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
The Whole Body of Truth
This talk by Shugen Roshi was offered on October 9th, the 13th year anniversary of Daido Roshi’s passing. Shugen shares some stories from back in the day and invokes Daidoshi’s love for the wilderness, Dogen, and the “Mountains and Rivers Sutra.”
How do we see and experience challenging relationships and obstructive situations in a skillful way? When faced with so much suffering, greed, and anger, how can we bring forth generosity, patience, loving kindness and compassion? Turning the things of the world in order to solve the many problems doesn’t get to the root. But when we instead turn this body/mind to meet the world just as it is, we discover a peace that reaches everywhere.
Click here for a video of this talk. You can also listen to an audio version of this talk.
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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A Guided Tour of the New Jizo House
In August, we consecrated the new Jizo House, and completed the latest phase 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.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 10/28/2022
From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 74 – Chin Niu’s Rice Pail
Hogen Sensei begins with the dancing, laughing Master Chin Niu. There are routines in and throughout our lives, as it is in the life of the monastery. How do we understand these routines? How do we practice them? And what is it that’s reflected in our actions? Is there receiving? Is there offering? Within each of our unique karmic lives, we bring forth our true nature, with awareness or not.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday Evening 10/27/2022
Dharma Talk during the Harvest Moon Sesshin 2022 Fusatsu Ceremony
What is liturgy? Is it bowing? Chanting? Washing the face? What makes something liturgy and what makes something not liturgy? Hojin Sensei speaks on this topic during Fusatsu (renewal of vows) ceremony.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, 10/26/2022
Drawing on a poem by Zen Master Hongzhi, Gokan explores skillful ways to work with deep habit patterns in the mind.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/23/2022
From the True Dharma Eye, Case 146 – The Sixth Ancestor’s “Your Mind Is Moving”
How does understanding bring forth compassion? How do we put to use our “not knowing”? How do we keep from getting mired in duality, right and wrong? Shugen Roshi talks about these important questions beginning with this koan.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 10/23/2022
Hojin Sensei speaks about Shantideva’s “The Way of the Bodhisattva” as a deep teaching about our true nature. She brings alive the meeting point of our Bodhisattva vows and our growing edges, the absolute and the relative, emptiness and form.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi and Chan teacher Guo Gu (Dr. Jimmy Yu)
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/16/2022
In this lively and wide-ranging conversation Shugen Roshi is joined by Guo Gu, Buddhist teacher, scholar, and founder of the Tallahassee Chan Center. They discuss the influence of teachers, the history of shikantaza transmission in China, and the ways dharma practice is taking root in 21st century America, adapting to the causes and conditions of the times as well as the needs of its adherents.
Guo Gu (Dr. Jimmy Yu), a dharma heir of Master Sheng Yen, is the founder of the Tallahassee Chan Center, Dharma Relief, and a professor of Buddhism and East Asian religions at Florida State University. His books include The Essence of Chan, Passing Through the Gateless Barrier, and Silent Illumination: A Chan Buddhist Path to Natural Awakening.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/09/2022
From the True Dharma Eye, Case 16 – Changsha’s “Returning to Mountains, Rivers, and the Great Earth”
This talk by Shugen Roshi was offered on the 13th year anniversary of Daido Roshi’s passing. Shugen shares some stories from back in the day and invokes Daidoshi’s love for the wilderness, Dogen, and the “Mountains and Rivers Sutra.”
How do we see and experience challenging relationships and obstructive situations in a skillful way? When faced with so much suffering, greed, and anger, how can we bring forth generosity, patience, loving kindness and compassion? Turning the things of the world in order to solve the many problems doesn’t get to the root. But when we instead turn this body/mind to meet the world just as it is, we discover a peace that reaches everywhere.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 10/09/2022
Hojin Sensei explores the interconnectedness of buddha nature and mara nature. By envisioning Mara as a Bodhisattva, what can it teach us about the areas we wish to improve in ourselves?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/02/2022
Dharma Encounter at the conclusion of the Mountains & Rivers Sesshin
How do we practice self doubt? What needs to be understood about this aspect of self? What understanding will serve to free us? How do we understand this in terms of the Four Noble Truths?
Shugen Roshi brought up these questions for students to engage with him in Dharma Encounter.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 10/01/2022
From the True Dharma Eye, Case 148 – Dongshan’s “Teachings of the Insentient”
“When we don’t hear the teachings of the insentient the world beyond ourselves can seem dead, inert, and uninteresting. Maybe that’s why we have to keep turning up the volume. And having more and more. And now let’s create worlds that don’t even exist and live in them. What kind of dangerous is this?”
“When we don’t have such moments that reveal to us, that peel back the curtain a little bit and show us there is more right here right now in the most unexpected of places. Of course we expect it in the mountains and beautiful places, but as Donghan said, it’s ceaselessly expounded. Radiantly.”
“And so we stop and turn the light around. And look deeply. And make contact. And make contact…”
