Brooklyn Zen Center Audio Dharma Podcast: Recent Episodes
Brooklyn Zen Center
Audio dharma talks from the Brooklyn Zen Center.
Our programs are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website at brooklynzen.org.
Even when there is really clear awakening, that awakening is useless until it’s turned toward suffering.
What I don’t look at, what I will not face, runs my life. From a bodhisattva perspective, denial is a disaster.
We are trying to wake up to that activity of how grasping creates the sense of self that we think we need to walk through life.
We do want people to be able to be whole, to live the full expressions of their lives, to be able to have choices about what happens. And to be able to be free in a collective way of freedom where freedom means we are caring for one another.
If we do not view and respond to every human being as a tender, vulnerable body deserving of our love, we are wrong.
Who am I in the midst of this fleeting life? How can I use myself? How can we all use ourselves? Because we are so special, each of us…
The dharma gives us the possibility to love the world and ourselves and one another. And also opens us to a further possibility of healing, of actually leaving the planet better than we found it. Like when we go camping, you know?
It is really important where we put our attention—that is our power. That is what we’re cultivating in our spiritual discipline. Do we know where we’re putting our attention? Because we do have to choose.
What do we rely on when we lose or are threatened by the loss of what we believe is critical for our well-being?
We can endeavor together in cultivating that reverence and that clarity—in the midst of the darkness—to orient.
We don’t know that we have a choice—we can choose to be kind, we can choose the path of kindness.
So much of the harm that happens in the world is because people have not been supported to digest the pain that they have inherited, or have experienced, or carry.
There are moments of disappointment and there are moments of unmet love and there are moments of loss, and these are all part of the pilgrimage and part of any real path.
We are not going to escape our karma somehow by leaving it in a storage space here [in the city] and going to the monastery [in the mountains].
“The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation”—it’s not a technique, a tool, it’s not something we do. It’s a living thing. It’s awakening. It’s Buddha’s sitting.
I take seriously this mandate from the Buddha that we don’t hide from death and we don’t hide from illness.
To carry the self forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forward and actualize the self is awakening.
When we practice together as a sangha, this is a refuge we can take—to recognize that all our ancestors are in this room, literally, right now.
Xin Xin Ming: A Reflection of the Cosmos My fear is not a failure. It’s some part that hasn’t learned to trust yet. It’s just there. And it’s not self-generating. It’s arising out of what I feel to be generations.
Xin Xin Ming: Using Mind to Cultivate Mind We are creating a fantasy to wake up from fantasy. We are creating a witness to wake up from the unconscious self-indulgence that is the human mind.
Xin Xin Ming: Reversing the Light Reversing the light is looking. It is Xin being conscious of who we are, of what’s arising, of what’s going on. It is the clarity of the witnessing of our being.
Those of us who come to this practice, we set aside a lot of time to practice, to try to tame our brains, to try bringing ourselves with some kind of alignment with the universe and emptiness, to try to find the source of our true Buddha nature – not even knowing what it looks … Audio dharma talk by Chimyo Atkison (2022/07/16) Read More »
Our relationship to our ancestors is complicated because we may have ancestors that engaged in violence, we may ancestors where one group of the ancestors actually treated the other group of the ancestors badly. We may have difficulty honoring ancestors, even though they have given us everything.
We have to take seriously the vows of the precepts, we have to speak them often – again and again.
When we return to our breath one of the things we are doing is we are returning to our relationship with all things.
Bring your attention to your heart area. How does it feel, to give, this moment, to ourselves, completely to ourselves? Wherever you are, with your thoughts and feelings, painful or joyous… how is it to give, completely, to what we are feeling at this time?
For Dogen, that dropping away of body and mind that he considers awakening, is the dropping away of that center of experience.
It is often spoken about that this meditation, this sitting, is a practice to meet our own death.
I have seen this happen, when some tinny little thing will happen in my relationship and the intensity of the response is so tremendous because it is connected to a whole stream of unforgiven, unnamed, unfelt pain.
How do we live in this world? From where do we respond? Are we in touch enough with the place of the heart so that we can speak to a roommate that is difficult for us from a place of openness, from a place from where we don’t disconnect?
How do we get back in contact with those possibilities for us to live in a playful, creative, connected, curious, courageous way?
Maybe we don’t want to even recognize that we are in pain. We are still refusing to recognize how much we are all in pain and how much the world is in pain. But when we can begin to hear the pain that is being expressed through our bodies, we begin to melt, we begin … Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: rohatsu sesshin day 2 (2021/12/09) Read More »
What is at stake? What is at stake for ourselves? What is at stake in my life? What is at stake when I resist? What is at stake when I insist on separation? What is at stake when I don’t know what to do? What is at stake when I am confusing myself purposely? All … Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: rohatsu sesshin day 1 (2021/12/08) Read More »
We are afraid to break open, afraid to cry. And that is exactly what my invitation is. Go hear stories, be in community. It’s not just about right and wrong and seing our responsibility. It’s about grief.
As our lives come into being, as we become, we learn about sickness, old age and death. It becomes life, loss, gain, or what we see as gain and loss. And what we do with it, in terms of how we create our own suffering from those changes that happen, from the life that happens.
We can’t acknowledge impermanence in the world if we can’t acknowledge it in ourselves. And it’s frightening.
We trip, we fall, and we look to see what did we just trip over. What was the cause of the mistake? We try to learn from what just happened. That is the most important thing. We are not about being perfect. We are about being awake.
Everyone is doing their best, even when we make terrible mistakes. I think that people who do things that are cruel and senseless, the conditioning that they had to endure in order to do those kinds of things is tragic. Not to say that they are not responsible. They are responsible. But there are reasons.
Reverends Konjin Gaelyn Godwin and Taiga Ito visited Ancestral Heart Zen Monastery last September and gave a presentation on Soto Zen International’s mission and its alignment with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The 17 Goals address the broadest range of issues: from poverty and inequity to the health of the oceans and forests. … Audio dharma by Konjin Gaelyn Roshi and Taiga Sensei (2021/09/28) Read More »
We show up for each other, we show up as a community. We have to understand at some level sangha in some ways does not work unless we understand that our showing up is not for ourselves – but it is for the whole of the sangha.
Zazen is a way I would offer to open to relationality and to open to spaciousness in a full life.
