Austria, South Korea, Netherlands, Malaysia, India, France, Taiwan, Spain, Iceland, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Mexico, China, Colombia, Uruguay, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Malta, Italy, Satellite Provider, South Africa.
How to listen to this Podcast:
Click on the
icon next to the show title to "stream" the show.
Click on the player to listen to the "most current" Podcast.
OR make it simple and subscribe via iTunes, which makes it very easy.
To download the MP3 audio file, click on the Direct download link below.
Install iTunes:
In preparation for subscription and playback of the Dharma Podcast, click here to download and install iTunes.
Notification list:
We also suggest you JOIN the notification list. This way you will receive a notice when a new Podcast has been posted.
**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 13th, 2006
Time: 1:06:22**
Roshi Joan begins her dharma talk with a quote from John Fire Lamedeer that explores silence and facing the western horizon, the horizon associated with going within, with loneliness, with death.
She then opens a discussion on the Koan: Guishan's "Do Not Betray Others": Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo, Case 47, translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Daido Loori Roshi. This case is about digging into the dark and finding the ember of aliveness, overcoming our torpor to discover who we really are. Guishan is sitting alone in the zendo late into night, when his teacher Baizhang saw him and demanded: "Who is sitting here in the dark?" Guishan says, "It's me, master; it's Guishan." Baizhang tells Guishan to rake up the hearth and stir up the coals. Guishan arose, stepped to hearth and searched for live coals but found none. The fire is gone out, says Guishan. Baizhang took up tongs and plunged them deep in ashes, found a small, live ember. Holding it up, he asks: "What's this?"
Roshi then implores us to find the strength of the teacher to plunge into the darkness to find our life.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
Upcoming ProgramsUpaya Zen Center
1404 Cerro Gordo Road
Santa Fe, NM, 87501
Phone: 505-986-8518
Fax: 505-986-8528
upaya@upaya.org
**Zen Calligraphy on a Large Scale August 25-27
Instructor: Kazuaki Tanahashi Sensei**
This unusual workshop offers the practice of calligraphy on a large scale, working with big brushes, paper and canvas. The retreat takes place in the temple as well as out-of-doors to accommodate the big scale of the calligraphy and painting. In the tradition of Asian calligraphy, we engage the creative process by reproducing ideograms and paintings from ancient Chinese masterpieces but on a large scale. We interpret these works and explore creativity and how it works in our life as a source of insight and joy. For beginners and seasoned artists. Kazuaki Tanahashi is a master calligrapher, Dogen scholar, and social activist.
Tuition: $190 members; $210 non-members; $50 materials; plus lodging.
**Sustaining the Caregiving Impulse September 2
Instructor: Troy Fernandez**
This one-day retreat/workshop offers insights into the challenges of "empathy fatigue" and practical solutions for those who work with and live in a multicultural context. A powerful step in achieving "oneness" involves reflecting deeply into the "otherness" that exists in our world. Human service workers, teachers, and counselors will acquire the contemplative tools they need to enhance and sustain their ability to nurture others while nurturing themselves. Participants will also leave having established a supportive network of professional and personal friendships. Troy Fernandez is deputy director for the National Hispanic Cultural Center, formerly with the New Mexico Department of Health.
Tuition: $75 members; $100 non-members; includes lunch
As of August 9th, we are now in 42 countries:
USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, Brazil, New Zealand, Belgium, Austria, South Korea, Netherlands, Malaysia, India, France, Taiwan, Spain, Iceland, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Mexico, China, Colombia, Uruguay, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Malta, Italy, Satellite Provider, South Africa.
How to listen to this Podcast:
Click on the iPod icon next to the show title to "stream" the show.
Click on the player to listen to the "most current" Podcast.
OR make it simple and subscribe via iTunes, which makes it very easy.
To download the MP3 audio file, click on the Direct download link below.
Install iTunes:
In preparation for subscription and playback of the Dharma Podcast, click here to download and install iTunes.
Notification list:
We also suggest you JOIN the notification list. This way you will receive a notice when a new Podcast has been posted.
**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 11th, 2006
Time: 56:15**
Roshi Joan opens the Summer Ango Sesshin with the words to "show up."
