Podcasts – Upaya Zen Center: Recent Episodes
Joan Halifax | Zen Buddhist Teacher Upaya Abbot
A Santa Fe, NM Zen center and community with retreats, daily meditation, weekly Dharma talks on Buddhist teachings
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 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 […]
“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 […]
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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In this vulnerable and alive (and hopefully only part one of a multi-part series) Way-Seeking Mind talk, Sensei Amie Diller takes us to the LA parking lot where she had her earliest spiritual memory, to Hebrew school where her rabbi told her that girls can’t be rabbis, to the Oregon woods where she took refuge from childhood trauma, to Europe where she reinvented herself at youth hostels...
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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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“It takes so much courage to meet our suffering, to meet our life, raw and unadorned.” In this captivating talk, Zenshin Florence Caplow draws on stories and teachings from encounters with wild animals, from ancient women practitioners of the Way, Dogen, Rainer Maria Rilke, and others about courage and compassion amidst fear. She reminds us that our practice of living as patch-robed monks takes...
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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 this heartfelt talk, Sensei Amie Diller reminds us of the story of Buddha and particularly of Buddha’s relationship with Mara. Even after his enlightenment, Siddhartha was still visited by Mara. Sensei Amie affirms the importance of Buddha’s relationship with Mara, claiming that there is no separation, that caring for Mara, bearing witness to the stories Mara brings to us (busyness...
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On the fourth night of Winter Practice Period sesshin, Sensei Wendy Johnson explores Case 89 of The Book of Serenity, “Dongshan’s “Place of No Grass.”” Wendy Johnson, Sensei 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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“When we all have enough, we can fully let go. When we fully let go, we know what it is to have enough.” In this joyful and moving talk, Sensei Matthew Kozan Palevsky breaks open Case 79 from The Book of Serenity. He gives context and background to all of the characters in the koan as well as offers an interlude on tall things and why we as humans like to go up. He considers what it means to step...
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With a combination of playfulness and humility, Sensei Noah Kodo Roen presents Case 21 of Book of Serenity, “Yunyan Sweeps the Ground,” and explores the dichotomy of mindfulness and busyness, as well as the connections of Yunyan and Daowu to stories in other koans, and Yunyan’s place as an ancestor in the soto lineage. Kodo explores the sweeper, the broom, the brother, and the moon...
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“What are you doing?” a mom asked her young son who she found sitting cross legged, smiling, with eyes closed on the couch. “I’m enjoying my body,” he replied. From power outage induced darkness, Sensei Amie Diller offered us in the candlelit zendo and those at home an uplifting talk on joy. With its emphasis on suffering, it may seem as though Buddhism is not concerned with joy.
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“Many of our friends are no longer alive or we don’t see them anymore. [Writing poetry] is a way we hold them.” Natalie Goldberg reflects on the end of the year and on friendship by looking at the work of 8th Century poet Wang Wei who lived during the Tang Dynasty in China. Natalie reads several of his poems that capture the “evenness” of Wang Wei’s mind and the deep importance of friendship in...
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“Does your breathing change when you imagine it’s the landscape breathing?” Dekila Chungyalpa invites us to explore different ways of looking at time (as nature and different species view time, time as seasonal) that exist outside of our human tendency to see time as a zero sum game that we win or lose. She reminds us of the perception of winter as a time to rest, to increase our reserves of...
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In this poetic talk, Fushin James Bristol reflects on the role of silence in zen practice and in our lives. Sharing personal stories, music knowledge, Buddhist history, and other moving anecdotes from a wide array of sources, Fushin elucidates all that silence has to tell us if we can stop, listen, and be aware.
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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.
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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 Part 3 of this multipart series, Joan Dunne delves into ancient Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna’s work The Ratnavali or The Jewel Garland which offers counsel to kings or all who are king-like. 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...
More
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...
More
Sensei Kaz Tanahashi and Roshi Joan Halifax open the first full day of Rohatsu Green Dharma sesshin with their dharma talk on Indra’s Net and what it means to hold this mindset. Due to technical difficulties, the first part of this talk in which Sensei Kaz Tanahashi speaks is unavailable. In the second part of the talk, Roshi talks about awakening as excluding nothing, just as the Avatamsaka Sutra, which is the central text studied in this Rohatsu, which Kaz translates as the “Flower Splendor Sutra,” seems to exclude nothing in its 1643 pages. We can get lost in this sutra, just as we can lose ourselves in the “pressure cooker” that is sesshin. Roshi reminds us that “the practice is to get lost so that we can find out who we really are.”
