Recording Category: Dharma Talks

How do we carry our deepest intentions with us as we move through our daily life, including when at work? Last week, many in the sangha participated in the Heart of Work retreat. Each day, the retreat started and ended with meditation in the zendo, but the main venue for the retreat was our individual… Read more »

We want to be “more” aware, but doing so is not actually a process of becoming aware of more. It’s more a matter of lessening the obstacles to awareness. As we clarify mind, the play of arising phenomena includes some that were previously submerged. On Sunday we explore this dynamic, and see how it might… Read more »

As a lay person, sometimes it is a challenge to integrate practice into our lives. How do we practice with what is? How do we allow the unique experiences of our lives to unfold with the awareness and attention of practice? Carrie Schulz offers a student talk exploring this.

The Sun Face Buddha lives for 1,800 years. The Moon Face Buddha lives for one day. But the length of the life is not what makes either a Buddha.

The source of respect is the unlimited heart of Buddha Nature. Jealousy and envy arise when we entertain the anxiety that there is not enough of something for us. Starting from the Buddha’s generous predictions of Buddhahood for his disciples, Gyokuko will explore our practice of giving and receiving respect.

Memory is unpredictable. Certain events remain vivid; others fade away. Many of us will lose memories as we age. What is it in our practice that is remembered, no matter what? How do we retain wisdom even in forgetfulness?

Genko tackles the topic of Time: what is it? how do we work with it? some of the many aspects of time as something that exists, or maybe not. Are we moving forward? What about developmental stages? What about how much time we’ve had in practice? And of course, Dogen’s fascicle, “Uji,” addressing existence-time, has… Read more »

Drawing upon Dogen’s “Teachings of the Inanimate,” Seido talked about Buddhism’s approach to our conflicted relationship with the natural world and how the nondual leaps beyond false divisions. Where does nature begin and end? Where does sentience begin and end? This subject welcomes our direct experience in the natural world, our heartfelt concern for the… Read more »

Three of the aspects of the Enlightened Mind are not achieved through will, intention and rational thought, and yet they are not achieved without good will, good intentions and clear reasoning. Gyokuko will play with the interplay during her Dharma Talk this Sunday.

A question we often get asked is “what is enlightenment,” followed closely by “how do I get it?” Kakumyo explores this realm in his Sunday talk. Come see whether he actually answers these perennial questions.

What happens when Indra, King of the Gods, sees a line of ants marching across the floor? A little storytelling about Indra leads us to contemplation of how we all fit together in the big scheme of things.

While many sangha members headed out to the Pride Parade, Jyoshin presented a talk on manifesting fearlessness in life and in practice. In Buddhism, the gift of fearlessness is one of the highest gifts. She unpacks this idea to see where it shows up in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

Our list of grave Precepts begins, like those of most religions, with Do Not Kill. The commentary says “holding no thought of killing is the Precept of Not Killing.” What are these thoughts, and what does it mean to hold them? Genko explores some of the ways this Precept applies to us all.

Kakumyo will talk about the closing of term, the power of intention, and the fraility of intention and how they might relate to each other.

At the center of this Sunday’s Dharma Talk will be a twentieth century Korean koan from The Hidden Lamp collection entitled “Manseong’s No Cultivation.” Bukkai will respond to the material and offer her thoughts on related teachings. One day a nun asked Manseong Sunim, “How do I cultivate the Way of the Buddha?” “No cultivation,”… Read more »

When we begin to practice, we feel a sense of hope and promise. In time, this fades and we feel disappointment again. What does it mean to let go of our expectations and hopes, and really fall into this disappointment? How do we practice when our supports are taken away, one by one?

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