She explore the bonds that link us as practitioners. And she reminds practitioners to be present for whatever shows up, be it illness or bliss. She describes sesshin as a ceremony, a rite of passage. She notes that the word ceremony comes from the same root as "cure." We are curing ourselves of our preferential mind. She reminds us that the practice is a pilgrimage, a pilgrimage into the heart. She talks about entrainment, the experience of unity and its relationship to mind training.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
Upcoming Programs
Upaya Zen Center
1404 Cerro Gordo Road
Santa Fe, NM, 87501
Phone: 505-986-8518
Fax: 505-986-8528
upaya@upaya.org
**The Essence of Big Mind August 18-20
Instructor: Genpo Roshi and special concert by Ottmar Liebert**
Ango ends with the Big Mind process, a direct exploration of our true nature. Genpo Roshi draws from over thirty years of Zen teaching and Western therapeutic practices to bring forth a radical technique that can unlock the wisdom of Zen with directness and clarity. The Big Mind process gives one a profound perspective on our great potential to be free. Participants learn to sit with non-seeking mind in its vastness, rather than grasping after the truth. On Saturday evening, renowned musician Ottmar Liebert offers a special concert. Genpo Roshi is Abbot of Kanzeon Zen Center and author of many books on Zen.
Tuition: $190 members; $220 non-members; plus lodging.
**Zen Calligraphy on a Large Scale August 25-27
Instructor: Kazuaki Tanahashi Sensei**
This unusual workshop offers the practice of calligraphy on a large scale, working with big brushes, paper and canvas. The retreat takes place in the temple as well as out-of-doors to accommodate the big scale of the calligraphy and painting. In the tradition of Asian calligraphy, we engage the creative process by reproducing ideograms and paintings from ancient Chinese masterpieces but on a large scale. We interpret these works and explore creativity and how it works in our life as a source of insight and joy. For beginners and seasoned artists. Kazuaki Tanahashi is a master calligrapher, Dogen scholar, and social activist.
Tuition: $190 members; $210 non-members; $50 materials; plus lodging.
**Sustaining the Caregiving Impulse September 2
Instructor: Troy Fernandez**
This one-day retreat/workshop offers insights into the challenges of "empathy fatigue" and practical solutions for those who work with and live in a multicultural context. A powerful step in achieving "oneness" involves reflecting deeply into the "otherness" that exists in our world. Human service workers, teachers, and counselors will acquire the contemplative tools they need to enhance and sustain their ability to nurture others while nurturing themselves. Participants will also leave having established a supportive network of professional and personal friendships. Troy Fernandez is deputy director for the National Hispanic Cultural Center, formerly with the New Mexico Department of Health.
Tuition: $75 members; $100 non-members; includes lunch
As of August 9th, we are now in 42 countries:
USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, Brazil, New Zealand, Belgium, Austria, South Korea, Netherlands, Malaysia, India, France, Taiwan, Spain, Iceland, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Mexico, China, Colombia, Uruguay, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Malta, Italy, Satellite Provider, South Africa.
How to listen to this Podcast:
Click on the
icon next to the show title to "stream" the show.
Click on the player to listen to the "most current" Podcast.
OR make it simple and subscribe via iTunes, which makes it very easy.
To download the MP3 audio file, click on the Direct download link below.
Install iTunes:
In preparation for subscription and playback of the Dharma Podcast, click here to download and install iTunes.
Notification list:
We also suggest you JOIN the notification list. This way you will receive a notice when a new Podcast has been posted.
**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, July 26th, 2006
Time: 1:05:11**
Roshi Joan Halifax opens the talk with a quote from Carl Jung on making conscious the dark. She goes on to explore through dharma, story, and poetry the perspectives in Buddhism and shamanism that open through the experience of "turning inward." She illustrates this in the beginning of the talk with the story of Torani, the Earth Goddess, whom the Buddha called upon when he fell into doubt. She bore witness to his awakening. She describes the earth-touching mudra, the commitment to ask to be witnessed, and the Earth Goddess' washing away Mara's aggression and doubt by squeezing her hair which was filled with the water of all the Buddha's many lifetimes of blessings bestowed. She explores the story in relation to the function of the anima in practice, and then goes into some of the fundamental aspects of Buddhism and indigenous perspectives that are shared.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
As of August 9th, we are now in 42 countries:
USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, Brazil, New Zealand, Belgium, Austria, South Korea, Netherlands, Malaysia, India, France, Taiwan, Spain, Iceland, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Mexico, China, Colombia, Uruguay, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Malta, Italy, Satellite Provider, South Africa.
