Dharma Talks are offered on Sunday mornings by teachers or senior students. These talks are designed to present some element of a dharmic theme in a way that is accessible to a public audience. Each of our teachers has a different dharma “voice,” sharing their understanding for the benefit of all in a way that is unique to them.  More formal than a teisho (a talk given during a sesshin), and less structured than a class or lecture, Dharma Talks bring a personal, human element to the articulation of zen topics.

Recent Dharma Talks

Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download
12/07/2025
When the Gods are Changing

Genko examines the phenomenon of paradigm shift as it affects the broader society, various academic study areas, and moving into looking at our own personal lives. How do we recognize and navigate the inevitable change we face, both internal and external?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
11/30/2025
Dongshan’s No Cold or Heat

We would like to be in harmony with the conditions of our life, but so often, we wish things could be different than the way they are. Acceptance is our practice. How do we work with it?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Shin’yu Vitells
11/23/2025
The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel

Flying Fish takes a deeper dive into the three refuges. What does it mean to take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha? Our spiritual ancestors point to this practice as essential to realizing the teachings. Hearing the words, and receiving the blessing or merit can be very different experiences. What do we mean when we take refuge in the triple treasure?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Flying Fish Murphy
11/16/2025
Wise Friends and Sutra Scrolls

Tsuho talks about a five-year project to study Dogen’s Shobogenzo and how sutra study can enrich practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Todd Tsuho Sattersten
11/09/2025
Right Effort

Kakumyo speaks about unattached effort. How do we manage the details of life with buoyancy?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
11/02/2025
A Single Piece of Emptiness

As we celebrate Founders’ Day, we consider the lives of three people whose work and practice built the temple: Keido Chisan, Jiyu Kennett, and Kyogen Carlson.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
10/19/2025
In a Dream, Expressing a Dream

Guest Teacher Koji Shinei Alison offers a dharma talk. The dream before reality, the nightmare before tragedy, fright before the monster, nausea before the fall. The world is a dream, imagined. The power of the archetype is numinous, suggestive; it hints, and alludes yet, can never be thoroughly known. Archetypes lift us out of the limited space of brute, merely personal reality, encouraging the difficult inner work, encouraging a renewed relationship with the 10,000 beautiful things and, to bring great happiness.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Koji Shinei Alison
10/05/2025
On Politics

Kakumyo pulls from the Pali canon in exploring what the Buddha saw as an appropriate response to political questions. He also examines how that might affect us individually and as a collective.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
09/28/2025
Hua-Yen and Zen Practice

Fumyo’s dharma talk considers aspects of the Hua Yen world view and how it is expressed in our Zen practices.

The Hua Yen system of thinking arose from the commentaries of Chinese scholars studying the Avatamsaka Sutra. These perspectives provide the philosophical bedrock for Zen and have influenced Zen practices through the ages to this day.

As Zen practitioners, how we experience our worlds and how we respond to all the interdependent relationships within them are infused with a Hua Yen world view.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Rick Fumyo Mishaga
09/21/2025
Why Can’t Clear-Eyed Bodhisattvas Sever the Red Thread

The talk explores this question that was offered to us by Zen Master Songyuan Chongyue in the late 12th Century. The red thread grabs us at once in a visceral way. It represents our deepest human nature with all of its passion, desires, vulnerabilities. To become intimate with the red thread is the path of the bodhisattva. This koan leads us to the very heart of our practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Flying Fish Murphy
09/14/2025
Hatred

I feel it. You feel it, too. How do we work with such a powerful experience?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
09/07/2025
Doing Nothing

Zonnyo explores the theme of “doing nothing” from the perspective of Ch’an Master Ma-Tsu and his disciples. What is the wisdom of non-action and non-seeking? And how do we know when we should act?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Zonnyo Riger
08/31/2025
Our Ascetic Inheritance

Zen has a reputation for being tough, maybe even scary. Once we’ve been around for a while, we see through some of that. In this talk Kakumyo explores the karma of Zen’s ascetic tendencies and discusses how we practice with it today.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
08/24/2025
The Five Remembrances

Shin’yu considers the Five Remembrances and what they can offer us.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Shin’yu Vitells
08/17/2025
Dharma Talk by Jyoshin

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
08/10/2025
Immediacy

Categories: Dharma Talks

Mike Gyoshi Kaplan
08/03/2025
The True Dharma Appears of Itself

We often recite these words but what do they really mean? What is the “it” in “itself?”

