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
Going Beyond “Beyond”
Towards the end of a Harvest Sesshin rich with the teachings of Master Hongzhi (1091-1157), Shugen Roshi offered this concluding talk on the “Guidepost for the Hall of Pure Bliss.”
Featured Event
On November 10, six students received the precepts from Shugen Roshi in a jukai ceremony that followed a week of intensive study. The ceremony gave us all an opportunity to reflect on the moral and ethical teachings…
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Featured Video
How is it to live freely while not ignoring causation? Hogen Sensei gave this talk following a spring retreat called “Awakening to Karma.”
Featured Interview
Author Lawrence Shainberg discuss his new memoir, Four Men Shaking, ahead of his book reading at the Zen Center of NYC on October 5…
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, 10/25/2019
From Master Hongzhi’s “Cultivating the Empty Field.”
Hojin Sensei delves into Hongzhi’s poetic dharma instructions for awakening, still fresh. This practice of inquiry reveals how we come to be, creating ‘self’ and all the places where we become dis-embodied. We can learn to move freely within the wholeness and illumination which is our awakening at heart, undivided, revealing to ourselves the ebb and flow of all phenomena.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, 10/24/2019
From Master Hongzhi’s “Cultivating the Empty Field.”
These instructions for zazen can guide the practitioner—you, me, everyone and anyone—into the realm of constancy, purity, bliss and the self. But what is it to truly let go the narrative story lines, the reasoning and the endless explanations, just to “sit within the circle” free of discriminating consciousness, as Hongzhi asks? It is the self within all phenomena, not separate and apart, not at all separate from the world. “Deep existence is beyond forms,” says Hongzhi, and so within the form of this body and mind, Shugen Roshi encourages us to explore with an open heart and mind zazen instructions from a 12th century Zen master.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, 10/23/2019
True Dharma Eye, Case 141. The Buddha is expected to give a talk, but, shortly after taking the teacher’s seat, abruptly gets up and leaves. His attendant, Mahākāśyapa, claims the dharma has been expounded – that is, that the talk has been given. How can this be? Hogen Sensei explains the wisdom teaching – the just sitting – in the Buddha’s silence.
Robert Rakusan Ricci, Senior Monastic
Zen Mountain Monastery, 10/20/2019
With the easy grace of a life-long poet, monastic Rakusan delves in to the instructions of the Buddha’s path—to calm the mind, open the heart—for the purpose of bringing reality in to focus. He looks at ways to awaken our energy, finding the inspiring ways we can “fill the dull corners” of our minds and light up our world.
Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student
Zen Center of New York City, 10/20/2019
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, 10/17/2019
Please note – the first two minutes of this audio is of variable quality.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Transmission of Light, Case 35
Zen Mountain Monastery, 10/13/2019
How am I doing, how do I measure up? This question plagues many, not just in Zen practice but in all areas of work, love and community. We define ourselves by how we measure ourselves against others. One teaching which defies this tendency to dualize are the Seven Factors of Awakening, a teaching of the Buddha which describes consecutive steps in deepening practice which are also somewhat circular, helping us along the way to release the struggle and truly engage our lives.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, 10/13/2019
In this question and answer session with sangha members, Hogen Sensei explores The Second Noble Truth—the cause of suffering is craving, or thirst.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Gateless Gate, Case 26
Zen Mountain Monastery, 10/06/2019
Compassion is based in wisdom, but skillfulness is what makes it possible for students to receive the wise and compassionate teachings that may not be clear to our normal, discursive minds. Koans are a skillful means, such as in this story of monastics hearing “one has it, one has not,” bringing all doubt to bear on one moment in time, the place where you are.
Michael Yukon Grody, Senior Monastic
Zen Center of New York City, 10/06/2019
Seeking the Dharma is an unusual way to find peace and healing, but the Buddha was very clear that the Way is available in every moment and in every action, and with others we find support and guidance which we need to let ourselves be vulnerable. In this talk, monastic Yukon encourages us to take every opportunity to explore the nature of reality, and thereby how we can develop a true compassionate heart—not separating self, other, objects and the entire world.