How to listen to this Podcast:
Click on the
icon next to the show title to "stream" the show.
Click on the player to listen to the "most current" Podcast.
OR make it simple and subscribe via iTunes, which makes it very easy.
To download the MP3 audio file, click on the Direct download link below.
Install iTunes:
In preparation for subscription and playback of the Dharma Podcast, click here to download and install iTunes.
Notification list:
We also suggest you JOIN the notification list. This way you will receive a notice when a new Podcast has been posted.
**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 4th, 2006
Sunday morning
session from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha"
Time: 58:20**
Stephen begins his talk with an exploration of the "sublime" which he sees as an experience of the fascinating which can also be somewhat terrifying! Poetry can reveal to us this sense of the sublime by taking us beyond the strictly representational.
The effect of being on pilgrimage is beyond what can be explained intellectually, the simple act of putting ones feet on the same ground as the Buddha inspires a sense of devotion. Stephen described the early statues that existed at the time of the Buddha and for some time following his death, their simplicity i.e. foot prints, and an empty seat, speak to one in a very different way from the ornate iconography that followed. Stephen feels that in the west we are slowly moving towards developing an iconography arising out of our own culture.
Stephen provides a description of the Eight Fold Path which he feels is shorthand for the practice of our lives.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
How to listen to this Podcast:
Click on the
icon next to the show title to "stream" the show.
Click on the player to listen to the "most current" Podcast.
OR make it simple and subscribe via iTunes, which makes it very easy.
To download the MP3 audio file, click on the Direct download link below.
Install iTunes:
In preparation for subscription and playback of the Dharma Podcast, click here to download and install iTunes.
Notification list:
We also suggest you JOIN the notification list. This way you will receive a notice when a new Podcast has been posted.
**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 4th, 2006
Sunday morning
session from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha"
Time: 1:05:20**
Stephen begins his talk with an exploration of the "sublime" which he sees as an experience of the fascinating which can also be somewhat terrifying! Poetry can reveal to us this sense of the sublime by taking us beyond the strictly representational.
The effect of being on pilgrimage is beyond what can be explained intellectually, the simple act of putting ones feet on the same ground as the Buddha inspires a sense of devotion. Stephen described the early statues that existed at the time of the Buddha and for some time following his death, their simplicity i.e. foot prints, and an empty seat, speak to one in a very different way from the ornate iconography that followed. Stephen feels that in the west we are slowly moving towards developing an iconography arising out of our own culture.
Stephen provides a description of the Eight Fold Path which he feels is shorthand for the practice of our lives.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
EMAIL Upaya
JOIN our notification list
Dharma Podcast site
Upaya Zen Center
Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Kazuaki Tanahashi's web site Brush Mind
Stephen Batchelor
How to listen to this Podcast:
Click on the
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**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 3rd, 2006
Saturday Evening
Session from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha"
Time: 1:25:54**
Stephen discusses how ideas, beliefs and views find form in the form, using the medium of art from both the Christian and Buddhist traditions. Using the teachings of the "Three bodies of the Buddha" Stephen argues that awaking is not adequately understood until it has found a concrete expression in the world, moving from the realm of the formless to the realm of form. The process of awakening is illustrated using the story of the Buddha's own awakening and his eventual decision to share his experience.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
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Stephen Batchelor
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**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 3rd, 2006
Saturday Afternoon
Sessions from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha"
Time: 1:12:15**
Stephen explores and describes the different types of meditation practices available. He goes on to describe the differences between an intellectual understanding of them and a complete embodiment of the practice both on the cushion and in daily life.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
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**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 3rd, 2006
Saturday Morning
Session from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha"
Time: 1:06:55**
Making reference to the canonical texts, going back to the source, Stephen explores the life long relationship between Mara and the Buddha, using material that has been largely overlooked. He begins to draw out the historical pattern of duality that appears to exist between good and evil, God and Satan, Buddha and Mara. Though this process of reduction there is a failure to grasp the slippery living process of life itself.