Roshi references the image of the lotus flower several times throughout the talk, noting that it would not exist without the mud. She asks us: “How do we let mud nourish us and not disable us?” Roshi offers Francis Cooke’s description of Indra’s Net to describe the perfect interconnectedness of everything, a view that holds everything as relying on everything else, making all things valuable, making “everything count.” This mindset of interdependence is the mindset that can transform and liberate our small suffering and turn us toward the suffering of the world with compassion, a practice that neuroscience and social psychology confirm “lights up our lives.” Roshi quotes Okumura Roshi saying that “our vows are endless” and that “we will never graduate” from what Roshi describes as a finishing school designed to “finish a mindset that is destructive and nourish one that is loving.” She gives examples of ways that we “actualize this sensibility awkwardly” during Rohatsu, “cogenerating the net of Indra.”
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
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
In Part 2 of this multi-part series, Roshi Joan Halifax considers the qualities of a leader as modeled and taught by the Buddha. Roshi speaks of the Buddha as a social reformer, being one who disapproved of the caste system, ordained people of all classes and genders, recognized economic oppression, advocated for humanism in government, and most importantly, understood that true reform could only occur by going to the roots of human suffering in the human mind. Roshi cites some of the Buddha’s explicit teachings from the Pali Canon on how a good leader ought to act. She dives deeply into the Mahahamsa Jataka, which lists the “tenfold royal virtue” (dasa-rajadhamma) of a leader. Roshi also tells the story of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka (r. c. 268–c. 232 BCE) who transformed from a cruel leader into a benevolent dharma-practicing leader, who implemented edicts concerning ahimsa, religious tolerance, animal welfare, vegetarianism, rest houses for travelers, free medical treatment, free education, infrastructure, and more. Roshi fast forwards in time to Eihei Dogen who offers The Four Embracing Actions of the Bodhissatva, or The Four Ways of Gathering. They include: being generous, kind speech, actions that benefit others, and the capacity to see ourselves in all others and to see all others as ourselves. Roshi and John Dunne conclude this part of the series by answering some questions from the participants on Zoom.
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...
More
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...
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 […]
“Without the lineage, we are like people without fire and we’re going to be out of luck.” Professor John Dunne speaks about the importance of the Buddhist lineage and how it can often be discounted in our society steeped in American individualism. Dunne offers examples of our biological, cultural, and ethical inheritances that often occur […]
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, […]
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 join her. […]
In this final episode of Training the Mind to Transform, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, invites program participants to share any insights from their conversations in small groups, reminding us that we now only derive wisdom from our own confusion and adversity but from the confusion and adversity of others. We each walk our own […]
Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, invites participants in her Training the Mind to Transform program to discuss their experiences with Lojong training thus far. She prescribes certain slogans for particular difficulties, such as “Don’t turn gods into demons” for someone who is struggling with perfectionism, and explains that the need to “get it right” all the […]
In this episode of Training the Mind to Transform, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, explores some potentially difficult sayings, such as, drive all blames into one, all dharmas agree at one point, and regard all dharmas as dreams in more depth, working with us to clear up any confusion that may come between these teachings and applying them in […]
In this episode of Training the Mind to Transform, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, continues to lead us through the Lojong trainings and the creation of our own mind training manuals. She reminds us of the driving points of mind training: to eliminate self-cherishing and liberate our own minds, and not by way of avoiding […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 Symposium, 2022, […]
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 […]
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 poetry, essays, […]
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. […]
Haiku is the most popular form of poetry in the world today, written in nearly every language. But what is haiku, really? In his work-in-progress Haiku Masterpieces, Kaz Tanahashi observed that, from the time of Bashō, its essence was kokkei (or “humor”). In fact, the word haiku means literally that: “humorous verse.” But haiku humor isn’t always […]
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 […]
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 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. Instructor(s): Roshi Enkyo O’Hara & Roshi Joan Halifax. To access the resources […]
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 […]
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 I had […]
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
‘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 Overley. She discusses Case 4 in the Book of Serenity: the World Honoured One Points to the Ground, to elucidate these questions and more.
Monshin Nannette Overley
Monshin Nannette Overley is a priest and sangha elder at Upaya. She is an active participant in the local Upaya sangha, and a practice mentor for Upaya residents. Nannette graduated from...
