The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast: Recent Episodes
Zen Mountain Monastery
The Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO) is a Western Zen Buddhist lineage established by the late John Daido Loori Roshi and dedicated to sharing the dharma as it has been passed down, generation to generation, since the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. Zen Mountain Monastery, the main house of the Mountains and Rivers Order, is one of the West’s most respected Zen Buddhist monasteries and training centers. Nestled in New York’s beautiful Catskill Mountains, the Monastery draws its strength from the ancient tradition of Buddhist monasticism. Since 1980, the Monastery has offered spiritual practitioners traditional and innovative ways to engage the dharma through a wide range of retreats and residential programs that unfold within the context of authentic, full-time Zen monastic training. The Zen Center of New York City: Fire Lotus Temple is the city branch of Zen Mountain Monastery. Supporting home practitioners in the metropolitan area, ZCNYC offers varied practice opportunities within the Eight Gates training matrix.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - 7/26/26 - In sesshin, the deep work of transformation is held within a supportive container. Yet each of us must still discover the capacity for faith as we learn to settle the mind and realize our true nature—our fundamentally free nature. This cultivation of faith can be understood in three ways: faith in practice and the path, faith in the boundlessness of the bodhisattva vow, and faith in the truth of cause and effect. In this talk, given at the conclusion of ZMM's Interdependence Sesshin, Shoan Sensei offers guidance for navigating these dimensions of faith.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 7/25/26 - Zazen practice of shikantaza, “just sitting” comes from the Chan practice of Silent Illumination. In solitude we find our way, in the support of the teachings and learning to allow our minds to settle and come to rest. How we can understand this practice requires knowing that it’s open and available all the time. Gokan Osho reminds us that this path of liberation, of silent illumination, is never far away when we clarify it for ourselves.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 7/12/26 - Ancient masters offer us teachings that speak to us in subtle ways, communicating insights that can be transformative even though they may not yet be our conscious experience. Hongzhi’s guidance speaks directly to our practice, toward how we can let the thinking mind go and let everything reveal itself. Gokan Osho says the revolution of practice is to see the mind, to see how we are creating our reality and, with awareness, let things be as they are.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 7/5/26 - Celebrating July 4th by looking at the dharma teachings on interdependence, Shugen Roshi leads us through the fundamental question of how suffering is created, and our personal and collective ability to heal as we affect the reality—the whole picture—of the physical, moral and metaphysical aspects of our lives. (From the Koans of the Way of Reality.)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/28/26 - This teaching from ancient master Yunmen calls us not to ignore the strife around us, but to see it all through the eye of wisdom and compassion which does not get entangled by it. Even when the outer circumstances are not favorable—which is typical for samsara—we still have agency to affect things beyond our understanding when we take the Dharma as our refuge. (From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 6 - Every Day is a Good Day)
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 6/27/26 - Practicing zazen, seeing into our minds, is what makes it possible to loosen the grip and let our true self be known. We are called to actualize in our present bodies, in this life, the actual body and life of Buddha. On the path of awakening to the truth of this, we awaken to the truth of the “self-born wisdom deity” of the Buddha ancestors.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/25/26 - Resistance to change often underlies our suffering and shows up in feelings such as anxiety, irritation, impatience and so on. As an essential teaching of the Buddha, impermanence calls on us to reflect and study this as the condition of all life, allowing us to loosen the tension, to accept what is true, and find ways to move in accord with things. (From the Book of Serenity, Case 75 - Ruiyan's "Constant Principle")
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/21/26 - The sense of separation — from life, from happiness, from anything we feel apart from — lies at the root of what brings many of us to a spiritual path. The Buddha taught that suffering arises from the duality created by conceptual thinking. To truly end our troubles, and the troubles we create in the world, we must see into this directly. Shugen Sensei explores how we can deepen the practice of seeing the mind and experiencing our true nature. Through mindfulness, wisdom, and compassion, we can discover that we are not separate; we were never separate at all.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 6/14/26 - What is already present is the authentic form of Buddha, not different than your own body and mind. We may think there is something broken that needs to be fixed about ourselves, or that we’re lacking in some way. Zazen is the authentic form of Buddha, and returning to yourself again and again is the contemplation of our own true self. Gokan Osho takes up this teaching and encourages us to see ourselves “without distractions and without duality, going beyond conceptualizing,” to contemplate Buddha.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/7/26 - How Buddhism uses the term "attachments" is often misunderstood as being something bad, which should not happen, but our sense of self is made up of a series of attachments: to identity, position, and so on. When we see through these many ideas of who we are, we can eventually settle our minds and experience our true nature. Using an ancient koan and the words of Henry David Thoreau, Shugen Roshi explores the world of attachment and how to bring clarity by exploring the inner wilderness to find the true nature of the self. (From the Gateless Gate, Case 44 - Basho's Stick.)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 5/31/26 - Mundane truth, enlightened truth, from the beginning are all together one. But there are snags that grab us, some of them repeatedly. Hongzhi describes our original mind this way: “from the beginning it is fundamentally all together complete, undefiled, clear down to the bottom.” In this Dharma Encounter with the sangha, Shugen Roshi asks: how do each of us use our difficulty, troubles, heartache and anger to relieve our suffering? How do we heal? The sangha shares the many ways we turn, rather than heaping on destruction, and practice reality with a heart of wisdom and compassion.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 5/30/26 - Zen is filled with koan stories asking this question: do they see it or not? Do you see “it”? Shugen Roshi says that we see only as far as our penetrating vision can reach at any time. And yet that is plenty. Our present experience invites us to look further and not solidify our moment to moment experience. The Path is not linear in the usual sense, although there is practice and realization, much more valuable is learning to ask, to get curious, and to practice every aspect of our lives. (From the Book of Serenity, Case 51 - Fayan's "Boat or Land".)
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 5/29/26 - The true self, what is that? It was the question put to Monk Ming by the sixth ancestor and opened for him the Way. This pivotal moment is something that makes Zen what it is, what can’t be planned, can’t be sought after, but still it’s the heart of our practice. Shoan Sensei asks us: what do you have faith in, and what do you still hold at arm’s length? How can you, through practice, embrace the gift of your pure Buddha Nature being offered right now? (From the Gateless Gate, Case 23 - Think Neither Good Nor Evil.)
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - 5/28/26 - Going beyond our ancestors, going further than they could go, is the task of every student of the dharma. What is the ultimate truth? In other words, asks Hogen Sensei, who is this person asking the question? Going beyond conceptual thought, what is it? Here where you are, fully alive, what is it now? Close the gap, as Daido Roshi used to say, and you go beyond the ancestors. (From the Book of Equanimity, Case 78 - Ummon's Rice-Cake.)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/24/26 - Shugen Roshi asks: “When you’re thinking of the thinking mind, what do you find there? And where will you go from there?” At the heart of bodhicitta — the wish to bring suffering to an end — are the questions: What are we contributing? What kind of environment are we creating through our thoughts, words, and actions? Cultivating bodhicitta is how we make our freedom real and, ultimately, what we are able to offer to others. (From the Book of Serenity, Case 32 - Yangshan's "Mind and Environment")
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/21/26 - Are the words you are about to speak true? Verify them first through your own experience. Are they of benefit? Are they agreeable or disagreeable? Know your intentions and consider carefully before speaking. Drawing from the early teachings, Shugen Roshi offers the Buddha’s guidelines for practicing right speech in ways that bring an end to conflict and suffering and offer a path of liberation. (Dharma Discourse during the May 2026 Fusatsu Ceremony at ZMM)
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 5/17/26 - What is your complete expression of Buddha Mind? Shoan Sensei takes up this question in exploring the koan of the National Teacher calling to their attendant. How do we each navigate the distractions and the self-centered mindset we all fall into? To end our suffering and the causes of suffering in the world, we practice. And practice guides us to respond from a generous heart, grounded in reality, to offer the Dharma medicine we all need. (From the Gateless Gate, Case 17 - The National Teacher Calls Three Times)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/10/26 - Who fears the spring row’s knee-deep mud? This line from Hongzhi’s poem underscores the challenge which all practitioners of the dharma face: to bring something good into the world, despite the challenges that we inevitably face. Our world is constantly in flux, complex and unpredictable, and those on the Path are called to both quiet reverence and to making real effort. With words and activity, mindfulness and the moral precepts, Shugen Roshi encourages us to inhabit this universe in all directions. (From the Book of Serenity, Case 79 - Changsha Advancing a Step)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/3/26 - The middle way between indulgence and denial is not obvious for any of us beginning on our practice path. How could we know where the “middle” might be? We need to stumble and make mistakes to learn how to embrace a wholesome and sustainable balance, through practice. Building a sanctuary, a monastery, or a livable life takes effort, reflection, atonement and renewal. Our own enlightened nature is ready at any time to support what can be of benefit to all beings. (From the Book of Serenity, Case 4: The World Honored One Points to the Ground)
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 4/26/26 - The energy of our lives is something that we tend to take for granted, but in spiritual practice it is understood that we can deliberately cultivate the energy of clarity through zazen. We can study the ways that energy can “leak out” and diminish our clarity and focus. How do we practice those things that seem to limit us, which might dull or diminish our aspiration? How do we cultivate the “empty field” of Hongzhi’s teachings? In this lively encounter with the sangha, Hogen Sensei and the sangha explore how to gather and nourish our life energy on the path of liberation. (Dharma Encounter at the conclusion of the April 2026 Apple Blossom Sesshin.)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/25/26 - The words of a koan always point to our original mind—our unobstructed, liberated mind—but the path of seeking clarity is not always so direct. Aspirations help us along, and bodhicitta is essential, but we still must contend with the moment that is arising, in this body and mind, and not some past or future mind. This talk during Apple Blossom sesshin points the listener into the wild, vast acreage of mountain grass on the Path. - From the Book of Serenity, Case 89 - Dongshan's "No Grass".
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZMM - 4/24/26 - Resonance is a living reality, and when we turn toward resonance we can experience the energy and aliveness to help us be grounded in our practice. When we let go of grasping and really turn on our attention inward, we stop making a separation between our “self” and everything else. When we don’t let all our attention seep outward, we can find the energy for awakening which help dispel the doubts and distortions that create suffering.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/22/26 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 97 - Emperor Tongguang's Hat - Paying attention to how things unfold, we always benefit from skillfully navigating our reactions, our tendencies to mistrust and avoid. Skillfully, we can trust that our true nature is always present, clear and undivided. How do we teach ourselves to trust, to “know without knowing,” and relinquish the tendency of our powerful tendency to divide, separate, disconnect? “In clarity, wonder exists,” says Hongzhi, and Shugen Roshi encourages us to continuously turn toward that clarity.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/19/26 - Living a simple life in the Buddhist tradition is a skillful means which supports the development of clarity and flexibility, so we are not weighted down by things, by situations, or by our own thoughts. Free of unnecessary complications, we can “respond appropriately” to all changes we encounter. This pivot moment, as Master Hongzhi taught, allows us to respond to all the things that come our way.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 4/12/26 - Shugen Roshi officiates the Spring Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery. Today, three students formally receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts, taking up these living teachings, living vows in the company of the sangha with family and friends: Jerry Kyosei Calvillo (Peaceful Mirror), Paul Yugen Burns (The Eye of Devotion/Courage), and Jacob Kyonen McGlaun (Mind Mirror).
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 4/5/26 - The Buddha began with generosity—dāna pāramitā—as the ground of all practice and the basis of being truly teachable. The precepts live within this spirit, expressing how we give and share this life with others. What does it mean to give in the most complete, unsurpassable way?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/5/26 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 37 - Guishan's "Active Consciousness" - Who is this “self,” the one we’ve taken ourselves to be all our lives? On the path, this question must be clarified intimately, so we can truly take responsibility for how we live. This requires seeing every arising of mind—even those we would rather avoid, or have been told to ignore—because they may reveal what is asking to be met. In taking responsibility, we learn to work skillfully with negativity and conflict, opening the way to genuine liberation for ourselves and all beings.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/29/26 - Prajna Paramita is the wisdom of the other shore, encompassing all of the paramitas and expressing the non-duality of wisdom and compassion. As the theme of this Dharma Encounter, Shugen Roshi invites sangha members to present their understanding and their questions about Prajna Paramita, as well as “turning words” which express the heart of this theme, the non-duality of wisdom and compassion.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/28/26 - The subtle healing energy of zazen is likened to an acupuncture needle by Hongzhi, and Shugen Roshi explores how this teaching functions in our own practice life. Within zazen, are we truly engaging what is right in front of us? The simple and direct nature of zazen brings us back again and again, and so we return and settle into the ease of being within our own minds. Hongzhi invites us to “know without touching…and rest there.” Things become closer, softer, bright and clear.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 3/27/26 - In this Renewal of Vows (Fusatsu) talk, Shoan Sensei offers the perspective that we are practicing within samsara, exactly where we are. Here we can come very close to the narrow habits and patterns that create suffering—something we cannot do in some imagined fantasy of a Buddha Land. Taking up the place where we find ourselves as the place of our own vows, we can discover ways to bring forward our infinite capacity to leave possessiveness and self-delusion behind, and, with the support of the precepts, learn to be truly free. It is here that transformation can happen.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 3/26/26 - A very human practice is to go into unfamiliar places, maybe on a pilgrimage or a journey of some sort into the unknown. What might be the benefit of this type of practice, why did it come to exist? Gokan Osho explores the Buddha’s teachings on facing one’s own mind, free of attachments. When we relax, and get very close to our direct experience, there is the possibility of transformations which can’t be prepared for.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - 3/25/26 - ZMM - Hogen Sensei asks the question: what is it to just rest? To let our busy preoccupation with our thoughts come to rest. Accepting all streams, everything becomes “one taste,” non-dual and not in opposition to anything. To truly settle down and allow the busyness to rest is to let the continuous flow be present just as it is, revealing the edges of what we call our “self” in the moment-to-moment flow of reality.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/22/26 - Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of the MRO Spring Ango 2026 training period, "The Turning Words of Hongzhi".
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 3/22/26 - Join Hojin Sensei for her Spring Ango opening remarks at the Temple. Auspicious Beginning of Spring! Homage to the buddha, dharma, sangha treasures! How auspicious! What does it mean to dwell peacefully—together—right here in the midst of things as they are? To take delight in development? Ango gives us a field to see this clearly.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/15/26 - As the first of the Paramitas, or perfections, generosity is a virtue that leads to releasing the suffering we all experience, which was the primary focus of the Buddha’s teaching. Shugen Roshi reminds us that when we practice the dharma with the mind of generosity, we can hold everything that arises, and let diminish the disconnection between ourselves and all others.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei and Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZCNYC - 3/15/26 - Buddha and Mara are figurative ways of portraying a fundamental seeming opposition within our human nature: Buddha stands for a capacity for awareness, openness, and freedom; with Mara representing a capacity for confusion, closure, and restriction. In this collaborative Dharma Talk Shoan and Hojin explore the four traditional teachings of the ways Mara appears. - This talk followed the Meeting Mara : the Art of Fearless Presence Retreat.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/8/26 - When we are complete within ourselves, nothing is left aside as unimportant. All of it is important. We can look to the great bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, as one who does not make any distinctions whatsoever. All things have their skillful use, can be turned toward benefit, even those most difficult things, those most challenging moments. What we do moment to moment is what makes the path of practice and realization possible. How do we manifest compassion? By looking to what we do, moment to moment, as a very real living vow. - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 105 - "The Hands and Eyes of Great Compassion"
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 3/8/26 - From The Hidden Lamp, Case #1: The Old Woman of Mt. Wutai - What is this desire to have a defined path in life and might the pointing in this koan give some friction to ask the larger question of what is moving us? Hojin takes up this teaching to address the mind that leans forward — imagining fulfillment later, somewhere else.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/1/26 - What did Vimalakirti say when Manjushri asked him to speak? In our own lives, how do we find freedom amid the dualities we encounter—sick or well, right or wrong, left or right? And what does the nonduality of form and emptiness reveal? When nothing stands opposed, where is the other side? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the nonduality of wisdom and compassion, and the selfless quality that makes each inseparable from the other. - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 84: Vimalakirti's Gate of Nonduality.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 3/1/26 - Listen to this invitation from a small convent in medieval Japan—Tōkeiji—where generations of nuns practiced zazen before a mirror, contemplating this question: “Where is a single feeling, a single thought, in the mirror image at which I gaze?” Awareness does not stand apart from experience. What might this mean in a world that so often feels divided? - From The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women: #34 — The Zen Mirror of Tōkeiji.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 2/22/26 - Known by many different names throughout the Buddhist world—Avalokitesvara, Kwan Yin, Kannon—they are the hearer of the cries of the world. This being embodies that compelling ability to relieve all suffering and lead beings to complete, perfect enlightenment. Unburdened, we are thereby able to free others and ourselves from suffering. Learning to not create these states in the first place, is the hard work of practice. Perfection is a given, but we still need to realize it ourselves. The third talk on metta, lovingkindness, given by Shugen Roshi during the February sesshin.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 2/21/26 - Our unified being—seeing body and mind as one reality—is profoundly affected by outside circumstances. Zazen practice turns us inward, to meet ourselves and what is arising in this mind-body. Shugen Roshi brings The Metta Sutta alive as the Buddha’s instructions on how to practice this dynamic flow of both inward and outward with loving-kindness. It speaks to the heart of spiritual work and the transformation possible, when a practitioner can bring these qualities outward to meet the world. - The text of the Karaniya Metta Sutta is here on the ZMM Liturgy page: zmm.org/liturgy/
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 2/19/26 - Coming into the experience of our emotions and thoughts, we can find the way our minds shape our experience from one moment to the next. If we’re not grounded in this embodied experience, and willing to feel our feelings, we may tend to push them away or numb ourselves. This informal talk given during February sesshin invites us to gently and directly feel what we are experiencing, body and mind, and begin to free ourselves from the endless proliferation and ruminating, and rather lead us toward spaciousness and freedom.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 2/18/26 - This early sutra of the Buddha describes the practice of metta, offered as a beneficial aid to settle the mind and body and ease fear and vexation. Even within the wild restlessness of our minds, the troubles of our hearts and ways in which we struggle, taking these instructions to heart and understanding it’s intent can help us settle into the refuge of a zazen. - The text of the Karaniya Metta Sutta is here on the ZMM Liturgy page: zmm.org/liturgy/
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 2/15/26 - All along the bodhisattva path, we make vows to serve others. When the conditions of our lives grow difficult—when stress feels real and urgent—these vows become more vivid and deeply personal. Shugen Roshi shares stories and leads a renewal of our commitment to the well-being of all who seek refuge in the Sangha. On this long path, however often we fall short, we return to and rely upon our vows.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 2/8/26 - Invoking Dogen’s fascicle on Continuous Practice, Shoan Sensei reminds us that we turn toward spiritual practice to take refuge. In doing so, we take our seat as Buddha, taking refuge in the Dharma and relying on the Sangha all around us. From this refuge arises a continuous, sustained, real practice, even when it is uncomfortable or difficult. Here, grace is found within our actual experience, and together we discover a true refuge in one another.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 2/8/26 - Coming together, falling apart, are these the same? Different? Practice can show us the freedom of mind responding according to circumstance. In this talk, Hojin Sensei reflects on the koan from the Hidden Lamp, Chiyono’s No Water, No Moon, and what it means to keep practicing the dharma, to keep caring for something— even when it seems fragile, broken. How sometimes falling apart, or experiencing a heart breaking situation might be just the turning point needed to open up completely. Where do we find the self?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 1/31/26 - The wellspring of wisdom in Zen is meditation. Yet wisdom alone is not enough; the path of liberation must also fully embody compassion. Compassion is not separate from awakening but an essential and indivisible expression of it, permeating every aspect of practice and life. In this Sesshin talk, Shugen Roshi encourages us to draw compassion close within our zazen, leaving nothing outside our practice.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 1/28/26 - Freeing ourselves through seated meditation, zazen, is the foundational practice at the heart of Zen Buddhism. In this exploratory talk, Shugen Roshi encourages us to be clear about what we’re doing, and how to do it, as well as why we are aiming to free ourselves and others from the suffering of this world.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 1/25/26 - The bodhisattva path is not known as such to everyone who walks it, and this was especially true for Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who dedicated all his efforts to bringing about a renewed commitment to liberty and justice in our troubled country. His life was a bodhisattva life. Our own efforts to change the streams of harmful conditioning, bias and habitual formations require our own clarity and commitment, and so these lessons must be applied to all that we do. This talk was given on occasion of the Sangha Harmony Advisory Committee (SHAC) member retreat at ZMM.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 1/18/26 - In a series of talks on the Eightfold Path, Gokan Osho looks at effort, one of the core concentration factors of the path. Early on in our lives we mostly overreach, becoming competitive or extremely self-critical, and sometimes give up all together. We get ourselves in tangles before we can learn through practice to undo the expectations and measurements, to find the right amount of effort needed to continue on the path and develop the clarity and stability we need.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 1/11/26 - Three core aspects of Zen practice are morality, calming the mind, and insight into the nature of reality. Without this third element, wisdom-insight, Zen isn’t truly a liberating practice. Shugen Roshi explains that insight differs from analytical or conceptual thinking; it’s a direct, lived experience. The path requires that these three aspects be cultivated together, so that a settled, unobstructed mind becomes capable of seeing more clearly and of realizing insight that is genuinely transformative. - From Master Wu-Men's Gateless Gate, Case 39: Yun-men Says You Missed It
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 01/04/2026 - With a new year upon us we all have the chance to start fresh. This is always true because nothing is fixed, everything is subject to change, a truth of the dharma which we can verify for ourselves. We have accumulated experiences, memories, expectations, but those are not fixed either. In this perspective, the new year is auspicious because it is full of possibilities, revealing its potential as we take up life fully, with integrity, commitment and kindness. - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 39 - Jingqing's "Buddhadharma at the New Year"
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - New Year's Eve 12/31/25 - Moral and ethical conduct in Zen practice involves the ongoing work of recognizing when we have fallen short of kindness, compassion, or honesty. The Renewal of Vows ceremony is an ancient Buddhist ritual that addresses the harm we cause. Through atonement, we acknowledge our transgressions—an essential act of turning karma and bringing benefit to the world, and of renewing our commitment to the vows we live by. Offered on the threshold of the new year, this talk brings Shugen Roshi's Dharma teaching directly into the realities of everyday life.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 12/30/25 - Harmonizing inner and outer life is the essence of our practice, says Shugen Roshi in this koan talk from Rohatsu sesshin. Those habits of mind which obstruct our harmonious equanimity, keeping us from feeling whole and at-ease, are the very grist of practice. When we settle the mind, even in the midst of discord, we become clearer and more able to trust in our true nature. - From the Book of Serenity - Case 68 - Jiashan "Swinging the Sword"
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 12/28/25 - During the year-end Rohatsu sesshin, Shoan Sensei offered this koan talk on the nature of mind as it’s experienced and expressed in Zen Buddhist practice. The koan offered from the Gateless Gate points to "turning the light around", beholding the nature of what we call reality, and learning through experience how we can rely on this to navigate our lives. - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 29 - Hui-neng's "Not the Wind; Not the Flag"
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 12/21/25 - In celebration of Hojin Sensei's formal installation as abbot of Zen Center of New York City and Fire Lotus Temple, Shugen Roshi takes up Master Wu-Men's Gateless Gate Case 22—Mahākāśyapa’s Flagpole—unfolding its historical resonance to illuminate the journey of women in Buddhism and their enduring place in the living tradition of Buddhist practice.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 12/14/25 - In this season of giving, we naturally think of celebration, connection, and gratitude for the family, friends, and community that sustains us. Dana Paramita invites us to open our awareness and our hearts to those around us who may be struggling, alone, or lacking what we ourselves enjoy. So... these days we might ask ourselves: What does a Bodhisattva do at this time of year? Shugen Roshi recalls a fundamental teaching of the Buddha, reiterated by Master Dogen in the Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance: Giving, Kind Speech, Beneficial Action, and Identity Action.