Stephen explores how the different ways of viewing Buddha is as a human being or as a perfect omnipotent being, will influence how we view Mara and what it means to "conquer" him. Stephen expands his arguments to include an evolutionary biological exploration of what it means to "survive" as a human race.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
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**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 2nd, 2006
Evening Session from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha"
Time: 52:25**
As humans we appear to have the tendency to go beyond and outside of ourselves, to rely on something or someone external to us for our salvation. However, the Buddha suggested that our true experience arises out of our relationship with the material, messy, contingent world
The Buddha acknowledged that we seem to possess an innate need to split things off from each other, to continually live in a world of duality. Stephen describes the Buddha's method of devising "lists" as a move away from a dualistic perception of the world by breaking things up into ever increasing categories.
Stephen quotes Luther as an example of a person who entered into his own relationship with god, without the intervention of an intermediary. He said "No" to a distant omnipotent authority figure, and brought power back into the lives of ordinary people.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
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**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 2nd, 2006
Afternoon Sessions from
"A Retreat on the Secular Buddha"
Time: 1:07:30**
Using the teachings of the Satipattana Sutta, Stephen invites us to begin to develop awareness that can lead to an understanding of what we are experiencing moment by moment. Returning again to a realization of contingency and the inevitable arising and passing of all phenomena.
Many of us are able to present a narrative of our daily actions in terms of what stood out for us during the day, which Stephen calls Islands of Awareness rising above the surface of our lack of consciousness. However, as the practice of awareness deepens we begin to see how compulsively adrift we are much of the time.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
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**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 2nd, 2006
Time: 1:12:16**
Morning Session
Stephen began to lay out for us his view of the Secular Buddha where dharma practice is primarily concerned with this world, as the focus for our love, compassion and enquiry.
He continues this exploration with an explanation of his view of contingency - dependent origination, everything in this world is a condition that brings about something else. Stephen locates the Buddha's teachings within the spiritual culture of his time, with references from the Upanishads, and with an introduction to the work of Nagarjuna. We are invited to consider these different historical perspectives on the "self" and our relationship with it.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
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**Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 1st, 2006
57 minutes**
Opening the retreat, Stephen Batchelor opens the retreat with the importance of considering study as practice. He suggests that we call this exploration "beginning all over again." We need to go back to that place that is beyond limitations, to leave the palace walls as did the Buddha, so that we can pose questions about existence; ie, to go to the place where all traditions begin. We might explore perplexity (doubt), a form of questioning that is not concerned with a scholarly answer, but a way for our practice to resonate with an existential pitch. To question with the marrow of one's bones, with the pores of one's skin this life here and now.
A Retreat on the Secular Buddha, June 1st - 4th, 2006
Is it possible to imagine a Buddhist theory and practice that is grounded in tradition while renouncing the traditional Indian metaphysics of karma and rebirth? This retreat led by the brilliant scholar and meditation teacher Stephen Batchelor explores the possibility of a Buddhism whose primary focus is this world alone: both as it is now and how it will be after our deaths. We study materials from the Pali canon, Nagarjuna and other Buddhist teachers, as well as contemporary writers in both the arts and sciences. Lively discussions of exploration are held within the context of silent meditation practices drawn from the Theravada and Zen traditions. This is a rare opportunity to be engaged by one of the great revolutionary Buddhists of our time. Stephen Batchelor, trained as a monk in the Tibetan Geluk and Korean Zen traditions, teaches Buddhist philosophy and meditation worldwide. His most recent publication is
Living with the Devil: A Meditation on Good and Evil.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
LINKS
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Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 23rd, 2005
Scholar Kazuaki Tanahashi speaks about the Bodhisattva Manjushri following practices to complete "pure practice of body/speech/mind." He then explores the word "vow" and the importance of good intentions in our lives and our practice.
