Recordings

Kakumyo shares some stories about the Pilgrimage that 12 people went on, and draws some lessons from it.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Twelve Dharma Rain members leave today (July 9) on Pilgrimage to visit several temples south of us. We are going to the Bay Area and back home, stopping along the way, and will be gone for a week. This Dharma Talk explores the topic of Pilgrimage: what is it, how does it relate to our lives, and how does it differ from other forms of travel?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

What does it mean to study our past? How do we both practice attention and presence in our life today, and understand wounds and conditions of the past?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Flying Fish explores the theme of Hope by looking at Maitreya “of future birth.”

Categories: Dharma Talks

In her student talk, Zonnyo explores the teaching of suchness in relation to nature, and some history of earth-based practices in Zen and Chan Buddhism. As we experience the climate crisis, what role do joy and grief play in our experience of “just this?”

Categories: Dharma Talks

Dana, often translated as giving or generosity, is one of the six perfections of Bodhisattva cultivation and embodiment. It is often described as a merit producing practice of giving that which is life sustaining, but can also be offering dharma or spiritual teaching, or providing freedom from fear. Ultimately, all beings are naturally giving through the unfolding of life, just like a flower blooming in spring provides nectar without thought. This talk will focus on how the capacity for generosity relates to practicing with vulnerability and how holding and befriending vulnerability when it arises can help one realize belonging.

Categories: Dharma Talks

This Sunday Kakumyo will explore an exchange about meaning that happened during last week’s Dharma Talk. Questions about what matters, what we’re practicing for, and how the dharma is expressed all weave their way in.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Asking this question can bring up a lot of different answers. Sometimes we think we know what “practice” is or what “our practice” is. At other times, it might seem murky. This week, Jyoshin looks at practice and the ways we can examine what might be fruitful to bring to our efforts or non-efforts.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Buddhism has a teaching called the Five Niyama, or Laws, that are said to explain how the universe works. Do they? We will discuss.

Categories: Dharma Talks

An important part of our Zen practice is meeting each other with acceptance and compassion, but when we don’t measure up to our own expectations, we can be very critical of ourselves. Shin’yu explores what practicing loving kindness towards our own experience might look like.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo speaks about the aspect of meditation that is most frequently neglected. If you value meditation, but often wish to experience it differently, this may be useful.

Categories: Dharma Talks

How do we know where we’re going? To what extent are we learning more, understanding more, getting better? What does it mean to go forward? What happens if we feel like we’re going backward or taking a wrong turn?

Categories: Dharma Talks

In this talk from January 2002, Kyogen talks about faith and confidence and how they function in our practice. He touches on the Denkoroku, and how practice connects us with our lineage.

Categories: Dharma Talks

It matters that we give our attention to some things and not others, but most people have some confusion over how. This Sunday Kakumyo will talk about how our perceiving the world and our experience is an ethical act. How does this change over time and with access to different states of mind?

Categories: Dharma Talks

The work of the heart can feel frightening and tender. It challenges all that we hold dear and breaks down the barriers that make us feel safe but that also separate us from life. By cultivating the practice of the divine abodes, we begin to see the boundless capacity of our heart to open up to life in the face of death.

Categories: Dharma Talks

We recite the vow to take refuge in the Three Treasures quite often. But what is refuge? How do we find this elusive place in a diverse community of human beings? 

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

Categories: Dharma Talks

Midway between winter and spring, we have our Nehan Festival, in which we commemorate the Buddha’s passing into Parinirvana. Immediately after, we have our Jukai retreat and celebrate the transmission of the precepts. It is a time for renewal and budding of practice after personal and community reflection and application of precept study. The talk is about the regenerative force of our personal and collective efforts and practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Consider how you relate to opinions, both your own opinions and those of others. What comes up for you? In what ways do you feel empowered or obstructed by your opinions? What makes an opinion helpful or harmful? What effect do opinions have on your practice? How do they relate to your experience of dukkha? And dive deeper, if you wish, to consider that question “What do I know?” Then drop all that, and come participate in this talk.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Many of us confront questions about how one individual’s spiritual practice can make a tangible difference in our world, especially when faced with the enormity of the collective problems before us. In her talk, guest speaker Caverly Morgan explores how meditation, mindfulness, and contemplative technologies designed for the realization of personal freedom can—and must—be applied collectively.

Categories: Dharma Talks

The Buddha spoke of a list of four aspects of suffering that humans are subject to: birth, sickness, old age, and death. Genko draws on her recent experience with Covid, as well as earlier experiences with illness to examine suffering and how to work with it.

Categories: Dharma Talks

This is our season for studying the Precepts. An important and early part of preparing for the Precepts is examining the meaning of repentance. Many of us struggle with feelings of guilt, shame and unworthiness. Buddhist repentance allows us to acknowledge the mistakes of the past without injuring the self of the present, and leads us to real liberation.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Many people encounter a self that compares and critiques our spiritual capacity and worthiness. Sometimes it’s easy to see the frailty of that self and the tenuousness of its influence. But it can also be very disruptive and painful. Kakumyo talks about how Buddhism practices with this kind of distortion and doubt.

Categories: Dharma Talks

The Dharma Talk was replaced by Shuso Hossen, for Sonja Rinsho Aikens.

Categories: Dharma Talks

What do we need to do? What is wise action when we feel stuck, tormented, or otherwise lost in our dukkha in our various life situations? Gyoshi received the advice that’s the title of this talk near the beginning of his Zen practice many years ago. He’s still learning how it informs his practice and will share with you some of the nuances that have emerged for him. We’ll be dipping into many of the foundational teachings as well as a few very old stories as we explore this together.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Dogen prescribed exactly how to sit down, how to walk, how to wash your face and brush your teeth, offer incense, and eat a meal. What is the purpose of our prescribed forms? We will explore our many different reactions to these rituals of Zen.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Guest teacher Bob Rosenbaum of Meadowmind Sangha gave the dharma talk. He discusses how all our sensations, feelings, thoughts and even the “real world” we take for granted are delusions — and the gates of liberation. This talk introduces the Surangama Sutra‘s teaching of the Matrix of the Thus Come One, unlimited by “is” and “is not.”

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko explores the Dharma of these and other frequent polite expressions. When are they necessary? To what extent are they sincere and to what extent are they superficial or uttered for other reasons? What are some cultural assumptions we make about these? And, just to keep it interesting, what about the politics of Thanksgiving Day celebrations?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo fills in for Jiko on Founders Day and talks about our Lineage and why it’s important.

Categories: Dharma Talks

The body we have is no different from the original Dharma Body. Using excerpts from Bodhidharma’s Blood Stream Sermon, Zen Master Nie will explore the personal and practice insights that come from exploring this teaching.

Categories: Dharma Talks