Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 02/27/2022
From Master Dogen’s 300 Koan Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye), Case 265 – Shuilao’s Enlightenment
In Buddhist practice and particularly Zen, there is a great emphasis on the power of words. Words can be both destructive or generative, can create war and can bring about peace. How do we understand the karma of our words and the actions they beget? To do so, Roshi explores the radical practice of stopping, noticing, and taking responsibility. Note: this talk begins with a prayer from Shugen Roshi for the people of Ukraine and the recent attack on their country, also published in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review online.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 02/23/2022
From Master Dogen’s 300 Koan Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye), Case 41 – Shitou’s “Ask the Pillar”
A student asked Master Shitou, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the west?” Shitou said, “Ask the pillar.” The student said, “I don’t understand it.” Shitou said, “I don’t understand it either.”
The Buddhist path is based in inquiry. This asks that we abandon our formulas and perspectives, and inquire deeply from within our own body and mind. We practice not only letting go of attachments and dualities of right and wrong, but also of “knowing,” releasing the need for ready answers. Every day and every moment is alive–an aliveness that is not based on a fixed meaning—but is reality itself.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 02/06/2022
From Master Wu-men’s Gateless Gate, Case 13 – Deshan Carries His Bowls
How do we create our own distractedness? And how do we get caught up in our flurry of concepts? It’s not conceptual thinking itself that is the problem. Shugen Roshi offers that by taking the seat of no evasion, turning our attention inwards, we can witness how “what we think we know” impedes our experience of our lives as they are, full and complete.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/30/2022
From Dongshan’s “Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi”
The conclusion of a series on Master Dongshan’s poem, this talk looks at the dynamic relationship you have—as the practitioner—with the ancient sages, and with all phenomenal world of reality and within its absolute unity. How do we listen, and truly hear this ancient song?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 01/26/2022
From Dongshan’s “Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi”
Faith is required—just enough to keep returning to a simple practice of deeply seeing the presence of our delusion. With the help of that delusion, the way opens for discovering true freedom in the whole of reality. Shugen Roshi continues the study of Dongshan’s Jewel Mirror Samadhi to help us practice letting go attachments and opening to experience of a unified life.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/23/2022
From Dongshan’s “Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi” and Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Please Call Me By My True Names”
This talk spans the centuries of buddhadharma, taking up the teachings of Master Dongshan and Thich Nhat Hanh who passed from this life recently. Pointing to the unity of emptiness, the truth of non-duality and the boundless heart of the bodhisattva, Shugen Roshi invites us afresh into the question: what do we call the self?
See the presentation, “From Refuge to Sanctuary: an MRO Tribute to Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.”
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.
This dharma talk is preceded by a presentation from the People of African Descent (PAD) Affinity Group, “From Refuge to Sanctuary: an MRO Tribute to Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.” which you can watch here.
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, Sunday 05/29/2022
Dharma Encounter at the Conclusion of the Ocean Gathering Sesshin (and concluding the Spring Ango)
Using the Parable of the Good Physician from the Lotus Sutra, Shugen Roshi brought up questions for students to engage with him in Dharma Encounter. How can we be skillful when we are under the sway of our defilements and we don’t want to turn towards the medicine? How do we help others when they don’t want to take the medicine? When someone perceives medicine as poison, what is skillful? These and other question were engaged in live, unrehearsed dialog at the end of our 90 day ango training period.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 05/28/2022
From Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo Fascicle “Bussho: Buddha Nature”
When do the seeds of our practice ripen? Will our Buddha Nature appear at some moment in the future, or is it present now and we just don’t see it? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the relationship between practice and time, how we practice for the now and observe the cause and effect of our karma over time.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 05/27/2022
Dharma Talk during the Ocean Gathering Sesshin
Drawing on the lyrics of the song ‘Momentum’ by Aimee Mann, Hogen Sensei illuminates how much our lives are driven by fear. What is the alternative to fear? When we are fearful, what is it that we do not want to feel? Instead of a strategy of numbness, how do we turn towards and disrupt the momentum of our fearful karmic patterns?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday Evening 05/26/2022
Dharma Talk during the Ocean Gathering Sesshin Fusatsu Ceremony
To navigate the Path, the Buddha taught an approach of skillful means. But what does that term mean for us as unique individuals, with our own karma, and in a world that is not fixed? In this talk, Shugen Roshi takes up this essential teaching as part of a Renewal of Bodhisattva Vows ceremony.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 05/25/2022
How does one accomplish Buddhahood? And how long does it take to do so? Using the story of the Dragon King’s Daughter from the Lotus Sutra, senior Monastic Shoan Ankele investigate this precarious question and offers guidance on the art of letting go.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 05/22/2022
What is true compassion and how do we develop it? If Buddhist teachings say a compassionate heart is our birthright, what must we do to reveal it? With Leonard Cohen’s song Sisters of Mercy as a muse, Hogen Sensei explores the nature of compassion, its relationship to wisdom and loving-kindness, and the vital role our own suffering plays.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 05/15/2022
From the Book of Serenity, Case 18 – Zhaozhou’s Dog
If buddha nature is ineffable, if it has no characteristics, then how do we turn towards it? We want to direct our attention towards it so we can examine it and realize it. But it doesn’t exist. It doesn’t have a form. So how do we study that which is our true self, our true nature? Shugen Roshi takes up these questions using the well known koan “Does a dog have buddha nature?”
Degna Chikei Levister, Senior Lay Student
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 05/15/2022
How do we bring all of who we are into practice? How do we embrace the full reality of the world while not getting turned around by external causes and conditions? In this talk, Chikei Levister explores the teachings of Zen Master Hongzhi on the practice of true reality.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 05/08/2022
From Master Wu-men’s Gateless Gate, Case 35 – Ch’ien and Her Soul Are Separated
How do we remain undivided amidst the divisive forces within and around us? And where can we truly go to seek wholeness in our lives? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the experience of division and wholeness, and how Zen practice brings us closer to the heart of the matter.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 05/08/2022
How do we practice fearlessness in the midst of fear? In this talk, Hojin Sensei invokes the dragon – a being that is often referenced in the Zen tradition as an embodiment of our enlightened nature. It is through turning around and facing the dragon with direct, kind awareness, she says, that we develop our capacity for fearlessness.
