Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download
12/06/2020
Dharma Talk

Join us this Sunday as Kakumyo gives us a head start on Rohatsu. This retreat is where put all of the energy we have cultivated over the past year.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
11/29/2020
The Dharma as PPE

Last week, Annen spoke of dukka, the First Noble Truth, and the effects of the pandemic on dharma practice. In this week’s talk, Jyoshin will look at Dharma as PPE (personal protective equipment). This talk topic was suggested by a Buddhist chaplain and the talk is dedicated to healthcare workers and staff, as well as to all dharma practitioners everywhere.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
11/22/2020
The more things change…

“Life is suffering.” This is a common translation of the first noble truth of Buddhism and during this pandemic, suffering and sorrow seem even more visible and tangible than usual. This week, Annen considers suffering (Pali: dukka) in its pre-pandemic and pandemic forms, and the silver lining that lies hidden in plain sight

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jeanna Annen Moyer
11/18/2020
Foundational Teachings Class 8

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
11/15/2020
Clarity, Equanimity, and Balance in Difficult Times

We have been talking about karma and recognizing the harm we have caused and how we can heal. This Sunday, let us step back a bit and talk about the experience of being hurt in the first place. How do we hold our traumas, alone and as a community?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
11/11/2020
Foundational Teachings Class 7

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
10/25/2020
Clarity, Equanimity, and Balance

This week’s dharma talk is Clarity, Equanimity, and Balance in Difficult Times, a recording of a talk given by Kyogen Carlson, one of our founders, on October 12, 2008. Kyogen talks about the circumstances surrounding his and Gyokuko’s break from Shasta Abbey, the highly charged 2008 presidential election, and the transformation that can occur when all that supports us seems to be crumbling.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kyogen Carlson
10/14/2020
Foundational Teachings Class 5

Class 5

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
10/11/2020
A Watched Pot Never Boils

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
10/07/2020
Foundational Teachings Class 4

Class 4

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
10/04/2020
Proving Dharma

One impediment to making good use of our meditation practice and the teachings of Buddhism is a lack of confidence that they apply to an actual situation or that they will be effective. On Sunday, Kakumyo will explore some of these concerns and discuss the Buddha’s answer to this question.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
09/30/2020
Foundational Teachings Class 3

Class 3

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
09/27/2020
Emptiness Upon Emptiness

In honor of the Two Ancestors, Dogen and Keizan, celebrated this week, we will consider the story of the Buddha holding up a flower, and ask ourselves, when is a flower just a flower?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
09/23/2020
Foundational Teachings Class 2

Class 2

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
09/20/2020
Commitment and Vigor

Kakumyo speaks about the difficulty of staying available for practice. How do we continue to show up for difficult, transformative work over time?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
09/13/2020
Transitions and Transformation

One of the ways suffering occurs is when permanence is sought where there is no permanence. Ease occurs when the realization that we are grasping at concepts arises and the mind reorients. In other words, things change – even if we don’t want them to. Things change – often in ways we hadn’t expected or imagined them to. This Sunday, Jyoshin will talk about transitions and transformation and how they ripple out into the world.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
09/09/2020
Foundational Teachings Class 1

Class 1

Categories: Wednesday Classes

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
09/06/2020
Ending the Pursuit of Happiness

Linda Hoka Bebernes will show how ending the pursuit of happiness has enabled her practice to unfold, while sharing some insights from the edge of her practice now.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Linda Hoka Bebernes
08/30/2020
Sangha Speaks Sharing the Experience of Covid-19

This Sunday Kakumyo gave a talk in which he opened the floor for everyone to talk about how their world view has changed during this pandemic.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
08/23/2020
Climate of Mind

Seido will speak to our collective fears about the impact of a changing climate and how Buddhism liberates us from the two extremes of apathy and despair. This talk emerged after a January joint sangha sesshin in Corvallis focused on our intimate relationship to the natural world, the experience of deep time, our capacity to face the profound losses and still care for the vibrant life within which we are always embedded.  