The combination of precepts and community practice allows us to take refuge in a new relational orientation to the world, to others, to the Earth. And it entails of course vulnerability, literally opening the heart to something mysterious, to another person who I can’t completely know, to a context where I can only see my … Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2021/07/17) Read More »
You have to just stay on the path and keep walking it through all the conditions that will be in our lives. And it’s not a seeking of an end, of a prize, of some attaining. You just have to let those things go and keep going step by step.
A Bodhisattva knows that going into every situation is walking into a completely different world. And in that completely different world we have to have stillness of mind and presence to receive that world fully, so that we can then respond to that world. But we can’t respond to that world until we build the … Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2021/06/20) Read More »
Our being in the world – and our karmic orientations in everything that is happening – is what makes the world around us what it is.
If all your doing is imitating the form again and again, you’re going to receive benefit. But if you don’t inhabit the form, and the form is not infused into your entire being; if you don’t bring it into your life — the life you’re living outside of the look of your form– then there … Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin and Sally Chang (2021/06/05) Read More »
We vow to uphold these precepts, to live by these precepts. Then we fall away, we fall into hell. But we come back. The vow is vast enough to include this experience. And when we can open up even in the moments when we fall into hell, and meet our pain even for a moment. … Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2021/05/08) Read More »
The flowers, the plants, will communicate to us. But they need our care, our attention, in some way – if we are listening. Or a bowing mat, or a laundry basket. It’s everywhere. And when we are not distracted we are right there with it. And it’s a chance to be in communication with life.
This essence, this emptiness, this vast nothingness – somehow or another there is awareness there. And somehow or another when this awareness comes into form it functions as love. It walks in the world as love. And to me that is what our path is about.
If we do not collectively find clarity and courage to act, there will be large scale catastrophe if not extinction. So the paradox is there is a sense of urgency, but we can not act if we are always in fight, flight, and freeze. So it is like hold on to each other, let’s face … Audio dharma talk by Kritee Kanko (2021/04/10) Read More »
What do we dismiss in ourselves? What do we exile and alienate or say it’s not important? And it could be anything. From “I don’t have a right to feel a sense of loss or grief because these other people have lost so much more.” Or dismissing joy! Dismissing opportunities for connection…
The whole process must return to the source. Just like a baby taking to it’s mother. Just how natural that is that we all have a mother. How natural that is that we come from our ancestors. How natural that is that things sprout from roots into leaves. We can take refuge in the roots, … Audio dharma talk by Yoko Ohashi (2021/03/27) Read More »
How do we cultivate a present, an awake, and flexible mind? Because that’s the response. It’s not to come with some other persona to the world that is different, or opposite then the one we had before. But to drop the one we had before, and allow for nothing to be there. Allow for there … Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2021/03/21) Read More »
Zen’s focus on posture is very helpful and very wise. Because it is getting to something we don’t know how to get to on our own. Until we sit down and take a shape we are not accustomed to, we will always take the shapes we are accustomed to. And as long as we take … Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2021/03/20) Read More »
Are we going to embolden white supremacy or are we going to embolden healing and transformation?
When we come together in these spaces [physical zendo], our spaces for zazen are going to look very different. Here’s the opportunity to drop all the assumptions and, with beginner’s mind, come together at that altar and just pass incense and let go of those ideas of who is doing what.
If we think of all of these as training — meditation, the precepts, the realization of our interconnectedness and enmeshment in sangha — that begs the question: what are we being trained for? What are we being trained to do?
Everything moves like the breath. Everything in the world is like the breath. It exists for a moment and then it’s gone. It’s full of impermanence, we can’t find it. It’s sometimes subtle, sometimes clear, sometimes hazed over, sometimes lost to us, sometimes the only thing that is.
Attuning to the body – more and more I feel for myself and I see it in my own experience and I hear it reflected from so many different places – when we attune to our body is an amazingly transgressive thing. Particularly in this country, I would say. Particularly if we have been really … Audio dharma talk by Sarah Dōjin Emerson (2021/02/20) Read More »
How do we work through our pain, through our numbness? How do we regain a sense of aliveness?
Let’s all care for the grasping of our minds. Let’s listen for the silence of the Earth with our whole bodies. And let’s care for the relationships that are our lives.
To be able to free other beings, what we do is we actually just free them in our minds.
My hope is that, as a community, we can support each other in the ongoing work of not turning away. That we can enter into a relationship with our own suffering, so that an appropriate response can be articulated.
We are all in a process of integration. What is the practice in relationship to everything that has happened? What are we in relationship to each other? What are the views that were in the sangha that needed to die? The ideas about who we were that needed to die?
The universe isn’t simply happening, the dharma wheel isn’t simply turning. The Buddha’s words turned the dharma wheel. The dharma wheel turns because it is both an eternal truth and turns, but also turns because human activity, acting out the dharma, is turning it. And both those things are happening simultaneously.
It’s wonderful how life works – there is an insistent disruption to any superficial harmony we make. We think we got it all just about right. And then something suddenly appears.
Openness requires the heart and the mind. Openness requires the mind to not be grasping. Openness requires the heart to be present, to feel, to make space for.
Often we feel the need to create our own shell, with our muscles, with our bodies, with our actions. But when awe are offered a container safe enough – a protective container – we can begin to release and let go of the shell, let go of the hardening of our muscles, of our ideas … Audio dharma by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/12/10): 2020 Rohatsu Sesshin Day 2 Read More »
We are sitting at the center of the ten directions of this Earth, we are sitting at the center of the dharma wheel, we are sitting at the center of the spinning cycle of samsara. We are sitting at the center of them all and allowing the dharma to arise, allowing the dharma to be … Audi dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2020/12/09)2020: Rohatsu Sesshin Day 1 Read More »
Stillness manifests as care. […] I am talking about stillness with my karmic mind, with my conditioning. So, my conditioning rises up and there’s a choice to be propelled by it or to stop and see it.
This darkness, this mystery of who we are, and how we are together, and how we are being influenced all the time, is to be honored and to be listened to, and is necessary for our wholeness.