ZMM - 12/07/25 - Shugen Roshi officiates the Novice Monastic Ordination ceremony for Rebecca Shindo Kisch; a joyful occasion - both a home-leaving and a homecoming - that Master Dogen described as "a day for turning cartwheels." Shindo is currently the Monastery's Gardener, and helps coordinate the National Buddhist Prison Sangha. She became a formal student (Tangaryo) in 2020, received the Bodhisattva Precepts (Jukai), and her dharma name Shindo, in 2022 and became a Postulant in 2023. Today she receives the robe of a monastic and provisionally takes on the five monastic vows. Those vows being simplicity, service, selflessness, stability, and "to live the Buddha's Way." In this new context she will continue her discernment and exploration and training for the role of a full monastic before choosing to ask for full ordination.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/30/25 - This talk on a koan from an early Chan teacher is taken up by Shugen Roshi to look at the ubiquity of our dualistic habits of mind. Koans work with language to help us see our minds more clearly, to see where we cloud ourselves with judgements and bias and distract ourselves with endless arguments. Just forget the two sides and see into the true reality right before our eyes. - From the Book of Serenity - Case 27 - Fayan Points to a Blind
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - 11/23/25 - How do we know what is ultimately true? In this koan from the Mumonkan, Shoan Sensei delves into the ordinariness of profound truth that is everywhere, its depth and benefits within reach. And yet there is still practice and investigation that must be engaged to feel into the distinction. - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 19 - Nan-sh'uan: "Ordinary Mind Is the Tao"
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/22/25 - This final section of Shugen Roshi’s Genjokoan commentary looks at the dynamic tension between conceptual learning and the experience of insight. Insight brings clarity, but it is practice which allows the space to open, so that wisdom and compassion arise together. When we experience what reaches everywhere, the tyrannical repetition of samsara begins to slip away. - Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks - Part 12 (final)
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 11/21/25 - How do we know what is ultimately true? In this koan from the Mumonkan, Shoan Sensei delves into the ordinariness of profound truth that is everywhere; its depth and benefits within reach. And yet there is still practice and investigation that must be engaged to feel into the distinction. - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 19 - Nan-sh'uan: "Ordinary Mind Is the Tao"
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 10/20/25 - The moment when each person decides to step into the unknown, to an authentic life where our karma does not determine our choices, is a turning point. Hogen Sensei picks up the opening line from Genjokoan, ”When all dharmas are Buddhadharma…” as that moment when everything has the great potential to change.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi and Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 11/16/25 - After introducing Shoan Sensei, and after Shoan offers her Vows to the sangha, Shugen Roshi begins his discourse with the story of one of our great women ancestors, Moshan Liaoran Daiosho. It is a story pointing to the intimacy of the path itself, and to the question of how we understand "transformation." Told on the morning after Shoan Sensei received dharma transmission, the story becomes a beautiful acknowledgment of lineage—how each of us steps forward, intimately entering the life of the Way—and the responsibility of each of us to be a student first and foremost. After sharing his words, Shugen Roshi warmly invites Shoan Sensei to finish the talk.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 11/6/25 - The beautiful activity of Fusatsu, taking the time to recognize/acknowledge harm, atone (become one-with), and thereby shore up our footing on the Path. It's a way to bring to the fore the Buddha's earliest teaching: the pure precepts; To not create evil, to practice good, and to purify the mind (practice good for others.) In those terms, how do we do that? Shoan Osho talks about an aspect of the 4 immeasurables: vowing to "know the root of our suffering." How is that for each of us?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/2/25 - Genjokoan presents Dōgen’s perspective that practice and realization are not two separate stages but one seamless activity. This unified, non-dual nature is what every thing in the world moves within, like a bird in the air or a fish in the water. How do we practice being within our human element, the mind of concepts and ideas, a sense of self and others, of separation and difference, as not separate from anything at all? - Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks - Part 10
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/26/25 - Shugen Roshi explores how we and all beings strive to live in harmony with our environment, with our universe. With the capacity to choose, we also have a basic ethical sense of right and wrong arising within, from our true, non-dual nature. Skillful and unskillful actions are made by us continuously, and we do sense the difference. So how do we meet ourselves, and meet others, when it matters most? Roshi meets the sangha in a tender and lively exchange. (Dharma Encounter at the conclusion of the October 2025 Harvest Sesshin.)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/25/25 - When we realize that we may not fully understand something, there is room to learn more. But if we think “I’ve got this,” we stop listening and there is very little room to learn anything. In order to access this profound dharma in a way that is transformative, we have to recognize when it's time to listen more deeply. Shugen Roshi continues exploring these profound teachings on practice and enlightenment contained in Genjokoan. - Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks - Part 8
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/24/25 - From Master Dogen’s Genjokoan, our environment is not separate from our basic nature, and all creatures move within their element. When we feel separate or create schisms, we are going to suffer until we can bring ourselves to practice in accord with reality as it is. In this talk given during a Renewal of Vows ceremony, Shugen Roshi teaches that when we have a sense of completeness with what is, what is real, there is joy and ease. And then we are free to be unhindered in bringing good into our world.(Dharma Talk during the Harvest Sesshin Fusatsu Ceremony. And from the Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks - Part 9)
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 10/22/25 - Our biggest challenges often take form in how we create or perpetuate suffering, and these are likely to be in stark contrast to the peace and groundedness experienced in zazen. In zazen we experience our true nature up close, but it often doesn’t seem to be in alignment with our restless and uneasy mind. How do we close the distance, take responsibility for the rift that seems impassable, and continue to move closer? - From the Master Dogen's True Dharma Eye - Case 10 - Qingyuan's "Come Closer"
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/19/25 - We may aspire to enlightenment, or we may simply have faith in this path that seems to be leading us in a good direction. Enlightenment can seem a far away concept from the daily struggles of being human, but that sense of distance comes from seeking something outside of ourselves. The bright, luminous mind of enlightenment, Roshi reminds us, is always so much closer than we can imagine. (Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks - Part 7)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/12/25 - Passing this lamp that the Buddha lit, it falls to the next generation to tend that lamp for the next generation, and for generations to come. Building something new, whether a temple or a community as Daido Roshi and others from the Monastery’s early years have done, over time it’s the vow itself that comes alive. On this 45th Anniversary of ZMM, Shugen Roshi celebrates all those who helped to put down good roots here. When each of us arrive at the place of practice, the vows of our ancestors unfold.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/05/25 - The opportunity our lives offer is simply to live—not in the past, nor the future, but now—and this requires a measure of both faith and appreciation for all that is present, right now. Rather than living in memory and recollection, or in our hopes and fears, Dogen’s Genjokoan emphasizes that the dharma state of any phenomenon is just this, right now. - Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks - Part 6
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 9/28/25 - Manifesting absolute reality—awakened reality—in everyday life is Genjokoan. In this lively Dharma Encounter with Hogen Sensei, the awakened reality of everyday life is explored as our fundamental practice. Sensei says “true realization manifests as compassionate action in the world; that’s the bottom line,” and asks that we each consider how we enter this ordinary, everyday actualization of compassion. (Dharma Encounter at the September 2025 Mountains and Rivers Sesshin)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/27/25 - Zazen is a powerful practice for entering an intimate relationship with ourselves. Without adding anything extra, we have available at all times our true mind, our buddha nature, perfect and complete. But how to work with it skillfully? How to let go of all the suffering we carry, and re-create, moment by moment? Drawing from Dogen’s Genjokoan, Shugen Roshi takes up the opportunity this radical intimacy offers. - Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks - Part 5
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZMM - 9/26/25 - Taking responsibility allows us to make fresh and new karma, to heal what needs to be healed. The vows of atonement or repentance are at the center of this ceremony of Fusatsu. Hojin Sensei explores what the words of our vows in this context mean, and how our intentions can turn the tides of harmful karma -- born of greed, anger and ignorance -- and allow us to heal. (Dharma Talk during the Mountains and Rivers Sesshin Fusatsu Ceremony)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/24/25 - Being devoted to the study of the self which Dogen outlines in Genjokoan is quite different than being self-centered. Rather, it means to take up wholeheartedly the practice of living into our true nature. Making this path real—bringing our understanding out of the realm of concept and abstraction—becomes the entryway to the joy and ease of practice-realization. In recognizing our deluded, karmic self, we are freed to realize the true self, our true nature. That's where Dogen is pointing. (Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks Part 4)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/21/25 - Awareness is an essential aspect of being alive, and quite essential for doing good actions to bring healing to our troubled world. In Genjokoan, however, Dogen says a buddha doesn’t need to be aware of being a buddha. What does this mean? Is it a lack of awareness, or something else? Our entire world of experience centers around self-awareness, and a sense of “something” there, even when being truly selfless. This exploration by Shugen Roshi shows how this seeming duality can be a gate to our freedom, by closing the distance between us and them, this and that, self and other. (Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks Part 3)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/7/25 - Becoming aware of our sense of self is central to understanding the True Self—the self of no-self. And with practice, we come to realize that the ten thousand things are none other than what we call “self.” In this talk, Shugen Roshi introduces Genjokoan, a fascicle of Dogen, which brings us face to face with the everyday reality of our lives. Our most important question then becomes: How do we live freely within this great truth, when all dharmas are Buddhadharma and nothing is left outside? (Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks Part 1)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/31/25 - Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of the MRO 90-day Fall Ango 2025 training period, "The Way of Everyday Life: Genjokoan."
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/30/25 - While many people search outside for the causes of feeling constrained and limited, the radical step toward transformation is to turn the light around. Coming close enough to see clearly our own constraining, deluded thinking—to see the truth in our own delusions— takes great courage and honesty. Before we can heal the world, we need to get clear about our own thinking and go beyond what appears to us as the limits of our freedom. This empowerment is always ultimately in our own hands. - From the Transmission of the Light, 32nd Zen Ancestor: Daoxin
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/24/25 - What is it to pass through something? Or to not pass through? In koan practice this image is utilized over and over again, and here a buddha made of wood cannot pass through a fire. To pass through or not presents a dilemma, the duality of good or bad, easy or difficult. How does the dharma help us to reach true freedom of mind? Shugen Roshi reminds us that suffering is always in the mind, and the end of suffering is the miraculous activity of our life itself. - Part 3 of 3. From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 96: Chao Chou's Three Turning Words
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/23/25 - The discriminating function of our minds has many benefits, and at the same time we need to reveal how it can become weaponized against ourselves. The furnace of a gold buddha might be seen as the more difficult entanglements of our lives, and yet within these circumstances we are empowered to completely transform the mind that resists and defends. Liberation takes determination and commitment to release our own obstructions. - Part 2 of 3. From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 96: Chao Chou's Three Turning Words
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/20/25 - In the language of koans, we are invited to step right into the embodied experience of the koan, which in this case is a Buddha made of mud which cannot pass through water. Can you immerse your mind in the muck and entanglement of a mud buddha? Is this mind trustworthy? To reveal our minds to ourselves, we can take up the method of focusing our own “miraculous awareness” within zazen, to bring forward the freedom and generosity to which we aspire. - Part 1 of 3. From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 96: Chao Chou's Three Turning Words
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/17/25 - Shugen Roshi reminds us that mind is the basis of all conflicted action, and so it is to mind that we direct our aspirations and intentions to bring goodness and ease into the world. Using mind to intentionally bring a joyful, generous state of being forward, as Shantideva’s verses encourage, can shift even the most divisive moments we encounter in our world of activity. Our willingness to practice this edge makes all the difference.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/10/25 - Living within the present world, surrounded by many acts of cruelty and hatred, each of us is called to recognize, liberate, and transform samsara as we are able to. The path to creating peace requires that we live within this reality, meeting our own strong emotions like frustration and despair and making use of the dharma to bring renewed energy and aspiration to the path. We can each ask: “What does my sphere of influence include?” What does this mind of practice encompass as a “Buddha Field,” and how within that reality can each of us serve?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/3/25 - How do we meet our conscious mind, skillfully? Mind training offers us ways to see our self-centered thinking habits, meeting our minds directly, and using this quality to learn about ourselves and to experience humility. In this way, our capacity for compassion can increase and we can hold the world in an unconditional way. - From the Book of Serenity - Case 14 - "Attendant Huo Passes Tea"
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/29/25 - Shugen Roshi asks, “If all things are empty with no inherent existence, then how do things come into being?” In other words, how are we creating our world, moment by moment? How do we do this consciously, intentionally, bringing our vows to life? Every occurrence is handed to us fresh, and in practice we can learn to bring our best selves forward, without grasping or clinging to anything extra. - From the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye - Case 18 - "Nanquan and the Land Deity."
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - Saturday 6/28/25 - How do we make the dharma our own? In Zen training, we have to fully let go of the expectations and ideas of what it will look like once we realize ourselves. And importantly, we need to let go of our self-criticism and other kinds of self-centered preoccupation. As we continue to build confidence in our abilities and the practice itself, we learn to abide well anywhere we go, in all aspects of our lives. - From the Koans of the Way of Reality - Yunju's "Abiding in the Mountains"
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - Wednesday 6/25/25 - Shugen Roshi explores a passage from the Prajnaparamita Sutra and its emphasis on the “unconditioned” nature of things. When this is realized within our zazen, the unconditioned state has the potential to liberate our minds. If we can meet our minds and what arises without adding extra, without grasping and rejecting, we can begin to sense the deep wisdom we seek in the dharma.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/22/25 - Getting caught up in the many distractions that we encounter daily contributes to our confusion, our sense of overwhelm. How do we cultivate practice in such a way that we can turn it back, to inquire, and not be overwhelmed? With honesty and persistence, practice can help reveal the true nature of the self and of all things. Using Dharma words from Eihei Dogen, Shugen Roshi encourages us to turn the light around, calm our busy minds, and see things as they truly are. - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 16 Changsha's "Returning to Mountains, Rivers, and the Great Earth"
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/15/25 - We acquire language as we become more conscious of what surrounds us—people and things and concepts—and the language we learn to use is inextricable from our conscious sense of ourselves. In this sense we are co-creating our reality moment by moment as we use language. In Dharma study, one of the Eight Gates of Zen, we learn to work with some skill in appreciating the necessity of language as well as the constructed and thereby provisional nature of language. Our capacity to use words toward realization is not limited by words themselves.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 6/8/25 - Hojin takes up one of her favorite koans from The Hidden Lamp: Lingzhao Pang’s Helping. How free and generous it is when we are not keeping score, watching as a third person judging, monitoring, distancing ourselves from interactions. We seem to not want to let go of the idea we are not separate. Here, father and daughter demonstrate what it is to be fully alive to interconnection outside of language. We’re never far off!
Dr. Rebecca Li - ZMM - 6/8/25 - This talk from visiting Dharma teacher Rebecca Li explores Silent Illumination, a practice where stillness and clarity are cultivated simultaneously through the process of recognizing and releasing layers of ever more subtle habitual reactivities that cause suffering. This practice allows us to live more in accordance with wisdom and compassion, as we suffer less and become more present, kind and connected with everyone in our lives, enhancing our capacity to bring benefits to the world. Professor Li is a Dharma heir in the lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen and the founder and guiding teacher of Chan Dharma Community.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/1/25 - Why does Buddhism so emphasize life and death? When we begin to see the depths of our attachments to this “self," we have to face the jarring fact that there really isn’t anything permanent to attach to. But then, what is this? Shugen Roshi reminds us that our vital life energy can be immediate, compassionate, not clinging to anything. And so within life and death we are liberated from life and death. - From the Entangling Vines Koan Collection, Case 38 - The Wise Women in the Charnel Grove.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 6/1/25 - Hojin Sensei invokes the Diamond Net of Indra, a vast net on whose every node hangs a glittering diamond-On the surface of this diamond, every other diamond is reflected, multiplying the reflection into infinity. Each diamond exists both in its own right and also connected to every other diamond on the net just as each one of us is unique and connected to every other being and thing in the universe. This means we’re constantly affecting one another in ways known and unknown. Is this liberating? What do we do with this kind of knowledge?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/24/25 - What is real strength? Putting to good use all of our obstructions and old habits, we can cultivate our ability to meet whatever arises with pliancy, flexibility, to find our real strength. Zen practice and training is indeed the daily, moment to moment experience of our lives, and learning to find nourishment there. Shugen Roshi encourages us to “meet it simply, honestly” and learn to free ourselves and others. - From the Book of Serenity, Case 33 - Sansheng's "Golden Fish"
Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - ZMM - 5/23/25 - Gates of entry are enticing and sometimes overwhelming to enter, but we can gather our courage and bring ourselves forward to experience the world which is revealed there. Drawing on teachings from the Lankavatara Sutra and the Heart Sutra, Shoan Osho tells the story of “Enid in Zendoland,” whereby Enid becomes adept at distinguishing the perceptions of their own mind, and enters a marvelous gate of ease and joy.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 5/22/25 - When we can see how we use our minds, we can see where our life is really happening. As we enter into practice and continue to relax into our zazen, we develop our capacity to see our habits and conditioning. With notes from the Surangama Sutra teaching on “purifying the mind” of obscurations, Gokan explores how we can relax completely, with awareness, and really take care of our lives.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/21/25 - Becoming aware of our minds’ potential, it often seems like we’re causing ourselves more trouble, because we get caught up in the same old patterns and habits. But learning to honestly recognize ourselves, we also can see that it’s possible to live another way, in greater freedom and ease. In this challenging learning process, we can take care of persistent suffering in a new, liberating way, creating the potential and conditions for others to liberate themselves too. - From the Record of Layman Pang.
Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer - ZMM - 5/18/2025 - This talk from dharma teacher Lopön Karla was offered at the conclusion of the weekend retreat. Feeding your Demons brings an 11th century Tibetan practice to the West in an accessible and effective approach for dealing with negative emotions, fears, illness, self-defeating patterns, and beliefs that hinder our expression of our highest humanity as individuals and as a society.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/11/25 - The connection between the creative process and the Dharma is an important entranceway to deepening our Zen practice. Engaging creative expression as a practice helps us leap free of the constraints of intellect, experiencing a resonance with the world beyond what we think of as “myself.” Our senses take in the whole world. So how are we not overwhelmed or deceived by our perceptions? How do we inhabit this “dharma body” with clarity, and commune with all reality? - From the Book of Serenity, Case 82 - Yunmen's Sound and Form.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 5/9/25 - What is it we wish to cultivate in our lives, to give energy to? Fusatsu is a chance to bring our intentions alive—especially where we have done harm—by taking responsibility for our actions. Being at one with our transgressions as well as our aspirations are at the heart of this ancient practice of atonement, or “being one with,” and allowing ourselves to resolve, forgive and release what burdens us. - Dharma Talk during the Fusatsu Ceremony at the Spring Ango Intensive.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/4/25 - How we take up the Dharma includes how we study, using words to go beyond words and concepts. How we see words being used in the world should give us an understanding of how we might get tangled in our own objectification of things. Freedom emerges hand in hand with how we learn to be free of grasping, even in the realm of language, and to apply what we hear in liturgy and the sutras to our own experience. - From the Book of Serenity, Case 45 - Four Sections of the Enlightenment Scripture.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 5/4/25 - To truly engage the many skillful means to awakening, we must imagine the possibility of moving beyond reactive patterns and socially imposed norms—to free the clinging mind from suffering. Hojin Sensei explores imagination as an essential part of the dharmic path, through which we begin to recognize, as the Buddha taught, what is true by direct experience. Can we imagine it?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/27/25 - How do we work skillfully with the teacher-student relationship in Zen training? What do we create with it in our minds? Working with a teacher, how can we learn to show up authentically, to meet ourselves? To work out the difficult moments we find ourselves in, and allow our vulnerable hearts to shine forth? Shugen Roshi concludes that even misstepping is an important part of the path, and what matters most is what we do next. - Dharma Encounter at the conclusion of the April 2025 Apple Blossom Sesshin.
Suzanne Taikyo Gilman, Senior Monastic - ZCNYC - 4/27/25 - Can we use our direct experience to express what words cannot adequately convey? Using a teaching from zen master Hongzhi, monastic Taikyo takes up this question of how to explore the vast universe within ourselves and share our dark fears, our vulnerability, and our joys, in traveling this path.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/26/25 - All beings have buddha nature and the capacity to fully realize ourselves; this is a fundamental teaching of the Dharma. Shugen Roshi explores the realization of Vasumitra, an early successor to the Buddha, in an encounter with his own transmission teacher. How is it to be fully met in the dharma, and be fully met by a teacher? To fully meet ourselves? Are we ready to extend our patience, vulnerability and integrity? Your own aspiration forms the vessel of the Dharma. It doesn’t happen anywhere else. - From the Transmission of Light, Case 8 - Vasumitra.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZMM - 4/25/25 - Skillful means, “Upaya,” are forms that the teachings take throughout our practice. How do we take up everything, including the edges that appear, rather than fight against them? How do we use our practice to explore and expand our capacity to be alive, fulfilled, and responsive to the world? - Dharma Talk during the Apple Blossom Sesshin 2025 Fusatsu Ceremony.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 4/24/25 - Honesty is essential to serious spiritual practice. We need to become honest with ourselves about the nature of our suffering, our habitual reactivity and our fear, so that we can acknowledge them before being able to release them. This level of integrity is needed for the entrance to a loving and compassionate relationship with ourselves and others. As Hogen Sensei says, this intention affects every aspect of living and dying, and the choices we’re free to make along the way. - From Master Dogen's Treasury of the True Dharma Eye - Fascicle 31 - Continuous Practice (Gyoji)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/23/25 - The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra shows us there is no intrinsic right and wrong when we understand the nature of emptiness. Selflessness is a key aspect of this wisdom, and developing a clear understanding is essential. The self-less wisdom is what we can rely on to guide us within a world of dualities: good and bad, right and wrong, form and emptiness, seeing their true nature as non dual. In emptiness, nothing exists as separate on its own; all reality is interdependent. Not grasping, not holding on to, not forsaking anything, this is how Shugen Roshi explains the practice of the Perfection of Wisdom.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/20/25 - How can we transform our everyday actions into expressions of spiritual awakening and joy? Shugen Roshi explores the concept of "Work" as not just physical or mental effort, but as a profound, joyful manifestation of our inherent spiritual abilities. (See Master Dogen's Shobogenzo Fascicle #24 - On the Marvelous Spiritual Abilities.)
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 4/19/25 - Being a practitioner of the Buddha dharma, how do you know practice works? Without commenting or evaluating; without looking for progress, look at how it operates -- how you operate -- right here and now.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZCNYC - 4/13/25 - The second of the Eight Gates of Zen Training is "Mountain Light: Zen Study". Don't confuse it with "Academic Study" which is the third gate. Zen Study refers to the many facets of studying with a teacher. Shugen Roshi explains what that kind of study means and emphasizes the importance of holding it in prominence and at the same time keeping all eight interconnected gates in natural balance. - From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 11 - Huang Po's Gobblers of Dregs
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 4/13/25 - Gokan Osho takes us through Master Hongzhi's Practice instructions, reminding us to appreciate whatever's arising without grasping.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/6/25 - Planting, cultivating—how do we affect our troubled world for the better—on a spiritual path? How does this function? Shugen Roshi explores how the reasoning mind can be of service, but the essential ingredient is one’s own intention and commitment, beyond the surface of our thinking minds, to the reality which is always coming into being. - From the Book of Serenity, Case 12 - Dizang Planting the Fields.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 4/6/25 - Hojin Sensei explores the heart of the three pure precepts; the simple path of clarity, kindness and love; this perennial wisdom that flows through all of us. (We apologise for the audio/mic glitches in some parts of the recording.)
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 3/30/25 - To not deceive oneself is the fundamental ground of all moral and ethical action, and to do that we need to go deep into the roots of our greed, aggression and ignorance. How do we work with this? How has our zazen practice helped us become more skillful and to take responsibility even when we resist that? This Dharma Encounter with the sangha brings out the integrity and courage we work with throughout our Zen training.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZCNYC - 3/30/25 - Gokan talks about the ways of distraction. Whether blatant or very subtle, they are us, they are mind, and it's so important to be gentle as we work with them.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 3/29/25 - Every concerned person has to consider the realities of cause and effect, or karma. In fact, it’s causes and conditions that bring this moment to our awareness. We are affected by everything, and every thought and action of ours has an impact. This truth, that our actions matter, is of great benefit to healing ourselves and the world. Shugen Roshi explores further the teachings of Baizhang and the Fox.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/28/25 - Perfecting our actions is how we cultivate the qualities of a bodhisattva, and this is what is practiced in the moral and ethical teachings of Zen Buddhism. In this realm of existence, we can have a positive effect even on difficult circumstances. This talk by Shugen Roshi explores what is of benefit in this present life and how a practitioner can live in accord with this. - Teisho during the March 2025 Fusatsu at ZMM.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - ZMM - 3/27/25 - Master Hongzhou says, "Contact phenomena with total sincerity - not a single atom of dust outside yourself." How we connect with the world of beings and things can be seen as caring, and within zazen the energy of steady presence and attention is what we offer those we love. It is a potent mix of awareness and sincerity, and it doesn’t take much of that to bring everything to life.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 3/26/25 - The Zen koan "Baizhang’s Fox" explores the nature of cause and effect (karma) and enlightenment and is taken up in this talk. Shugen Roshi explores how freedom is not about escaping cause and effect but understanding its nature, and seeing that we have an enormous effect through our thoughts, words and actions. Our intentions and perceptions are what truly binds us. Freeing ourselves and others involves shifting our understanding of how our intentions have much to do with karma—through our ways of working with causes and conditions—and not grasping on to fixed ideas or opinions.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/23/25 - “Shedding body and mind” is now a classic Zen phrase, and so what can it teach us about practice? Shugen Roshi explores how a novel translation of the character for “dust” as “body-and-mind” gave birth to a new perspective on zazen practice through the teachings of Dogen, the 9th century Zen master who gave rise to the Soto Zen School. Stability, aliveness and openings to the true nature of reality are all realized through this body. Our own mortal body-and-mind is the site of practice, and living completely in our bodies is an essential pathway of realization. - From the Transmission of Light (Denkoroku) Case 52 - Master Dogen
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 3/23/25 - What's Liturgy? What's not Liturgy? Hojin Sensei talks about it's place, not just as a function in the Zendo, but as a down to earth, profound opening, right now, in our life.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 3/16/25 - The Diamond Sutra’s teachings convey an understanding of karma at the fundamental level of dharma practice. How we get at the roots of karmic formations happens through cultivating awareness—within zazen and within a vow—where those energies can be transformed into something different. Karma is not determinant, it’s always subject to shift. - From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 97 - "The Diamond Cutter Scripture's Scornful Revilement"
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - 3/16/25 - What do we create out of the karma that we have now? How do we "actualize good for others"? Hojin Sensei takes us through Dogen's Fascicle "Tenzo Kyokun" (Instructions for the Zen Cook), which is an instruction assigned to all successive cooks at ZMM, and is a deep teaching for all of us, to use all of our life, moment to moment, down to the intricate details.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/9/25 - Everything is in a constant state of becoming, including ourselves. The Buddha said of his realization that this "true self" is not dependent on one's effort. It cannot be created and therefore cannot be destroyed. When the self is freed of all encumbering delusions about the nature of self as being good or bad, pure or impure, then the real form of truth can be known, and one can live freely as "the true person of no rank." (From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 147 - Linji's "True Person of No Rank")
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 3/9/25 - Hojin Sensei stresses the universality of creativity; we're creating every minute of our lives. i.e. "creativity is not just about art." Or "Our whole life is art." Furthermore, we can approach the three pure precepts (do not create evil, practice good, actualize good for others) as the practice of creativity in our everyday lives. So the questions become "What and how are we creating?" "What are we connecting with?" Hojin Sensei comments on Daido Roshi's teachings from his book "The Zen of Creativity" and talks about the meaning of her own prolific art practice.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/2/25 - Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of the MRO 90-day Spring Ango 2025 training period, "Mountain Training: The Eight Gates of Zen."
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 3/2/25 - Hojin Sensei opens the Spring Ango practice period at Fire Lotus Temple and introduces this Ango's theme: "Mountain Training: The Eight Gates of Zen."
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/1/25 - From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 43 - Tung Shan's No Cold or Heat - What are we holding on to? By facing rather than avoiding extremes, we take up the way to freedom. Using an ancient koan, Shugen Roshi explores the extremes and asks: can we see things as they are, not clouded by our preferences? This does not mean that there is nothing to be done, for there is. Practice is changing the way we use our minds, "down to the bone," so that we can be free in the world of duality.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 3/1/25 - Hojin Sensei talks about Master Hakuin; his "Song of Zazen", and how his art - brushwork and poetry - was integral with his zazen and teaching process. Hojin explains the importance of art in Zen practice and talks about finding herself drawn to a similar teaching path.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 2/23/25 - At the root of our ancestral lineage is reverence: for the Dharma, for practice and realization, and for all beings. In this talk Shugen Roshi explores the elements of faith and practice which “bring to life” the Buddha Dharma, and are central to the it’s transmission from generation to generation. Gokan Osho also shares some words on his practice of Denkai training—the priestly transmission—received from Shugen Roshi this week.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 2/16/25 - Taking up this teaching from Shitou, Gokan delves into how an ancient Zen song-poem can help us find our way in our present world of turmoil and stress. “Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely,” the teaching tells us. Don’t separate from this person who you are, this body and mind here and now. In this way we come into accord with our thoughts, words and actions, for the benefit of all beings.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - ZCNYC - 2/16/25 - When polarization seems to surround us, it's imperative to recognize our own dualistic thinking in its many forms, and cultivate a habit of perspective-shifting. Shoan Osho weaves the Zen teachings on stillness and fluidity as seen in the Vimalakirti Sutra chapter, "The Goddess" to help clarify that everything is groundless, impermanent, and subject to change, and therefore will always benefit from impartiality and the goodness of bodhisattva activity.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - ZCNYC - 2/15/25 - When the heart becomes heavy, can we see how our minds tend to run in circles? Seeing this clearly we can have space to stop, breathe, and return to stillness. In this way we can touch the wisdom of being fully embodied, and recognize our inherent spiritual power which is always present within us, right here and now.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 2/9/25 - Bringing together Rumi's poem "Only Breath" and The Ānāpānasati Sutta (Sutra on Mindful Breathing), Hojin Sensei takes us through a thorough reckoning of this physical and profound practice, and how it is fundamental to being awake.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - ZMM - 2/9/25 - A timely reminder from Shoan Osho that a bodhisattva is one who interrupts the cycle of samsara, to stop creating and perpetuating greed, anger and ignorance, for the benefit of all beings. This “inner revolution” that practice offers is how we can calm the spinning mind and bring the light of wisdom and compassionate action to meet the challenges of the “outer world.”
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 2/2/25 - The spiritual journey is a path of discovering our true nature. The Ten Ox Herding pictures are a pictorial depiction of the training we each have to put together in our own body mind from the methods and teaching offered in this wisdom tradition. Hojin begins this talk with a live painting of the second ox herding picture: Finding the Traces of the Ox. As the preface to this stage says: "With the aid of the sutras, we gain understanding; through the study of the teaching, we find the traces. The many vessels are clearly all of one gold; and we ourselves, are the embodiment of the ten thousand things. But unable to recognize correct from incorrect, how are we to distinguish true from false? Since we have yet to pass through the gate, only tentatively have we seen the traces." We follow the tracks until we catch it! -- Watch Hojin Sensei paint the second ox-herding picture: https://vimeo.com/1054251015
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 1/5/2025 - What are we seeking? The spiritual journey is a path of discovering our true nature. The Ten Ox Herding pictures are a pictorial depiction of the Zen training path of enlightenment. Hojin begins this talk with a live painting of the first oxherding picture: Searching for the Ox, followed by a talk on this beginning stage of training: feeling an "offness" in our life, the raising of the Bodhi Mind, and the sense that some kind of search is on! Watch Hojin Sensei draw the first ox-herding picture: https://vimeo.com/1044299063
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 12/31/24 - All conditioned things are dukkha, but we are not bound by them nor are we limited by them. The Noble Path, which has come to us through others, works in any and every situation. We have Buddha Mind; we have pure undefiled nature. This is the way to offer the world some goodness through our aspirations and practice, and live a life without regret.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - ZMM - 12/29/24 - On a liberative path, we know we want to feel better but the enormity of the task, and the continuous “undoing” that it promises, can give pause. Shoan Osho explores the conditions of the Buddha’s enlightenment experience, and brings to the center Sujata’s role as the nourisher of life, as well as the cosmic female image of Prajna Paramita, the Mother of all Buddhas. Such images are in fact an emanation of each of us, our many forms of no-form, and are as limitless as space.
Prabu Gikon Vasan, Senior Lay Practitioner - ZMM - 12/28/24 - In the Buddha’s early sutras there are teachings which encourage an honest assessment of our state of being, no matter what the circumstances, as the very stuff of our liberation. Senior lay student Gikon explores how dharma practice supports this sometimes difficult but deeply freeing inquiry into our state of being, be it health or any mind state, and the liberating practice at our fingertips within samsara.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 12/22/24 - How do we practice ideals such as “morality” and “equality” and bring them to life? Invoking Wendell Berry’s text The Need to Be Whole: Patriotism and the History of Prejudice, Shugen Roshi explores how words are too often used without clarity about their function in real life events, and how this is a fundamental aspect of the Buddha’s teaching, that words and reality are in alignment.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 12/22/24 - Hojin Sensei introduces us to Ancestor Mugai Nyodai, the first woman Rinzai Abbot in the Zen tradition from 13th century, Japan. Referring to a story from The Hidden Lamp: Chiyono’s “No Water, No Moon”, Hojin brings up this ability to exercise our freedom to keep things together or let things come apart all according to circumstances.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 12/15/24 - We are continuously receiving from our ancestors, “bringing us the Dharma here and now.” To see ourselves as part of the continuous body of interconnecting, interdepending, and interpenetrating members—past, present, and future—is one of the functions of Buddhist training and meditation practice. When we know this, sense this, the natural response is to bring our ancestors forth and look at them in veneration. We formally bow and meet them, which is none other than meeting ourselves. This talk brings forth Ancestor Otagaki Rengetsu, Lotus Moon, the brilliant poet, potter, Buddhist nun from 19th century Japan and how her life interweaves with Hojin’s Buddhist path, art practice and teaching.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi ZMM - 12/08/24 - Having exhausted all the methods that were available at the time, Shakyamuni Buddha turned toward a new path, a simple seclusion and inward turning of mind. He received nourishment from Sujata and courageously defeated Mara on the path of liberation. This inspiring tale is retold by Shugen Roshi on the occasion of the annual Buddha’s Enlightenment Vigil.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 12/01/24 - From Master Wu-Men's Gateless Gate, Case 12 Jui-yen Calls "Master" - How does our sense of self come about? Does it happen automatically and, if so, is it illusory? The aim of zen practice is to cut through the illusion, see the self and other as an interdependent whole and therein recognize our true identity.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/23/24 - Letting go of our grasping mind is wisdom itself. Yet it’s difficult to understand “wisdom” as a quality we embody, in part because wisdom is devoid of self-nature and cannot be grasped. But if there is no self, for whom do we extend compassion? Who receives the benefits? Conventional existence and the ultimate nature are both true, and holding both is the expression of wisdom and compassion.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/20/24 - Drawing from the wisdom chapter of Shantideva’s teachings and other sources, Shugen Roshi brings out the subtle distinctions between craving-as-a-hindrance and aspiration. By seeing into the true nature of all reality, we can free ourselves from the endless cycles of clinging and attachment without needless confusion about what we call “the self,” and live within our true home.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 11/17/24 - We often ask ourselves in response to outside conditions: what do we do now? Our typical reactive, worrying state is often laying on extra trouble as we search for ways to act, to respond. While we have intrinsic, perfect buddha nature and can rely on this, we also live in the midst of strong forces of karma: karmic actions and conditions. There are things in this world of samsara that are deeply challenging, but how we experience them is key to how we free ourselves, and others, moment to moment.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - 11/15/24 - Our ordinary life experiences are what we work with in practice; “a lifetime of alchemy” as Shoan Osho notes in this Fusatsu talk. This ancient practice gives us the tools with which to transform karma, in how we can recognize, acknowledge, and atone for our actions. In this way we can heal and live fully in accord with reality: our true Buddha nature.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 11/10/24 - Shugen Roshi officiates the November 2024 Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery. Today, four students formally receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts, taking up these living teachings, living vows in the company of the sangha with family and friends:Jill Kisho Hamer (Radiant Star),Jonathan Dokan Caronia (Way of Simplicity),Graeme Eikan Daykin (Realizing the Unconditioned),Maureen Eishun Kemeza (Eternal Spring)
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei 11/9/24 - Hojin Sensei introduces this chant, an essential means to connect body and mind, to draw out our inherent love and kindness, always needed, especially now. If you don't already have it, you can download the Sutta here: https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/liturgy/karaniya-metta-sutta/
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 11/3/24 - Hojin Sensei encourages us to stay focused, remain alert and aware and to not run away from what comes up. To turn towards practice. To remember that we each have good medicine as practitioners to meet our life, to protect and guard the mind of goodness. Then in turn to offer the Bodhi mind of love, wisdom and transformation.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/03/24 - Koans often come from literary sources, and MRO founder Daido Roshi brought us this dialogue from Alice’s adventures in "Through the Looking Glass" to offer a path of well-being as dharma practice. Even in the midst of conflict, extreme differences of opinion or sudden changes, Shugen Roshi says, we can practice staying within our experience with complete trust. For this election week, we can take up this offering us a way to walk the path and find ways to be of benefit to all beings.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 10/27/24 - Bodhicitta is simply the aspiration to save all others from suffering. Along the way, how do we go forward on an ever shifting and bumpy path? This lively dharma encounter with Hogen Sensei and the sangha is tender and encouraging of all our aspirations to be of benefit in an ever changing world.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/26/24 - Gateless Gate, Case 37 - Selflessness is what makes a paramita a “perfection.” To explore the wisdom paramita, Shugen Roshi takes up Shantideva’s description of the two truths of the relative and absolute. The two truths describe a reality in the mind of one who does not grasp on to appearances as real, and therefore is not in conflict with anything. In this perfect wisdom, when there is nothing to actually hold on to, what remains? Everything! These two truths are a foundational aspect of the Mahayana Buddhist path.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZMM - 10/25/24 - Who are these guardian beings we encounter on altars and at doorways throughout the temple and monastery? And what is true protection of oneself and others? Hojin Sensei explores how in taking refuge in the dharma we also enter the protective spirit realm, the protective realm of practicing together.
Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student - ZMM - 10/24/24 - Within a poem by the monastic Ryōkan, senior lay student Yunen finds encouragement to practice for the benefit of others, with heartfelt reverence. He explores dharma teachings on how we construct our sense of a separate self, and the simple and wholly human tendency to benefit others before oneself, which is also the raising of bodhicitta.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/23/24 - Gateless Gate, Case 8 - Xiangyan Makes Carts - The concentration of a master craftsperson can be a samadhi-like experience. But this type of concentration does not always carry forward to our activities of living, or help in facing the challenges there. In this sesshin talk Shugen Roshi describes how the dharma helps us understand this sense of self we all rely on as not fixed or eternal, but constantly reinventing itself and therefore workable. This understanding is a doorway to true insight.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - ZMM - 10/20/24 - Exploring vow, presence, and contact with the sacred mystery of our precious human lives, Shoan Osho encourages us to see the medicine in how we encounter the world and what can feel like relentless suffering. Rather than shutting down or feeling hopeless when your heart breaks, she encourages, you can let it break wide open to meet all beings with presence and wholeness.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/13/24 - Stepping forward is essential to be truly alive. It’s also the only way to learn, both where we are being genuine and true, and where we are stuck. It takes courage to give everything and risk failure, but the only way to get past relying on success or failure is in taking the next step, freeing ourselves from self-clinging. This talk by Shugen Roshi brings forth a koan from Daido Roshi’s collection Koans of the Way of Reality, on the 15th anniversary since his passing.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/6/24 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 39 - Zhaozhou's "Wash Your Bowl"- One of the hallmarks of Zen teaching is that the deepest truth is indivisible from the most ordinary moment. When we release our habitual, grasping mind, then the whole universe can come alive, and we can awaken to our boundless nature in the midst of the most mundane activity. In the end, the purpose of all the koans, and all the sutras, and all the sitting that we do is just simply to meet the reality that is always here, always present. Meeting this moment free and unhindered, we find the joy at the heart of aliveness.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/29/24 - With faith, we can use any conditions or circumstances to arouse our aspiration for enlightenment. In this dharma encounter, Shugen Roshi invites participants in the fall ango to share their questions and experiences with bodhicitta, the aspiration for realization, and how we can work with this bodhicitta to bring an end to suffering.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/27/24 - What we need to understand about karma is basically that the web of causation is vast and far beyond our conscious comprehension. By taking responsibility for our thoughts, words and actions, we are setting the course for wholesome actions. This is the heart of moral and ethical teachings, and the nature of the enlightened mind itself.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 09/26/2024 - What is it to be empowered on the path? What is your potential? Realizing our true nature, personally, requires trust, an intuitive trust that must be developed over time. In this exploration of dharma practice, Hogen Sensei brings forward the virtues of selflessness and compassion that can empower us on the path.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/25/24 - Early teachings of Shantideva speak of mindfulness and related teachings of Asaṅga emphasize faith as a basis or foundation of practice. Shugen Roshi explains how this faith and mindfulness can lead to conviction and confidence in our capacity, and the energy of mindfulness can deepen our aspiration and joy in the path.
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, Osho - 9/22/24 - Zenju Osho visited the Monastery for two weeks of teaching and concluded her second retreat, "Opening to Darkness," with this offering of the Sunday Dharma talk. To learn more about Zenju Osho's writings, poetry and teachings, visit www.zenju.org
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 9/15/24 - There is a difference between the isolated feeling of loneliness and the calm presence of solitude, and it’s important to nourish in ourselves the stability of letting things be as they are, full and alive. At the same time we have to understand how to genuinely be present with others, with things just as things are. Then we can come home to the moment, letting the mind be “like trees and stones,” just as it is, without qualms and without adding extra.- From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 26 - Pai Chang's Sitting Alone on Ta Hsiung Mountain
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/8/24 - Live words in Zen practice are at the center of koan practice, emerging from deep inquiry but not bound by the conceptual, thinking mind. No matter what your practice—breath, “just sitting” or koans—using meticulous effort in your practice develops the concentration necessary for deep realization. Let go of everything, open the door and put on your straw sandals, and then travel some more.- From the Book of Serenity, Case 89 - Dongshan's "No Grass"
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 8/31/24 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 99 - Yunmen's "Bowl and Bucket" - Striving to realize our true nature, without tying ourselves into knots of grasping, are skills we have to practice. Being able to investigate where we stick to our habits and confusion is to help us develop concentration. As Shugen Roshi says, with the essential skills of mindfulness and concentration we can discover who “this unbounded one” really is, and then we can really be of benefit in the world.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 9/1/24 - Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of the Ango: "Going Straight on an Ever-Twisting Path: The Bodhisattva Path and The Paramitas."
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/25/24 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 98 - T'ien P'ing's Travels on Foot - Cause and effect are fundamental teachings of the Dharma: the dependent arising of all phenomena, and the karma of cause and effect. So how can the practice of seeing our minds as they function—creating realities by grasping at what we want or don’t want—become something we stop stumbling over? When we let go and see things as they are, we begin to practice the true freedom of mind: to act in accord with compassion and wisdom.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 8/18/24 - A Hidden Lamp Story: "The Old Woman's Relatives" - Hojin Sensei looks into loneliness... How do we understand it, respond to it? What's at the root of it? Can we experience the richness of it?
Prabu Gikon Vasan, Senior Lay Practitioner - 8/18/24 - The Buddha’s early teachings often focus on the nature of suffering to help us become aware of the ways that this state is created by our thoughts, words and actions. With a deeper understanding of how this process repeats itself, as senior lay student Gikon says, we can pivot, making real change by turning our thoughts, words and actions in the direction of freedom from suffering and it’s causes.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/11/24 - Habits of mind, which in the beginning of practice seem untameable, can be grounded through awareness, and that’s just the start of learning to be at ease with the mind. We come to appreciate our own ability to settle and to realize our capacity to experience the inherent steadiness of mind. With help from Shantideva and the contemporary Buddhist monk-scholar Anālayo, Shugen Roshi outlines ways to practice, and seeing into the nature of all reality.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/4/24 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 41 - Your Mind is At Rest - Shugen Roshi brings the teachings of Bodhidharma to life in this talk on zazen practice as a kind of inquiry that is free of concepts, ideas and analysis, and is rather a direct experience of one’s awakened mind—your mind at rest—which is just your natural mind illuminated and at ease.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 7/27/24 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 5 - Qingyuan and the Price of Rice - As we seek to understand the Buddha’s teachings on release from suffering, the explanations and descriptions of the Path are what we tend to seek. But when we actually sit down in zazen and experience our minds, without relying on explanations, the limits of conceptual thought begins to be seen. Bit by bit we learn to trust this direct experience, and trust it as the natural state, of our minds and of the minds of all beings.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - 7/26/24 - Delving into a 13th century Indian mystic’s poem on the experience of the divine, and the Lankavatara Sutra, a foundational sutra of the early Zen path, Shoan Osho explores our direct experience within the practice of mind, and the realization of no separation from all beings on the path of peace.
Rev. Trudi Jinpu Hirsch-Abramson - ZMM - 7/21/24 - Rev. Jinpu offers her engaging stories about the practice of grief, aging, dying and living in the now. An ordained Buddhist priest and chaplain, Jinpu has over twenty-five years of experience in practicing and teaching others to care for and celebrate all of life.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - ZMM - 7/14/24 - Noticing when we’ve put ourselves in a box, made up of our ideas or habits, is the genuine key to transformation and freedom. Drawing on early teachings of Zen Buddhism, Shoan Osho brings us home to our true power, to create and release our hindrances, through non-grasping.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 7/7/24 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 9 - "Daitsu Chisho Buddha" - This koan brings us into a question that some of us do ask about in practice whether we have been engaged a long time - or a short time: What is realization? Am I getting it? Are they getting it? What is happening? Why after a period of zazen does reality not appear? After all what is attainment and non attainment?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/30/24 - Shugen Roshi explores the discernment capacity of our inherent wisdom using two different teachings sources, a koan involving the monk Upagupta, and from a discourse on the nun Vajirā from the Buddha’s early teachings. This wise discernment guides each person on their path of spiritual practice; it’s very personal, and it takes time. Whether the home leaving of a monastic, or home dwelling of a lay practitioner, this very human wisdom mind is always fueled by our inherent true nature. - Two stories, one from The Record of the Transmission of the Light: Case 5 – Upagupta, the Fourth Zen Ancestor; and another from the Pali Canon - Samyutta Nikaya: "The Bhikkhuni Vajira" - Note: this talk was preceded by the postulant monastic ceremony for Clyde Fusei Forth and Alex Rogetsu Rothstein.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/29/24 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 57 - Yanyang's "Thing" - Learning to see the complexity of how our minds hold on to concepts—“things”— is an aspect of zazen practice, not just at the beginning but all the way through Zen training. In this sesshin talk, Roshi explores a lively koan that delves right in to this teaching.
Suzanne Taikyo Gilman, Senior Monastic - ZMM - 6/28/24 - The heart of enlightened mind, or bodhicitta, is an aspect of dharma practice that brings our aspirations to life. In this sesshin talk, Taikyo explores some teachings of bodhicitta, how it is cultivated, and how bodhicitta relates to the practice of zazen.
Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student - ZMM - 6/27/24 - Yunen explores the fundamental instructions on zazen from Dogen and the spiritual path of a Buddhist practitioner. To help us develop our understanding of its depth and breadth he brings forth analogies in language and nature, and especially to the evolution of the mountain ranges of the northeast.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/26/24 - The Buddha’s Teachings on the Four Noble Truths - Causes and conditions, the inner workings of how things happen, is a key aspect of studying the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha. Shugen Roshi describes some ways in which these profound teachings function in the arising of karma within daily life and dharma practice.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/23/24 - From The Record of the Transmission of the Light, Case 10 – Buddhamitra (or Fudamitta, the Ninth Zen Ancestor) - Our identity is built up with stories we learn to tell about ourselves, and many of these keep us in a state of suffering of which we’re barely aware. When a story we carry in our minds meets reality, often there is resistance. To relinquish this habit takes strength and mindful awareness. To just let ourselves live in harmony with changing circumstances, in accord with our true nature, is a benefit of zazen practice.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 6/16/24 - Looking at Bodhidharma’s teachings on two ways to enter practice—by principle and by practice—these teachings acknowledge that we’re all different and will enter practice in different ways, addressing what is most alive for us. In this talk Gokan explores the first of four practices identified by Bodhidharma—encountering suffering—and how the suffering which seems daunting or overwhelming can also provide all that we need to fully enter the Way.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 6/9/24 - The five hindrances are the obstacles that prevent us from settling into the precision and stillness of our bodymind. In this talk, Hojin explores the fourth hindrance—restlessness and worry—and examines the various ways that we can work with it primarily by paying close attention to what’s going on in our minds.
Chimyo Simone Atkinson, Sensei - ZMM - 6/9/24 - Chimyo Sensei explores the essential practice of zazen, and our genuine capacity to realize Buddha Nature. This practice can challenge us to face our own barriers, tapping into our innate ability to yield, like a dragon taking to the water, and the courage to move freely, like a tiger entering the mountains. Chimyo Sensei offers guidance to live the dharma with whatever is arising, with grace, ease and joy.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/2/24 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 19 - Yunmen's "Sumaru" - Koan practice guides us to something different than conceptual knowledge, a liberation of mind which is, as the Buddha said, subtle and difficult to understand. And yet, conceptual knowledge is an integral part of how we can realize the non-conceptual mind. Using Yunmen’s teachings, Shugen Roshi explores how calming the mind, and gaining insight, are important steps toward understanding how to truly free ourselves from conceptual thought and grasping at self-centered views.
In this podcast interview, Mn. Hokyu Aronson speaks with guest instructor Vangeline about embodied movement...
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/22/24 - From Master Hongzhi's verse: Guidepost of Silent Illumination - Both effortful and effortless... How is it that meditation flows through all activity, on the cushion, off the cushion? Shugen Roshi comments on the practice of Shikantaza and Master Hongzhi's poem.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 5/12/24 - As part the MRO Ango Training period in studying right relationship, and in celebration of Mother's Day, Hojin Sensei takes up 'The Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance’ from 12th Century Zen teacher Dogen. She brings this teaching to life in call and creative response with the Fire Lotus Sangha.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 05/17/2024 - In the practical sense, our activity within and amongst the constant, continuing small moments are what are forming our habits and creating our karma and the collective karma. So pay attention to all of it, be patient with yourself and practice with your vows in mind.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/12/24 - Shugen Roshi recounts the origins of the present form of Mother's Day, which was all about a mother's call for peace! During his lifetime, the Buddha made this same appeal in many sutras with instructions on living peacefully. What better way to honour our mothers than to recommit to this? Shugen Roshi guides us through the practical application of the Karaniya Metta Sutra: "This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness, and who knows the path of peace..." (https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/liturgy/karaniya-metta-sutta/)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/5/24 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 93 - Luzu's Not Understanding - What do we have to do to realize our own perfection? And what does it actually mean in the sense in which it is spoken of in the Buddhist sutras? And our appreciation of relationship; with ourselves and with others... Do we know how it comes to us? Are we open to it?
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 4/27/24 - From the Book of Equanimity, Case 67 - The Wisdom of the Flower Garland Sutra - The base of our practice is to realize our own true nature. Hogen Sensei exhorts us to not defile it by clinging to our deluded opinions; we are all fundamentally endowed with the virtues of the Buddha.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZMM - 04/26/24 - Dharma Talk during the Apple Blossom Sesshin 2024 Fusatsu Ceremony - Hojin Sensei encourages us to strive to be in harmony with each and every aspect of our life.
Katie Yosha Scott-Childress, Senior Lay Student - ZMM - 4/25/24 - Yosha introduces us to lay woman Fazhen (12th Century) with the story of her awakening.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - ZMM - 4/24/24 - Can we genuinely be ourselves if we are not free of the idea of "ourself"? Shoan Osho talks about our evanescent nature and grounding ourselves in that.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 4/21/24 - Inspired by Master Dogen’s poem “Snow”, Hogen Sensei asks us what makes us whole? What can we rely on to face what is before us with clear intention?
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 3/27/24 - From The Record of the Transmission of the Light, Case 1 - Shakyamuni Buddha - Hogen Sensei reminds us that we are all inherently buddhas and have the ability to realize ourselves in our lifetime.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 11/16/23 - From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 14 - "Yunmen's Appropriate Statement" - With this pithy koan by Yunmen, in light of Atisha's slogan #55, "Liberate yourself by examining and analyzing", Hogen Sensei encourages us to clarify, on an ongoing basis, why we're practicing and to trust our direct experience as a "way in", a "journey of no distance."
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 10/29/23 - How do you understand "Intimate Speech"? How and when does it occur? What happens, inside and outside, when it does? Hogen Sensei takes up these questions and others with Ango participants in a heartfelt discussion.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 9/27/23 - From the Book of Equanimity, Case 17 - Fayan's "Hairsbreadth" - What's the difference between conveying knowledge and conveying the non-dual dharma? How do we directly experience the distinctiveness and the oneness of things, and convey this to each other, in the activity of our everyday lives? Is that "Intimate Language"?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 09/10/2023
Shugen Roshi talks about the Buddha's teaching on causation, and how to study this in our own lives.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, RoshiZen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 09/03/2023Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of the MRO 90-day Fall Ango training period, "Intimate Language." If you'd like to learn more about our Ango program and possibly participate, please click here: https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/ango/
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 8/27/2023
From the Book of Serenity, Case 69 - Nanquan's "Cows"When the teachings talk about being unconcerned, when we practice letting go of the self and the self-consciousness, what is that? How to be simple, that is not simplistic? How to by authentic, that by it’s very nature is uncontrived? How to be alive and unadorned?
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 8/20/2023
The first of the Four Immeasurables is "May All Beings Know Happiness." In encountering this as a practice, we might wonder: is it really possible for all beings to know happiness? Examining this question, Hojin Sensei weaves together poetry, a story of profound forgiveness, and reflections on her own practice of the Four Immeasurables.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Saturday 8/19/2023
What makes effort joyful? In Buddhism, there are many metaphors pointing to the ineffectiveness of extremes: if a lute's strings are too taught or too loose it will not play well. Hojin Sensei invites us to bring a sense of play to exploring this dynamic and aspiring towards joyful effort in our practice.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York 8/20/2023
"...A Day for Turning Cartwheels..." (Master Dogen)
Shugen Roshi officiates the Novice Monastic Ordination ceremony for Julia Jiryu Krupa; a joyful occasion - both a home-leaving and a homecoming - that Master Dogen described as "a day for turning cartwheels." Jiryu is currently the Monastery's Work Supervisor. She became a formal student in 2010, received the Bodhisattva Precepts, and her dharma name Jiryu, in 2019 and became a Postulant in 2021. Today she receives the robe of a monastic and provisionally takes on the five monastic vows. Those vows being simplicity, service, selflessness, stability, and "to live the Buddha Way." In this new context she will continue her discernment and exploration and training for the role of a full monastic before choosing to ask for full ordination.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 08/13/2023
From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 50 - Yun Men's Every Atom Samadhi
Deeply embedded in the Buddhist path is the activity of meditation. Shugen Roshi talks about this "Gate of Joyful Ease"; all of its intricacy and simplicity. The very act of taking up the posture is in itself an invitation to discover the dharma, discover zazen, discover your mind.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 08/06/2023
From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 59 - Zhaozhou's “Why not Quote it Fully?”
Shugen Roshi talks about the nature of speech and thought. Our internal dialog is not harmless, nor neutral. It doesn't just create distractedness, but more significantly it actually is continuing to solidify a certain way of understanding ourselves and the world. But are those words conveying, as we speak internally to ourselves, what is true? Are they helping us?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/30/2023
From The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
What does Faith mean and what does it encompass in our Buddhist tradition? In this 3-part series, Shugen Roshi talks about the Aspiration to Awakening Through Faith and its many aspects which are the essentials of Buddhist teachings and practices. How does the aspiration come forth and develop? Shugen Roshi delves into this third type of aspiration for enlightenment; through the consummation, or perfection, of faith.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 07/29/2023
From The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
What does Faith mean and what does it encompass in our Buddhist tradition? In this 3-part series, Shugen Roshi talks about the Aspiration to Awakening Through Faith and it's many aspects which are the essentials of Buddhist teachings and practices. In this second talk, Shugen Roshi looks at realization, suchness; the aspiration to awaken through realizing the Way.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 7/27/2023 - What is this quite place in our heart-mind where we can enjoy serenity and tranquility? Do we have to reach for it? Or is it right here? Gokan examines the third of "The Eight Awarenesses of the Bodhisattva".
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 07/26/2023
From The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
What does Faith mean and what does it encompass in our Buddhist tradition? In this 3-part series, based on this text, Shugen Roshi talks about the Aspiration to Awakening Through Faith and it's many aspects which are the essentials of Buddhist teachings and practices. In this first talk, Shugen Roshi looks at the aspect of understanding; understanding through practicing the Paramitas.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 07/23/2023
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 7/16/2023 - What is it to be satisfied? How much is enough? Can we be satisfied with the way we are right here, right now? Gokan delves into these questions of desire and satisfaction, and brings it back to our zazen, asking: how does our zazen practice help us to understand knowing how to be satisfied? Gokan shares from "The Eight Awarenesses of the Bodhisattva", a succinct teaching the Buddha gave during the last days of his life. Master Dogen also taught the same in his last days in the Shobogenzo Fascicle "Eight Awakenings of Great Beings." And our more recent ancestor Maezumi Roshi made the same admonitions.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 7/15/2023 - Shoan shares a poem by 14th Century Kashmiri mystic Lalleshwari about "coming home" and asks where do you find yourself in relation to "seeking", "home leaving", "longing"? These activities may seem to imply the need to find, to get somewhere, to be finally satisfied. Yet the non-dual wisdom of Lalleshwari tells us that she's at home when "the truthful one finds me". Lalleshwari seems to say the same thing as Master Dogen: "To carry the self forward and realize the ten thousand dharmas is delusion. That the ten thousand dharmas advance and realize the self is enlightenment."
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei- ZCNYC - 07/09/2023 - Hojin Sensei offers a "care package" for uncertainty, interweaving poetry and Dharma teachings. In the midst of the small and large uncertainties of life, fear often arises. Zazen, Hojin says, is a practice of choosing to enter into uncertainty and not-knowing. The poems and teachings she offers invite us into that wondrous, wild space.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 7/09/2023 - Shoan looks in wonderment at the image of "two arrows meeting in mid-air"... Our seemingly ordinary experience and activity in everyday life is none other than the great universal self, Buddha Mind. Reflecting on a poem from the medieval Buddhist nun Fayuan, Red Pine's commentary on the Diamond Sutra, Master Dogen's Jinzu (Miracles) and Genjokoan (Actualizing the Fundamental Point), the teachings of Kosho Uchiyama, and an essay from Audre Lorde, Shoan expresses it: "May We Realize the Buddha Way Together".
