Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/16/2022
Celebrating the Love in Action of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Invoking the life and words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Shugen Roshi celebrates his teachings on the power of love and its manifestation in the Beloved Community. Sangha is an example of this united effort to live as an expression of love, and the life of practice requires our sincere engagement and action. Dr. King believed in the “practical realism” of love, a power which is always available and can be lived every day. Understanding the interrelated structure of reality from a Christian perspective, he said, “Your suffering is my suffering,” echoing the Bodhisattva’s vow to put an end to the suffering of all beings.
Shugen Roshi’s dharma talk is preceded by a sangha presentation “From Refuge to Sanctuary: an MRO Tribute to Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.” hosted by senior lay student Chikei Levister.
(You can watch the video of the sangha presentation here: vimeo.com/666366222.)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/09/2022
From The Gateless Gate, Case 20 – A Person of Great Strength
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday Evening 12/31/2021
Shugen Roshi offers inspiration on the virtues of vow during the New Year’s Eve Fusatsu, or renewal of vows, ceremony.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 12/30/2021
From Transmission of the Light, Case 41 – The 40th Ancestor, Great Master Tongan Daopi
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Tuesday 12/28/2021
From Dongshan’s “Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi”
This is Part 2 of Shugen Roshi’s teaching on Dongshan’s poem. Here he focuses on the metaphor of the mirror; how it’s been used throughout various Buddhist teachings, what it means and how it helps us relate to our own experience.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/19/2021
Shugen Roshi offers this dharma discourse on the monastic life.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/12/2021
From Dongshan’s “Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi”
Shugen Roshi offers this Dharma Discourse as a fitting teaching at the completion of this year’s Buddha’s Enlightenment Vigil. We do the vigil to endeavor what the Buddha did. And there is indeed something to celebrate; that the Buddha decided to teach and transmit what he realized. Dongshan’s song starts out by imploring us to take care of this intimate, profound teaching. “Now you have it, keep it well.”
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/05/2021
From Wumen’s Gateless Gate, Case 39 – Yunmen says you’ve missed it.
When we experience suffering, more often than not, we disseminate it in various ways so that others also experience suffering. However, the Buddha realized that we can actively bring suffering to rest. Don’t wait. Examine it when it arises.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 11/20/2021
From Transmission of the Light, Case 22 – The 21st Indian Ancestor, Vasubandhu
As we practice to free ourselves, we are constantly in the midst of change. And in this endlessly changing world, we unknowingly try to create a substantial, permanent self. This interaction between Vasubandhu and Jayata illustrates the essence of middle way. By not denying, not grasping or seeking something eternal, we will encounter a true way of patience, generosity, perseverance, faith, respect and devotion. Practice is not about a perfect life, it is about living this life completely.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 11/17/2021
From Transmission of the Light, Case 28 – The 27th Indian Ancestor, Prajnatara
Of all the possible directions we can take, why does one person take a direction which is very different from everybody else’s path? How do we know if the path is true for us? Shugen Roshi reminds us that when we encounter a teaching that we may or may not understand but have an affinity with, we should trust that affinity.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 11/14/2021
From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 27 – Yun Men’s “The Body Exposed, The Golden Wind”
There’s a banquet of teachings for every human experience we are having, have had, will have. So how do we fully avail ourselves to that? Shugen Roshi speaks about sincere continuous practice of mindfulness and knowing how to be alone.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 11/07/2021
From Wumen’s Gateless Gate, Case 2 – Baizhang and the Fox
With this teisho, Shugen Roshi sums up the Ango Intensive retreat “Within Darkness There Is Light—The Teachings of Karma and the Path of Compassion”.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/31/2021
From The Record of the Transmission of the Light, Case 30 – Huike
There are phrases one may hear at a Zen Monastery, such as “non-attachment”, “selflessness”, “ending all my involvements”, “the middle way”, “practice your anger”…. which can come across as nihilistic, extreme, ambiguous, impossible, cultish, and frightening. Shugen Roshi talks about how we can understand these by paying close attention to the moments of our own lives, and by looking beyond the words.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 10/23/2021
From Wumen’s Gateless Gate, Case 38 – It’s Like a Buffalo Passing Through A Window
“The world is but the tail of a buffalo passing through a window.” But what about when we feel stuck? How do we free ourselves in the midst of our karmic dispositions? Some of them seem quite sticky indeed. In this talk from the last day of our Harvest Sesshin, Shugen Roshi talks about koan training in our Zen tradition. Each of them are windows into our own barriers, helping us to eventually experience these barriers as empty of any definitive existence.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 10/20/2021
From The Book of Serenity, Case 33 – Sangsheng’s “Golden Fish”
The teachings talk a lot about being free and unbound. How do we actually live that? On the Bodhisattva path the question is “What is needed, What will be helpful?”