In the way of the Buddha, karma is always in the background. It’s like the little key that unlocks all these teachings. When you kind of understand that, as I’m sure many of you do, when we understand that karma is such an important teaching, it unlocks all these teachings. This is the teaching of … Dharma talk by Gaelyn Godwin and Taiga Ito (2020/11/07) Read More »
[We can think of] these arising traumas, these beings as I like to think of them, as survival strategies of our ancestors. So fear, anxiety, anger, rage, or joy – these are blood memories. And we all have them, we all carry them. And if we can open them up, see and work with them, … Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/10/31) Read More »
Practice is taking that step time and time again and slamming again and again into the reality that the world is not built for me, around me, by me alone. That my story is just that – a story. And that there is a reality that I am a part of, that other beings are … Dharma talk by Chimyo Atkinson (2020/10/24) Read More »
We are in a time where being able to take refuge in each other, being of service to each other, being a community that can rely on each other – this is something that we put forward, and that we understand that zazen is certainly important, our ritual practice is certainly important. But our sangha … Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Sesshin Day 3 (2020/10/18) Read More »
If you look deeply at where the body ends, you can’t find an end to it. That is how much we are not separated from anything. So this idea of separation is an illusion, it’s a inaccurate way of perceiving.
The freedom will be in the allowance of the arising, not in the arrangement of the arising.
In whatever way Buddhas are directing their attention, their abiding and dwelling happens there.
Sometimes that Buddha ancestral connection is represented between a teacher and a student – which Dogen talks a lot about – but it can be represented by our relationship to the Buddhas and ancestors we don’t see right in front of us, that we know came before us. And so we speak to them about … Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2020/10/03) Read More »
This practice, this way of understanding, this way of knowing, is crafted in such a way that we have access to freedom in each and every moment of our waking hours. The freedom that I am speaking to is the freedom from the conditioning, the freedom from being reactivated in response to conditions or persons … Dharma talk by DaRa Williams (2020/09/20) Read More »
It starts to become really clear that […] responding to the difficulties of our lives often requires the energy of others. That being with others, our daily routine that we take for granted, is often the way we gather the strength and energy to meet our lives.
In the knowing that needs no words, the entire reality of the thinking mind is called into question.
The ceremony of zazen is a ceremony of non-separation. It’s our intention to sit down and be with everything. This is how we start working with those many moments of painful separation, of harm enacted upon us, or that we have enacted upon another – all the vulnerability of our humanness.
We all, just like Siddhartha Gautama did, run back to the palace for a bit. We learn about the suffering of the world, we feel it, we run back to the palace. We come out again, we feel it, we run back to the palace. Until we come out enough that we decide: “Ok, I … Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Sesshin Day 1 (2020/08/14) Read More »
We are being confronted with the amplification of centuries of historic pain that just seems to want to be acknowledged, demanding our attention, demanding we reckon with it.
All I can do is cultivate conditions that are conducive for a vow to emerge. […] Vow is not something I generate out of my own power. It’s something that happens in community and relationship with others and through a practice that cultivates the conditions for it to emerge.
I have been thinking about waking up in the morning and going to sleep at night. It’s my first vow of the day to liberate all beings and it’s my last thought at the end of the day to vow to liberate all beings? And can I try to encourage that in myself? […] Because … Audio dharma by Kosen Greg Snyder (2020/07/11) Read More »
We are a very small circle of water. We are not complete. The truth or liberation comes from all the truth manifesting, just like the plum trees – southern branch and northern branch. As they are. As we all are.
So when we sit in zazen, our karmic patterns come up. And we have an opportunity to see them and to not act on them, to let them fall away. So in that sense we acknowledge them, we see them and in that moment of acknowledging we can take responsibility. So it is a two-part … Audio dharma by Ian Case (2020/06/20) Read More »
How can we become a community that fosters awakening to these systems of harm, in our bodies and between us? I want to understand how we can go beyond a fragile superficial harmony in our community to be a better community, to be truly anti-racist. To tear apart what we have to tear apart, to … Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/06/06) Read More »
I would like to mention a practice I learned from Dr. T. (a professor at Union Theological Seminary), that he termed the “hospitality of receiving.” […] In this practice, it is possible to meet one another with an attitude of openness and humility, as opposed to a colonialist mode of domination or appropriation. […] That … Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2020/05/16) Read More »
There’s always been suffering in the world – nothing new. But these days, I think, we are given the gift to notice it more. We also have the gift of noting that pretty much everybody in the world is kind of suffering right now. There always are, but we don’t notice it. And now we … Audio dharma talk by Shokuchi Deirdre Carrigan (2020/05/09) Read More »
I would suggest a mind that is awake, and that settles, and that finds love, joy, and ease in precariousness, so that we can be with each other, and love each other, and support each other. In very real, concrete meaningful ways.
I have hope because I think the virus has actually caught our attention. I have hope because it has stopped us in our tracks. I have hope that maybe this time we will rethink our relationship to the Earth, to this living miracle. […] That maybe we can live in gratitude for this gift of … Audio dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2020/04/25) Read More »
This teaching [of impermanence] thrusts us into realization. Most of us may think of impermanence as something that is solid for a while and then it decays and goes away. We think of impermanence as a kind of temporary permanence. But it isn’t.
For me, over the past three weeks, the request and the challenge has been how to touch that quality [of stillness, that is our true nature], for ourselves and for others, now that we are all apart.
How to live in a world in a situation that is difficult and remain steady and grounded in the deepest way that we can, which is silence and stillness?
My deep gratitude for the many people taking care of those who are suffering. Boundless gratitude. And for all the people who are courageously keeping the basic functioning of our city going. Of course, the medical workers who take care of the sick, the people who drive the ambulances, the truckers who are delivering us … Dharma talk by Shokuchi Deirdre Carrigan (2020/03/28) Read More »
Resisting reality is a mistake. Because reality will win. No matter what that reality is. It’s safer and better to face whatever is happening with as clear a mind as you can possibly muster. And it’s from there that we respond to the world. This is an updated podcast version of the dharma talk offered … Dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2020/03/21) – updated Read More »
Resisting reality is a mistake. Because reality will win. No matter what that reality is. It’s safer and better to face whatever is happening with as clear a mind as you can possibly muster. And it’s from there that we respond to the world.
It’s really good if you can live without time. Don’t think there is a tomorrow that is going to be better. That you are going to fix something tomorrow, that it will be nice tomorrow. There is no tomorrow.
