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Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download
08/14/2016
Going Deeper

Dharma Rain has many programs and many ways to serve and be served, but ultimately, Dharma Rain is a Zen temple. The strength of Zen is that it brings zazen and other practices and tools to help us transform the obstacles in our own minds. Gyokuko will talk about the significance of Zen and the process of transformation.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Gyokuko Carlson
08/07/2016
Identity and Belonging

Many of us find a sense of identity in being part of a group, a family, a tribe. But sometimes conflict arises when we want our own independent identity and distrust the tendency to succumb to group-think. This conflict leads right to the central koan that we all grapple with – Who Am I? To what extent do we define ourselves as separate, special, unique; and to what extent do we belong to a wider group in society?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
07/31/2016
Avalokiteshvara

We are on Genzo-e Sesshin this week, studying Dogen’s fascicle Avalokiteshvara. In this talk, Kakumyo explores the interplay of witnessing and immediacy – how close do we get to our own experience? How many kinds of closeness are there?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
07/24/2016
The Pivotal Opportunity of Human Birth

What is the value of a human birth? We are reminded now and then that to be born a human being is special, of high merit. Why? What does this say about other beings? What does it say about how we should be living our lives?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
07/17/2016
Waking Up with the Morning News

What does it mean to practice with the daily news that arrives on the doorstep (or laptop) every day – tragedies from Orlando to Istanbul back to Dallas along with endless opinions and updates – and then return to our daily activity? Are we aware of our karmic habits receiving breaking news events and the impact on our ongoing functioning? This talk suggests a Zen practice that can engage “all the news that’s fit to print” in a way that serves wisdom and compassion through the teachings of oryoki’s “just enough.”

Categories: Dharma Talks

Debra Seido Martin
07/03/2016
Becoming Buddha Bit by Bit

Finding our way through life decisions and the spiritual quest means clarifying our ideals and aspirations. Rarely can we see very far into the future but we can find inner and outer guidance.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Gyokuko Carlson
06/26/2016
Drinking from the Well

Water is often used as a metaphor for Dharma. The choice to immerse ourselves completely or have a sip now and then is a personal one. How do we choose? How do we honor our own choice and the different choices others make?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Gyokuko Carlson
06/19/2016
Responding to Violence

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
06/12/2016
Discernment: A Postulant’s Journey to Success

We are in the process of discerning matters great and small throughout our lives. As Buddhists, how do we approach the “big” decisions about the shape and form our lives will take? Is there a difference between “deciding” and “discerning”? And what constitutes “success”? Thomas Bruner shares his process of discerning whether to ordain as a monk while a postulant at Dharma Rain last year.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Thomas Koshin Bruner
05/22/2016
Prajna Paramita

Looking at Prajna Paramita (Great Perfect Wisdom) requires that we look at the difference between an acquired knowledge of ideas vs a dynamic knowledge of that which is.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Gyokuko Carlson
05/15/2016
Horton Hears a Who

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
05/08/2016
Tathagatagarbha

Categories: Dharma Talks

Larry Christenson
04/24/2016
On Mountains

Bukkai’s talk carries a long thread of love of mountains in zen writing and mountains in themselves. She makes suggestions for study of the walking of human beings and the walking of mountains.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jill Bukkai Washburn
04/10/2016
Buddha’s Koan

How do we live with the universality of suffering? Genko follows Kyogen’s path in working with the Buddhacarita, a mythical retelling of the Buddha’s life story and enlightenment. We’ll talk about myth and read some of the story and explore how we work with the facts of sickness, old age, and death.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
03/27/2016
The Ultimate in the Everyday

Gyokuko explores the sacred and the mundane, and pays homage to Spring in this Sunday’s talk.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Gyokuko Carlson
03/13/2016
Being on Retreat Wherever You Are

Starting Monday evening, the Zen Center enters into a week-long retreat in preparation for our Jukai ceremony next Sunday. Is there a way to be part of this retreat even if you are not able to participate at the Zen center in person? For this week’s Dharma talk, Shintai offers suggestions and encouragement for deepening your practice during our Jukai sesshin wherever you are.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jody Shintai Dungay
03/06/2016
Taking It All to Heart

The word courage comes from the Latin coeur, which means ‘heart’ – it originally meant to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart. Shin’ei speaks to fully inhabiting our lives, seeing things all the way through. Who is it you think you are and whose story is it anyway?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Alison Shin’ei Brown
02/28/2016
The Stone House

Sometimes the troubles of the world overwhelm us, and we sink into despair. We may feel depressed or angry as we see the suffering around us. Despair is actually a crucial experience in practice. How do we work with this state and the accompanying emotions? How do we move forward with compassion to ease suffering when it seems that nothing can be done?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
02/21/2016
Nehan

Bukkai’s talk is based on the Buddha’s last words “Therefore, O Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves.”

