Recordings

Buddha saw that attachment led to suffering, and taught equanimity as an antidote. He was deeply committed to this effort. It’s easy to lose the deep commitment when we’re trying to lose the attachment. On Sunday we’ll look at how we relate to and practice equanimity, and how the likely mistakes and appropriate corrections look different at different times.

Categories: Dharma Talks

The Eihei Shingi, rules for the monastery at Eiheiji formulated by Dogen centuries ago, outlines six temple officers. We follow Dogen’s example, with some modifications. Gyokuko emphasizes the interconnected web of respect and responsibility that makes it all work here for us. Come and find out something about Dharma Rain’s unique flavor.

Categories: Dharma Talks

The Buddha encouraged his followers to choose wholesome companionship, and to stay away from unwholesome people. What does this mean? The people with whom we spend our time will always have an influence on us – but we can’t always choose them. How do we navigate family and work environments? How do we bow to our circumstances and still consciously choose the right influence?

Categories: Dharma Talks

It is a frequent modern lament that our lives feel packed with competing demands and are complicated to the point of overwhelm. For lay Buddhists, this can seem like far cry from Buddha’s example of living with only a robe and a begging bowl. Zen rituals distill teachings down to their essence and focus the mind on the moment at hand with nothing extra. As lay people caring for our work and family, how does the simplicity we learn in practice inform us about the role of simplicity in our everyday choices? In this talk, Seido explores the function of simplicity and complexity in modern Buddhist practice and the mind that motivates our choices.

Categories: Dharma Talks

We all endure many things small and large, from summer heat to the death of loved ones. Kshanti, a Sanskrit term sometimes translated as Patience, is one of the six Paramitas, or Perfections in Buddhism. Sometimes patience gets a bad rap for being passive. How can it lead us to perfection? How does it relate to forgiveness, compassion, and wisdom?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jiko talked about the 10,000-year clock, the problem of nuclear waste, why we plant trees and what it means to let go of goals in this talk about time, effort, and the future.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Many Zen masters speak of “Don’t Know Mind.” What is this Don’t Know? What do we know, how do we know it, and does it matter?

Categories: Dharma Talks

There are many ways to approach the precepts. In this talk we’ll explore how precept practice as a path of heart works. We’ll also take a deeper look at our unique statement of the 6th precept, “Do not dwell on past mistakes.” This sounds very different from how most others state the 6th precept – “Do not speak of others’ faults.” Are these actually different precepts, or is something else going on here?

Categories: Dharma Talks

When we’ve tasted the benefits of something that we care about, it’s normal to want to get more of it or make it work better. In the practice sphere, this impulse can show up as trying to figure out the right way to practice: What are the key ingredients to produce compassion, wisdom, equanimity? (And what can I do without?!) On Sunday we’ll look at what components of transformation we can affect, what we can’t, and what is a mature and skillful relationship with each category.

Categories: Dharma Talks

A few years ago Kyogen and Getsushin led a conversation about our prison program as a Dharma Talk. It’s time for an update, as the program has been growing through significant changes since then. It is a program that operates largely unseen by most of the sangha other than those volunteers directly involved with it. Come and hear from volunteers and former inmates about how this program works. Genko facilitates this one.

Categories: Dharma Talks

There are many beings in our lives who remain invisible. This past week, we have been sitting sesshin in honor of our ancestral lineage – invisible beings whose importance to us is sometimes difficult to understand. How do we explain and explore – and pay homage to – the unseen forces around us?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Gyokuko talked about the booklet, “Zen Training in Community.” How do we live in sangha together? What is my responsibility to seniors and/or juniors? What happens if I think someone is out of line?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Many Zen metaphors point to the insubstantiality of reality and our attempts to fix it. Zen practice offers a kind of clarity and centeredness to one’s life that comes from a lots of determined looking at what is. But all that looking doesn’t tell us what it is, in fact, it does quite the opposite. On Sunday we’ll investigate knowing, where it lands, and when it’s useful.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Now that we’re sitting on-site, sometimes the zendo is cold in the mornings. Discomfort arises. What then? Buddhism has a long history of mining this dilemma. We’ll look at some of these approaches and how this applies to the rest of life.

Categories: Dharma Talks

I met my teacher and said “I have only always wanted to be helpful.” She probably thought: “Oh, here comes another one suffering with some heavy stuff to sort out.” Then she said to herself with sincerity: “Great beginning.” To me she said instead, “well, let’s put that on hold for awhile, learn our practice and see what happens.