For me the most powerful things the vows do are because of their impossible nature — they are humbling. They have a kind of leveling effect. In the face of this impossible vow, I’m one person in a community. So there is an aspect of confession in that vow, of acknowledging our humanness and our … Audio dharma by Ian Case (2020/02/29) Read More »
One day you may be serving food. One day you may be ringing a bell. It’s all the same. It’s all about doing that practice together with intention and with, dare we say, love. And it’s about getting in each other’s way. And it’s about knowing when to move. And knowing when to say the … Audio dharma talk by Chimyo Atkinson (2020/02/22) Read More »
Along with dukkha and the dust of our delusion, there is love and kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. And this is where our Zen practice really begins.
We are doing this work of undoing, which is not easy. It’s really having this courage to go into places that you actually don’t want to see. A lot of times we don’t want to see how we oppress others. We don’t want to see how we oppress ourselves. Gender wise, or it could be … Audio dharma talk by Yoko Ohashi (2020/02/15) Read More »
There is a teaching in Buddhism called Buddha nature, which is such a loving and encouraging teaching, which says – my words – that love is a potentiality and a realizable force. Even if we feel a thousand miles away from it, it’s there. It’s available, we can return to it and live it!
[The Dharma] is always between us. It is always the conversation that is happening even when we’re silent. It is going on between us; that is where the Dharma always lives. Even when we’re at home in our apartments and we’re not next to each other, the Dharma is being expressed between us, and throughout … Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Rohatsu Day 5 (12/15/2019) Read More »
On the forth day of Rohatsu there’s an effort, an energy that is coursing through the zendo. But it is no longer our energy or our effort. We are all sharing it. So I think that is something we can enjoy and can rest in. Oryoki has become this dual choreography of giving and receiving. … Dharma talk by Ian Case: Rohatsu Day 4 (12/14/2019) Read More »
That’s where we live in zazen. We are grounding ourselves fully in the mud. We are not trying to clean it up. If we try to clean it up, we will kill life. We will kill the possibility of meeting ourselves and each other in ways that will clarify our karma, and clarify our conditioning.
It could be confusing when we hear that instruction: the middle way between gentleness and discipline. As if we’re trying to find some quality that’s halfway between discipline and gentleness. That’s kind of a watered down discipline, or an insincere gentleness. And I don’t think that’s what’s meant by that instruction. The middle way between … Dharma talk by Ian Case: Rohatsu Day 2 (12/12/2019) Read More »
What would it be [like] this week to be completely devoted to the infinities that are sitting with us everywhere. To the mothers of our being that are sitting with us everywhere as dishes, as people, as prostrations, as clocks, as thoughts, as moods, as knee pain – whatever they are. However they’re showing up, … Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Rohatsu Day 1 (12/11/2019) Read More »
In the sensation of the low-grade heartbreak there is gratitude, appreciation, grief and sadness. How can I cultivate the space in my life for a low-grade heartache, that I think is necessary to engage in Bodhisattvic activity? It’s an uplifting grief that sustains us and that can keep us in the game.
The buddha didn’t talk about evil, but he did about talk what are sometimes called the three roots of evil …. greed, ill-will, delusion. And again historically those have been understood individually. We work on them individually ourselves and we help other people work on them, but I think what’s become clear in the last … Ecodharma: a new Buddhist path? – Dharma talk by David Loy (11/10/2019) Read More »
My experience in the undoing patriarchy group very much affirms that for me – that we come together to create a space where we can talk about how we harm, how we are harmed, share stories of brokenness. And the sharing of it reveals a wholeness there, a healing. And when that’s set in motion, … Dharma talk by Ian Case (10/26/2019) Read More »
The only thing that we can do is to keep the precepts and the bodhisattva vows and the refuges as measures of the heart. They can’t be measures of the intellect. They’re impossible for the intellect.
There is nothing for a bodhisattva that is not worthy of our devotion. But not everything is worthy of our refuge. And understanding the difference between devotion and refuge is central to our liberation.
I think that this gender work is very important for us, it’s a real big doorway, and very deep.
Especially in practice, we talk about “being present,” as if it’s this kind of lovely pool of water that we can swim in, and relax and enjoy. But often it’s like a confrontation with experience, with reality, that stirs us up. And I love this part where it says it’s waiting and enduring, kind of … Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (10/02/2019) Read More »
What is it to be vulnerable enough to express those different needs [of sangha members] and what is it to be vulnerable enough to be there for their expression? To slow down enough. We can’t always meet them, at least not in the whole way they eventually need to be met, but we can show … Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (09/07/2019) Read More »
Buddha activity is accepting that this conversation may never end, the conversation with evil. It isn’t just accepting it. It’s accepting working with it, it’s accepting responding to it appropriately.
Letting go – real letting go – is letting go that doesn’t abandon the pain. It’s being there completely with it and, through that complete compassion with it, pain is released, without being abandoned, or exiled or tampered with. Compassion respects pain, right now, the way it is. It lets it be. It doesn’t touch … Audio dharma by Tenshin Reb Anderson (2019/06/22) Read More »
We are being called to compassion. Everybody is calling us to compassion. All the phenomena within our own mind are calling for compassion.
Buddha activity is a pivotal activity. The pivotal activity of Buddhas can be called zazen. […] It’s the way Buddha or Great Awakening is pivoting with all living beings.