Categories: Dharma Talks

Daigai Filbert
07/27/2025
Nine Times, Many Times

Suzuki said, “Sometimes we bow to dogs and cats.” Why is the bow considered an act of generosity? Why is bowing considered an act of generosity?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
07/13/2025
The Great Matter

Two weeks ago, Zonnyo did her Shuso Hossen ceremony, choosing as her verse one from Dogen’s fascicle “Juki”. It affirmed living-and-dying, going-and-coming, and the turning from one moment to the next. That afternoon, Genko got word of the sudden death of a family member. She has been processing that over the last two weeks. In this talk, she shares some of her process and insights and looks at the turning of the year and other cycles.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
07/20/2025
Zazen of the Body

Roshi Daizui once said “Spiritual transformation is transformation of the body.” What if he’s right? Let’s discuss.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Robert Reian Glass
07/06/2025
Skill in Nonself

Kakumyo explores some of the practical ramifications of anatta, the Buddhist teaching of how nothing has an inherent, continuous selfhood.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
06/22/2025
Dharma Talk by Jyoshin

Jyoshin talks about Bodhisattva action.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
06/15/2025
Dharma Talk by Kakumyo

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
06/08/2025
The Third Position

What if we don’t have to take sides?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
06/01/2025
Spoon and Chopsticks

Genko relates a seemingly trivial experience with oryoki and explores issues around form, habit energy, ritual, and resistance.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
05/11/2025
A Seat in Uncertainty?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Mark Sosetsu Stauffer
04/27/2025
House on Fire

The burning house represents the suffering of phenomenal life. Why is it so hard for us to find the door and escape? Perhaps we don’t really need to get out.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
04/20/2025
More Aspects of Faith

A few weeks ago, Jiko spoke about faith. In this talk, Ko’in explores more aspects of faith from different perspectives.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Ko’in Newsom
04/06/2025
Reflections of a Tortoise Shell

Kakumyo discusses a Chinese text that describes how to practice with others, the Kikyomon. Keizan and Dogen drew from this text to create their monastic regulations for Sojiji and Eiheiji, respectively.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
03/30/2025
Are There Stages of Faith in Practice?

We approach and experience faith, practice, and understanding in several fundamental ways over time. This talk looks at the meaning of Buddhist faith and our stages of experience.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
03/23/2025
Buddha Faces Angulimala

In this tale from the Middle Length Discourses, Buddha meets a notorious figure on the road. His great compassion and equanimous presence allows them to have a meaningful exchange. Leaving behind his destructive path, Angulimala turns his life upside down and follows the Buddha. In this talk Flying Fish explores several aspects of our spiritual life that this story embodies.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Flying Fish Murphy
03/16/2025
Meditation

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
03/02/2025
Dharma Talk by Kakumyo

Kakumyo references the Samaññaphala Sutta to talk about benefits of practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
02/23/2025
A Zazen of the Heart: Part Two

How many ways are there to work with what arises in the heart/mind of meditation? Thoughts and feelings may not be two, but they are not one either. It may be helpful to explore at least one approach to feelings that differs from that of thoughts.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Robert Reian Glass
02/16/2025
Dharma Talk by Kakumyo

Kakumyo speaks of Impending Kalpa Fire, the way that resistance to our experience causes suffering, and the Three Terrible Oaths.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
02/09/2025
Facets of the Sangha Jewel

Genko explores aspects of Sangha, and talks about how it fits into the Three Treasures, or Three Refuges.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
02/02/2025
Fixed Views

Kakumyo speaks about fixed views and how they can be an obstacle to practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe
01/26/2025
Airway, Breathing, Circulation

Sometimes we need life support. What are the ABCs of supporting ourselves and others when the world feels like one big emergency?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
01/19/2025
Imagination and Meditation

Flying Fish explores the skillful use of imagination in the cultivation of our practice, and the importance of imagining a more expansive world view as a means to open our practice to wisdom.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Flying Fish Murphy
Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download

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