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jill Bukkai Washburn
02/14/2016
Face to Face

In Dogen’s chapter Kajo he says that the thoughts and words of the ancestors are “everyday tea and rice.” Having just returned from a sesshin in which this fascicle, which translates as “Everyday Activity,” was studied, Seido offers some reflections on Dogen’s meaning within the context of our lineage tradition. On Valentines Day, this talk will explore the less “romantic” aspect of the relationship between teachers and students and the everyday face to face exchanges that facilitate our awakening.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Debra Seido Martin
01/31/2016
Saying Yes to What Is Ours to Do

A recurring theme in Kyogen’s Dharma Talks was finding or discovering what is ours to do. This Sunday David Choten Robinson will present a student talk on how his practice and work with this theme informed his ability to meet opportunities and challenges while living in Uganda in 2012.

Categories: Dharma Talks

David Choten Robinson
01/17/2016
The Palette of Practice

This Sunday Kakumyo will speak about his upcoming kessei term as part of the preparation for becoming co-abbot. His taking up this challenge suggests a question for all of us: How do we blend the depth of insight and the routine of integrity with the complexities and inadequacies of our embodied lives? Drawing beauty from the palette of practice with virtuosity is a lifetime challenge that lands on us as individuals and as a sangha.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
01/10/2016
Mature Practice

What are the markers of maturity in the practice? How do we define this subjective term? We teach that practice is enlightenment, there are no stages of enlightenment. Yet there are real markers of development in practice, qualities we develop and can recognize over time. One is generosity, giving the self freely. A sense of humor (especially about oneself) is another. What else? The list can be surprising.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
01/03/2016
Practice with Aversion

Categories: Dharma Talks

Mike Gyoshi Kaplan
11/29/2015
What’s Important

Gyokuko is finding a new way to look at frugality.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Gyokuko Carlson
11/22/2015
Dignity

What does it mean to be dignified? We use the word freely and in many contexts, but may find that a definition is not easy. The Buddhist view of dignity is a little different from the conventional one. Is dignity an inherent quality? What does it mean to act in an undignified manner? Are there situations in which one’s dignity is taken away by conditions? We will consider these questions and share a few stories about how we express this subtle, important quality in our daily lives.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
11/15/2015
Meeting the Ancestral Teachers … In a Grass Hut

Following our Founder’s Day Service last week, we continue to commemorate with gratitude the great compassion that has been shown to us by our ancestral teachers. Fumyo explores the model for practice given to us by Shitou Xiqian (Sekito Kisen), our eighth Chinese ancestor. In his “Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage,” Shitou shows us how to relieve our suffering by moderation, letting go, and relaxing completely. His gentle and insightful style of practice left a legacy that we follow to this day.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Rick Fumyo Mishaga
11/08/2015
Founders Day

Once a year we hold an all-night vigil in honor of our founders Keido Chisan and Jiyu Kennet, both of whom died during the first week of November. This year, for the first time, we will hold this vigil in the Sodo, as we carry their work forward. Morning service on Sunday will be a special Founders Day service, and Kakumyo will talk on this theme.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
11/01/2015
Save a Ghost

Resonant of our recent Segaki retreat, this koan invites a changed relationship to one’s “ghosts” often understood as unresolved karma arising in the present. The dharma talk is about how we care for “ghosts” and what it means to save or release them. While many of us struggle to let go of these unbidden appearances from past, many of whom arrive on the cushion, the path to really letting go is not necessarily an obvious or linear one. Come join us Sunday and bring your experience of this year’s celebration one week after feeding the hungry ghosts in the new Sodo.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Debra Seido Martin
10/11/2015
The Great Matter

Birth and death are moments in time – and yet the fact of our birth and death is called the Great Matter. How do we contemplate our own extinction from this life? The Buddha addressed his death directly. We will talk about the simple, profound questions of dying, caregiving, grieving, and planning for the inevitable.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
10/04/2015
For the Benefit of All Beings

We say that we begin practice as a way of addressing our own suffering. We continue practice for the sake of others. Over time, our practice evolves, so that it becomes for the sake of the Dharma itself. How does this work, and what does it look like? Genko explores these questions and more.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
09/27/2015
The Possibility of Ease

In zen practice we often try ‘to come back to center,’ or ‘to calm down,’ or ‘to open up,’ because if we’re in such a state then our thought, speech and action causes less problems. These kinds of shorthands refer to varieties of experience that we’ve learned to trust. But isn’t that conditioning? A subtle kind of picking and choosing our experience? How does that relate to delving ever deeper into the unconditioned? Join us Sunday to explore.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download

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