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM 07/02/2023 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 17 - The National Teacher Calls Three Times - Shugen Roshi talks about the koan, trust, faith, the student-teacher relationship; the teachings, and questions that bootstrap us onto the Bodhisattva Path. Our journey here calls for the kind of understanding that supports/inspires/guides our activity. And this activity in turn enriches our understanding and the cycle continues. In that sense the aspects of the Noble 8-Fold Path and the 6 Paramitas are interdependent, actualizing together.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 07/02/2023 - Hojin Sensei shares teachings and stories about Patience Paramita. She explores the description of patience given by Larry Ward, a senior teacher in Thich Nhat Hanh's lineage: "patience is the capacity to receive what life gives us." The practice of patience, Hojin says, is humbling, and it has the power to open our hearts and transform intolerance into wisdom and compassion.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Saturday 07/01/2023
In this Jodo-style talk during a Zazenkai, Hojin Sensei delves into Dogen's teachings on zazen. Dogen taught that zazen is not a means to an end - not a meditation technique to achieve something, but "the Dharma gate of joyful ease." Practice and realization are inseparably one and the same. What are the implications of this deep teaching on the way in which we practice?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZCNYC 06/25/2023 - Shugen Roshi offers teachings on Patience, the 3rd of the Paramitas. In the Mahayana tradition, there are three forms of patience that are understood to be essential to the Bodhisattva path: practicing how to hold injuries that come to us, to forebear what is difficult, and to face the true nature of the realities in which we live. In the midst of injustice and frustrations of all kinds, the practice of patience is the revolution that opens up our capacity to respond.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 06/25/2023
The Bodhisattva Path, just like the Noble 8-fold path, calls for the kind of understanding/view at the outset which will support/inspire/guide our activity on that path. Hogen Sensei comments, line by line, on Emily Dickinson's poem "This World is not Conclusion" to help us to see the deep aspects of this understanding.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Saturday 06/24/2023
In this 2nd of 2 talks, Shugen Roshi continues to delve into these 7 characteristics, talking about the challenges we face in really living them, making them truly deeply ours. How do we practice, in a genuine way, to bring these qualities forth, all the while acknowledging the samsaric mind that accompanies our enlightened mind?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Thursday 06/22/2023
Over two talks, Shugen Roshi delves into these 7 characteristics and talks about the challenges we face in really living them, making them truly deeply ours. How do we practice, in a genuine way, to bring these qualities forth, all the while acknowledging the samsaric mind that accompanies our enlightened mind?
Robert Rakusan Ricci, Senior Monastic - ZMM 6/21/2023 - What is it in me that wants to persist? Is that what being "me" is? Throughout our lives so much in our culture is teaching us to desire; reinforcing our desires... to continue being "me", to have a "full life"; stayin' alive as the song goes. Where is freedom and liberation in this? Rakusan examines this quandary. What if instead, we STOP and rest from all this activity of Stayin' Alive?
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM 6/18/2023 - Where and when do I get the opportunity to see into my true nature, the true nature of things? What hinders my being at peace in the Way? Gokan shares his insight in light of the Sixth century Faith Mind Poem and the teachings of the modern master Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 06/11/2023
As taught by the Buddha, Right View (or Right Understanding) is the first and foremost of the Noble 8-Fold Path (the N8FP), while at the same time it originates from the dynamic relationship of all eight aspects of the N8FP. i.e. there's an order to the N8FP and there's an interdependence in no particular order as well. This is commonly illustrated by the wheel with eight spokes. Shugen Roshi explains the intricacies of Right View and its importance in grounding us and guiding us clearly along our path.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, RoshiZen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 06/04/2023From the Book of Serenity, Case 91 - Nanquan's "Peony"Do we understand what our perceptions actually are? What is happening in the process when we're perceiving and attaching to things? Can we stop and see the continuous dynamic relationships going on?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, RoshiZen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 05/28/2023Dharma Encounter at the conclusion of the May 2023 Ocean Gathering SesshinHow do we live in the context of the teachings of identity of relative and absolute, that the nature of things is fundamentally empty, and non-dual? How does realizing these teachings liberate us? How do we live in the truth of "Birth-and-Death"? How do we live and understand "Every Day is a Good Day"? How do we understand "Ordinary Mind"? Shugen Roshi invites students to take up these questions and engage with him in Dharma Encounter.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM 05/25/2023 - From Dogen's Extensive Record, # 391: "Life and Death Without Abode" - Hogen Sensei asks... Can we directly look at our life? Which is what we mean when we say "Strive to Awaken"....
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM 05/24/2023 - Shoan talks about 'entering', 'doorways', 'passing through'. To where? Can we see and take up the abundant opportunities offered to us? And how do we actually do that?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM 05/21/2023 - From Master Dogen's Treasury Of The True Dharma Eye, Case 289, Daowu's "Alive or Dead" - Shugen Roshi reflects on our understanding of birth-and-death in the context of the Buddha's profound teaching of dependent co-origination.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei ZCNYC 05/21/2023 - How do we navigate this topsy-turvy world without burning out or falling into nihilism? In this talk, Hojin Sensei explores the importance of love in practicing the Bodhisattva path. She shares her own experience and Buddhist teachings on living in an undivided way, embracing the many forms Bodhisattvas can take.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi, ZMM 05/14/2023 - Shugen Roshi speaks about Liturgy and in particular how Oryoki and the Meal Gatha illustrate its beauty, its purpose, and the reality and challenges of our practice in these times.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC 5/14/2023 - For Mother's Day Hojin Sensei introduces us to Ambapali, one of the important female figures in the Buddhist tradition alive during the time of the Buddha. Her enlightenment poem is found in the Therigatha (awakening poems of the elder wise women at the time of the Buddha) where she directly faces and expresses the questions we are inquiring into this Ango about our lives: the questions of birth, aging, sickness, and death. How do we live these realities—these simple recognitions that are with us every moment? How might she show us how to gain access to our heart from her heart? How might the insight she sang in this poem 2,600 years ago in India, reach across time and place and infuse our hearing it sung today?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM 05/07/2023 - From the Transmission of the Light, Case 7 - The 6th Indian Ancestor, Mishaka - There are strong karmic currents that keep showing up in our lives: loneliness, insecurity, anger, confusion, amongst many. We can think of them as intractable burdens or we can think of them as the ways each of us are going to work certain things out in this lifetime. Can we keep these close and not separate, and really use them to clarify, to free ourselves and to benefit others?
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC 05/07/2023 - Hojin Sensei introduces us to the Five Remembrances first found in the Upajjhatthana Suttra. We are encouraged to reflect on these because we will do things that make ourselves and others suffer. We are reminded that we will inherit the results of our actions. Our actions are our continuation. What we do and what happens to us is the same thing.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM, 04/30/2023 - Dharma Encounter at the conclusion of the 2023 Apple Blossom Sesshin - A teaching in the Maha-Parinirvana Sutra uses the metaphor of an island. The Buddha says: "... You should all live with yourselves as your island, yourselves as your refuge, with no other as your refuge, ... with the Dharma as your island..." This may seem to us to be affirming a "me-oriented" culture, reinforcing individualism, etc. On the contrary, Shugen Roshi asks the sangha: How is that not cutting ourselves off from others? How is that not retreating into our habitual self-clinging, our ego, our impulsive consciousness, our opinions? How is this not putting ourselves first, above others? How is the metaphor of an island not isolating? How do we live this teaching as the Bodhisattva vows? What does this teaching have to do with trust?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM, 04/29/2023 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 83 - Daowu Tends The Sick - Shugen reflects on this beautifully poetic koan, about seeing clearly into our suffering, into birth-and-death; the wonderful medicine it can be.
Maureen Jisho Ford, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Friday 04/28/2023 - Senior lay student Jisho gives a lively talk about her experience with sickness and death.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Thursday Evening 04/27/2023 - Teisho during the Fusatsu of ZMM's Apple Blossom Sesshin - Shugen Roshi reflects on the ever-present intimacy in our lives and the continuous practice of atonement.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Wednesday 4/26/2023 - From Master Dogen's Shobogenzo Fascicle "Shoji" (Birth and Death) - How can the everyday ordinary activity of intimate contact manifest our completeness, our wholeness? Gokan talks about learning how to trust reality in the context of Dogen's fascicle on birth-and-death. Also, Gokan acknowledges with appreciation Charlotte Joko Beck and Merle Kodo Boyd who were both recently added to the ZMM Women Ancestors list.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 4/23/2023 - Shugen Roshi officiates the Spring 2023 Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery. Today, five students - Gashin, Chosei, Juyu, Kyoshin, & Jokai - formally receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts, taking up these living teachings, living vows in the company of the sangha with family and friends.Michael Kaup - Gashin - "Authentic Self"; Malcolm Barrett - Chosei - "Morning Spirit"; Mary Bosakowsky - Juyu - "Gentle Fearlesness"; Deborah Hovland - Kyoshin - "Mirror of Natural Peace"; Scott Forster - Jokai - "Steady Undoing"
Judy Lief - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 04/16/2023 - Judy Lief, in speaking about our Buddha Nature, gives her humble, direct commentary on the Four Immeasurables... How do we practice them within our ordinary activity? towards our own sacred selves? - May all beings be free from suffering and the root of suffering; May all beings know happiness and the root of happiness; May all beings live in sympathetic joy, rejoicing in the happiness of others; May all beings live in equanimity, free from passion, aggression and delusion. These are also called "The Four Limitless Ones". - Judy Lief is a Buddhist teacher who trained under the Tibetan meditation master, Ven. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. You can learn more about her at judylief.com. She led a retreat at ZMM this weekend entitled "Just So—An Introduction to Mahamudra Teachings".
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 04/09/2023 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 62 - Mi Hu's "Enlightenment Or Not?" - From this koan, and quoting Daido Roshi "The way to heaven is heaven itself," and from Thomas Merton's writing on the monastic life which can just as well be applied to lay life, Shugen Roshi encourages us to be mindful, pay attention and see enlightenment here and now in our everyday activities. And be careful, what stuff are we using to put our life together each day?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 04/02/2023 - Dharma Encounter at the conclusion of the 2023 Founding Sesshin; On passages from Dogen's Fascicle "Undivided Activity" and from the Buddha's teaching in the "Maha-Parinirvana Sutra." - Dogen teaches: "Birth is just like riding a boat, although you control the boat you could not ride without the boat..." And the Buddha teaches: "you are your refuge, unto yourself... there is no other refuge..."; "take yourself as your island..." i.e. you have everything you need within yourself... How do we take refuge within ourselves? How is that taking refuge in the three treasures? Dogen refers to the boat as something of our own making. What is that? How are we to be our own refuge when that 'self' that we turn to can be deluded and unclear or untrustworthy? Shugen Roshi and Ango participants take up these questions.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Friday 03/31/2023 - How can we learn to practice our life through the activity of taking refuge in the three treasures? Shoan reflects on how death and taking refuge are part of our path and she encourages us to soften our hearts to the process.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Thursday Evening 03/30/2023 - Fusatsu Ceremony and Teisho from ZMM's Annual Founding Sesshin - Shugen Roshi reflects on the vows of his teacher when founding the monastery; how they've been alive and thriving, reaching out to us, and inviting us in, as is their nature, to the present day. (Shugen Roshi's talk begins 15 minutes into the ceremony.)
Linda Shinji Hoffman, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Wednesday 03/29/2023 - Shinji reads from 8th century Zen Master Shitou's poem "Inside the Grass Hut" and shares the inspiration she receives from it; pointing out its many teachings as particularly helpful encouragement for practice in sesshin.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 03/26/2023 - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 288 - Zhaozhou's "Indestructible Nature" - Shugen Roshi talks about the MRO's newly formed Sangha Harmony Advisory Council; how and why it came about.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 03/19/2023 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 16 - Yün-men: The Sound of the Bell - Setting out on a spiritual path... is it about seeking and finding answers that will put our questions to rest? Or is about seeing deeply, with faith, doubt and determination, in equal measure; relaxing about finding answers and instead cultivating a path of continually living the questions?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mount Tremper, New York, Saturday 03/12/2023 - How do we "cultivate a trust in our non-thinking mind"? What happens when you "give yourself over to everyday mind"? Shugen Roshi illustrates these activities beginning with the the story of Deshan's awakening.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt Tremper, New York, Sunday 03/05/2023 - Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of our 90-day Spring Ango training period, "Birth and Death." Preceding Shugen Roshi's dharma talk, you'll hear an 8 minute abridged version of the opening ceremony. If you'd like to learn more about our Ango program and possibly participate, please click here: https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/ango/
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Mount Tremper, New York, Saturday 03/04/2023 - "Home Leaving" traditionally referred to a person leaving their life behind and becoming a monastic. Shugen Roshi talks about Home Leaving in a deeper, complete sense that applies to all of us on the spiritual path, using the story of Punyamitra and the teachings of Nagarjuna to the writings of Zen Master Hongzhi.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 02/26/2023 - One of the stories of Bodhidharma (the founder of the Zen Lineage) goes this way: that he sat in his cave facing the wall for 9 years. We emulate this during our daily zazen practice. We also say that we're on the Bodhisattva path, actively practicing the way of the Bodhisattva in our daily lives. So what does sitting facing the wall have to do with the activity of the Bodhisattva? What is the "activity of facing the wall?" Shugen Roshi talks about the ways in which we take up this fundamental practice, and asks: What is it to "study the self" as Dogen says? How are we facing our fears? How do we go "beyond the fear of differences?"
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 02/19/2023 - Gokan invokes the Buddha's words on fear and dread, how we can't work through such mental formations and barriers without confronting them. To confront them, we can't run away when we encounter such habitual reactions. We may even need to welcome such disturbances as opportunities to really stop and see what's happening below the thoughts. This is the arena of zazen, where we can experience the bareness of sensation as we relax the mind and learn to trust that, rest in that. Gokan asks, "How much of our thinking is reactivity?" To explore this further, he brings in Yogacara teachings. The late Zen Master Bernie Glassman epitomized these teachings with the refrain, "That's just my opinion," recognizing that any reaction and opinion is based on one's own conditioned perceptions. Gokan concludes by saying, "This is the good news! This is the possibility of liberation."
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 02/12/2023 - From Master Dogen's Shobogenzo Fascicle "Komyo" (Radiant Light) - There are many teachings, elements of study, that help us with our engagement and understanding of practicing the Way. For instance, we need to know about the 5 kleshas, the 6 paramitas, concentration, mindfulness, Vipassana, Shamatha, etc., etc.... We learn about all of that and we're sorted? Liberated? Shoan kindly says no not quite, "it's not like that." So then, how and where do we encounter liberation? She brings in Master Dogen's Fascicle “Radiant Light” to delve into this question.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 02/05/2023 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 33 - Ma-tsu: "No Mind, No Buddha" - These things we seek and questions we have... What is Buddha? What is enlightenment? What is peace, compassion, ... When we seek something we must know something about it, no? Otherwise how would we know to seek it? Shugen Roshi encourages us to let go of what we think we know; see what happens when we let go of our understanding. Including our understanding of "letting go".
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/29/2023 - From Zen Master Hakuin: "Song of Zazen" - Gokan guides us through the lines of Hakuin's Song of Zazen and reminds us that we all can experience the joy and ease in ordinary day to day practice. - At the conclusion to our New Year’s sesshin, Mn. Gokan explores “Song of Zazen,” an 18th century poem by Master Hakuin Ekaku. This text has served as an inspirational touchstone for generations of practitioners and is even chanted at some Zen temples as part of their daily liturgy. “The gateway to freedom,” Hakuin promises, “is zazen samadhi.” Gokan explains this as “complete investment” in our meditation practice, and in all our activities of life, and he reminds us to be gentle with ourselves, and others, and we'll discover joy and ease along the way.
Robert Rakusan Ricci, Senior Monastic - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 01/26/2023 - Acting with reverence and devotion, acting with faith, with a willingness to be open to whatever arises in our experience... Is this all prayer? Inspired by a Ken McLeod essay, "Where the Thinking Stops", and drawing on a song of Leonard Cohen, "Lady Midnight", and the teachings of the mystics, Rakusan encourages us to keep going above and beyond ourselves and see how and where prayer fills our lives.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 01/25/2023 - From The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (traditionally attributed to Asvaghosa) - What does Faith mean and what does it encompass in our Buddhist tradition? In this 3-part series, based on this text, Shugen Roshi talks about the Aspiration to Awakening Through Faith and it's many aspects which are the essentials of Buddhist teachings and practices.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/22/2023 - On this auspicious day, Shugen Roshi officiated the shukke tokudo ceremony for Jeffrey Kien Martin. Tokudo marks the formal taking of monastic vows and, in our tradition, expresses a lifetime commitment to the Monastery. Kien was given the monastic name Jogo, the meaning of which Shugen Roshi beautifully explains near the end of the ceremony. In short, it can be interpreted as "Steady Strength."
Degna Chikei Levister, MRO Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 01/15/2023 - This talk is part of a special Sunday morning program commemorating the life and teachings of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Fire Lotus Temple and Zen Mountain Monastery. - Senior student Degna Chikei Levister draws from Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and gives voice to his compassionate, courageous words and actions. Chikei connects Dr. King's teachings to Buddhist teachings, expanding on his lived message to "attack forces of evil, not persons doing evil" when addressing racism and other forms of oppression.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/08/2023 - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 105 - "The Hands and Eyes of Great Compassion" - In this New Year's season of reflections and resolutions, Shugen Roshi encourages us to turn our attention toward the great Bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, and to look incisively into how she operates within our own lives.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday, New Year's Eve 12/31/2022 - Teisho during the Rohatsu Sesshin Fusatsu Ceremony - Shugen Roshi reflects on the vitality of actualized vows in the context of the Paramitas, and urges us to recognize and nurture the basic quality of kindness in our intentions and actions.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 12/30/2022 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 67 - The Flower Ornament Scripture's "Wisdom" - Shugen Roshi talks about the Scriptures as the Body of Wisdom. That's not simply a metaphor; that's the wisdom of direct experience over the ages. Each and every one of us are intimately included in that living body. We make it whole.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 12/29/2022 - From the Buddha's own life story to contemporary somatic mindfulness, Shoan reflects on how we can recognize and trust the embodied source of our liberation.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 12/28/2022 - From Master Dogen's Shobogenzo Fascicle "Inmo" (Thusness) - From where do the mental states such as greed, anger and ignorance, fear, insecurity, doubt, etc, originate? Do they come to us or from within us? Gokan brings up the stories of Mara, the personification of these negative emotions, or you could say, a bearer of these, or simply, one aspect of yourself. Mara visited the Buddha before, and many times after, his enlightenment, and he/she visits monastics and lay practitioners in many stories in the early sutras. Who is Mara for us? How do we respond to Mara? Gokan reminds us of the profound example of Buddha remaining peaceful and calm while inviting Mara to tea.
Prabu Gikon Vasan, Senior Lay Practitioner - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/18/2022 - On the Candima Sutta: The Moon Deity's Prayer for Protection - Inspired by the Pali Canon Sutta about the "Moon God Candima's Prayer for Protection," Gikon reflects on the process of Refuge. How do we recognize and work with our demons? (Whatever they are for us.) Can we connect our momentary discriminating thoughts to larger cycles of discontent and suffering?
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 12/11/2022 - From the Avatamsaka Sutra - A Reading Meditation - Hojin Sensei offers Dharma words from the Avatamsaka (Flower Garland) Sutra, drawing out the importance of being in the world with things, while seeing what they are. She recites an excerpt from the Sutra, accompanied by Stu Pender on guitar.(We think you'll enjoy this valuable reading even though Hojin Sensei's voice is hard to hear above the guitar in some places. We'll improve the balance for future recordings.)
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 12/10/2022 - From the encouraging words of Robert Aitken Roshi. - From Robert Aitken Roshi, Intimacy, in Zen, is the nature of Practice and its experience. Gokan reflects on how this intimacy manifests via paying attention and keeping our questions open.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 12/04/2022 - Hojin Sensei reflects on a quotation from Dogen Zenji "When you know the place where you are, practice begins." We can view this quotation as an invitation to reflect on the land on which we live, on indigeneity, or on our living in this very body, each as a gateway to seeing more clearly and to liberation.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/04/2022 - From The True Dharma Eye, Case 95 - Buddha's "Teachings of a Lifetime" - This Sunday morning we concluded ZMM's weekend zazen vigil in celebration and in gratitude of Buddha's enlightenment. In this dharma discourse, Shugen Roshi reflects on the Buddha's life after and also before his enlightenment, his search, his process, his questions, and his teachings. The story is about all of us together; how we stay true to our intentions, how we bring the dharma into our daily lives.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 11/27/2022 - Beginning with the poem "In Between Your Eyebrows" by Nelly Sachs, Shugen Roshi talks about healing and awakening, the self and mind, giving and receiving; experiencing their equivalence and realizing that we're dwelling in Buddha Nature.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 11/13/2022
From The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women - "The Old Woman's Miraculous Powers."
How do we view the ordinary acts of our lives? Hojin Sensei examines the ways in which we split our lives into "important" and "unimportant," and the implications of that view. She reminds us of our capacity for wonder, which does not depend on conditions.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 11/19/2022 - From the Koans of the Way of Reality - Dongshan's "How Dirty is the Water" - In the midst of what we think we know, we can be fooled into believing we're seeing clearly. How can we see into our implicit biases, our dualistic, judgmental tendencies and discover a place of equanimity?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday Evening 11/18/2022
Teisho during the Shuso Hossen Sesshin Fusatsu Ceremony
Shugen Roshi talks about the spirit of atonement, and how the grave precepts and the the paramitas, taken to heart, intricately guide us on the Bodhisattva path.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 11/17/22
Mumonkan (Gateless Gate) – Case 45: Wu-tsu: "Who Is That Other?"
"Who am I?" and "Who is the Other?" These questions continuously show up in our lives. How do we live them, live with them? Hogen Sensei encourages us to keep them present and open, and to see ourselves in others.
Linda Shinji Hoffman, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 11/16/2022 - Lay senior student Shinji Hoffman shares the poetry of T.S.Elliot and 13th Century Chinese Zen Master Wu-Men, and the practices of 14th century European farmers and other stories looking at the ways in which we think of and perceive, hold and use time and its many facets.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 11/13/2022
Shugen Roshi officiates the Fall 2022 Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery. Today, five students - Hogetsu, Shinrin, Sonju, Jiko, & Chian - formally receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts, taking up these living teachings, living vows in the company of the sangha with family and friends.
