Recording Category: Dharma Talks
We all have three wishes, and one is a secret.
Three participants in the ESLT (Emerging Sangha Leadership Training) program each give a short Dharma Talk.
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.