Recordings

Genko starts with a recent book that describes and explores the previous five mass extinction events on this planet, and goes on to talk about other disasters, moving from global to regional to community to personal. What is a disaster, and how do we practice with it?

Categories: Dharma Talks

This week we are in Genzo-e sesshin, working with the Dogen’s commentary on a chapter of the Diamond Sutra focusing on the “Ungraspable Mind”. This Sunday Jyoshin will look closer at this chapter through the lens of the Buddha’s Five Eyes.  

Categories: Dharma Talks

We are told that enlightenment is not a matter of stages. But we all occupy roles in our lives which reflect stages of development. How do we meet our practice through archetypal experience? In what way do we grow into an understanding that is already complete?

Categories: Dharma Talks

In this talk, Kakumyo explores how we allow and prevent awakening in our interactions with others, using a story from the Vimalakirti Sutra as a guide.

Categories: Dharma Talks

As we end Ango and approach the summer, the way we practice changes for many of us. Forms are reduced and relaxed as people go on vacations, spend more time outdoors, and often less time in the zendo. Genko explores some ways that we practice with this change, the value of it, and the vague anxiety and sense of deprivation some people feel as a result of this change in the seasons. Why do we practice? What happens when practice changes?

Categories: Dharma Talks

We put a lot of effort in our Zen Practice into examining who we are. Kakumyo speaks to the balance of knowing who we are, and still being curious to seeing new parts of ourselves.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kyri Kengan Trieman, who is the guiding teacher for the Daoren Circle, will talk about practice when we are away from the temple.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Come join us during this first day-long event honoring the Dharma Cloud lineage welcoming all affiliates and related practitioners. The morning will be devoted to sharing our traditional forms including an introduction of all the various groups attending, and a panel dharma talk by Kakumyo (DRZC Abbot), Domyo (Bright Way Zen), and Seido (Zen West / Empty Field Zendo) on the significance of the lineage.

Categories: Dharma Talks

There are so many ways that the world will say no to our desires. But we also say no to ourselves and to the world. How do we say yes? In Zen practice, there is a deep affirmation that we can bring to our everyday life as well as our practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

The Dharma Council led the spring forum, and reported on what we’ve been working on over the past 6 months and some new offerings for the coming months. Kakumyo reported on the status of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program, and also gave a financial and debt repayment overview. This was also an opportunity for sangha members to give feedback and ask questions about such things as whether offerings here are meeting your needs, thoughts about Denkoe being a cloistered retreat, the Spring Term Student program, and volunteering opportunities.

Categories: Sangha Forum

In the depths of winter it is easy to be deluded that nothing changes and the grey and cold will last forever. In the depths of adult life that delusion can arise as well. Yes, little things change, but nothing fundamental changes, we think. Drifting and dreaming, life passes by. The practice of zen teaches us to wake up – either startling us to realization or helping us to slowly move towards wakefulness. This Sunday, Jyoshin will share a talk about waking up, springtime, and this mysterious path of practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

In his “Instructions to the Cook,” Dogen lists three qualities of mind that the Head Cook, or Tenzo, of a monastery must cultivate: Joyful Mind, Nurturing Mind and Magnanimous Mind. Shin’yu explores the second of these, Nurturing Mind, and the wish to take care of the things and people of our world.