Stephanos Hogetsu Koullias ("Liberated Moon") Walter Shinrin Burton ("Facing Truth / Facing Reality") Tasha Sonju Ortlof ("Reverent Pearl") Jesse Jiko Caudill ("Compassionate Peace") Weston Chian Minissali ("Peaceful Ground")
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 11/06/2022
From the Book of Serenity, Case 53 - Huangbo's "Dreg-slurpers"
The Buddha said we all have Buddha Nature; we all have an already completely present and perfect enlightened mind, an enlightened nature. Shugen Roshi talks about spiritual practice, the "path of non-attachment" and its meaning in the context of the world in which we live wherein there is such a strong inclination to go against that.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/30/2022
Dharma Encounter at the Conclusion of the 2022 Harvest Sesshin
In the midst of our delusions, attachments, false views, deep habit patterns, we endeavor to live a life of alleviating suffering, not adding more pain and confusion, wanting to be clear in our actions, wanting to feel that we're doing the right thing... So how can we be confident about that? And what is that confidence; is it trustworthy? How do we practice an enlightening path from within the place where we are? Shugen Roshi takes up these questions with Ango participants in a heartfelt discussion.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 10/29/2022
From The True Dharma Eye, Case 247 - Ruiyan Calls "Master!"
How do we experience this "all inclusive world"? It's our basic situation; this intimacy that all sentient beings share. But it's hard to have faith in that and we can knot ourselves up and stay in the confines of what we think we know. Shugen Roshi reminds us to ask "What is this", not "Why is this", and to ask "What do we not know."
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday Evening 10/27/2022
Dharma Talk during the Harvest Moon Sesshin 2022 Fusatsu Ceremony
What is liturgy? Is it bowing? Chanting? Washing the face? What makes something liturgy and what makes something not liturgy? Hojin Sensei speaks on this topic during Fusatsu (renewal of vows) ceremony.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 10/23/2022
From the True Dharma Eye, Case 146 - The Sixth Ancestor's "Your Mind Is Moving" How does understanding bring forth compassion? How do we put to use our "not knowing"? How do we keep from getting mired in duality, right and wrong? Shugen Roshi talks about these important questions beginning with this koan.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi and Chan teacher Guo Gu (Dr. Jimmy Yu)
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/16/2022
In this lively and wide-ranging conversation Shugen Roshi is joined by Guo Gu, Buddhist teacher, scholar, and founder of the Tallahassee Chan Center. They discuss the influence of teachers, the history of shikantaza transmission in China, and the ways dharma practice is taking root in 21st century America, adapting to the causes and conditions of the times as well as the needs of its adherents.
Guo Gu (Dr. Jimmy Yu), a dharma heir of Master Sheng Yen, is the founder of the Tallahassee Chan Center, Dharma Relief, and a professor of Buddhism and East Asian religions at Florida State University. His books include The Essence of Chan, Passing Through the Gateless Barrier, and Silent Illumination: A Chan Buddhist Path to Natural Awakening.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/09/2022
From the True Dharma Eye, Case 16 - Changsha's "Returning to Mountains, Rivers, and the Great Earth" This talk by Shugen Roshi was offered on October 9th, the 13th year anniversary of Daido Roshi’s passing. Shugen shares stories of the founder of our order and invokes his love for Dogen’s Mountains and Rivers Sutra.
Being held back by life, challenged by people and relationships, situations, encounters that are obstructive and hindering, how do we see and experience those in a skillful way? How do we turn the things of the world so there is less suffering, less greed anger and delusion, more generosity, more patience, more loving kindness, more compassion?
Instead of our usual trying to turn those things of the world to return to what is true and peaceful, the dharma points to how do we turn this body/mind so that we can meet the world as it is which we will discover in and of itself is already peaceful?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/02/2022 - Dharma Encounter at the conclusion of the Mountains & Rivers Sesshin - The Buddha said there is "ordinary suffering" - dukkha - which is the everyday garden variety of suffering that you think of and experience when you hear the word "suffering". There is the suffering that arises through "change"; i.e. you have something, and you want it to last forever, but it won't. You have something that you don't want, and it won't change fast enough. You have a position, a relationship, a feeling, an accomplishment, you have a samadhi, you have something that is dear to you, and you want it to always be "just like that". And then there is the more subtle suffering that is the skandhas themselves. (The skandhas are form, feeling, perception, volitional formation, and consciousness.) The Buddha often referred to them as "the clinging skandhas"; that we are nothing but that very process that happens within the skandhas. We don't see it because it happens so instantaneously and then it's gone and it happens again and again, and our consciousness creates a seamless flow so that we create an experience of continuity, a kind of permanent, ongoing coherence in our actual lived experience which we interpret or equate as a kind of permanent someone. Then there is a kind of symphony, drawing from each of these forms of suffering, that is particular, that is directed towards ourselves; how we see that self, having identified with it, having created, and constructed it, unknowingly for the most part, being very invested in keeping it up and going. Though, never quite complete. We can identify the self (ourself) out of a habit, a behavior, an action, and interpret that as a sign of that incompleteness. (Self-doubt comes out of this.) - How is it when that sense of self is suffering itself? How do we practice this? What needs to be understood about this aspect of self? What understanding will serve to free us? How do we understand this in terms of the Four Noble Truths? - Shugen Roshi brought up these questions for students to engage with him in Dharma Encounter.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 10/01/2022
From the True Dharma Eye, Case 148 - Dongshan's "Teachings of the Insentient" "When we don’t hear the teachings of the insentient the world beyond ourselves can seem dead, inert, and uninteresting. Maybe that’s why we have to keep turning up the volume. And having more and more. And now let’s create worlds that don’t even exist and live in them. What kind of dangerous is this?"
"When we don’t have such moments that reveal to us, that peel back the curtain a little bit and show us there is more right here right now in the most unexpected of places. Of course we expect it in the mountains and beautiful places, but as Donghan said, it’s ceaselessly expounded. Radiantly."
"And so we stop and turn the light around. And look deeply. And make contact. And make contact..."
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday Evening 09/29/2022
Dharma Talk during the Mountains and Rivers Sesshin Fusatsu Ceremony
Buddhism speaks of the "Bodies of the Buddha." For instance, Master Dogen, in his Fascicle The Moon, speaks of the Boundless Body and the Buddha Body. Shugen Roshi reflects on how the Fusatsu ceremony invokes these bodies, and how, when we are practicing the dharma, they begin to appear from within our own vows, out of our selflessness... "So we return to these vows, these precepts. We reflect, we invoke the names of the Buddha, the four vows, the three treasures... to remember again, and align ourselves with what is important... it is not a rule, it is not a creed, it's not even Buddhism, not at it's heart... but you could say it's you."
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/25/2022
From the Book of Serenity, Case 75 - Ruiyan's "Constant Principle"
We might normally think we understand that nothing lasts, everything is impermanent, yet we suffer from our misunderstanding of this all the time, for instance when something happens and we react thinking oh, this is forever, this is the way it's going to be from now on, I am this, I am that,.... This is why it's so important to deeply study our suffering; not just know that we suffer, but to deeply study the intricate details of how we suffer.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/11/2022
From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 35 - The Dialog of Manjusri and Wu Cho
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/04/2022
Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of our 90-day Fall Ango Intensive training period, "Moon Thusness." If you'd like to learn more about our Ango program and possibly participate, please click here: https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/ango/
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 08/28/2022
From the Mahayana teaching The Uttaratantra Shastra - The Sangha Treasure
Shugen Roshi speaks about the Sangha Treasure.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 08/27/2022
From the Mahayana teaching The Uttaratantra Shastra - The Dharma Treasure
Shugen Roshi speaks about what it means to truly encounter the Dharma.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 08/24/2022
From the Mahayana teaching The Uttaratantra Shastra
What is it that makes Buddhist meditation, liturgy, teachings, practices, the precepts that we follow, the vows that we take, a path to liberation? And how is it that we can awaken to the three treasures - the Buddha, Dharma & Sangha - in our everyday lives? Shugen Roshi encourages us to see the Buddha Treasure right within ourselves.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 08/14/2022
From the Book of Serenity, Case 16 - Magu Shakes His Staff
Why do we practice mindfulness, why do we develop concentration, why do we do meditation? These and other aspects of practice... What do they bring us to? Shugen Roshi asks us to look carefully about what we think we're after; what are we aiming for? For instance, how do we manifest compassion, living in a world of good and evil, without creating more entanglements, without getting caught in the realm of right and wrong?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 08/07/2022
From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 8 - Hsi-chung Makes Carts
The Buddha realized, and taught, that it is our sense of self, our sense of our individual person within, that is the source of everything we create that causes distress and confusion and unhappiness. Salvation from this dukkha is not about finding a way out of it but about finding a way into it. If we want to actually free ourselves we have to practice freeing ourselves right now, just now.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/31/2022
Our own beliefs, conventional wisdom, our enculturated consciousness; these encompass the paths we follow in life. As practitioners of The Way, Shugen Roshi encourages us to look carefully into and through this conditioning and see that what we're moving towards is already here.
Concluding his talk, Shugen Roshi offers a poem in tribute to the Woman of Taishan: On the road to Mount Taishan a Tea Dragon serves illness and medicine for the well-being of the thirsty traveler. Please don't be deceived by her humble appearance. She has the power to change a life in an instant. Don't feel the need to adorn her humble appearance. She is majestic and noble, just as she is. Can you hear? Oh, person of the way, which road will you take to the great and calling mountain?
(The Woman of Taishan appears in a koan in both The Book of Serenity, Case 10, and The Gateless Gate, Case 31.)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 07/30/2022
What is our understanding of Conventional Wisdom, or Relative Truth in Buddhist parlance, as it makes up what we call "the self"? Shugen Roshi brings in the writing of Marcus Borg, the American Christian Theologian, and examines what we are doing when we undertake the extensive project of "studying the self."
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 07/30/2022 - What is our understanding of Conventional Wisdom, or Relative Truth in Buddhist parlance, as it makes up what we call "the self"? Shugen Roshi brings in the writing of Marcus Borg, the American Christian Theologian, and examines what we are doing when we undertake the extensive project of "studying the self."
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 07/29/2022 - From the the Sutra of Hui-Neng (The Platform Sutra of the 6th Ancestor), Hui-Neng himself describes his realization: "I thought there was an I who sees and hears. That was a great mistake. It's only a sound perceived with a mind resting in no place. Now I understand there is no birth or death. This wide open state of mind is my original mind. The mountains, the rivers, the sun and the moon are all me." - Shoan brings up this fundamental teaching of "no-self"... OK. So, there is no self. And yet here I am. How do we hold these "two truths"? And our sense of identity... How does it come to us? And why does it often become such a seemingly unresolvable entanglement? Shoan encourages us to be mindful and patient and to hold our stories loosely.
Linda Shinji Hoffman - Zen Mountain Monastery - Lay senior Shinji Hoffman draws on her experience as a farmer to help explain the Buddha's teaching on the twelve-link chain of dependent origination, the teaching that everything arrises due to causes and conditions. How can we use this teaching to transform our karma? How do we stop causing suffering for ourselves and others? Shinji give examples of how to shift our deep negative habits at the chain link of feeling.
Robert Rakusan Ricci, Senior Monastic - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 07/27/2022 - The three messengers: old age, sickness, and death. Why do we call them messengers? What do they tell us? Do we listen? And how do we respond? In this poetic offering, Rakusan talks about how he holds his personal encounters and experience of the three messengers in light of Master Dogen's teachings (...to study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self....) along with the wisdom of Leonard Cohen ("Who by Fire"). Rakusan gently admonishes us to heed the call of the three messengers and give voice to our Bodhisattva vows.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/24/2022 - How do we truly take care of each other? How do we truly take care of ourselves? How do we do both at the same time? Is there a difference? How do we soften any opposition that might arise? Gokan shares his own experiences and mindfulness practices while exploring these questions.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/17/2022 - Shoan reflects on what it is that we're doing and why it matters. How does "looking inward", rather than just outward, help us navigate our life? Shoan brings in three "boat parables" to illustrate. From Master Dogen's Genjokoan, Charlotte Joko Beck's "Everyday Zen", and a poem by 17th century Chinese nun Jingnou in "Daughters of Emptiness".
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery - Drawing from 12th century Zen Master Hongzhi, monastic and dharma holder Gokan provides us with guidance on turning inside and entering into our zazen practice. What does practicing true reality mean? How do we bring our life into the immense reality that it is?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/10/2022 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 82 - Ta Lung's "Hard and Fast Body of Reality" - In this crucible of our lives today, so full of so much, why, in Buddhism is there an emphasis on realizing emptiness? Similarly, why does realizing the nature of the self liberate us from our attachments? At the same time, we speak of the body of reality. That doesn't sound very empty, and we're certainly attached to our own bodies, the living manifestation of impermanence. So what is our true body, our body of reality? We speak of the three bodies of the buddha: Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya. Can we understand these as aspects of ourselves?
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 07/10/2022 - How can we recognize the mechanics of proliferation in our thoughts? How can we skillfully meet the "grasper" in our minds? In this talk, Hojin Sensei speaks to the natural capacity of our mind to proliferate and the similarly natural capacity to make space. She draws upon the practice instructions of Zen master Hongzhi in The Bright Boundless Field.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/03/2022 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 44 - Pa-chiao and a Stick - "What is it that we attach to? Anything that is perceived as being outside ourselves becomes an object and therefore becomes a very likely candidate for clinging. Because to grasp at anything, it has to be ‘not me’. So what’s actually being grasped in our grasping? Is it the object? So there is something that I want. It might be an object, a car, clothing, a plate of food, a house, a person. It could be anything. Am I grasping at the object itself? Or am I grasping at my idea of the object? Or am I grasping at my desire for the object? Or am I grasping at whatever I want that object to do for me? Whatever I want to get from it: happiness, satisfaction, a thrill. Or am I grasping at what I want all of that to make me feel about myself? Worthy, capable, intelligent, smart, successful. What are we actually grasping at?"
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 07/03/2022 - What is sincere practice? How can we look at ourselves and the world honestly and gently? Hojin Sensei speaks about the role of sincerity in Zen practice and how to enter every moment with a sincere heart.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 06/26/2022 - The Four Immeasurables. Drawing from the teachings of Shantideva (8th century India), Dogen (13th century Japan) and Longchenpa (14th Century Tibet).
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 06/25/2022 - Bodhicitta. Drawing from the teachings of Shantideva (8th century India), Dogen (13th century Japan) and Longchenpa (14th Century Tibet).
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 06/24/2022 - How do we relate to all that comes up in our everyday life - our "ingredients" - and what are the attitudes with which we conduct ourselves? How do we practice our lives? Hojin Sensei guides us through Master Dogen's "Tenzo Kyōkun - Instructions for the Cook", and explores Dogen's "Secrets of Enlightenment": 1) Living with a joyful heart 2) Caring with the deep concerns of a parent 3) Performing all activities with compassion.
Degna Chikei Levister, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 06/23/2022 - From a poem, "Friend", by an early Buddhist Nun, Mita. - How do we know when we are acting out of our conditioning? Are we always aware of our emotional drivers, our fears? From the Early Buddhist nuns to Master Dogen to our contemporaries, Chikei shares her inspiration to diligently and continuously practice everything in our life ("Don't waste your suffering."), be vigilant of our conditioning ("Know thyself.") and remember to hold ourselves with compassion ("Make everyone a friend, especially ourselves.").
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 06/22/2022 - From Master Dogen's Shobogenzo Fascicle "King of Samadhis" - We speak of Samadhi as being meditation, concentration, single-minded focus. In this talk Shugen Roshi points out that in the Buddhist sense Samadhi is based in morality and compassion. It's not separate. It's one aspect of the Noble Eightfold Path, all eight of which are to be cultivated together.
Zen Mountain Monastery - From The Book of Serenity, Case 70 - Jinshan Asks About Nature - "What happens in the moments when the self has been seen through and we are still being held back? In that moment, that which has been seen is not being actualized. Having tamed the untamed, having freed the buddha from its entanglements, those entanglements still have energy, still have life. That’s why the idea that we can practice, apply effort, have an experience that we call enlightenment and be done is a false idea. What is this whole idea of being ‘done’. If you’re an artist, when are you done? If you’re a school teacher, a parent, when are you done? Not just done in the sense that there is something more to do, but done in the sense of strengthening your strength, refining your skill..."
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei and Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 06/12/2022 - Hojin Sensei and Hogen Sensei officiate the June 2022 Jukai ceremony at Fire Lotus Temple in which four students received the sixteen Buddhist precepts: Marie Ninsei ("Patient, Enduring Heart Vow") Ringo, Dan Chikyuu ("Endlessly Clarifying Enlightenment") Donohue, Tate Kairyu ("Open Dragon") Dougherty, Stu Shintai ("Percevering Faith Mind") Kennedy. Ninsei, Chikyuu, Kairyu, and Shintai have all been practicing as formal students and studying these moral and ethical teachings for a number of years. During the ceremony, Hojin Sensei and Hogen Sensei offer joyful encouragement to the recipients as they take up these vows.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 06/12/2022 - With the teaching of Bodhidharma's "Outline of Practice" and recalling Daido Roshi's frequent admonition: "trust yourself", Gokan offers us heartfelt encouragement to make these teachings our own.
Zen Mountain Monastery - From The Book of Serenity, Case 12 - Dizang Planting the Fields - "How do we stop our seeking that which is outside and turn the light around? How do we learn how to investigate in a way that is nonconceptual? How do we use this mind? This bright, clear, sharp, awake, miraculously aware mind? We have to bring it out of its dullness, sleepiness and lethargy. All of which are good strategies to live in a world that’s kind of hard to live in. Just shut it down. It makes sense. Lower the curtain, put up a wall, close the door. It seems to be quieter. But it’s not really a life yet. And so, in opening the curtain, opening the door, turning on that bright clear light, now we have to learn how to meet pain and sorrow. Inside and outside."
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 06/05/2022 - How can we hold the beauty and love in our life and the deep human suffering? In this talk, Hojin Sensei invokes the story of Patachara, one of the earliest Buddhist women ancestors: within a life of immense loss and grief she followed her heart, awakened, and became an influential teacher. Hojin Sensei also recognizes the 22nd anniversary of Fire Lotus Temple and all those who have devoted their time and energy to establishing and maintaining this refuge.
Zen Mountain Monastery - Dharma Encounter at the Conclusion of the Ocean Gathering Sesshin (and concluding the Spring Ango) - Using the Parable of the Good Physician from the Lotus Sutra, Shugen Roshi brought up questions for students to engage with him in Dharma Encounter. How can we be skillful when we are under the sway of our defilements and we don't want to turn towards the medicine? How do we help others when they don't want to take the medicine? When someone perceives medicine as poison, what is skillful? These and other question were engaged in live, unrehearsed dialog at the end of our 90 day ango training period.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 05/28/2022 - From Master Dogen's Shobogenzo Fascicle "Bussho: Buddha Nature" - When do the seeds of our practice ripen? Will our Buddha Nature appear at some moment in the future, or is it present now and we just don't see it? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the relationship between practice and time, how we practice for the now and observe the cause and effect of our karma over time.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 05/27/2022 - Dharma Talk during the Ocean Gathering Sesshin - Drawing on the lyrics of the song 'Momentum' by Aimee Mann, Hogen Sensei illuminates how much our lives are driven by fear. What is the alternative to fear? When we are fearful, what is it that we do not want to feel? Instead of a strategy of numbness, how do we turn towards and disrupt the momentum of our fearful karmic patterns?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday Evening 05/26/2022 - Dharma Talk during the Ocean Gathering Sesshin Fusatsu Ceremony - To navigate the Path, the Buddha taught an approach of skillful means. But what does that term mean for us as unique individuals, with our own karma, and in a world that is not fixed? In this talk, Shugen Roshi takes up this essential teaching as part of a Renewal of Bodhisattva Vows ceremony.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 05/25/2022 - How does one accomplish Buddhahood? And how long does it take to do so? Using the story of the Dragon King's Daughter from the Lotus Sutra, senior Monastic Shoan Ankele investigate this precarious question and offers guidance on the art of letting go.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 05/22/2022 - What is true compassion and how do we develop it? If Buddhist teachings say a compassionate heart is our birthright, what must we do to reveal it? With Leonard Cohen's song Sisters of Mercy as a muse, Hogen Sensei explores the nature of compassion, its relationship to wisdom and loving-kindness, and the vital role our own suffering plays.
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 05/15/2022 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 18 - Zhaozhou's Dog - If buddha nature is ineffable, if it has no characteristics, then how do we turn towards it? We want to direct our attention towards it so we can examine it and realize it. But it doesn’t exist. It doesn’t have a form. So how do we study that which is our true self, our true nature? Shugen Roshi takes up these questions using the well known koan "Does a dog have buddha nature?"