When you sit you could remember the story that the Buddha ascended the seat. Because when you are sitting, you are also ascending a seat, or “the” seat. Could your activity, when you ascend the seat, be Buddha activity? Have your heard about Buddha activity not reaching your seat? I never heard that the Buddha’s … Dharma talk by Tenshin Reb Anderson (06/19/2019) Read More »
When we come close together and listen to each other’s karma and to our own karma, and it’s difficult – what do we do? […] How do we know how much is mine and how much is yours? How do we discern that? Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible … Dharma talk with Yoko Ohashi (04/20/2019) Read More »
One of the ways that I find it easier to navigate this world is to think that this stuff is not just mine. Our bodies and our histories are coming through us. They are not just mine, starting with the birth of me and ending the death of me. It’s not personal. Our audio dharma … Dharma talk with Laura O’Loughlin (04/06/2019) Read More »
On Wednesday night we had our full moon ceremony. It’s a way for us to feel ourselves as energetic bodies, connecting to something beyond our individuality. In this full moon ceremony we renounce our karma, we confess our karma and we wish for ourselves to live in alignment with the precepts, with a way of … Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (03/23/2019) Read More »
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
We are recognizing here with this Hotsuganmon [sutra by Eihei Dogen] that we don’t exist by ourselves We thought that the self existed right here, but actually it feels like that life is connected. That we all are affecting each other every moment, that nothing is perfect or permanent. Our audio dharma talks are offered free … Difficult Conversations on Race, by Yoko Ohashi (02/23/2019) Read More »
Talk offered by teachers Laura O’Loughlin and Sebene Salassie during a two-day retreat at Brooklyn Zen Center. The retreat, Reclaiming the Feminine in Our Practice, included silent and relational practices in stillness and in movement to explore the impact of patriarchy on our bodies, minds and hearts and what it means to reclaim the feminine … Reclaiming the Feminine in Our Practice (02/02/2019) Read More »
We are a conversation. Each one of us is a conversation – a conversation between all kinds of ways of conditioning, trying to talk its way into wise ways of being in the world. […] Healing happens in conversation. If we are trying to get people to do what we do, there’s no conversation. Our … Dharma talk with Greg Snyder (01/26/2019) Read More »
I encourage that with each other, with the world, with our social and political systems, with everything that Dr. King pointed to, that we ask the question: “What is being just here?” Both here, in this moment, and what is being just here [in the world]. Because, ultimately, they cannot be understood without each other. … Martin Luther King day: Cultivating Bodhisattva Effort Until Death, by Greg Snyder (01/19/2019) Read More »
2018 Rohatsu Sesshin – Day 5 Take care of yourself when you go back outside [at the end of sesshin] because you are more raw then you think you are. And here you are around a bunch of raw people so you can’t even tell. And then you walk out and whoosh – there it … Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: The Will to Change (12/16/2019) Read More »
2018 Rohatsu Sesshin – Day 4 Equanimity is that feeling of what patience feels like, what understudying feels like. It’s very energetic actually. Sometimes people misunderstand equanimity, they think it’s like this evenness, like nothing is bothering them, there’s this unaffectedness. That’s not my experience of equanimity and I imagine you feel this too. It’s … Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: Equanimity (12/15/2018) Read More »
2018 Rohatsu Sesshin – Day 3 Someone hands us a broom and we take it. We don’t go through all the reasons why we don’t want the broom right then and then. Because, really, who cares wether I want the broom at that moment or not. It’s not to say I still don’t argue. I … Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Being of Service (12/14/2018) Read More »
2018 Rohatsu Sesshin – Day 2 You can all be visited by your demons in the middle of the night, in a period of zazen. They will come and find you. They are doing their part in helping you to wake up. So, can you relax with them? Can you welcome then? Can you play … Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: Hindrances (12/13/2018) Read More »
2018 Rohatsu Sesshin – Day 1 In the history of Buddhism, the location of working with karma is not only one’s self, but the Sangha. The Sangha is always a part of it. There were many people around the Buddha at the time who were practicing moksha practices, or practices of liberation. But the Buddha … Dharma talk with Greg Snyder: The Sangha is the Successor (12/12/2018) Read More »
In Ancient Buddhist cosmology we say that the whole world is created, maintained and sustained by our collective karma. So, we literally are constantly living in a karmic stream of influences. Every moment is a chance for us to either act out our karma or work with our karma in a particular way, from a … Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin, (11/17/2018) Read More »
When we come together and sit, then we are supporting each other. And this is a interesting practice, to think that the person sitting next to me is practicing dying. And that when someone is stuck — we use that word when someone is stuck in their conditioning — that part of that stuckness is … Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2018/11/03) Read More »
We deeply desire to be in accord with the natural functioning of life, with dependent co-arising, with the way things interact and support each other, without these false senses of separation. That is what our heart and our lives desire in the deepest sense.
Sometimes you sit down – or I sit down – because there is fear. But that is still a fearless choice to face your fear, to understand your fear. Bodhisattva can have fear, but does not live from fear. Fear is not the source of Bodhisattva activity.
The Bodhisattva vow of living for the liberation of all beings, even before my own, to raise up in the heart the liberation of all beings — this is the most powerful interrupter and lover of karma. This vow turns everything toward karma.
When we talk about karma, it’s a way of talking about causality or cause and effects, specifically in human life, in human moral life. It’s the effect we cause on the world through our intentions – through our volition, through our will. And the Buddha was clear that when we are looking at the effects … Audio dharma by Kosen Greg Snyder (2018/09/29) Read More »
I like this form of “practice period.” I used to wonder: why do we have to stop? This is great, let’s just keep going. But this period of integration afterwards is actually really important, because it’s when the practice becomes not something out there, but a part of our lives. And also, it’s a great opportunity to see when … Dharma talk by Shokuchi Deirdre Carrigan (09/22/2018) Read More »
It’s important to think about how harmful the word karma can be used. It comes out of a very different time and a very different cosmology than the one we live in right now. It has been misunderstood and also used to justify oppressive social structures. It has been conflated with this idea of faith, … Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin on karma (09/15/2018) Read More »
The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Where is balance? I know from my years of yoga: you can’t hold balance. Balance is found each moment. And the very moment that you feel like you’re falling over, is the moment of balance. When you’re leaning against something or holding onto something…that’s leaning against, or holding on. Balance is this moment right before … Dharma talk by Shokuchi Deirdre Carrigan (06/23/2018) Read More »
When we observe sentient beings with eyes of compassion and that observation becomes whole hearted, each sentient being becomes a door to the Dharma. And when that door opens and we realize what we are being shown that is wisdom. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations … Listening to the Cries of the World (part 4) by Tenshin Reb Anderson (06/17/2018) Read More »
In the observation of each and every living being with eyes of compassion, the door to the true Dharma opens. Observing each and every living being with eyes of compassion is the situation, is the practice, in which the true Dharma is seen, and heard, and maintained. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of … Listening to the Cries of the World (part 3) by Tenshin Reb Anderson (06/16/2018) Read More »
No matter what comes, we welcome it. This is the way of Buddha. Whatever comes, welcome it. No matter how it looks, welcome it. And in fact, in reality, whatever comes you do welcome it. That’s your original nature. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we … Listening to the Cries of the World (part 2) by Tenshin Reb Anderson (06/15/2018) Read More »
Each of us has the job of being the person that the universe makes us and doing that completely involves listening to the cries of the world. I can’t be fully me without listening to everybody else. Because everybody else is included in me. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made … Listening to the Cries of the World (part 1) by Tenshin Reb Anderson (06/14/2018) Read More »
Dharma talk offered by Laura O’Loughin during the one-day sit at Brooklyn Zen Center on May 19, 2018. Compassion, as we practice it in Buddhism, is the most radical act a human being can do – as well as the most natural. […] In Buddhism […] we say that our natural state of being is … Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: Cultivating the Great Compassion of Zen (05/19/2018) Read More »
In order to get free in this human life we have to meet these parts that are really broken at times. They are not broken out of hatred. They are broken out of a lack of love.
