Recording Category: Dharma Talks
The Buddha, in the first sermon following his enlightenment, instructed us to practice Right Speech as part of the Eightfold Path. One version of the criteria he used for determining if speech is right is: Is is factual? is it true? Is it helpful? Is it endearing? Is it timely? Right Speech can be a… Read more »
Gratitude for the past. Generosity to the future. After the all-night vigil beginning Saturday evening, November 4, at 7pm, Gyokuko puts this celebration into context.
As we struggle to get by and overcome obstacles, we can get confused, angry, and sad. As we develop our practice and self-awareness, subtle changes in outlook have the capacity to transform our view of life and suffering in radical ways.
We often put karmic themes and their resolution in a vague category that adds lots of extra noise and opinion and dilutes the teaching about how to affect change. This Sunday the talk will focus on some specifics about seeing through our afflicted habit patterns.
This Sunday we celebrate the Two Ancestors Memorial, honoring Eihei Dogen and Keizan Jokin. As part of that, we chant the “Life Span Chapter” of the Lotus Sutra, which describes the Buddha enlightened since the remote past, or the eternal Buddha. As the seasons change, time passes, people are born, sicken, and die, and yet… Read more »
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.