Recordings

Flying Fish takes a deeper dive into the three refuges. What does it mean to take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha? Our spiritual ancestors point to this practice as essential to realizing the teachings. Hearing the words, and receiving the blessing or merit can be very different experiences. What do we mean when we take refuge in the triple treasure?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Tsuho talks about a five-year project to study Dogen’s Shobogenzo and how sutra study can enrich practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo speaks about unattached effort. How do we manage the details of life with buoyancy?

Categories: Dharma Talks

As we celebrate Founders’ Day, we consider the lives of three people whose work and practice built the temple: Keido Chisan, Jiyu Kennett, and Kyogen Carlson.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Guest Teacher Koji Shinei Alison offers a dharma talk. The dream before reality, the nightmare before tragedy, fright before the monster, nausea before the fall. The world is a dream, imagined. The power of the archetype is numinous, suggestive; it hints, and alludes yet, can never be thoroughly known. Archetypes lift us out of the limited space of brute, merely personal reality, encouraging the difficult inner work, encouraging a renewed relationship with the 10,000 beautiful things and, to bring great happiness.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo pulls from the Pali canon in exploring what the Buddha saw as an appropriate response to political questions. He also examines how that might affect us individually and as a collective.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Fumyo’s dharma talk considers aspects of the Hua Yen world view and how it is expressed in our Zen practices.

The Hua Yen system of thinking arose from the commentaries of Chinese scholars studying the Avatamsaka Sutra. These perspectives provide the philosophical bedrock for Zen and have influenced Zen practices through the ages to this day.

As Zen practitioners, how we experience our worlds and how we respond to all the interdependent relationships within them are infused with a Hua Yen world view.

Categories: Dharma Talks

The talk explores this question that was offered to us by Zen Master Songyuan Chongyue in the late 12th Century. The red thread grabs us at once in a visceral way. It represents our deepest human nature with all of its passion, desires, vulnerabilities. To become intimate with the red thread is the path of the bodhisattva. This koan leads us to the very heart of our practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

I feel it. You feel it, too. How do we work with such a powerful experience?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Zonnyo explores the theme of “doing nothing” from the perspective of Ch’an Master Ma-Tsu and his disciples. What is the wisdom of non-action and non-seeking? And how do we know when we should act?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Zen has a reputation for being tough, maybe even scary. Once we’ve been around for a while, we see through some of that. In this talk Kakumyo explores the karma of Zen’s ascetic tendencies and discusses how we practice with it today.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Shin’yu considers the Five Remembrances and what they can offer us.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

We often recite these words but what do they really mean? What is the “it” in “itself?”

Categories: Dharma Talks

Suzuki said, “Sometimes we bow to dogs and cats.” Why is the bow considered an act of generosity? Why is bowing considered an act of generosity?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Roshi Daizui once said “Spiritual transformation is transformation of the body.” What if he’s right? Let’s discuss.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Two weeks ago, Zonnyo did her Shuso Hossen ceremony, choosing as her verse one from Dogen’s fascicle “Juki”. It affirmed living-and-dying, going-and-coming, and the turning from one moment to the next. That afternoon, Genko got word of the sudden death of a family member. She has been processing that over the last two weeks. In this talk, she shares some of her process and insights and looks at the turning of the year and other cycles.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo explores some of the practical ramifications of anatta, the Buddhist teaching of how nothing has an inherent, continuous selfhood.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin talks about Bodhisattva action.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

What if we don’t have to take sides?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko relates a seemingly trivial experience with oryoki and explores issues around form, habit energy, ritual, and resistance.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

The burning house represents the suffering of phenomenal life. Why is it so hard for us to find the door and escape? Perhaps we don’t really need to get out.

Categories: Dharma Talks

A few weeks ago, Jiko spoke about faith. In this talk, Ko’in explores more aspects of faith from different perspectives.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo discusses a Chinese text that describes how to practice with others, the Kikyomon. Keizan and Dogen drew from this text to create their monastic regulations for Sojiji and Eiheiji, respectively.

Categories: Dharma Talks

We approach and experience faith, practice, and understanding in several fundamental ways over time. This talk looks at the meaning of Buddhist faith and our stages of experience.

Categories: Dharma Talks

In this tale from the Middle Length Discourses, Buddha meets a notorious figure on the road. His great compassion and equanimous presence allows them to have a meaningful exchange. Leaving behind his destructive path, Angulimala turns his life upside down and follows the Buddha. In this talk Flying Fish explores several aspects of our spiritual life that this story embodies.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo references the Samaññaphala Sutta to talk about benefits of practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

How many ways are there to work with what arises in the heart/mind of meditation? Thoughts and feelings may not be two, but they are not one either. It may be helpful to explore at least one approach to feelings that differs from that of thoughts.

Categories: Dharma Talks