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Recording Categories: Dharma Talks
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Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download
03/02/2014
Who Knows?

When we announced the Dharma Talk for Sunday March 2nd, Co-abbot Kyogen Carlson was pondering several topics. One was, literally “Who Knows?” After some deliberation, he stuck with that subject, using the koan, “Dizang’s Not Knowing is Most Intimate” and other stories from The Book of Serenity.”

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kyogen Carlson
02/23/2014
Wherever You Go, There You Are

The title of this talk is from the sub-title of a 1972 book called The Peoples’ Guide to Mexico. This book was unique among travel guides in pointing to being fully present and receptive to where you are.  A subtitle to the talk might be Shunryu Suzuki’s advice, “Nothing Extra.” It was prompted by Gyoshi’s experiences during three months of travel last fall in Nepal and Thailand. These travels marked the beginning of transition into a new life-phase for him – retirement.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Mike Gyoshi Kaplan
02/16/2014
A New Light in Asia

Buddhism flourished for a thousand years and more after the Buddha died. By then Buddhism had spread to many countries and languages. For many reasons, Buddhism then began to decline and virtually died out in India altogether until very recently. The Dharma talk for the celebration of Nehan will explore the final teachings of the Buddha, how and why the fortunes of Indian Buddhism changed, and especially, how Buddhism is reviving in India and changing, in its turn, the fortunes of millions of Indians.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
01/26/2014
Dongshan is Unwell

Case 94 in the Book of Serenity tells of a time when Master Dongshan (Tozan Ryokai) was very ill. A monk came to him and asked, “Is there someone who does not get ill?” Donshan answered, “There is,” and the dialog goes on from there. Does this contradict the First Noble Truth? What’s going on here? Both Kyogen and Gyokuko have been sick the past few weeks, as have other Zen Center residents and members. Over the past few months a number of teachers and their close friends have died, an interesting time. In this January 26 talk Kyogen addresses this koan and tells some stories related to it.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kyogen Carlson
01/19/2014
Being a Good Host to Your Life

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
01/12/2014
Taking Joy Seriously

was “Taking Joy Seriously, or Can a Buddhist Have a Good Time?” In our practice we explicitly examine the causes of suffering as we study the Second Noble Truth. Dogen said that “To study Buddhism is to study the self.” Are we just a mass of suffering? How is studying the nature of joy a serious practice, and what can it teach us about enlightenment?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Elizabeth Erin Luthy
01/05/2014
Excesses Such as Greed

As we start up again on our regular schedule, we sometimes find that we can look back at holiday excesses and have remorse, vowing to do differently. How can we take vows in a skillful way? Genko shares something of her own struggle with addictive behavior and how she is finding ways through it with wisdom, compassion and persistence.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
12/08/2013
The Morning Star

For Buddhists all over the world, Sunday December 8th marks the annual celebration of Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment under the bodhi tree. For our community, it also marks the end of our weeklong Rohatsu retreat during which each of us take up the Buddha’s koan of the meaning of human suffering. Through his deep resolve to sit, the Buddha endured seductive temptation, frightening taunts and attacks from Mara throughout the night, until he finally awoke when he saw the morning star in the eastern sky. What is it that he saw? This Rohatsu reflection is on living the Buddha’s enlightenment story – something we each take up intimately from our own meditation seat, meeting Mara and the morning star in this very zendo.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Debra Seido Martin
12/01/2013
Three Zen Masters: The Challenge of our Differences

Shin’ei traces the lives of three enigmatic Zen Masters to explore the nature of freedom, dedication and authority. She also speaks to the imagination through the voice of her own life and practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Alison Shin’ei Brown
11/24/2013
Receiving Food, Receiving Dharma

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, many of us plan meals, plan for preparing and eating food. Bukkai talked about how the simple repetitive aspects of our lives having to do with food can become serious spiritual practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jill Bukkai Washburn
11/17/2013
Cultivating Trust

What is it that we can trust and rely upon during our most difficult times in life? How does practice support us when we inevitably face challenges? This talk is about how the path of practice can be viewed as a process of cultivating increasing confidence and trust in our own Buddha Nature.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jody Shintai Dungay
11/10/2013
The Precious Mirror Samadhi

