The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

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

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 1/26/25 - The sole purpose of a koan is to help the student experience their true nature. As a skillful means, a koan helps us see where we are clinging, and the karma we carry in this life. Yet even an enlightened being has this karmic body to grapple with. The challenge is to be in complete intimacy with our true nature, as it is, as we are.  Part 3 of 3

Suzanne Taikyo Gilman, Senior Monastic - ZCNYC - 1/26/25 - We all feel vulnerable and frightened when external circumstances change too fast and nothing feels certain. The Buddha guided his early community through disruption with the Metta Sutta, and this teaching gives us some helpful pointers for making our responses and actions skillful when based in lovingkindness.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 1/25/25 - Like a gourd in water—push it down and it turns over and pops back up—we all begin practice easily unsettled. Shugen Roshi looks at this koan of Zhaozhou’s Dog from the Book of Serenity and asks: how do we work with our impulsive nature? With our underlying tendencies? *Part 2 of 3.

Linda Shinji Hoffman, Senior Lay Student - ZMM - 1/24/25 - What is enjoyment of being within our element, such as fish enjoying water? All suffering comes from the activity of the mind, whereas the mind itself is free. Drawing on words of Xuansha and Dogen, lay senior Shinji calls forth the enjoyment and freedom that our practice brings us to address.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Dharma Holder - 1/23/25 - The dharma song of Shitou describes the simplicity possible in the mind of practice. With this settled awareness we can see how habits are formed and re-formed again and again. Gokan brings alive the ease and gentleness that can become the mind of zazen as we practice letting go of habitual thoughts and tendencies.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 1/22/25 - From Master Wu-Men's Gateless Gate - Zhaozhou's "Mu" - Within the realm of words much can be known, but how do we study the realm which is inexpressible in words? The Buddha’s profound realization of true reality is accessible to everyone, but how do we walk that path? How does working with a koan take us beyond the words themselves?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 1/19/25 - Invoking the life and words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Shugen Roshi celebrates his "living legacy": the power of love and its manifestation in the Beloved Community to heal a troubled world. He draws from King's speech on the "new phase of the civil rights struggle", given the year before his assassination, and his calls for an equality based on love to address disparity, poverty and injustice. Speaking from a Christian perspective, King's views resonate with the universal religious truths of interrelatedness, and the true freedom and equity that is an expression of wisdom and compassion. Such is the Bodhisattva's vow to put an end to the suffering of all beings. - This dharma talk was preceded by this year's MLK tribute presentation:  https://vimeo.com/1048203464 - Also, see the presentation from a few years ago by the People of African Descent (PAD) Affinity Group: "From Refuge to Sanctuary: an MRO Tribute to Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.": https://vimeo.com/666366222

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 1/12/25 - Gateless Gate, Case 16: The Bell's Sound and the Priest's Robe - We have these forms in Zen for meditation, for liturgy, for taking a meal and for practicing the dharma together. But what use is a form? How can we use forms without getting caught up in the form itself? To benefit from Zen practice as a vehicle to liberate ourselves from grasping at forms—or at anything—is to learn to shift as conditions change within every aspect of our lives.

Ikyo Love, MRO Student - 1/12/25 - "Making it my own."

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Dharma Holder - 1/11/25 - Freeing ourselves of the suffering born of strong emotions, how do we keep the heart open and able to feel without overwhelm or shutting down? And how do we establish concentration and find the vast capacity of our minds? Gokan brings forth the grounded, supported way of being awake to all that is unfolding in “the immense reality” that is our lives.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 1/5/25 - From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 52 - Entering the new year, we can reflect on how we are holding our practice, how it supports our connection with others, and whether we are clear on our aspiration to practice well. To take up the practice of selflessness means we let go of high and low, better than and less than, to learn from every scrap of the dharma on how to free ourselves and others. Shugen Roshi takes up this teaching of the old Buddha Joshu to illuminate our path.