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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 Joan Halifax discusses positive disintegration and encourages us to remember our aspiration to awaken and to benefit others even amidst the suffering of the world.
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
Frank Ostaseski
Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and visionary cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical...
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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 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 saying, ‘yes’ to the world in light of its myriad complexities, and to tenderness. The bridge between the poet and the bodhisattva.
Jane Hirshfield
Jane Hirshfield's most recent, ninth poetry collection is Ledger.She's also the author of two now-classic books of essays, *Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of...
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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 “wars” which are calling for our loving attention, including the climate catastrophe, the sicknesses of those we love, and our own inner emotional struggles. Professor Magee provides us with a practice by which we can extend love to those most in need of it in these times of war.
Rhonda V. Magee, JD/MA
Called by some the mother of the movement to integrate mindfulness and racial justice efforts, Rhonda V. Magee, M.A., J.D., is Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco, and has spent...
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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 way of being engaged by the world, is deepest and most necessary for each one of us?
Natalie Goldberg
Natalie Goldberg is the author of fifteen books, including Writing Down the Bones, which has sold over one million copies and has been translated into fourteen...
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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 and the lives of others is the means that we use to discover truth and come home to who we really are. Love and death then are experiences of discovery. This program, was led by two pioneers in the end-of-life care field and long time Buddhist practitioners, is an exploration of how we bring depth and dedication into our whole life and the life of the world. Through teachings, exchanges, and unique practices and processes, we explored the profound relationship between love and death, engaged practice and the role of love and compassion in how we serve others, different forms of love, how art reveals the connection between love and death, and practices that related to the power of impermanence and surrender.
Program was led by Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax.
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
*Love and Death 2021, August 27-29, 2021*
Love and Death 2021 (Part 1 of 9), Friday August 27 In this opening session, participants are asked to reflect and share their intention of attending this program on Love & Death. Frank invites us to not “turn away, the feeling is always found by turning towards the suffering, that’s where we find what actually supports us.
Love and Death 2021 (Part 2 of 9), Saturday August 28 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.
Love and Death 2021 (Part 3 of 9), Saturday August 28 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 is to be handled with respect and kindness. She helps us to understand the difference between empathy and compassion. Love and Death 2021 (Part 4 of 9), Saturday August 28 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.
Love and Death 2021 (Part 5 of 9), Saturday August 28 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.
Love and Death 2021 (Part 6 of 9), Sunday August 29 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.
Love and Death 2021 (Part 7 of 9), Sunday August 29 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.
Love and Death 2021 (Part 8 of 9), Sunday August 29 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.
Love and Death 2021 (Part 9 of 9), Sunday August 29 In this final session, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax continue with the audience interactions from the previous Part (8).
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
Frank Ostaseski
Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and visionary cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical...
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 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 the entire series, please click on the link below:
Upaya Podcast Series: Love and Death 2021
Frank Ostaseski
Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and visionary cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical...
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
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 link below:
Upaya Podcast Series: Love and Death 2021
Frank Ostaseski
Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and visionary cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical...
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 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 link below:
Upaya Podcast Series: Love and Death 2021
Frank Ostaseski
Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and visionary cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical...
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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 here.
For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Upaya Podcast Series: Love and Death 2021
Frank Ostaseski
Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and visionary cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical...
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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 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 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
Frank Ostaseski
Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and visionary cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical...
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
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 is to be handled with respect and kindness. She helps us to understand the difference between empathy and compassion.
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
Frank Ostaseski
Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and visionary cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical...
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
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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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 powerful pointers to awakening. They have been integrated into Zen practice more recently. The weekend included an exploration of the history of Lojong and a plunge into the slogans and associated practices. Dr. Dunne explored the underlying philosophy of Lojong, and Roshi Joan focused on the practice dimension.
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.
*Exploring the Power of Lojong, November 12 – 14, 2021*
Exploring the Power of Lojong (Part 1 of 5), Friday November 12 – Evening In this Evening Opening Session, Dr. John Dunne and Roshi Joan Halifax introduce us to the Lojong and orient us to the coming days of study and practice.
Exploring the Power of Lojong (Part 2 of 5), Saturday November 13 – Morning 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.
Exploring the Power of Lojong (Part 3 of 5), Saturday November 13 – Afternoon 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.
Exploring the Power of Lojong (Part 4 of 5), Sunday November 14 – Morning 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.
Exploring the Power of Lojong (Part 5 of 5), Sunday November 14 – Afternoon 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 .
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...
More
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...
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