Part of our regular Sunday morning chanting service, “The Precious Mirror Samadhi” by Dongshan Liangjie (Tozan Ryokai) is compelling, beautiful, and most find it utterly mysterious. With imagery like “a silver bowl filled with snow,” and references to “the Illumination hexagram,” it is an utterly Chinese expression of Dharma. Related to and developed from the earlier “Harmony of difference and Sameness,” it expresses the development and maturation of practice and awakening over time, which makes it unique in the liturgy. Co-abbot Kyogen Carlson spoke about the imagery and our lineage expression of this often misunderstood work. Watch for more talks on our commonly used liturgy in the months ahead.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kyogen Carlson
11/03/2013
Founders Day

On Sunday November 3rd, our Founders’ Day Festival, Kakumyo Lowe-Charde spoke about the three figures honored on our Founder’s shrine, exploring the particular juxtaposition of confidence and humility in their lives and practice as well as in our relation to them as individuals and archetypes. Those three are Keido Chisan Koho Zenji, Houn Jiyu Kennet Roshi, and Nyogen Senzaki.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
10/13/2013
Alone, Together

The Buddha told his followers to “walk alone like a rhinoceros” – but he told this to people living intimately in community. What does it mean to stand alone? How do we do this together? What is true solitude? We live so close to others that it can be hard to know what one truly desires and what is added by those around us. There is a sacred aloneness in which we can stand firmly in the midst of all things, and we discover this side by side.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
10/06/2013
Sangha as Refuge

The Buddha famously told Ananda that good spiritual friends are the whole of the holy life. Sangha includes teachers, friends and supporters, and also those who challenge us in many ways. Co-Abbot Gyokuko Carlson speaks about Sangha as refuge, and the various ways that manifests.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Gyokuko Carlson
09/29/2013
Two Ancestors

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
09/22/2013
The Meaning of Life

No, this is not a Monty Python sketch, or anything like that, although bringing up the issue, these days, is taken as absurd. Not long ago I found myself telling someone that you can, in fact, discover the meaning of life, or at least your deeper purpose. However, when you do you will find it impossible to explain. Having thought about this some more, I have decided to venture out onto a very rickety limb and present this as a Dharma Talk, and now that I have, I’m most curious as to what I will say.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kyogen Carlson
09/15/2013
Ever Nearer

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
09/08/2013
The Place of Study in Practice

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
09/01/2013
Fall Term, Ango, the Temple Calendar and more

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jill Bukkai Washburn
08/18/2013
Being Bodies

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
08/11/2013
The Awesome Presence of Active Buddhas

We are on silent retreat this week, studying the Dogen Shobogenzo fascicle “Gyobutso Yuigi,” the Awesome Presence of Active Buddhas. The focus of the sesshin is to sustain practice during an intensive period, acting out our Buddhahood in the meditation, disciplines and rituals of a traditional Zen retreat. Sesshin gathers our intention in a resolute and dignified manner so that we can put it directly on what is most important. We do this for a week in a structured and supportive container, and then bring the perspective gained to the rest of our life.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
08/04/2013
Summertime and the Subject of Faith

This Sunday Seido will be talking about the seasonal changes we experience during summer practice where discipline loosens and the natural world presents itself in full color. What do we learn about ourselves during this time? What emerges in our relationship to zazen and what obstacles present themselves during a time of year typically marked by less structure? Seido draws on the teachings from “Affirming Faith in Mind,” a 6th Century Chinese Chan poem chanted in many Zen temples, that offers us a way of practice regardless of the season based in a profound insight into Buddhist faith that invites us to lean into the fabric of our lives.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Debra Seido Martin
07/28/2013
Making Space

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
06/30/2013
Taking a Stand: Finding Our Way on Social Issues

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kyogen Carlson
06/23/2013
Being Silence

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
06/16/2013
How We Express Our Practice

Categories: Dharma Talks

Anthony Fujaku Stevens
06/09/2013
With Respect to Objects

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
05/19/2013
Rujing

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kyogen Carlson
05/12/2013
Quiyan Gives Birth

Categories: Dharma Talks

Debra Seido Martin
05/05/2013
Living in Indra’s Net

Categories: Dharma Talks

Rick Fumyo Mishaga
04/28/2013
The Task of Awakening

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download

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