The bodhisattva’s job is to care for the pain of the world, not to take care of the problems of the world…. Who in the world can take care of all of this? None of us can take care of all of this, except all of us. And the way all of us take care … Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2018/03/17) Read More »
Let the mind be what it is. Let it be sacred and mundane at the same time. Let it be profoundly boring and sleepy and bright, glowing and brilliant. And when it’s one or the other let it be that.
We are training ourselves – in our bodies, in our minds, through the practice, through the teachings – to make it more likely that in a moment of suffering, in a moment of threat, that we will be able to have an intention to, and maybe some sort of capacity to respond to courageous connection, … Audio dharma by Laura O’Loughlin (2018/02/24) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Rohatsu Sesshin Day 7, by Teah Strozer (12/10/2017) Read More »
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Rohatsu Sesshin Day 3, by Teah Strozer (12/06/2017) Read More »
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
When I looked out at most of the people who are practicing, they are not priests, you guys are lay people. And I know a number of lay people who are wonderful in their practice, deep in their practice, and perfectly capable of holding out their hand and bringing other people across. So, I feel … Dharma talk by Teah Strozer: Lay Practice Liberation Through The Urban Nest (10/21/2017) Read More »
This dharma talk was offered by Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher Teah Strozer during a three-day sesshin in 2017. We have this war inside, because we think of ourselves as an object. Good and bad, right and wrong. And we think of it as ‘my life’, which is eventually seen to be a mistake. It’s … Dharma talk by Teah Strozer: Keep a Cool Head (2017/10/20) Read More »
Kaira Jewel Lingo teaches meditation and mindfulness, with a focus on activists, people of color, artists, educators, families, and youth. She began practicing mindfulness in 1997 and she is an ordained nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we … Creating a Beautiful Past, by Kaira Jewel Lingo (10/01/2017) Read More »
Kaira Jewel Lingo teaches meditation and mindfulness, with a focus on activists, people of color, artists, educators, families, and youth. She began practicing mindfulness in 1997 and she is an ordained nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we … Mindful Social Change, by Kaira Jewel Lingo (09/30/2017) Read More »
The Bodhisattva path is a counterintuitive approach. It’s a method to help us let go of this obsession over ourselves. This is very different from our usual mode of operation, if you think about it. That is why it feels counterintuitive, and it can take a really long time for us to really understand and … Dharma talk by Rebecca Li (2017/09/23) Read More »
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
These precepts are received and practiced in a conversation face to face. Just like I suggest that justice is received and practiced in a conversation face to face. Hating people is not justice. Being angry can be justice -- sometimes it is justice -- but that anger is a conversation, where everybody is participating.
Some people aspire to do practices for themselves, and they don't aspire to do practices for others -- that's called individual practice. And other people aspire to practice with others, and by others, and for others, and as others, and that's called the Bodhisattva path. And they're both good. And there's a third way: which is saying the two are the same.
If you go up to injustice and say, "I resist you," that's because injustice is calling you and saying "would you come and liberate me from being stuck in this appearance? Would you be my friend?" If you say "I resist you" as a gift, that would be an appropriate response to anything-- but in particular-- to injustice.
Truth is a relationship. Truth isn't something that I've got over here separate from you. It isn't something you've got over there separate from me. The real truth – the truth that is justice – is not on either side. It's our relationship.
The way all of your appear in my consciousness is a reduced, biased, constricted, impoverished version of you. So from that perspective, I cannot do to justice to you. How can I do justice to you? How can you do justice to me? We do justice to each other by fully responsible conversation face to face.
Taigen Dan Leighton is a Soto priest and teacher, academic, and author. He is the founder and Guiding Teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, Illinois. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit … Bodhisattva Values and Social Action, by Taigen Dan Leighton (03/25/2017) Read More »
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
We sit together, and in that sitting together we carry our individual practice. But also there is no distinction among us, we are sitting together. And together we are actually supporting each other’s practice. We are not sitting in a cave by yourself, we are sitting right next to each other. It’s lovely, I saw … Dharma talk by Alan Senauke: The Dharma of Martin Luther King, Jr. (2017/01/14) Read More »
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Waking up is a good thing– but it’s not everything. It’s only a beginning. Waking up is just an encouragement along the path. Just an encouragement. But what we really need to do, what our work is, is to live a life that is aligned with the deepest truth of our nature. That is really … Dharma talk by Teah Strozer (12/09/2016) Read More »
If we can’t make this life alive, where are we gonna go? It’s this life that we have to make alive. It’s this life that we find love. It’s in this life that we live a life of non-division. It’s this life, in which we wake up. Not somewhere special. Not somewhere else. Here, now. … Dharma talk by Teah Strozer (12/07/2016) Read More »
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
To live by vow. To live by not your conditioned mind, but to live with intention. Beyond the little selflessness. To live by vow, is to live as the universe. This is practice realization.
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … The Meaning of Precepts, by Teah Strozer (10/21/2016) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Everything is included, by Teah Strozer (10/21/2016) Read More »
Rev. Francisco (Paco) Genkoji Lugoviña, Sensei is a Teacher & Priest in the White Plum Lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi & The Zen Peacemaker Order. Rev. Daiken Nelson, Sensei is a Teacher & Priest in the White Plum Lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi & The Zen Peacemaker Order. Our audio dharma talks are offered free … Mind, Body & Spirit Connection, by Revs. Paco Lugoviña and Daiken Nelson (10/01/2016) Read More »
“When we are experiencing life right now at this moment, we have this huge mind that has all these people in it, and this room, and sound, cool air, and the whole Earth supporting us. All of this is going on – right now. But we think we’re just this little thing. And everybody else is somehow not us, even if our direct experience is that all of this is arising as this mind.”
