Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 12/3/23 - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 35 - Touzi's "Harmonizing the Ten Bodies" - What is that common sense of distance, separation, between ourselves and others, and between the...

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 12/3/23 - From "The Hidden Lamp, Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women" - Hojin Sensei presents a koan of Lingzhao and her father, falling together. How do we fall with someone? How do we accept somebody’s...

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 11/26/23 - Hojin presents a koan based on a Chinese folk tale that takes on the question of identity, and speaks about its relevance for us...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/26/23 - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo, Case 149 - Xuefeng's Rice Field - In the context of our liberation, our freedom from delusion, can we actually experience a fundamental truth that is not the creation of...

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 11/12/23 - From "The Hidden Lamp, Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women" - Hojin Sensei examines the nature of Mara, the "lord of delusion," who comes to Soma and to all of us in many forms. What are the...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/18/23 - Shugen Roshi covers the final four of Atisha's slogans, which appropriately cap off the teachings of all 59. They reiterate some basic questions: Why are we practicing? For whom? How do we process our...

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 11/16/23 - From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 14 - "Yunmen's Appropriate Statement" - With this pithy koan by Yunmen, in light of Atisha's slogan #55, "Liberate yourself by examining and analyzing", Hogen Sensei encourages us to...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/15/23 - How to sustain our efforts and practice wholeheartedly? How to awaken to our trust, faith and courage? With a calm and bright attitude we have the opportunity, in our direct experience to truly see into the...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/12/23 - Any circumstance you find yourself in is the opportunity to practice right now, so don't wait. And it helps to keep the basics in mind: Refrain. Cease from harm, try to create some good, and delight in...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/10/23 - In the context of our practice of the precepts, in our whole everyday lives, how do we develop harmony of thought, speech and action? Is this the practice of...

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 11/5/23 - In this story, from The Hidden Lamp, an old woman hears and breaks though Hakuin’s teaching: "Your mind is the Pure Land, and your body is Amida Buddha. If you want to understand, look into your own heart.”...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi ZMM - 11/5/23 - Facing our difficulties, recognizing our circumstances and knowing how to be a student. These can be joyful endeavors especially when we see our (and others') inherent goodness coming to...