Categories: Dharma Talks

Debra Seido Martin
08/16/2020
Do Buddhists Pray?

Buddhism is not a theology, but it is a religion. Many Buddhists have a deep relationship to a spiritual mystery. How do feelings like devotion and prayerful urges work in Buddhism and Zen? What does it mean to surrender in our practice?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
08/09/2020
Tranquility and Discernment

The process of perception is a rich topic of investigation in Buddhism. So much of who we are and the world we inhabitat is mediated by our own filters. This talk will explore how the capacities for tranquility and discernment nourish each other.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
08/02/2020
Chimyo Atkinson

Chimyo Atkinson was ordained in 2007 and received Dharma transmission under Rev. Teijo Munnich in 2015. She completed her monastic training in Japan and the US. Until recently, she served as Head of Practice at Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple in Alexander, North Carolina

Categories: Dharma Talks

Chimyo Atkinson
07/26/2020
Race, Tribe, and Self

Did you know that the Buddha addressed racism explicitly in his teachings? He was dealing with the caste system, and expressed clear views on it. If we are all one people, why and how did we get to this mess of perceiving different races, and treating people differently based on it. Why is it so hard to change it? Genko attempts to untangle a few of these threads, and suggests some ways forward. (Hint: they all are based on Buddhist practice.)

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
07/19/2020
Responsibility and Abundance

This Sunday, Kakumyo will talk about the process of discerning whether some discordance in our life is ours to transform or not. If it is, what do we need to help this transformation along? If it’s not, how do we relate to it?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
07/12/2020
Dwelling on Past Mistakes

One of our Precepts says “Do Not Dwell on Past Mistakes.” We usually study this Precept as it applies to us personally, as we dwell either on our own or others’ mistakes. We’re in a place now nationally where many of our society’s past mistakes are coming home to roost, and we’re being asked to study and acknowledge past failures. Typical responses to this can be guilt, paralysis, defensiveness, anger, defiance, and confusion. What does it mean to “dwell” on past mistakes, and how do we move forward constructively from this place? Genko doesn’t have all the answers, but explores some of these questions in Sunday’s Dharma Talk.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
07/05/2020
Taking off the Training Wheels

So. You’ve been practicing for a few years; gotten comfortable with meditation. All of a sudden something unexpected happens and…WHAM!…there’s a sense of distress and discomfort. What happened? Where did those years of zen training go? Is it all useless? This Sunday, Jyoshin, talks about life, stress, practice, and liberation. And, no, it’s not useless.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
06/28/2020
Sweat the Small Stuff

Kakumyo will be talking about some of the common misunderstandings and pitfalls in bringing more light and freedom to unwholesome karmic patterns.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
06/21/2020
Try Something New but not Too New

Bukkai retired from the Dharma Rain teaching group three years ago but returns to talk about summer ango and how we can relax a little while keeping our intention.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jill Bukkai Washburn
06/14/2020
Solid Karma

“Solid Karma” – the Sanskrit word klesha refers to states of mind that cloud our way to enlightenment. It refers to deeply embedded, hardened kinds of karma. How do we recognize and work with these in ourselves, as well as our communities?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
06/07/2020
Appreciate the View Part Two

This week Kakumyo will continue some themes from his last Dharma talk: Aliveness and interdependence; separation and solidarity; humility and clarity.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
05/31/2020
Discipleship and Beyond

Many transitions are being marked this Sunday. It is the end of spring Ango, and so we will have a Term Closing ceremony. It is the end of the Dharma School year, and there will be a matriculation ceremony for those young adults just entering the adult sangha. And four new Lay Disciples will have just been ordained the night before with their teachers. Genko is inviting each new disciple to introduce themselves and to speak about what this means to them. Kyogen used to talk often about being ordained into your life. How does each of us do this? What does practice and transition look like for each of us?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download

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