This is our practice, the practice of love, the practice of intimacy. That’s why we offer a relationship with a teacher, and we offer sangha, so we can work this way with each other.
When we work on ourselves deeply enough, when we really are in touch with our own fundamental openness of heart, which really is there, the love that we have for ourselves and other people comes from a place of unconditioned openness. That is what you feel, tremendous gratitude – for every single person. And when … Dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2016/06/18) Read More »
Please take care, and practice this song, this Samadhi song, for the welfare of this world. And listen to the teachings that you working on this Samadhi yourself is transforming beings. We are not doing this just to transform our self, were doing it to transform all beings. But working on our self in this … 2016 Rohatsu Sesshin by Reb Anderson: Day 5 (2016/05/22) Read More »
The focus of the Bodhisattva Samadhi is the Bodhisattva wish, the Bodhisattva aspiration: to make Buddhas for the welfare of the world. And then there is that aspiration, you can also, in a sense, vow and commit to that aspiration. So the aspiration, and the commitment of the aspiration, is at the center of the … 2016 Rohatsu Sesshin by Reb Anderson: Day 4 (2016/05/21) Read More »
The beings who have this wish and commitment – to realize perfect understanding for the welfare of all beings – when those beings enter into Samadhi, their vow goes with them. So in that sense, the Bodhisattva Samadhi (or what I would call zazen) – I consider the zazen that I am recommending and encouraging … 2016 Rohatsu Sesshin by Reb Anderson: Day 3 (2016/05/20) Read More »
The Samadhi is the teaching of Suchness. The Samadhi is intimate communion. The Samadhi is Buddhas and Ancestors. Buddhas and ancestors are the Samadhi. Buddhas and Ancestors are that teaching. Buddhas and Ancestors are intimate communion. Bodhisattvas want to live in that intimate communion, they want to be Buddhas and Ancestors, they want to be … 2016 Rohatsu Sesshin by Reb Anderson: Day 2 (2016/05/19) Read More »
Everything you do is an opportunity. Everything you say, every gesture you make, every thought that arises in your mind. All of those are opportunities – each one is an opportunity to take care of this Samadhi that has been given to you.
We can cultivate this sense of great expansive unconditioned love. That allows us to meet the difficulty in life without turning away and without getting caught.
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Kaira Jewel Lingo teaches meditation and mindfulness, with a focus on activists, people of color, artists, educators, families, and youth. She began practicing mindfulness in 1997 and she is an ordained nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we … Generosity from the Heart, Generosity in the Body: Exploring the 3 kinds of Gifts, by Laira Jewel Lingo (03/20/2016) Read More »
We really need human beings that are devoted to the difficult spiritual path required to release the full light of love into the world.
Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Dr. Swamini Svatmavidyananda Saraswati has taught at several universities nationally, including UC Berkeley. She is widely recognized as a scholar of Advaita Vedanta and a founding member of the “Global Women’s Peace Initiative.” Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to … Sādhanā: Spiritual Practice in Daily Life, by Sri Swaminiji Svatmavidyananda Saraswati (12/19/2015) Read More »
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, (pronoun she/her), is an author, poet, ordained Zen Buddhist priest, teacher, artist, and drum medicine woman. Her practice is influenced by Native American and African indigenous traditions. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen … The Way of Tenderness Retreat Day 3 – I Can Breathe, by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel (09/20/2015) Read More »
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, (pronoun she/her), is an author, poet, ordained Zen Buddhist priest, teacher, artist, and drum medicine woman. Her practice is influenced by Native American and African indigenous traditions. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen … The Way Of Tenderness Retreat Day 2 – Oneness is Itself, by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel (09/19/2015) Read More »
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, (pronoun she/her), is an author, poet, ordained Zen Buddhist priest, teacher, artist, and drum medicine woman. Her practice is influenced by Native American and African indigenous traditions. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen … The Way Of Tenderness Retreat Day 1 – Awakening the Heart, by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel (09/18/2015) Read More »
Tenzen David Zimmerman serves as the City Center Abiding Abbot of San Francisco Zen Center. He was ordained as a priest in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi by Teah Strozer in 2006 and received dharma transmission from her in 2018. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the … Your Mind Moves, by David Zimmerman (07/18/2015) Read More »
Taigen Dan Leighton is a Soto priest and teacher, academic, and author. He is the founder and Guiding Teacher of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, Illinois. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit … Just This Is It, by Taigen Dan Leighton (06/06/2015) Read More »
Hozan Alan Senauke is a Soto Zen priest, folk musician and poet residing at the Berkeley Zen Center in Berkeley, California, where he currently serves as Vice Abbot. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please … Zazen and Engaged Buddhism, by Alan Senauke (05/10/2015) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Loving our Humanness and Being Life, by Teah Strozer (05/02/2015) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … The Parable of the Burning House, by Teah Strozer (11/08/2014) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … On Shamatha, by Teah Strozer (05/24/2014) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … The Teaching of Impermanence, by Teah Strozer (05/17/2014) Read More »
Gaelyn Godwin serves as the Abbot and Guiding Teacher at Houston Zen Center. She also serves as the Director of the International Division of Soto Zen, North America (a department of Soto Zen Headquarters based in Japan). Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If … The Anthill, by Gaelyn Godwin (05/03/2014) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Rohatsu Sesshin Day 4, by Teah Strozer (12/07/2013) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Rohatsu Sesshin Day 2, by Teah Strozer (12/05/2013) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … The Meaning of Retreat, by Teah Strozer (11/23/2013) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Stories on the 12-Fold Chain, by Teah Strozer (10/26/2013) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Seeing Dependent Co-Arising, by Teah Strozer (09/21/2013) Read More »
Shohaku Okumura is a Japanese Soto Zen priest and the founder and abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community located in Bloomington, Indiana. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our … Genzo-e: Studying Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zenki (Total Function) and Tsuki (Moon) – Day 5 (afternoon), by Shohaku Okumura (07/28/2013) Read More »
Shohaku Okumura is a Japanese Soto Zen priest and the founder and abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community located in Bloomington, Indiana. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our … Genzo-e: Studying Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zenki (Total Function) and Tsuki (Moon) -Day 5 (morning), by Shohaku Okumura (07/28/2013) Read More »
Shohaku Okumura is a Japanese Soto Zen priest and the founder and abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community located in Bloomington, Indiana. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our … Genzo-e: Studying Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zenki (Total Function) and Tsuki (Moon) – Day 4 (afternoon), by Shohaku Okumura (07/27/2013) Read More »