Categories: Dharma Talks

On March 24, the sixteen participants and three staff who worked together in an intensive 10-day training for sangha leaders finished their time together. Three of the participants shared short dharma talks that they developed in the course of the training to give the rest of us a taste of what they’ve did. People came from near and far to do this training, staying here, sharing meals and the schedule, and enjoying some outings. Kakumyo, Jiko, and Jyoshin organized and presented the training.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Anicca, or Impermanence, looms large among our basic Buddhist teachings. It’s one of the three characteristics of existence and is intimately related to the Four Noble Truths. Impermanence seems pretty straightforward – everything changes. It’s pretty easy to accept that intellectually, but not so easy to live in congruence with it. Why do we struggle so hard to avoid impermanence? What are our often unconscious strategies for avoiding it? How can we avoid avoiding it? Who are we when we don’t avoid it? We explore these questions together.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Several people became lay disciples this week. The decision to enter a formal teaching relationship is a serious one. But it’s not magic – teaching takes place both in and out of such a relationship. What does a teacher do? How do we work with the embodiment in front of us?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Especially during challenging times or when experiencing personal difficulties, we can find comfort by focusing on our core practice – our Soto style of Zen. Fumyo highlights some practical aspects of our Soto Zen including its beginnings as a unique style and its subtle pragmatism. He also touches on deep questions at the heart of our everyday koans and, finally, on the student-teacher relationships that overlay the whole of practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Keeping things dry in an Oregon winter can be tough, but not as difficult as not leaking our practice intention. This Sunday, we’ll explore the process of diverting attention on a few different timescales, and find some tips to keep this from happening.

Categories: Dharma Talks

This Sunday we’re in for a special treat. Kosho Finch, a Shingon priest and the new reverend of the Henjyoji Temple, will do a talk on Fudo-Myoo and Kojin, represented in chants that we do regularly (particularly the Fudo Ceremony). Fudo is the statue to the right of Manjushri in front of the hall (to your left as you look toward the altar). Kosho notes that there are interesting overlapping practices for Shingon and Zen in Fudo and Kojin, and will share some of those with us.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Several Sangha members are involved in DRZC’s prison program, as volunteers, adults in custody, and prison grads. Many DRZC members don’t have a clear sense of who these folks are, how the program works, or what involvement in it might look like, so every few years we like to report back. Grads and volunteers talked about the rich gifts available in this experience. Genko and Gyoshi facilitated.

Categories: Dharma Talks

The Buddha told us to find good friends, and keep them close. What does this mean to a person of practice? How do we manage relationships? What is intimacy and companionship on the Path?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Both Shakyamuni Buddha and Eihei Dogen gave their last dharma teaching on the same topic. We’ll look at this teaching, a description of the marks of practice, and why both teachers felt it was so important for their students to remember.

Categories: Dharma Talks

It’s a time of year when we look forward and back, and we can look to our lineage ancestors to provide us with inspiration for the future. Genko talks about the many ways we share stories and how that practice creates, maintains, and continues to build Sangha for all of us.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin speaks of the need for honoring deep winter by taking some down time. We close down the temple for two weeks partly as a way of following the direction of the earth in resting in the darkness and the cold.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

Tags: Meditation, Paramitas, Six Perfections

Categories: Dharma Talks

This Sunday, Jyoshin spoke about honoring lineage and tradition and at the same time exploring the tension between valuing and connecting with what we’ve done before while also responding to current conditions.

Tags: Meditation, Paramitas, Six Perfections

Categories: Dharma Talks

Twice a year, the sangha has an opportunity to hear from our governing bodies and to ask questions and give feedback. This forum is primarily sponsored by the Board of Directors, giving updates on where we are with the property development, fundraising and finances, board activities, and more. The Dharma Council will also give a brief report. In addition, the forum will report on the outcome of the investigation into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and release the final draft of that report to the sangha.

Tags: Meditation, Paramitas, Six Perfections

Categories: Sangha Forum

Kakumyo describes a recent (experimental) sesshin he participated in and some of the lessons learned for trusting and deepening meditation.

Tags: Meditation, Paramitas, Six Perfections

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko continues a series looking at the six perfections (paramitas) with Virya, sometimes translated as Energy. Dale Wright says in The Six Perfections: “Virya mean[s] the energy of accomplishment, the effort, courage, and power to see spiritual endeavor through to its completion. Viryaparamita is the perfection of this energy, the power of unyielding commitment to the ultimate goal of universal awakening.” Genko explores some of the facets of this perfection and how it works in our lives.

Tags: Meditation, Paramitas, Six Perfections

Categories: Dharma Talks