Degna Chikei Levister, Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 05/15/2022 - How do we bring all of who we are into practice? How do we embrace the full reality of the world while not getting turned around by external causes and conditions? In this talk, Chikei Levister explores the teachings of Zen Master Hongzhi on the practice of true reality.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 05/08/2022 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 35 - Ch'ien and Her Soul Are Separated - How do we remain undivided amidst the divisive forces within and around us? And where can we truly go to seek wholeness in our lives? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the experience of division and wholeness, and how Zen practice brings us closer to the heart of the matter.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 05/08/2022 - How do we practice fearlessness in the midst of fear? In this talk, Hojin Sensei invokes the dragon - a being that is often referenced in the Zen tradition as an embodiment of our enlightened nature. It is through turning around and facing the dragon with direct, kind awareness, she says, that we develop our capacity for fearlessness.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 05/01/2022 - This Dharma Encounter with Hojin Sensei took place at the conclusion of the Apple Blossom Sesshin. What are our reasons for coming to the Dharma? Is our practice helping to answer those questions? And how do we know that our practice is working? Hojin Sensei takes these questions up with Ango participants in a lively discussion.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 04/30/2022 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 87 - Medicine and Disease Subdue Each Other - Why do certain afflictions arise for us? Are we simply victims of our karma, of causes and conditions? Or might our hardships be helping us cultivate something that we need? In this talk, Shugen Roshi illuminates how it is through our suffering that we find our path to liberation and that our teachers are often closer than we think.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday Evening 04/29/2022 - Dharma Talk during the Apple Blossom Sesshin 2022 Fusatsu Ceremony - Not Creating Evil, Practicing Good, and Actualizing Good For Others -- these are The Three Pure Bodhisattva Precepts. But what does it mean to truly take up these vows in our own lives? In this talk, Hojin Sensei explores the meaning of each precept and how they can guide us in our practice.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 04/28/2022 - The Buddha pointed to our desires as the origin of our suffering. But how do we understand desire? Does having wants guarantee us pain? In this talk, Hogen Sensei discusses the nature of desire and investigates the difference between having attachments and liking certain things. How can we determine if we are bound by desire? And how do we hold the things in life we do like?
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 04/27/2022 - Why are we drawn to a retreat where silence is practiced? And why did the Buddha refer to this practice as "Noble Silence"? In this talk, Hojin Sensei opens the April Apple Blossom Sesshin by inquiring into the first sesshin precaution--to maintain inner and outer silence--and explores what silence and stillness have to offer us.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 04/24/2022 - Why are the Bodhisattva Vows so important in Buddhist Practice? Where do they come from and why are they these particular four--to save all sentient beings, to put an end to desires, to master the dharma, and to attain the Buddha Way? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the meaning of each vow and illustrates what they can teach us about our true nature.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 04/17/2022 - Shugen Roshi officiates the Spring Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery in which six students receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts. Rennin, Seisan, Jiho, Yugaku, Shindo & Onren have all been practicing as formal students and studying these moral and ethical teachings for a number of years. During the ceremony Shugen Roshi offers joyful encouragement to the recipients as they take up these living teachings, living vows.
Richard Rennin Hubbard ("Pure Patience") Michele Seisan Laura ("Peaceful Mountain") Mark Jiho Taylor ("To Set Free, Release the Self'") Tom Yugaku Caplan ("To Remember and Know Courage") Rebecca Shindo Kisch ("Trust in the Way") Daniel Onren Latorre ("True Kindness" / "Pure Gratitude")
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 04/17/2022 - In this talk, Hojin Sensei speaks about the profound practice of being still. She explores the relationship between stillness and activity, and offers teachings on how we might interrupt our busyness through being undivided in every moment.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 04/10/2022 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 21 - Chih Men's "Lotus Flower, Lotus Leaves" - Shugen Roshi explores Buddha Nature as a foundational teaching of the Dharma, one we can actively study and focus on. How can we come to reveal our own enlightened nature, and what conditions are necessary for the husk of our seed to open?
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 04/10/2022 - What is taking refuge in letting go and stillness, among the many visitors to our guest house? In this talk, Hojin Sensei speaks to the practice of resting in all moments of our living and dying, bringing in her recent experience of sitting with a dying friend. Being still, not turning away, we will encounter the unborn and the undying.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 04/03/2022 - This Dharma Encounter with Hogen Sensei took place at the conclusion of the March Founding Sesshin. What does it mean to take refuge in the Buddha? What does it mean to take refuge and what exactly are we taking refuge in? Hogen Sensei takes this question up with Ango participants in a lively discussion.
Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Sunday 04/03/2022 - How can we liberate the causes of our suffering in the midst of our lives and circumstances? In this talk, Yunen examines the Buddha's teachings on suffering and the liberation of suffering, both of which are the reality of having a human life. Yunen frames this talk with a poem by Uchiyama Roshi, "Samadhi of the Treasury of the Radiant Light."
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 04/02/2022 - In this talk, Shugen Roshi speaks about the importance of having a connection with our dharma ancestors. How we should appreciate the great heart-felt efforts that were made to allow us to have the opportunity to train and practice today. Roshi shares with us some of the early days of Zen Mountain Monastery, as well as the efforts put forth by Daido Roshi, his teacher Maezumi Roshi, two of Maezumi's teachers, Yasutani Roshi and Koryu Roshi, as well as all the students who were training with them.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday Evening 04/01/2022 - Dharma Talk during the Founder's Sesshin 2022 Fusatsu Ceremony - The tenth Buddhist Precept is to "Experience the intimacy of things; Do not defile the Three Treasures." How do we understand and apply this Precept? In this talk, Hogen Sensei takes up this profound teaching, imploring us to look closely at our practice and our lives.
Linda Shinji Hoffman, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 03/31/2022 - Why do 'bowls' play a prominent significance as a utensil and symbol in Buddhist practice? In this talk, Senior Lay Student and sculptor Linda Shinji Hoffman offers a meditation on the teachings of bowls – on emptiness and fullness, food and hunger, creation and decay. In the Zen tradition, we take food in a formal meal called Oryoki – translating to "just enough". What can we bring to mind as we receive food that will lead us closer to the true nature of reality? What do our bowls hold? And what does this tell us about our lives?
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 03/30/2022 - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye), Case 122 - Fayan's Fire God - As practitioners of the Dharma, are we truly on the edge of our practice? Is peace and calm an indicator that we can rest in our accomplishment? Or is this just a transitory experience and there is more to be seen? When we reside firmly in our knowledge and don't step forth to continue inquiring more deeply, what could we be missing?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 03/27/2022 - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye), Case 19 - Ordinary Mind Is The Way - What does "non-doing" actually mean? How do we understand this profound Zen teaching, and find the middle way between passivity and our regular reactive tendencies? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the topics of effort, effortlessness, and energy, and demystifies our ideas of non-doing.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 03/27/2022 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 21 - Chih Men's Lotus Flower, Lotus Leaves - In this talk Hojin Sensei explores the title of the Lotus Sutra and the koan Lotus Flowers Lotus Leaves as a teaching about our Buddha nature. That there is no before and after, that we are all already included and pierced as a Buddha —just know this wondrous Dharma! That the lotus grows out of muddy waters. How do we make good use and find freedom in the darkness of our suffering just like the lotus needs the nutrients of that muck to giving and make its way to the light?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi and Dr. Rebecca Li - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 03/20/2022 - Shugen Roshi is joined by Dr. Rebecca Li for a lively question and answer discussion with attendees to our regular Sunday Program. Rebecca is a Dharma heir in the lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen and the founder and guiding teacher of Chan Dharma Community. Shugen Roshi and Rebecca explore the topics of grief, loss, and skillful action.
Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Sunday 03/20/2022 - Yunen talks about his experience of the more devotional aspects of Zen practice. He makes connections to the Lotus Sutra and devotional practices from other religious traditions.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 03/13/2022 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 26 - Two Monastics Roll Up the Bamboo Blinds - How do our projections affect our understanding of ourselves and the world around us? And how can we more clearly see these projections and the ways they cloud us from our own wisdom and Buddha Nature? In this talk, Shugen Roshi illustrates the reason we practice zazen remaining where we are, as well as the relationship between doubt, faith, and perseverance as we practice over time.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 03/06/2022 - Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of our 90-day Spring ango intensive training period, Faith in Buddha Nature. If you'd like to learn more about our Ango program and possibly participate, please click here: https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/ango/
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 03/05/2022 - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye), Case 10 - Qingyuan's "Come Closer" - How do we walk the Path amidst our perceived distractions and obstructions? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the power of trust, and its relationship to vulnerability and intimacy. How do we trust in the Dharma? And ultimately, how do we trust ourselves?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 02/27/2022 - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye), Case 265 - Shuilao's Enlightenment - In Buddhist practice and particularly Zen, there is a great emphasis on the power of words. Words can be both destructive or generative, can create war and can bring about peace. How do we understand the karma of our words and the actions they beget? To do so, Roshi explores the radical practice of stopping, noticing, and taking responsibility. Note: this talk begins with a prayer from Shugen Roshi for the people of Ukraine and the recent attack on their country.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, Friday 02/25/2022 - In Zen practice we have many sacred containers of ceremony--liturgy, rituals, sesshins, and koans—into which we enter. And yet, why is it that we practice this ancient mystical tradition? For stress reduction, or to wake up to life's mystery and be free? In this talk, monastic Shoan explores this wisdom tradition with readings from Zenju Manuel's "The Shamanic Bones of Zen." When we enter ceremony, we can begin to see for ourselves that there is no separation between ourselves and the mystical.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 02/23/2022 - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye), Case 41 - Shitou's "Ask the Pillar" - A student asked Master Shitou, "What is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the west?" Shitou said, "Ask the pillar." The student said, "I don't understand it." Shitou said, "I don't understand it either." - The Buddhist path is based in inquiry. This asks that we abandon our formulas and perspectives, and inquire deeply from within our own body and mind. We practice not only letting go of attachments and dualities of right and wrong, but also of "knowing," releasing the need for ready answers. Every day and every moment is alive--an aliveness that is not based on a fixed meaning—but is reality itself.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 02/20/2022 - What is sympathetic joy? Hojin Sensei explores one of the Four Immeasurables. In bringing our attention to the delights in our life, we can experience joy for ourselves and others even in the midst of suffering. Sympathetic joy, or Mudita in Sanskrit, is a natural state of our minds, yet often it takes a practice of cultivation to rediscover it. Hojin Sensei quotes from the teachings of Venerable Nyanaponika Thera and HH Dalai Lama, and from the poet Ross Gay.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 02/13/2022 - With the teachings of Shantideva and the Paramita of Patience, Gokan offers us guidance to stay with our difficult experiences so we can better understand where our suffering arises. While uncomfortable, it is in these challenging times that we can cultivate and discover a peace and joy that is not dependent on anything, and find the path to all that we are.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 02/06/2022 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 13 - Deshan Carries His Bowls - How do we create our own distractedness? And how do we get caught up in our flurry of concepts? It's not conceptual thinking itself that is the problem. Shugen Roshi offers that by taking the seat of no evasion, turning our attention inwards, we can witness how "what we think we know" impedes our experience of our lives as they are, full and complete.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/30/2022 - From Dongshan's "Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi" - The conclusion of a series on Master Dongshan's poem, this talk looks at the dynamic relationship you have—as the practitioner—with the ancient sages, and with all phenomenal world of reality and within its absolute unity. How do we listen, and truly hear this ancient song?
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 01/28/2022 - One of the Paramitas (or Perfections) is patience, and if you've ever reached the limits of yours, you know there can be more to discover. Hojin Sensei revisits the story, "Nature Like Ashes" to stir up it's warm embers.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 01/26/2022 - From Dongshan's "Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi" - Faith is required—just enough to keep returning to a simple practice of deeply seeing the presence of our delusion. With the help of that delusion, the way opens for discovering true freedom in the whole of reality. Shugen Roshi continues the study of Dongshan's Jewel Mirror Samadhi to help us practice letting go attachments and opening to experience of a unified life.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/23/2022 - From Dongshan's "Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi" and Thich Nhat Hanh's "Please Call Me By My True Names" (This is Part 3 of Shugen Roshi's teaching on Dongshan's poem.) - Given on the occasion of Thich Nhat Hanh's passing. This talk spans the centuries of buddhadharma, taking up the teachings of Master Dongshan and Thich Nhat Hanh. Pointing to the unity of emptiness, the truth of non-duality and the boundless heart of the bodhisattva, Shugen Roshi invites us afresh into the age-old question of Zen: what do we call the self?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/16/2022 - Celebrating the Love in Action of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Invoking the life and words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Shugen Roshi celebrates his teachings on the power of love and its manifestation in the Beloved Community. Sangha is an example of this united effort to live as an expression of love, and the life of practice requires our sincere engagement and action. Dr. King believed in the “practical realism” of love, a power which is always available and can be lived every day. Understanding the interrelated structure of reality from a Christian perspective, he said, “Your suffering is my suffering,” echoing the Bodhisattva's vow to put an end to the suffering of all beings. - Shugen Roshi's dharma talk is preceded by a sangha presentation "From Refuge to Sanctuary: an MRO Tribute to Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr." hosted by senior lay student Chikei Levister. - (You can watch the video of the sangha presentation here: vimeo.com/666366222.)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/09/2022 - From The Gateless Gate, Case 20 - A Person of Great Strength
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday Evening 12/31/2021 - Shugen Roshi offers inspiration on the virtues of vow during the New Year's Eve Fusatsu, or renewal of vows, ceremony.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 12/30/2021 - From Transmission of the Light, Case 41 - The 40th Ancestor, Great Master Tongan Daopi
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, Wednesday 12/29/2021 - Mn. Shoan begins with a powerful thought experiment and then takes us on a journey recounting her investigation into the beginnings of the Zen tradition, the stories of Bodhidharma facing the wall, in his cave, and some early interpretations of what it means to meditate. Through zazen we can experience reality intimately and completely, abiding in love and compassion, non-doing.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Tuesday 12/28/2021 - From Dongshan's "Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi" - This is Part 2 of Shugen Roshi's teaching on Dongshan's poem. Here he focuses on the metaphor of the mirror; how it's been used throughout various Buddhist teachings, what it means and how it helps us relate to our own experience.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/19/2021 - Shugen Roshi offers this dharma discourse on the monastic life.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of NYC, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 12/12/2021 - Dharma talk at the completion of the vigil commemorating Buddha's enlightenment. - Hojin sensei speaks to the life of Buddha before and after his enlightenment. Her skillful narration points to the same experiences we may share with Shakyamuni, and we can find an inspiration to practice wholeheartedly.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/12/2021 - From Dongshan's "Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi" - Shugen Roshi offers this Dharma Discourse as a fitting teaching at the completion of this year's Buddha's Enlightenment Vigil. We do the vigil to endeavor what the Buddha did. And there is indeed something to celebrate; that the Buddha decided to teach and transmit what he realized. Dongshan's song starts out by imploring us to take care of this intimate, profound teaching. "Now you have it, keep it well."
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/05/2021 - From Wumen's Gateless Gate, Case 39 - Yunmen says you've missed it. - When we experience suffering, more often than not, we disseminate it in various ways so that others also experience suffering. However, the Buddha realized that we can actively bring suffering to rest. Don't wait. Examine it when it arises.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of NYC, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 12/05/2021 - Hojin Sensei speaks on the practice of patience, drawing on historical and modern day bodhisattvas, skillfully showing that it is in the very moments when we do not want to practice patience that we can step into and see our mind.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 11/28/2021 - From Bodhidharma's "Breakthrough Sermon" - Drawing inspiration from Bodhidharma's "Breakthrough Sermon", Gokan encourages us to behold our mind; this is the essential practice of Zen. When we are not attentive, the thoughts we allow to develop in our mind separate us from this world. However, we can choose to not be swallowed by our thoughts; by giving our awareness to this moment.
Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, 11/28/2021 - Yunen explores the universal experience of grief, examining how it can come into our lives through tremendous loss and also through smaller disappointments. Yet in this grief, large or small there is space to practice and realize ourselves.
Degna Chikei Levister, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 11/21/2021 - True Dharma Eye, Case 2 - Baizhang Remains Seated - On November 21st, we concluded our Fall 90-day ango training period with this Shuso Hossen ceremony. Shuso Hossen means "chief disciple (or, literally, 'head seat') dharma encounter." It is a centuries-old tradition that empowers a Zen student to represent the teachings and help guide other students in their own cultivation. In this case, Degna Chikei Levister completed her training in the role of Shuso by offering her first public talk to the sangha in which she presented her understanding of a koan from the collection found in the teachings of Eihei Dogen. Following her talk, there was a "dharma encounter" in which Chikei was asked questions by those in attendance for further clarification. After an acknowledgement from her teacher, Shugen Roshi, a number of monastics and fellow practitioners offered Chikei congratulatory poems.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 11/20/2021 - From Transmission of the Light, Case 22 - The 21st Indian Ancestor, Vasubandhu - As we practice to free ourselves, we are constantly in the midst of change. And in this endlessly changing world, we unknowingly try to create a substantial, permanent self. This interaction between Vasubandhu and Jayata illustrates the essence of middle way. By not denying, not grasping or seeking something eternal, we will encounter a true way of patience, generosity, perseverance, faith, respect and devotion. Practice is not about a perfect life, it is about living this life completely.
Maureen Jisho Ford, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 11/19/2021 - Senior lay student and retired mental health professional Maureen Jisho Ford investigates the roots of anger in this funny yet deeply honest talk. What does it take to interrupt our impulses and find the gaps between events we might find challenging and harmful reactions? Jisho asks, "Has anyone ever really won an argument?" Indulging in anger, as the Buddha pointed out, is like picking up a burning coal with your bare hand to hurl it at another. This has implication in every sphere of our life, right down to our most intimate relationships.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 11/18/2021 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 86 - Everyone Has Their Own Light - Hogen Sensei asks us: "how can we talk about enlightenment when there is nothing to understand about enlightenment?". We are inherently enlightened but our conditioning, karma and unskillful ways prevent us seeing it. We should remember that we all have own light and that zazen is the process for cultivating this light.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 11/17/2021 - From Transmission of the Light, Case 28 - The 27th Indian Ancestor, Prajnatara - Of all the possible directions we can take, why does one person take a direction which is very different from everybody else's path? How do we know if the path is true for us? Shugen Roshi reminds us that we must be aware that when we encounter a teaching that we may or may not understand but have an affinity with, we should trust that affinity. Similarly, we should rely on the meaning of that teaching rather than the words.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 11/14/2021 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 27 - Yun Men's "The Body Exposed, The Golden Wind" - There's a banquet of teachings for every human experience we are having, have had, will have. So how do we fully avail ourselves to that? Shugen Roshi speaks about sincere continuous practice of mindfulness and knowing how to be alone.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 11/07/2021 - From Wumen's Gateless Gate, Case 2 - Baizhang and the Fox - With this teisho, Shugen Roshi sums up the Ango Intensive retreat "Within Darkness There Is Light—The Teachings of Karma and the Path of Compassion".
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of NYC, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 11/07/2021 - Hojin Sensei talks about grief as a process, and what it means to practice good grief. She brings in teachings from the Dhammapada, the Therigatha, and the Hidden Lamp. She invites everyone into the possibility of fully and freely experiencing our grief, letting it move through us and crack us open.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/31/2021 - From The Record of the Transmission of the Light, Case 30 - Huike - There are phrases one may hear at a Zen Monastery, such as "non-attachment", "selflessness", "ending all my involvements", "the middle way", "practice your anger".... which can come across as nihilistic, extreme, ambiguous, impossible, cultish, and frightening. Shugen Roshi talks about how we can understand these by paying close attention to the moments of our own lives, and by looking beyond the words.
Katie Yosha Scott-Childress, Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 10/31/2021 - Senior lay student Yosha shares her story of entering the Zen path and what continuous practice means to her. She offers practical tools for lay practitioners in their daily life.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/24/2021 - Dharma Encounter at the Conclusion of the Harvest Moon Sesshin.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 10/23/2021 - From Wumen's Gateless Gate, Case 38 - It's Like a Buffalo Passing Through A Window - "The world is but the tail of a buffalo passing through a window." But what about when we feel stuck? How do we free ourselves in the midst of our karmic dispositions? Some of them seem quite sticky indeed. In this talk from the last day of our Harvest Sesshin, Shugen Roshi talks about koan training in our Zen tradition. Each of them are windows into our own barriers, helping us to eventually experience these barriers as empty of any definitive existence.
Katie Yosha Scott-Childress, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, 10/22/2021 - Senior lay student Yosha shares the joy, inspiration and encouragement she receives from her study and exploration of the Avatamsaka Sutra (the Flower Ornament Scripture).
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 10/21/2021 - From the poetry of David Whyte - Hogen Sensei asks us to consider the questions - we all have - that, As David Whyte puts it, "can make or unmake a life." What are they? How do we respond? Can we let them be, let them stay with us? Can we live with them without grasping for answers?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 10/20/2021 - From The Book of Serenity, Case 33 - Sangsheng's "Golden Fish" - The teachings talk a lot about being free and unbound. How do we actually live that? On the Bodhisattva path the question is "What is needed, What will be helpful?"
