Look! Look!
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 8/21/26 – What do we aspire to in our practice? What are we looking for? This deeply personal question can help us find our way among the many Dharma offerings we encounter, which can sometimes feel difficult to take up. In…Faith In Our Totally Free Nature
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – 7/26/26 – In sesshin, the deep work of transformation is held within a supportive container. Yet each of us must still discover the capacity for faith as we learn to settle the mind and realize our true nature—our…Actualizing Buddha Ancestors
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 6/27/26 – Practicing zazen, seeing into our minds, is what makes it possible to loosen the grip and let our true self be known. We are called to actualize in our present bodies, in this life, the actual body and life of…What Can’t Be Fought For
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 5/29/26 – The true self, what is that? It was the question put to Monk Ming by the sixth ancestor and opened for him the Way. This pivotal moment is something that makes Zen what it is, what can’t be planned, can’t be…Calling and Responding
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 5/17/26 – What is your complete expression of Buddha Mind? Shoan Sensei takes up this question in exploring the koan of the National Teacher calling to their attendant. How do we each navigate the distractions and the…Finding the Monastery in Samsara
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 3/27/26 – In this Renewal of Vows (Fusatsu) talk, Shoan Sensei offers the perspective that we are practicing within samsara, exactly where we are. Here we can come very close to the narrow habits and patterns that create…Come to Rest in Actuality
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei and Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZCNYC – 3/15/26 – Buddha and Mara are figurative ways of portraying a fundamental seeming opposition within our human nature: Buddha stands for a capacity for awareness, openness, and freedom; with…Circle of the Way Is Never Cut Off
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 2/8/26 – Invoking Dogen’s fascicle on Continuous Practice, Shoan Sensei reminds us that we turn toward spiritual practice to take refuge. In doing so, we take our seat as Buddha, taking refuge in the Dharma and relying on…The Wind Or The Flag
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 12/28/25 – During the year-end Rohatsu sesshin, Shoan Sensei offered this koan talk on the nature of mind as it’s experienced and expressed in Zen Buddhist practice. The koan offered from the Gateless Gate points to…Ordinary Mind is the Way
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – 11/23/25 – How do we know what is ultimately true? In this koan from the Mumonkan, Shoan Sensei delves into the ordinariness of profound truth that is everywhere, its depth and benefits within reach. And yet there is still…What’s Ordinary?
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 11/21/25 – How do we know what is ultimately true? In this koan from the Mumonkan, Shoan Sensei delves into the ordinariness of profound truth that is everywhere; its depth and benefits within reach. And yet there is still…Shoan Sensei’s Dharma Transmission Vows and a Talk with Shugen Roshi and Shoan Sensei
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi and Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 11/16/25 – After introducing Shoan Sensei, and after Shoan offers her Vows to the sangha, Shugen Roshi begins his discourse with the story of one of our great women ancestors, Moshan…