Roshi Joan Halifax explores the theme of compassion, through the inflections of the Bodhisattvas. Roshi mentions Samantabadra, the Bodhisattva of Effective Action. She goes over the eight vows of Samantabadra in Chapter 40 of the Avatamsaka Sutra. The image of the Bodhisattva opens up the active aspect of practice.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
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Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 20th, 2005
1 hour, 0 minutes
The scholar Kazuaki Tanahashi introduces us to the Avatamsaka Sutra, the great Mahayana Sutra bringing forth the Buddha's enlightenment. Roshi Joan Halifax explores the Sutra in relation to our experience of practice and our realizations through practice. She speaks of the Avatamsaka world as a world of unselfishness. She then explores nonduality, love, flow of mind/body as the enlightenment of the Buddha.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in our Podcasts.
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Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, December 6th, 2005.
1 hour, 5 minutes
Scholar Kazuaki Tanahashi gives background on the dates of Buddha's life. Then Roshi Joan Halifax gives a talk on the final events of the life of the Buddha, a life that appears to have been much more difficult than legend leads us to believe.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music and bells used in most of our Podcasts.
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Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, December 4th, 2005.
1 hour, 12 minutes
This dharma talk begins with a short exposition by Kazuaki Tanahashi. Then Roshi Joan Halifax explores the Buddha's relationship with Mara. She asks retreat participants what is their mara, their devil. She gives the account of Buddha's encounter with Mara under the Bo tree. She makes the point that Mara is a state of mind that is characterized by limitation, our urge to make our lives predictable and safe. She completes this talk with the truth that awakening and practice cannot be separated.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of his music and bells used in our Podcast.
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Recorded at Upaya Zen Center January 5th, 2005 Roshi Joan Halifax begins her talk on koans with a note from R. H. Blythe, who said that Zen is poetry. Roshi then goes on to explore koan practice, as intimate and out of our patterned way of thinking and doing. She then presents the life of Zen Master Joshu, who taught with few words. His famous koan "Does a dog have Buddha nature?" is unpacked in this talk. She looks at Mu as the field of possibility.
We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of his music and bells used in our Podcast.
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Negra
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Recorded at Upaya Zen Center January 25th, 2006. In this talk, Roshi Joan explores shamanism in relation to Buddhism. She touches on the psycho-mental crisis of the shaman and the importance of the perspective of indigenous spiritual traditions in our world today. She looks at shamanism and Buddhism as two complimentary perspectives that can help give us great depth as we face global challenges, both social and environmental.
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Recorded at Upaya Wednesday, January 18th, 2006 1. The faculty of conviction (suddh)
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The faculty of persistence (virya) - pronounced as "veerr-ya"
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The faculty of mindfulness (sati) - pronounced as "sathi"
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The faculty of concentration (samadhi) - pronounced as "samaadhi"
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The faculty of discernment (panna)) - pronounced as "pangnya" indriya,
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Recorded at Upaya Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006. This talk by Roshi Joan Halifax looks at the four practices in Zen: zazen (sitting meditation), teisho (teachings), dokusan (interviews), and samu (work practice). She then concentrates her talk on an exploration of work practice. She notes that our spiritual practice does not function in isolation. It must translate into the activity of living and working in our daily everyday lives. A daily caretaking period and formal work practice offer the opportunity to explore labor that is nourishing to ourselves and others. Samu provides a way of taking one's practice off the cushion into one's daily life. Samu practice is not a substitute for sitting meditation. It is rather the extension of meditation to its function. Samu and sitting meditation are therefore highly interrelated and interdependent. She then explores the koan "Sweeping the Ground."In this talk, Roshi Joan explores samu, work practice. She begins her talk with an amusing story about the calligrapher Kazuaki Tanahashi and his humbleness, and Brother David Steindl-Rast and his "nothing extra" way of being. She speaks of the appreciation of the differences, the importance of diversity, as well as the appreciation of the ancestral continuity of the Zen Buddhism that is practiced at Upaya. Roshi then drops into her theme, the richness of work practice and opens this wonderful subject for all of us as she explains how samu supports the monastery as well as our mind.
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