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/17/2021 - Shugen Roshi officiates the Fall Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery in which five students receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts: Jessica Shokei Ludwig ("sacred jewel"), Joanne Jishin Dearcopp ("compassionate faith"), Jimmie Seikaku Stone ("vow of awakening"), Jack Kanro Hennesey ("barrier of openness"), Diane Ansen Strablow ("peaceful waters / peaceful spring"). Shokei, Jishin, Seikaku, Kanro, & Ansen have all been practicing as formal students and studying these moral and ethical teachings for a number of years. During the ceremony Shugen Roshi offers joyful encouragement to the recipients as they take up these living teachings, living vows.
A live conversation between Shugen Arnold, Roshi, abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery, and Buddhist neuroscientist Dr. Phillip Ninan. The two tackle a number of tricky questions where the findings of science, the teachings of the Buddha, and the practice of meditation all intersect to better illuminate one another.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 10/10/2021 - In allowing ourselves to be uncomfortable, in experiencing the discomfort of whatever is binding us, we touch our aliveness and see into our true nature. Mn. Shoan talks about vulnerability as a path of liberation.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/03/2021 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 100 - Pa Ling's Blown Hair Sword - What are the most effective, skillful means to liberate ourselves? Along with meditation which is the primary practice in most branches of Buddhism, there is koan practice which is central in our Zen tradition. Shugen Roshi describes how these are engaged together using the example of a blown hair sword.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/26/2021 - Dharma Encounter at the Conclusion of the Mountains and Rivers Sesshin - How do wisdom and compassion manifest together in our lives? Shugen Roshi asks us to consider the questions: Why is loving kindness - cultivation of compassion - crucial for our awakening of insight? And how do we understand our practice, the noble 8-fold path, the 8 gates, the life we're living in practice, as a way to be bringing forth that insight? Do we bring it forth as we diminish our negative karma or as we realize it? Are those different? And how is it that "Wisdom without compassion, compassion without wisdom are not complete"?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 09/25/2021 - From Transmission of the Light, Case 17 - The 17th Indian Ancestor, Rahulata (Ragarata)
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 09/24/2021 - The Book of Equanimity, Case 18 - Zhaozhou's "Dog"
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic - Zen Mountain Monastery, Thursday 09/23/2021 - "Begin with the Body." Gokan suggests that studying the vital, but seemingly esoteric, subject of karma - i.e. examining and understanding the karma of our life - requires our full attention on basic, everyday activities, and talks about how helpful "The Four Foundations of Mindfulness" can be in that regard.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 09/22/2021 - From Transmission of the Light, Case 21 - The 21st Indian Ancestor, Jayata
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/19/2021 - From The Book of Serenity, Case 13 - Linji's "Blind Ass" - It's important to study the lives of the ancestors and get to know them. Though, who is it we're really getting to know? And what is transmitted down through the ages? Is that karma? This Dharma Discourse was given by Shugen Roshi at the conclusion of a weekend retreat on Ch'an Buddhist History led by Dr. Elizabeth Morrison.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday Evening 09/16/2021 - Dharma Talk during the September Fusatsu Ceremony - How do we consciously live a moral life? How do we examine cause and effect and see evermore deeply into their intimate relationship? Shugen Roshi begins with a koan from the Miscellaneous Koan Collection "How do you go straight on a path of 99 curves?"
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/12/2021 - From The True Dharma Eye - Case 21: Panshan’s “Cut a Fine Piece”
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/05/2021 - Ango Opening Talk with Introduction of the Chief Disciple
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 09/04/2021 - From Master Dogen's Shobogenzo Fascicle "Arousing the Aspiration for Enlightenment"
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 08/29/2021 - From the Book of Serenity - Case 21: Ungan Sweeps the Ground - In this concluding talk to Hazy Moon Sesshin, Shugen Roshi explores how we can sabotage our own best efforts in the midst of our practice. We set aside the time to cultivate compassion and clarity in the midst of three treasures, and yet we still get caught in distractions and self-pity. This is why Buddhism has always taught the skillfulness of looking directly at dukkha, dissatisfaction and suffering. They remind us of the importance of practice. "Else we may stray off some dusty road." Else we may fool ourselves into thinking we can't be of benefit in the world. Else we may forget how cultivation is inseparable from the world.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 08/28/2021 - From the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate) – Case 41: Bodhidharma and Peace of Mind
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, Friday 08/27/2021 - In this clear talk from Hazy Moon Sesshin, dharma holder Shoan Ankele focuses on how we can use the very struggles and suffering in our everyday life to help free ourselves and discover our heart full of love.
Chris Yudo Abraham, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, Thursday 08/26/2021 - From Milarepa: "This path leads to a Life of no Regrets." - Appreciate our lives? It seems simple at first but when we study our experience closely, we realize that's difficult. What should we do when it looks like everything is going wrong in our life? The first step is to open up and feel what we really feel.
Susan Seien Wilder, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, Wednesday 08/26/2021 - Seien begins her heartfelt talk by inviting the Sangha to chant the Sutra of Great Compassion together. She goes on to ask who are we invoking? Who is Kanzeon? Who could it be but ourselves?
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic - Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 8/22/2021 - In our life, we experience not getting what we want, getting what we don’t want, so we try to change things immediately – fueling our suffering. Can we hold our hearts still in the presence of our impatience? Can we make ourselves larger, more inclusive, to live beyond our discontent?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday Morning 08/15/2021 - From The Book of Serenity, Case 75 - Ruiyan's 'Constant Principle' - Shugen Roshi asks "What is change?". Impermanence means that nothing stays the same. We want to escape suffering and we crave pleasure. Our very behavior creates suffering as we cling to things that are impermanent and try to escape what is unpleasant. So the question is: "How can we be free from suffering?" Roshi suggests that a first step would be to practice patience.
Rev. Chimyo Simone Atkinson - Zen Center of New York City, 08/15/21 - What does renunciation mean in our culture? How does it relate or differ to Western Christian notions of leaving the world? This talk by guest teacher Rev. Chimyo Simone Atkinson exploration of the sameness and difference that underlies lay and monastic paths.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday Morning 08/08/2021 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 56 - Ch'in Shan's One Arrowpoint Smashes 3 Barriers - Shugen Roshi chose this koan to coincide with the conclusion to our annual kyudo retreat that ran throughout the week at the Monastery. From the standpoint of the practitioner, the three barriers might be the three poisons: greed, anger and ignorance. Or the three marks of existence: impermanence, suffering, and emptiness of self. It could be whatever seems to be posing a problem. When we insist on maintaining our own delusion, including the delusion of our barriers and our separation from true reality, we need to call forth the master within the barrier. This is the one who truly knows, the archer who is not separate from the target.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, 08/08/2021 - From the Teachings of Master Hongzhao - Hojin Sensei discusses Master Hongzhao's poetic instructions on zazen practice. Whether we are new to Zazen or seasoned practitioners the question is the same: how to keep returning to the mind of zazen, resting, like the ocean, accepting all that flows.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday Morning 08/01/2021 - From The Book of Serenity, Case 19 - Ummon's Mount Sumeru - Apologies for the microphone problem during the first 10 seconds obscuring Shugen Roshi's voice for the first sentence of the koan: "The pointer: I always admire the novel devices of Master Ummon."
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday Morning 07/25/2021 - From Master Dongshan's Five Ranks - Shugen Roshi teaches that the "Five Ranks" describing stages of realization in Zen Buddhism can seem remote and abstract, but in essence they address the question of how to live fully in the world, peacefully and joyfully, without conflict. They are aspects of the interrelationship of our relative, moment to moment existence, and the absolute nature of reality, and so are never far away at all. Here, in Part 3, Shugen Roshi takes up the 4th and 5th Ranks: "Arrival at Mutual Integration" and "Unity Attained."
Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, 07/25/2021 - Yunen talks about the first stage of the Zen practice, "Searching for the Ox". He invites practitioners to contemplate the question, "What am I searching for?" He emphasizes the importance of setting intention.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday Afternoon 07/24/2021 - From Master Dongshan's Five Ranks - Shugen Roshi teaches that the "Five Ranks" describing stages of realization in Zen Buddhism can seem remote and abstract, but in essence they address the question of how to live fully in the world, peacefully and joyfully, without conflict. They are aspects of the interrelationship of our relative, moment to moment existence, and the absolute nature of reality, and so are never far away at all. Here, in Part 2, Shugen Roshi takes up the Third Rank: "Coming from within the Real". Habitually, we experience the World as objects including ourselves and others. All forms seem different and we mistakenly see ourselves as distinct from everything else. How can we shift this perception and see the interdependence of all things? Roshi talks about the importance of zazen in settling into this realization.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zoom Broadcast, Thursday Evening 07/22/2021 - True Dharma Eye, Case 123 - Mayu's "Nature of the Wind"
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday Evening 07/21/2021 - Dongshan's Five Ranks - Part 1 of 3 - Shugen Roshi teaches that the "Five Ranks" describing stages of realization in Zen Buddhism can seem remote and abstract, but in essence they address the question of how to live fully in the world, peacefully and joyfully, without conflict. They are aspects of the interrelationship of our relative, moment to moment existence, and the absolute nature of reality, and so are never far away at all.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Tuesday Evening 07/20/2021 - From the Teachings of Yogini Machig Labdrőn - Hojin Sensei offers us the teachings of Machig Labdrőn, a Tibetan Buddhist yogini who lived and taught during the 11th-century. We are reminded that we can experience life as sweet, bitter or both. Machig Labdrőn encourages us to examine our blind spots in order to realize that the obstacles in our path are just a product of our confusion and hardening views. We should remain in the examination of what is happening now.
Shohaku Okumura, Roshi - via Zoom, Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 07/18/21 - Teachings from "Opening the Hand of Thought" (by Okumura Roshi's teacher Kosho Uchiyama) - In today's talk, presented to the MRO Sangha via Zoom, Okumura Roshi begins with the children's story of the "Squabbling Squashes", a parable about connectedness and interdependence. He goes on to teach that Zazen is a practice of opening up to life, of actualizing our True Self.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 07/11/2021 - True Dharma Eye, Case 227 - Priest Xixian’s “I’m Am Watching”
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic - Zen Mountain Monastery, 07/04/2021 - From a Diamond Sutra Commentary: "Consider the tree outside the door. Although it serves as a resting place for birds, it doesn't make an effort to call those that come, nor does it care whether those that leave return. When a person's mind is like the trees they no longer oppose the way."
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 06/27/2021 - Teachings From Master Dogen's Shobogenzo: "Continuous Practice" - In this third talk on Master Dogen's Shobogenzo fascicle "Continuous Practice", Shugen Roshi asks us to reflect on these questions: How do we embody our potential as enlightened beings? How do we bring forth a life well lived as we're living it? How can we be at ease within this human body and not be bound by fixed ideas of the self?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Saturday 06/26/2021 - Teachings From Master Dogen's Shobogenzo: "Continuous Practice" - Continuing from his discourse of June 23rd, Shugen Roshi draws from Master Dogen's fascicle to encourage us to shed confusion and use every opportunity to practice.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, Friday 06/25/2021 - In this illuminating and imaginative talk from Summer Solstice Sesshin, dharma holder Shoan Ankele emphasizes the cultivation of natural clarity, or rather, a recognition of our natural state. The point of zazen, she suggests, is “to create a conducive container for this recognition to occur.” This natural state is our buddha nature, the factuality of non-separation with everything and everyone. To illustrate the absurdity of our confused self-orientation, Shoan spins a memorable fable with what she calls a Buddhist faux-creation myth.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zoom Broadcast, 6/24/2021 - Teachings from Eihei Dogen, William Shakespeare and Nina Simone - How do we understand the ceaseless change which is our life? Hogen Sensei delves into this question with quotes from Dogen's "Continuous Practice" and "Being Time" with Shakespeare's "The Tempest", and Nina Simone's “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?”.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, Wednesday 06/23/2021 - Teachings From Master Dogen's Shobogenzo: "Continuous Practice" - Master Dogen says that our practice affects the entire Earth and the entire Sky in the Ten Directions. Shugen Roshi speaks about this as a responsibility that we as Bodhisattvas take up, of continuous and sustained practice.
Rev. Chimyo Simone Atkinson - Zen Mountain Monastery, 06/20/21 - Book of Serenity Case 2: "Emperor Wu Asked The Great Teacher Bodhidharma" - In this heart-warming Dharma talk, Chimyo Sensei recounts her time practicing in Japan. She speaks about the experience of truly not knowing and practicing just that. She also encourages us to stay in this state of not knowing.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, 06/13/2021 - Gateless Gate, Case 16 - "The Bell Sound and the Priest's Robe" - At the conclusion of this month's introductory "Zen Training Weekend", Shugen Roshi evokes our Zen path; a path which is not something separate; it's our life, it's the whole of what we are.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, 6/6/2021 - Today the Monastery held the first double monastic ordination in our 40+ year history. Shugen Roshi officiated this shukke tokudo ceremony for Suzanne Taikyo Gilman and Hokyu JL Aronson. Tokudo marks the formal taking of monastic vows and, in our tradition, expresses a lifetime commitment to the Monastery. Taikyo was given the monastic name Yusen, meaning River of Courage, and Hokyu was given the monastic name Josen, which Shugen Roshi translated as Humble Mystic.
Linda Shinji Hoffman, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, 05/30/2021 - True Dharma Eye, case #199 - Dongshan's Essential Path - On May 30th, we concluded our Spring 90-day ango training period with this Shuso Hossen ceremony. Shuso Hossen means "chief disciple (or, literally, 'head seat') dharma encounter." It is a centuries-old tradition that empowers a Zen student to represent the teachings and help guide other students in their own cultivation. In this case, Linda Shinji Hoffman completed her training in this role by offering her first public talk to the sangha in which she presented her understanding of a koan from the collection found in the teachings of Eihei Dogen.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, 05/29/2021 - Gateless Gate, Case 48 - Ch'ien-feng's "One Way" - How do we harmonize inner and outer and learn to understand the expression of dualities? As there will always be more for us to learn, how can we go forth knowing that at each stage of our life we are functioning within a degree of ignorance and blindness? Master Ch'ien-feng's answer is: “With humility”. The mind of the person on the way gets transformed from samsaric hunger to the appetite of a seeker. Shugen Roshi suggests that we can delight in our hunger to know more rather than be distressed by our ignorance. This is not an egotistic process however; we should remember that our seeking must be for everyone.
Katie Yosha Scott-Childress, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, 05/28/2021 - Exploring verses from the Mahayana Sutralamkara, Yosha shares the inspiration she receives from these explicit teachings on compassion and faith.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, 05/27/2021 - Blue Cliff Record, Case 57 - Zhaozhou's "Stupid Oaf" - In the language of the Dharma, how is "the self" a barrier, and how is it different from our true nature? The challenge when hearing an insult is to see into our own suffering——reactivity and delusion——as the stuff which are the barriers themselves. Shugen Roshi asks the question: While our basic nature is good, happy and peaceful, how do we practice when suffering seems all pervasive? How do we investigate our delusions, remembering that all beings have buddha nature?
Prabu Gikon Vasan, Senior Lay Practitioner - Zen Mountain Monastery, 05/26/2021 - Making a connection between Master Dogen’s “Ten Directions” fascicle and lines from a number of contemporary poets, Gikon points out that they speak about the hardships we experience while urging us to use it all for healing.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - Zoom Broadcast, 5/23/2021 - Mumonkan (Gateless Gate) – Case 23: Think Neither Good Nor Evil - Hogen Sensei uses this well-known interaction between Hui Neng, the Sixth Ancestor, and Monk Ming to delve deeply into the meaning of faith. He asks us: When we speak of faith in our practice, the Dharma, what do we mean? Faith in what? Can faith be taken? Can it be given to another?
Virginia Black, Sangha Member - Zen Center of New York City, 05/20/2021 - The Noble Path series offers personal accounts of MRO sangha members coming to practice and dives into their experiences walking the spiritual path. A diverse set of students and circumstances shows us the many unique ways we encounter and resonate with the Dharma. Yet, despite these differences, we often find a shared thread in each others stories.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, 05/16/2021 - Blue Cliff Record, Case 58 - Zhaozhou's Can't Explain. - As we share this earth with countless other creatures, we easily forget that we come from one primordial source. In the Dharma we can recognize that each being is a manifestation of one great body. So then, Shugen Roshi asks, why do we make it so complicated? From the perspective of our deluded views, everything is separate and apart, but even this view is the path of awakening to our true nature.
Shugen Roshi officiates the Spring Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery in which two students received the sixteen Buddhist precepts: Scrap Kyuko (“Enduring Peace”) Wren & Pat Shosen (“Sacred River”) Carnahan. Kyuko and Shosen have each been practicing as formal students and studying these moral and ethical teachings for a number of years. During the ceremony Shugen Roshi offers joyful encouragement to the recipients as they take up these vows.
Hojin Sensei introduces us to the Buddha's Brahma Net Sutra in which he confirms that the Precepts are the heart of our humanity. How do we cultivate practice as a Bodhisattva, one who dedicates their life to release suffering? How can we go through our lives with a stable mind so as to be able to see right from wrong and not be sidetracked by our emotions?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, 04/25/2021 - Dharma Encounter at the Conclusion of the 2021 Apple Blossom Sesshin - Shugen Roshi begins with the koan in the last paragraph of Master Dogen's fascicle "Ten Directions". Priest Fungshan was asked by a monk: "The World Honored Ones in the ten directions are all on the one path to Nirvana. Let me ask you: where is the path?” Fungshan drew a line in the air with his staff and said: “It’s here". Shugen Roshi asks us: What are the ten directions? Where is the path to liberation? Is it the path that we are on? Why do teachers describe the path in so many different ways? Are there different paths to liberation?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, 04/24/2021 - Blue Cliff Record, Case 62 - Yunmen’s “Within There is a Jewel” - Shugen Roshi reminds us that we are the creators of our lives. Our pervasive sense of being lost or broken is a creation of our mind. Out of habit we look outside of ourselves for relief. This koan tells us to “Turn the light around” and find the jewel within that shows us the path to the end of suffering.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic - Zen Mountain Monastery, 04/23/2021 - Drawing inspiration from Master Hongzhi’s teachings “Cultivating the Empty Field”, Monastic Shoan invites us to tap into our innate sense of wonder and investigate the fundamental questions: Who is this I? Who am I? What is impermanence? And so, how do we actually soften our fixations on reified reality and let go? We can begin by resting in wonder. For starters, the world is burning AND the springtime is glorious.
Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery (Via Zoom), 04/22/2021 - Bringing forth the Fire Sermon Discourse, one of the Buddha’s earliest teachings, Yunen asks us to investigate the sources of our suffering: Why do we suffer? What is this fire we live in? Is it possible that we have something to do with this suffering?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, 4/21/2021 - Book of Serenity, Case 60 - Iron-Grinder Liu - Evoking this pithy exchange between Liu Tiemo and her teacher Guishan, Shugen Roshi asks us to reflect on how we meet these teachings. How do we turn towards what we do not understand but somehow know is true? And ultimately, how do we become serene in a world of perceived adversity?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, 4/18/2021 - Halfway through Ango, Shugen Roshi officiated this novice monastic ordination for Jeffrey Kien Martin. Kien is currently the Monastery cook (among other responsibilities), but his involvement with the Monastery goes back two and a half decades. Now, as he takes on the robes of a novice, Kien will further explore the monastic vows and train in the role of a monastic, though it’s worth noting that one does not formally commit to those vows until full ordination, leaving the discernment process open to further clarification. Those lifetime vows are: simplicity, service, selflessness, stability, and following the path of the Buddha.
Zabeth Tenfu Loisel, Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, 04/15/2021 - The Noble Path series offers personal accounts of MRO sangha members coming to practice and dives into their experiences walking the spiritual path. A diverse set of students and circumstances shows us the many unique ways we encounter and resonate with the Dharma. Yet, despite these differences, we often find a shared thread in each others stories.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, 4/11/2021 - The Blue Cliff Record, Case 95 - Ch'ang Ch'ing's "Three Poisons" - Picking up where he left off from a previous Fusatsu talk on Right Speech ("Learning How to Speak" - 4/8/21), Shugen Roshi investigates storied examples of practitioners using language to express the ordinary and the extraordinary. Master Dogen says, "Words are neither different nor not different from our fundamental nature. But if a person becomes attached to words and their everyday meaning, they can become attached to views." We tend to use words very casually, but language has power and views can imprison.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, 4/4/2021 - As we celebrate the Buddha's Birthday today, Hojin Sensei offers a teaching from Zen Master Bankei: "What I teach everyone, in these talks of mine, is the unborn buddha mind of unlimited wisdom. Nothing else. Everyone is endowed with this buddha mind, only they don't know it." Sensei looks at the subtle ways "the unborn buddha mind" manifests in and through all of us and she reminds us that we are all living Buddhas.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi Zen Mountain Monastery, 3/28/2021 Dharma Encounter Master Dogen, in his fascicle...
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi Zen Mountain Monastery, 3/27/2021 The True Dharma Eye, Case 11 –...
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic - Zen Mountain Monastery, 3/26/2021 - Through the teachings of Buddhist ancestors from different schools of Buddhism, monastic Shoan invokes Bodhidharma, Prajnatara and Dogen Zenji, and explores how we understand that realization is an experience—a direct pointing to the human mind—aligned with the sutras and teachings but not limited by our ideas about them.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei Broadcasted via zoom, 3/25/2021 The Blue Cliff Record, case 59: Zhaozhou’s...