Categories: Dharma Talks

In preparation for our Jukai ceremony on March 22nd, Shintai offered a Dharma talk about practicing with the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts during different stages of practice. For those participating in Jukai, it was a time to consider the significance of making this public vow. For those who have already made this vow, it was a time of reflection and renewal of our intention. The talk explored how deeply engaging with the Precepts supports our practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

The first precept we learn is “Cease from evil.” If Buddhism teaches us not to make dualistic concepts, why does it set up the pair of good and evil? What is evil in Buddhism? What does it mean to cease from it? This challenging word pushes us to explore many aspects of behavior, karmic conditioning and how developing wisdom shapes our life.

Categories: Dharma Talks

The title of this talk refers to a relatively early (1980) collection in English of writings of masters in the Soto Zen lineage. Bukkai explored the ordinary moments in which we share eternity in our awakening practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

“Standing on the shoulders of giants” is a well-known aphorism that describes how we discover truth by building on the previous discoveries of those who came before us. This is also an apt description of the process whereby we learn to experience the truth of our own Buddha natures by building on the experience and relying on the guidance of our teachers and of the Buddhas and ancestors before them. During this Sunday’s Dharma talk Fumyo will discuss aspects of this student-teacher relationship, its process, paradoxes, and its continuing importance in our Zen practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Last Sunday we celebrated our annual Nehan Festival, and Gyokuko gave the Dharma Talk. This week Kakumyo picks up two themes that Gyokuko talked about, and explores them further.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Post

Our annual Nehan Festival commemorates the parinirvana of the Buddha and his final teaching. This involves a special service in place of Full Morning Service. This year, Gyokuko gave the Dharma Talk associated with Nehan on February 8.

Categories: Dharma Talks

What does it mean to “function secretly, like a fool”? The final lines of one of our daily scriptures is packed with important teaching, in the simplest of language. The Zen fool is different from the conventional meaning of this world. So is a secret – and so is the host. We will look at the Five Ranks, beginner’s mind, and what it means be the “host within the host.”

Categories: Dharma Talks

We sometimes use the phrase “the edge of my practice.” What does this mean? What kinds of edges do we face? And what about plateaus, ledges, mountains, and other geographical features of our practice? Genko will trek through some of these in this Sunday’s talk.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sekkei Harada gives this advice in his lectures in a new book Unfathomable Depths, Drawing Wisdom for Today from a Classical Zen Poem. Let’s see if Gyokuko can draw any wisdom from that.

Categories: Dharma Talks

One of the fruits of spiritual practice is that we trust those around us. It’s not that we become gullible, but we see more layers. It’s important to look at trust because we tend to undervalue its place in our lives. This talk explored who trusts, and where that trust lands, rather than how we decide what to trust.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Buddhists around the world have been celebrating the Buddha’s enlightenment this past week. This week’s talk is a reflection on the Buddha’s life and how so many elements of his story serve as a support for all of us today who walk the spiritual path.

Categories: Dharma Talks

The World-Honored One ascended the seat and Manjusri announces, “Clearly observe the Dharma of the King of Dharma; the Dharma of the King of Dharma is thus.” Then the World Honored One descended from the seat.”

What is this mysterious and unspoken wisdom? How do we find it? Dogen called it “brightness,” and said we all possessed it. Jiko considers the words of various masters and the suggestions of our lives today as we consider this wonderful, invisible Truth.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko has been working with a new Buddhist approach to recovery from addiction, called Refuge Recovery. Using the Three Refuges, Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path, the approach takes the strengths of the 12-step movement, replaces the Steps with the Path, and increases the emphasis on meditation as a tool for recovery.

Through her work both for herself and with prison inmates, she is discovering connections between addiction and suffering, recovery and healing, as well as new insights into liberation.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Shin’ei endeavors to reacquaint us with depth in the arts, to encourage us to look with different eyes. She speaks to the rediscovery of soul in Buddhism and American culture by way of Karma: a rich, colorful, and creative source.

Categories: Dharma Talks

For whom have you washed off your splendid makeup?
The cuckoo’s call urges you to return.

Zen practice is endlessly subtle and ever-changing. Is the dance a waltz or a tango? When we first come to practice, we “see through a glass darkly” and later “face to face.” What is it that moves us forward? What keeps us from getting stuck? In this talk, Seido draws upon Dongshan’s “Five Ranks” teaching, which was one of Kyogen’s favorites, five pairs of koans that have been steady companions, sources of both frustration and inspiration, over the course of her training.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kate Wolf sang, “Give yourself to love, if love is what you’re after.” Why is it so hard to give ourselves to each other? What holds us back from real intimacy? As individuals and as a community, we carry many patterns of fear and withdrawal, but we also have the opportunity to see and be seen clearly. Zen has a particular definition of intimacy. Exploring this can lead us back to simple human closeness.

Categories: Dharma Talks

If you watch your mind with any regularity, you’ve noticed that awareness is heightened when we realize that things are not as we expect, and is lowered when we perceive things as routine. But, like all generalizations, there are exceptions. Understanding these provides some useful handholds for practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks