Recording Category: Dharma Talks

What happens when we set an intention, make a vow to change something in our lives? Often, resistance arises. What is that, what causes it, and how can we work with it?

What if the whole of Zen practice, from meditation to the precepts to kensho and back again, is all about learning how to love? What if the only reason we come into being is to learn to love?

Jiko explores a concept from Developmental Psychology of the true self and the false self in the light of Buddhist practice. In what ways do we hide, and in what ways do we hope to be seen?

This talk centers around questions of how to integrate formal practice into ordinary daily life. Our formal practice can feel separate from our everyday way, and at times, we might long for it to be otherwise. Questions around integrating precept work, mindfulness, sesshin, and zazen are not uncommon.

This isn’t a talk on body mechanics, but on how, as aspiring bodhisattvas, we situate ourselves in relation to the suffering around and within us. How do we structure our life, how do we frame the events and interactions around us in a way that nurtures and expresses our bodhisattva nature?

Jyoshin uses an illustration from her hospital chaplain work to talk about some of the ways we get caught trying to be perfect and in so doing lose sight of the reality and importance being present with things as they are.

Dogen says, “Continuous practice, day after day, is the most appropriate way of expressing gratitude. This means that you practice continuously, without wasting a single day of your life”. What does continuous practice look like in our everyday lives?

Chan Master Hongzhi instructed us, “Contact phenomena with total sincerity, not a single atom of dust outside yourself.” Gyoshi explores implications of this instruction.

As Rohatsu begins, we consider our relationship to awakening. Is it near or far? Vast or ordinary? Sometimes we can’t help but smile.

During the Mountains and Waters Wilderness Retreat, we spend time as a group learning to navigate and orient as we journey and explore. Orientation skills are helpful not only when we get turned around or confused about where we are; when we need to change direction and explore uncharted territory; or when we are traveling… Read more »

For Founders Day, Jiko talks about Keido Chisan, whose enlightened approach to Zen practice proved critical to the making of our temple today. On this day we pay homage to our most recent ancestors, even as we remember that each of us must find the path that is ours alone.

As we approach our annual Sejiki Sesshin, Genko looks at both karma and how we work with it and at those who have died in the past year and how these relics of the past remain part of our lives.

Twice a year, the sangha has an opportunity to hear from our governing bodies and to ask questions and give feedback. The Sangha Forum takes the place of a dharma talk. At the forum, the sangha has an opportunity to hear from our governing bodies and to ask questions and give feedback. The Board of… Read more »

In this talk Flying Fish looks at the paramita of generosity as a gateway to awakening. The more we are able to let go the more we are able to connect to the tender heart of wisdom.

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