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.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - 12/30/24 - This Fusatsu talk was given on the evening before New Years Eve to the sangha at Fire Lotus Temple in Brooklyn on how practice is not linear and moves in a circle or spiral pattern. The Bodhisattva Vows behold the direction.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 12/30/24 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 100 - How does the purity of Buddha Nature still give rise to all the havoc, confusion, and suffering in our human lives? In this talk given during the Rohatsu sesshin, Shugen Roshi takes up this fundamental question: if all is emptiness and impermanence, what is it that needs to be done to experience the ‘peaceful dwelling’ within samsara, and to liberate all beings within the phenomenal world?

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.

Kien Martin, MRO Monastic - ZCNYC - 12/29/24 - A Path of Faith, Doubt and Determination.

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.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - ZMM - 12/15/24 - A poem by Zen monastic hermit Ryokan brings inspiration for this talk from Shoan Osho. Ryokan communicated Zen and Buddhist teachings through everyday encounters, directly expressing awakened nature, or Buddha nature. Shoan explores how this awakened nature, inseparable from the natural world, comes to life in taking care of what is around us and from taking care of ourselves and each other.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 12/14/24 - This talk explores how the minimal instructions for Zen practice that have been handed down to us from Dogen Zenji encourage us to be with what is, as it arises, without fixing or adding extra. “Realizing the fundamental point, it is practice realization,” Dogen wrote. We are encouraged to “let go of all involvements,” take care of the body and mind and all that arises, and let the practice of zazen support our true self.

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.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 12/08/24 - Today is Bodhi Day, the commemoration of the enlightenment of Siddhartha; a day in which the possibility of not just spinning in confusion, reactivity and fathomless separation is celebrated. Hear about Siddhartha's resolve to discover the root of why we suffer and the nature of existence. Hear about the key figures who supported him at crucial moments on a path without which he most likely would not have made it to Buddhahood. Who has been significant in our journey? We are able to receive training and practice the Dharma today from what he realized. We all walk alone in one sense and together in every way.

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.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 12/01/24 - In Master Hongzhi's practice instruction, The Misunderstanding of Many Lifetimes, he points us in the direction of seeing the fusion-identification with our emotions, which is illusory. How do we understand our emotions, accept our situation and open to the spiritual energy which can transport us to realize our true identity, our buddha nature?

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.

Katie Yosha Scott-Childress, Senior Lay Student - ZMM - 11/22/24 - Exploring the focus of the 90-day training period as “peaceful dwelling,” senior lay student Yosha looks at how we can bring our presence and practice to all situations, even worldly activity which is fraught with disagreements and controversy.

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 11/21/24 - From The Book of Equanimity, Case 30 - Daizui's Fire at the End of the Kalpa - Practice offers a way for cutting through dualities within which we tend to get lost, as all of our lives are based on these dualities. Hogen Sensei challenges us to see from a larger perspective, a way which inherently challenges dualistic ways of being in the world. Within this practice, how do we understand the permanence of Buddha Nature which is not a “thing”?

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.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 11/17/24 - Continuing with Bodhidharma’s teachings on the "Two Entrances", dharma holder Gokan explores how “all inclusive practice” includes even our struggles, our discomfort. He asks, when does “practicing the dharma” actually happen? And when are habits, views and the tendency to control taking over? We can use this teaching to investigate what it means to engage, fully, this opportunity to practice.

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.

Suzanne Taikyo Gilman, Senior Monastic - ZCNYC - 10/27/24 - How can we use our imaginations to manifest good for the benefit of others, rather than getting caught in a swirl of fantasy, fear or anger? Senior monastic Taikyo explores how the teachings of bodhicitta can help us recognize our reality as distinct from the fruits of delusion, and to use our intentions to imagine real benefit and goodness for ourselves and others.

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.

