As we come to the end of our 90-day intensive period we enter a liminal place that can feel like a birth. In surrendering completely to what is happening within us -- in the supportive environment of our practice -- we emerge both exhausted a

Solid, Deep, Solitary and Naked

Mar 14th, 2021 34m 5s

Zen practitioners celebrate the Buddha's Awakening during Rohatsu. While much myth encrusts the historical record of this event, we can follow the Buddha's model of deep investigation through the meditative mind. Many practitioners have felt t

What's Your Relationship to Your Karma?

Feb 26th, 2021 39m 51s

We are never really outside of our sensory experience or our life story. From them, we create sense and meaning. With conscious Attention and Intention, we shift from a background/foreground to a single ground, creating the field where subject

To Cultivate Gratitude, Just Pay Attention

Feb 19th, 2021 23m 10s

When we don't take anything for granted, a natural appreciation arises for all that we have been given. This appreciation is the direct experience of the One Heart, and is not contrived. As we atone for our twisted karma, we can be grateful fo

The Call To Continuity

Feb 15th, 2021 19m 4s

Calm and steady, linking together all the elements of our lives - A talk by Geoff Shōun

Coming To Our Senses

Feb 7th, 2021 19m 33s

Anger is wisdom energy that has the power to heal. Aggression is when that energy is enlisted by the ego. Our holding capacity for our moment-to-moment sensory experience is what allows us to maintain a connection with the elemental wisdom dime

How The One Body Heals

Feb 3rd, 2021 34m 9s

Mysterious and vast, the One Body extends through space and time. Its healing potential is actualized through the mysterious and vast power of intention, or vow. Intentions seeded in the past bear fruit now as intentions seeded now will bear f

Burn It Down

Jan 22nd, 2021 32m 23s

Anger carries a profound transformative potential, but only if it is felt. If we cut ourselves off from feeling, our anger will ultimately burn down whatever is keeping us from feeling.

Don't Be Fooled by Others

Oct 16th, 2020 28m 53s

We are fooled by others when we look outside for our own self-understanding. When we look inside, we find ourselves grounded as the functioning of awareness itself. “Absolute Subjectivity”. What name does that go by?

Hell is a Temple

Oct 9th, 2020 23m 3s

Mark Eckhardt shares the dharma of raising a temple in the very place where we stand. For a Black man in America, that place can be a hell.

The Robe of Liberation

Sep 25th, 2020 27m 8s

When we put on the kesa, we take refuge in teachings that give our lives support, protection and meaning. The simple act subtly affects ourselves and others.

Are You Overwhelmed Yet?

Aug 28th, 2020 31m 2s

In times of complexity and chaos, what is the sacred work you are called to do? What does that type of inspiration look like? When the world seems overwhelming, it is our minds -- not the world -- that is overwhelmed.

Both Two and One

Aug 17th, 2020 25m 36s

A marriage is a union in which two streams become one. While "not two, not one" is an infinite Zen teaching, a marriage actualizes the equally infinite depth of "both two and one." From this one the myriad things arise. There's definitely some

Quarterly Mondo: The Three Treasures

Jul 31st, 2020 56m 48s

Sangha Q&A with Gyodo Sensei on the three treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

Grasses Everywhere (But Here)

Jul 31st, 2020 27m 5s

Our inner and outer worlds are permeated with disturbances. To be undisturbed outside means seeing the True Nature of phenomena without adding anything extra.To be undisturbed inside means seeing the true nature of oneself without sprouting de

Burning Down The House

Jul 17th, 2020 30m 11s

Skillful means invite us to consider time, place, person and degree in all we do and say. Enlightening beings may rescue you from a burning house or set fire to your house to wake you up, depending. What will you do next?

Bearing Witness is not Passive

Jun 27th, 2020 22m 21s

Bearing witness is intense and often uncomfortable like zazen. If you really pay attention you can’t NOT feel. This is as it should be. When the demon Mara became discouraged in the face of Buddha's resolve, the Buddha exhorted him not to stop

The Work Only You Can Do

Jun 7th, 2020 22m 24s

Master Dogen asked Master Lu why he worked so hard in the hot sun instead of asking his assistants to help. Lu responded, “If I do not do it now, when else can I do it?" We misunderstand if we believe Master Lu was caught up in our modern neur

Coming Together, Falling Apart

May 31st, 2020 19m 31s

What happens when the "stuffing comes out"? Sam Sokyo Randall shares how falling apart together can be transformative for us as individuals and sanghas.

You Are The Hand

May 26th, 2020 19m 8s

Master Hyakujo said, "a day without work is a day without food." When asked who he did the work for, he said, "There is one who needs it, and that one has no hands." In our most purposeful work, we are the hand that serves something greater.

Stepping Up In Sangha

May 17th, 2020 28m 32s

Spiritual bypassing is understood as short-changing our path of "growing up" (or "cleaning up") while we pretend to focus on "waking up". But "stepping up" is the important third aspect of our lives. Ignoring our responsibility to step up is e

Entering The Eon of 2020

May 1st, 2020 23m 22s

Entering 2020, we saw the ecological crisis as an opportunity to "come to our senses" and re-envision a life dedicated to every day transformation of the three poisons of greed, aversion and ignorance.

Karma: Let go, let come, let be

Apr 26th, 2020 16m 3s

Spiritual growth is about more than "letting go". Letting go is essential for working with the toxin of craving. We work with the the toxins of aversion and ignorance by "letting come" and "letting be".

The Path Home 10 - Entering the Marketplace with Helping Hands

Apr 12th, 2020 20m 46s

You have come full circle from the innocence of the child to the innocence of mastery. Naked, seeking nothing extra, carrying nothing extra, practice ha completely dissolved into ordinary life. You ceaselessly arrive home.

The Path Home- Returning to the Original Place

Apr 12th, 2020 18m 12s

With joy, you experience the reward body. Mountains are mountains again and rivers are rivers again! Every moment is vividly and uniquely alive, and your heart flutters in consort with life.