Recording Category: Dharma Talks
Trying to avoid judgmental or reactive patterns, we might forego our authentic recognition of what fits. If we aim for clarity we might end up feeling disconnected. There’s a sweet spot in navigating life that allows for both wise discernment and nonattachment.
We celebrate the Festival of Nehan this week, and the historical Buddha’s passge out of this world. But perhaps there never was a Buddha. What if the Buddha never really existed? What happens to our practice then?
Whoa! What was that!? Sometimes we aim for equanimity and find ourselves surprised by reactive strong emotions. This Sunday Jyoshin will talk about selves–from–the–past appearing in the Present and ways zen practice can be used to examine habit patterns around strong emotions and reactivity.
This Sunday Genko weighs in on the ongoing study of the Bodhisattva Precepts we are doing on Wednesday nights, led by Jyoshin and Carrie. How do we hold, keep, and commit to the Precepts? More than a set of rules, they point us to a path in a particular direction. We work with them as… Read more »
The question of how to undertake a meditation practice in the midst of a practice community is one that has been asked since the time of the Buddha. What tools are we given to skillfully attend to our own personal growth, while also supporting others in a way that provides space for their transformation as… Read more »
Sometimes we see the state of the world and despair. Our experience with the suffering of all beings is hard to hold at times. How does our practice help us to navigate when it seems there is nothing to be done? Is there room for despair in the Dharma?
As we begin Rohatsu, our longest and most solemn sesshin of the year, Genko looks at sesshin practice and the intimacy it fosters in the midst of deepening silence.
This week Kakumyo discussed the most subtle and difficult of the brahma viharas or divine abidings. Equanimity is a key factor in creating the relational context that we function in. Given Zen’s emphasis on the interdependence of life, practice and enlightenment, this relational content becomes important. Holidays are approaching, get your equanimity booster while you can.
In the Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines, bodhisattvas are described as “being armed with the great armor.” This week, Jyoshin will look at what this armor might be, how we tend to think about armoring, and how we may be able to shift towards utilizing spiritual armor instead of defensive armoring.
With the Two Ancestors Memorial taking the place of morning service this Sunday, Jyoshin will speak on the importance of inspiration in spiritual practice. From lineage ancestors to modern day muses, what/who is the source of your inspiration?
In Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up, Norman Fischer quotes Dogen as saying: “Only a Buddha and a Buddha can understand it.” Fischer goes on to say: “Even a Buddha by himself can’t understand it. Only a Buddha AND a Buddha can. Only through profound relationship, deep encounter, ineffable meeting, can we… Read more »
This Sundays’ dharma talk was replaced by the Sejiki Festival.
These are familiar words to any Zen student. But what does it really mean to forget the self? What is body and mind falling away? It is both nearer and more precious than we think.
This Sunday, Kakumyo will talk about the trade offs between practices which tend to be subtle but thorough, and practices that tend to be easier, but only go so far or leave some kind of residue. We need some of both, and there’s an art to the assessing of our level of awareness and choice of… Read more »
This is a recorded talk from Kyogen Carlson