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Recording Categories: Dharma Talks
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Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download
04/16/2023
Grounding Stillness

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

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
04/02/2023
The Path as We Walk

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

Genko Rainwater
03/26/2023
Faith and Confidence

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

Kyogen Carlson
03/19/2023
The Influence of Perception

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

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
03/12/2023
Equanimity: The Gift of Impermanence

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

Flying Fish Murphy
03/05/2023
Taking Refuge in the Sangha

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

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
02/26/2023
Bowing

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
02/19/2023
Jukai Ceremony
During the Jukai ceremony, individuals receive the Bodhisattva precepts and formally become Buddhists.
From left to right, back row: Will, Dan, Emily, Sarah, Kyle, Kyle, Jay, Gabrielle
From left to right, middle: Amy, Jyoshin (preceptor), Alice, Sasha, Charlie
Kneeling in front: Georgia, Brigitte

Categories: Dharma Talks

No Dharma Talk
02/12/2023
Dharma Spring

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

Mark Sosetsu Stauffer
02/05/2023
What Do I Know?

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

Mike Gyoshi Kaplan
01/29/2023
The Heart of Who We Are

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

Caverly Morgan
01/22/2023
How to Be Sick

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

Genko Rainwater
01/15/2023
Repent

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

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
01/08/2023
Measuring Merit

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

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
12/11/2022
Shuso Hossen

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

Categories: Dharma Talks

No Dharma Talk
12/04/2022
Actually, You Can Do Everything You Need To Do Right Where You Are

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

Mike Gyoshi Kaplan
11/27/2022
Form and Vow

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

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
11/20/2022
That is Not Your Mind!

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

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
11/13/2022
Thank You and I’m Sorry

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

Genko Rainwater
11/06/2022
Founders – Lineage

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

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
10/23/2022
Bodhidharma’s Original Dharma Body

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

Rebecca Nie
10/09/2022
Untangling Karma

Byakuren’s approach to trauma integrates deep spirituality with directly facing your pain. She explores the establishment of a healing container for a traumatized emotional body by deeply entering our narratives, recognizing these formative conditions and healing the root causes of our suffering.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Byakuren Judith Ragir
10/02/2022
Walking Innocent

Interdependence and layers of causation have come up a lot recently. Kakumyo will explores these themes and how they relate to the activity of witnessing our self and being witnessed.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
09/25/2022
Dharma Rain

Jyoshin looks at two verse summaries from the Lotus Sutra that talk about Dharma Rain. This recording only includes the last 20 minutes of the talk.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
09/18/2022
The Gift of Practice

As we become more aware of the workings of mind, our sense of who we are, our responsibility, and what our practice is keeps changing. Kakumyo explores this by taking a look at two paramitas and Dogen’s Eight Realizations to see how they interweave.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
09/11/2022
Paths of Practice

As we settle into Ango and witness the public ceremonies of one person becoming an ordained priest and another entering postulancy toward that same path, Genko looks at some of the different ways we practice. Each of our lives is different, and each of us has our own unique path. And yet, when we come together, we create something that supports all of us in our practice.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
09/04/2022
Three Minds

We discuss the Three Minds of practice and how many Buddhists it takes to screw in a light bulb.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
08/21/2022
Brittleness and Beauty

There’s a deep-seated yearning we all tap into that guides how we live our life. It’s vulnerable to let its voice be prominent, and it takes skill to be able to listen to it consistently. One of the misses we make is we substitute rules and procedures for this subtle guidance. Kakumyo explores this edge in practice.  

Categories: Dharma Talks

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde
08/14/2022
Almost Here, Almost Gone

Jyoshin describes the liminal space of this time of year.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Jyoshin Clay
08/07/2022
The Dharma of Desire

Desire is one of the root causes of suffering in Buddhism. Using the teaching of the buddha, we will look at how desire entangles us and how to unravel its grip. Releasing our mind and body from the confusion desire creates, we open to wisdom and compassion.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Flying Fish Murphy
07/31/2022
Archetypes

Sometimes we find ourselves in stereotyped roles with another person, responding to another as though we are parent, child, hero, or villain. Why do enter into archetypal roles and how do we work with these in practice?

Categories: Dharma Talks

Sallie Jiko Tisdale
07/24/2022
Things I Learned in Prison

Recently over breakfast, several residents expressed interest in learning more about what goes on in our prison groups. The conditions there suggest new and different ways to approach familiar teachings. Genko shares some of the learning/teaching opportunities from Dharma Rain’s prison program.

Categories: Dharma Talks

Genko Rainwater
Date Title & Details Speaker Listen Download

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