Shohaku Okumura is a Japanese Soto Zen priest and the founder and abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community located in Bloomington, Indiana. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our … Genzo-e: Studying Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zenki (Total Function) and Tsuki (Moon) -Day 4 (morning), by Shohaku Okumura (07/27/2013) Read More »
Shohaku Okumura is a Japanese Soto Zen priest and the founder and abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community located in Bloomington, Indiana. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our … Genzo-e: Studying Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zenki (Total Function) and Tsuki (Moon) – Day 3 (afternoon), by Shohaku Okumura (07/26/2013) Read More »
Shohaku Okumura is a Japanese Soto Zen priest and the founder and abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community located in Bloomington, Indiana. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our … Genzo-e: Studying Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zenki (Total Function) and Tsuki (Moon) -Day 3 (morning), by Shohaku Okumura (07/26/2013) Read More »
Shohaku Okumura is a Japanese Soto Zen priest and the founder and abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community located in Bloomington, Indiana. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our … Genzo-e: Studying Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zenki (Total Function) and Tsuki (Moon) – Day 2 (afternoon), by Shohaku Okumura (07/25/2013) Read More »
Shohaku Okumura is a Japanese Soto Zen priest and the founder and abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community located in Bloomington, Indiana. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our … Genzo-e: Studying Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zenki (Total Function) and Tsuki (Moon) – Day 2 (morning), by Shohaku Okumura (07/25/2013) Read More »
Shohaku Okumura is a Japanese Soto Zen priest and the founder and abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community located in Bloomington, Indiana. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our … Genzo-e: Studying Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zenki (Total Function) and Tsuki (Moon) -Day 1 (afternoon), by Shohaku Okumura (07/24/2013) Read More »
Shohaku Okumura is a Japanese Soto Zen priest and the founder and abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community located in Bloomington, Indiana. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our … Genzo-e: Studying Dogen’s Shobogenzo Zenki (Total Function) and Tsuki (Moon) -Day 1 (morning), by Shohaku Okumura (07/24/2013) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Summer Sesshin Day 5, by Teah Strozer (06/09/2013) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Summer Sesshin Day 2, by Teah Strozer (06/06/2013) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Summer Sesshin Day 1, by Teah Strozer (06/05/2013) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Earth Day, by Teah Strozer (04/27/2013) Read More »
Gaelyn Godwin serves as the Abbot and Guiding Teacher at Houston Zen Center. She also serves as the Director of the International Division of Soto Zen, North America (a department of Soto Zen Headquarters based in Japan). Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If … The Four Establishments of Mindfulness, by Gaelyn Godwin (04/20/2013) Read More »
Steve Weintraub has been teaching Buddhism at San Francisco Zen Center, Tassajara, and Green Gulch Farm for over 30 years. Steve is the guiding teacher for Presidio Hill Zen Group, which meets weekly on Thursday evenings in San Francisco. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we … A Work in Progress, by Steve Weintraub (02/23/2013) Read More »
Myogen Steve Stucky (1946-2013), served as the abbot of San Francisco Zen Center. He received Dharma Transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1993. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of … Only a Buddha and a Buddha, by Myogen Steve Stucky (02/02/2013) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Look at What Is Looking, by Teah Strozer (12/05/2012) Read More »
Norman Fischer is a Zen teacher, poet, translator and director of the Everyday Zen Foundation. A beloved figure in the Buddhist world, he is also well-known for his efforts at interreligious dialogue. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support … Inside and Outside, by Norman Fischer (11/24/2012) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Allowing Ourselves to Be OK, by Teah Strozer (10/20/2012) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Relating to Big Vow, by Teah Strozer (10/13/2012) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Entanglement and Connectedness, by Teah Strozer (06/14/2012) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Ordinary People in Time, by Teah Strozer (05/26/2012) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Practice and Realization, by Teah Strozer (05/05/2012) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Little Deaths Along the Path, by Teah Strozer (04/28/2012) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Stories in Time, by Teah Strozer (03/31/2012) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Fire and R.A.I.N., with Teah Strozer (12/09/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Working With the Hindrances, by Teah Strozer (12/08/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Work Practice, by Teah Strozer (11/12/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Huike and Bodhidharma, by Teah Strozer (11/05/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … The Story of Huineng, by Teah Strozer (10/29/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Hsin Hsin Ming: Trust in the Heart-Mind, by Teah Strozer (10/22/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … The Mystery Within the Mundane, by Teah Strozer (10/09/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Intimate Activity, by Teah Strozer (10/08/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … To Live Is Just to Live, by Teah Strozer (10/07/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … The Faces at Braga by Teah Strozer (07/10/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … Summer Sesshin Talk by Teah Strozer (07/06/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … On Relationship – Part 2, by Teah Strozer (07/02/2011) Read More »
Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and served as BZC’s guiding teacher until December 2017. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and … On Relationship – Part 1, by Teah Strozer (06/29/2011) Read More »
Norman Fischer is a Zen teacher, poet, translator and director of the Everyday Zen Foundation. A beloved figure in the Buddhist world, he is also well-known for his efforts at interreligious dialogue. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support … Zhaozhou’s Dog, by Norman Fischer (06/12/2011) Read More »
Mary Mocine serves as the Abbot at Clear Water Zendo in Vallejo, CA. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.
Norman Fischer is a Zen teacher, poet, translator and director of the Everyday Zen Foundation. A beloved figure in the Buddhist world, he is also well-known for his efforts at interreligious dialogue. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support … On Spiritual Friendship, by Norman Fischer (04/04/2011) Read More »
Norman Fischer is a Zen teacher, poet, translator and director of the Everyday Zen Foundation. A beloved figure in the Buddhist world, he is also well-known for his efforts at interreligious dialogue. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support … History of the Precepts, by Norman Fischer (04/15/2009) Read More »
Norman Fischer is a Zen teacher, poet, translator and director of the Everyday Zen Foundation. A beloved figure in the Buddhist world, he is also well-known for his efforts at interreligious dialogue. Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support … Word Silence, by Norman Fischer (01/08/2008) Read More »