A collection of dharma talks, events, interviews and other media from Zen Mountain Monastery and the Zen Center of NYC. Please scroll down for all available talks. Subscribe via: iTunes | Google Play
A collection of dharma talks, events, interviews and other media from Zen Mountain Monastery and the Zen Center of NYC. Please scroll down for all available talks. Subscribe via: iTunes | Google Play
Confusion and Recognition
In this illuminating and imaginative talk from Summer Solstice Sesshin, dharma holder Shoan Ankele emphasizes the cultivation of natural clarity, or rather, a recognition of our natural state. The point of zazen, she suggests, is “to create a conducive container for this recognition to occur.” This natural state is our buddha nature, the factuality of non-separation with everything and everyone. To illustrate the absurdity of our confused self-orientation, Shoan spins a memorable fable with what she calls a Buddhist faux-creation myth.
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Dharma Talks on Livestream
Check out our continually expanding library of talks archived on Livestream. And join us live each Sunday morning for zazen, liturgy and a talk that concludes our training week.
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The Jizo Project Rolls Out
A multimedia presentation of the Jizo Project: our initiative that aspires to make Zen Mountain Monastery a more accessible and welcoming place for all.
A Look Back on 40 Years
Check out This Thing We Made: a special filmstrip that looks back on the Monastery’s origins and development over the course of 40 years on Tremper Mountain.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday Morning 08/01/2021
From The Book of Serenity, Case 19 – Ummon’s Mount Sumeru
Apologies for the microphone problem during the first 10 seconds obscuring Shugen Roshi’s voice for the first sentence of the koan: “The pointer: I always admire the novel devices of Master Ummon.”
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday Morning 07/25/2021
From Master Dongshan’s Five Ranks
Shugen Roshi teaches that the “Five Ranks” describing stages of realization in Zen Buddhism can seem remote and abstract, but in essence they address the question of how to live fully in the world, peacefully and joyfully, without conflict. They are aspects of the interrelationship of our relative, moment to moment existence, and the absolute nature of reality, and so are never far away at all.
Here, in Part 3, Shugen Roshi takes up the 4th and 5th Ranks: “Arrival at Mutual Integration” and “Unity Attained”.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday Afternoon 07/24/2021
From Master Dongshan’s Five Ranks
Shugen Roshi teaches that the “Five Ranks” describing stages of realization in Zen Buddhism can seem remote and abstract, but in essence they address the question of how to live fully in the world, peacefully and joyfully, without conflict. They are aspects of the interrelationship of our relative, moment to moment existence, and the absolute nature of reality, and so are never far away at all.
Here, in Part 2, Shugen Roshi takes up the Third Rank: “Coming from within the Real”. Habitually, we experience the World as objects including ourselves and others. All forms seem different and we mistakenly see ourselves as distinct from everything else. How can we shift this perception and see the interdependence of all things? Roshi talks about the importance of zazen in settling into this realization.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zoom Broadcast, Thursday Evening 07/21/2021
True Dharma Eye, Case 123 – Mayu’s “Nature of the Wind”
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Tuesday Evening 07/21/2021
Dongshan’s Five Ranks
Shugen Roshi teaches that the “Five Ranks” describing stages of realization in Zen Buddhism can seem remote and abstract, but in essence they address the question of how to live fully in the world, peacefully and joyfully, without conflict. They are aspects of the interrelationship of our relative, moment to moment existence, and the absolute nature of reality, and so are never far away at all.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, 07/20/2021
From the Teachings of Yogini Machig Labdrőn
Hojin Sensei offers us the teachings of Machig Labdrőn, a Tibetan Buddhist yogini who lived and taught during the 11th-century. We are reminded that we can experience life as sweet, bitter or both. Machig Labdrőn encourages us to examine our blind spots in order to realize that the obstacles in our path are just a product of our confusion and hardening views. We should remain in the examination of what is happening now.
Shohaku Okumura, Roshi
via Zoom, Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 07/18/21
Following a weekend retreat offered to the Mountains and Rivers Order sangha, renowned author and Dogen scholar Shohaku Okumura delivered this Sunday dharma discourse. He begins by talking about Opening the Hand of Thought, a beloved book by his late teacher Kosho Uchiyama, which Okumura Roshi translated into English. One story recounted in that book has now been made into a children’s book called Squabbling Squashes. (Both are available from Wisdom Publications.)
Shohaku Okumura brings to us the unique perspective of the practitioner-scholar. Born in Osaka, Japan, he studied Zen Buddhism and was ordained by Uchiyama Roshi in 1970. Having taught in the west now for 30 years, he is the founder and guiding teacher of Sanshin Zen Community, an international Buddhist sangha, based in Bloomington, Indiana. His writing and translations include Living by Vow, Realizing Genjokoan, Dogen’s Extensive Record, and many others.
You can find out more about his work and extensive translations and commentary at SANSHINJI.org and the Dogen Institute.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 07/11/2021
True Dharma Eye, Case 227 – Priest Xixian’s “I’m Am Watching”
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic
Zen Mountain Monastery, 07/04/2021
From a Diamond Sutra Commentary: “Consider the tree outside the door. Although it serves as a resting place for birds, it doesn’t make an effort to call those that come, nor does it care whether those that leave return. When a person’s mind is like the trees they no longer oppose the way.”
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 06/27/2021
Teachings From Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo: “Continuous Practice”
In this third talk on Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo fascicle “Continuous Practice”, Shugen Roshi asks us to reflect on these questions: How do we embody our potential as enlightened beings? How do we bring forth a life well lived as we’re living it? How can we be at ease within this human body and not be bound by fixed ideas of the self?