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/17/2021
Shugen Roshi officiates the Fall Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery in which five students receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts. Shokei, Jishin, Seikaku, Kanro, & Ansen have all been practicing as formal students and studying these moral and ethical teachings for a number of years. During the ceremony Shugen Roshi offers joyful encouragement to the recipients as they take up these living teachings, living vows.
Jessica Shokei Ludwig (“sacred jewel”),
Joanne Jishin Dearcopp (“compassionate faith”),
Jimmie Seikaku Stone (“vow of awakening”),
Jack Kanro Hennesey (“barrier of openness”),
Diane Ansen Strablow (“peaceful waters / peaceful spring”).
A live conversation between Shugen Arnold, Roshi, abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery, and Buddhist neuroscientist Dr. Phillip Ninan. The two tackle a number of tricky questions where the findings of science, the teachings of the Buddha, and the practice of meditation all intersect to better illuminate one another.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/03/2021
From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 100 – Pa Ling’s Blown Hair Sword
What are the most effective, skillful means to liberate ourselves? Along with meditation which is the primary practice in most branches of Buddhism, there is koan practice which is central in our Zen tradition. Shugen Roshi describes how these are engaged together using the example of a blown hair sword.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/26/2021
Dharma Encounter at the Conclusion of the Mountains and Rivers Sesshin
How do wisdom and compassion manifest together in our lives? Shugen Roshi asks us to consider the questions: Why is loving kindness – cultivation of compassion – crucial for our awakening of insight? And how do we understand our practice, the noble 8-fold path, the 8 gates, the life we’re living in practice, as a way to be bringing forth that insight? Do we bring it forth as we diminish our negative karma or as we realize it? Are those different? And how is it that “Wisdom without compassion, compassion without wisdom are not complete”?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 09/25/2021
From Transmission of the Light, Case 17 – The 17th Indian Ancestor, Rahulata (Ragarata)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/16/2022
Celebrating the Love in Action of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Invoking the life and words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Shugen Roshi celebrates his teachings on the power of love and its manifestation in the Beloved Community. Sangha is an example of this united effort to live as an expression of love, and the life of practice requires our sincere engagement and action. Dr. King believed in the “practical realism” of love, a power which is always available and can be lived every day. Understanding the interrelated structure of reality from a Christian perspective, he said, “Your suffering is my suffering,” echoing the Bodhisattva’s vow to put an end to the suffering of all beings.
Shugen Roshi’s dharma talk is preceded by a sangha presentation “From Refuge to Sanctuary: an MRO Tribute to Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.” hosted by senior lay student Chikei Levister.
(You can watch the video of the sangha presentation here: vimeo.com/666366222.)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/09/2022
From The Gateless Gate, Case 20 – A Person of Great Strength
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday Evening 12/31/2021
Shugen Roshi offers inspiration on the virtues of vow during the New Year’s Eve Fusatsu, or renewal of vows, ceremony.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 12/30/2021
From Transmission of the Light, Case 41 – The 40th Ancestor, Great Master Tongan Daopi
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, Wednesday 12/29/2021
Mn. Shoan begins with a powerful thought experiment and then takes us on a journey recounting her investigation into the beginnings of the Zen tradition, the stories of Bodhidharma facing the wall, in his cave, and some early interpretations of what it means to meditate. Through zazen we can experience reality intimately and completely, abiding in love and compassion, non-doing.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Tuesday 12/28/2021
From Dongshan’s “Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi”
This is Part 2 of Shugen Roshi’s teaching on Dongshan’s poem. Here he focuses on the metaphor of the mirror; how it’s been used throughout various Buddhist teachings, what it means and how it helps us relate to our own experience.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/19/2021
Shugen Roshi offers this dharma discourse on the monastic life.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of NYC, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 12/12/2021
Dharma talk at the completion of the vigil commemorating Buddha’s enlightenment.
Hojin sensei speaks to the life of Buddha before and after his enlightenment. Her skillful narration points to the same experiences we may share with Shakyamuni, and we can find an inspiration to practice wholeheartedly.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/12/2021
From Dongshan’s “Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi”
Shugen Roshi offers this Dharma Discourse as a fitting teaching at the completion of this year’s Buddha’s Enlightenment Vigil. We do the vigil to endeavor what the Buddha did. And there is indeed something to celebrate; that the Buddha decided to teach and transmit what he realized. Dongshan’s song starts out by imploring us to take care of this intimate, profound teaching. “Now you have it, keep it well.”
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/05/2021
From Wumen’s Gateless Gate, Case 39 – Yunmen says you’ve missed it.
When we experience suffering, more often than not, we disseminate it in various ways so that others also experience suffering. However, the Buddha realized that we can actively bring suffering to rest. Don’t wait. Examine it when it arises.