Chris Yudo Abraham, Senior Lay Student - ZCNYC - 10/13/24 - Before the internet invaded our personal spaces, relationships had a different flavor. Now, we can have most of our relationships with people we never see in person. How does Zen practice and training help us break through the intimacy barrier, and recognize the richness of face to face contact? Senior lay student Yudo, himself a “digital nomad,” explores.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - 10/6/24 - Hojin Sensei explores the question of: What is true protection in our practice and for the world? Buddha once said to King Pasenadi, “your good karma, your good thought, words and good deeds; these are your protections, protection against yourself and your own unskillful habits, and protection against the unskillful habits of others.”

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.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 9/22/24 - Fusatsu is a renewal of vows ceremony, translated as continuous good practice or to stop unwholesome action (karma). It is a ceremony that aligns us with the path of Buddha. It is a rededication to live in accord with our own undefiled, unperturbed original nature. In practice we need to be able to recognize where we are twisting and not in harmony. We begin by acknowledging all of our twisted actions reciting the Gatha of Atonement. Join Hojin in exploring how we are each the one who is creating our life moment to moment simply and realistically. That we have a response-ability to come into this place in which we receive our whole lives, our whole selves - and become one with it and enjoy our life with others.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 9/21/24 - This bodhisattva, or “great being,” vows to liberate all beings before entering nirvana themselves. This was the Buddha Shakyamuni’s aspiration. How then is aspiration practiced and brought to life? Hojin Sensei investigates the role of a bodhisattva in the context of developing faith, the paramitas (Our virtuous qualities) and practicing joyful effort in the midst of not-knowing.

Sandy Joshin Del Valle, Lay Student - ZCNYC - 9/29/24 - Joshin offers words of encouragement to take with us on our path, as she recounts her own experience in her Zen practice.

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 they 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."

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - 9/1/24 - Hojin Sensei 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.

Degna Chikei Levister, MRO Senior Lay Student - ZCNYC - 8/25/24 - Chikei talks about the subtle shift in perspective brought about through her Zen practice and the big difference that has made in her life.

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. 

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 8/3/24 - Hojin Sensei offers the wisdom of Machig Labdrön, a Tibetan teacher who lived between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. From an adept at a very young age, to motherhood, to teacher, to establishing the practice of Chöd, her life and teachings have been a great source of inspiration, as Hojin enthusiastically shares with the sangha.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - 7/28/24 - In this morning ceremony, Hojin Sensei offers teachings on the Monastic Vows and the Moral & Ethical Precepts of Zen Buddhism, on the occasion of the full Monastic ordination of Simon Daiō Sekku Harrison, one of Hojin Sensei’s long-time students.

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.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 7/21/24 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate (Mumonkan), Case 12 - Ruiyan Calls "Master" - Hojin Sensei takes up this koan... What is it that runs our lives, that leads us to make decisions about right and wrong? Our intentions are what drive us along and affect what happens in our lives, so how clear are we about these deeply habitual ways of being? Who is calling, and who is responding?

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.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 7/25/24 - Gokan explores the third of the All Inclusive Practices of Bodhidharma’s Two Entrances: seeking nothing. - Our longings and yearnings are are what motivates us ordinarily, and we come to practice because of dissatisfaction with samsara. Our human habit is to seek pleasure, comfort and security, to get rid of discomfort. But having found that seeking pleasure is temporary at best, what is it to enter the Way, without reservations, seeking nothing?

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.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 7/13/24 - Gokan explores the second of the All Inclusive Practices of Bodhidharma’s Two Entrances; adapting to conditions. When we open up to the many ways we are dissatisfied or contribute to suffering, we also simultaneously open up the power of ceasing to grasp and liberating ourselves. How do we allow ourselves to come inside of our experiences fully, into “the mind that neither waxes or wanes,” and see the infinite potential when we come closer?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 7/7/24 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 45 - Wu-tsu's "Who Is That Other?" - Shugen Roshi explores the dynamic between self and others by looking at the solitary nature of practice. As we begin to understand the habits which create our thoughts and ideas—all the things that obstruct our naturally clear minds—we can experience within the stillness that we are actually brought closer to others, and to the whole phenomenal universe.

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?