Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 04/02/2022
In this talk, Shugen Roshi speaks about the importance of having a connection with our dharma ancestors. How we should appreciate the great heart-felt efforts that were made to allow us to have the opportunity to train and practice today. Roshi shares with us some of the early days of Zen Mountain Monastery, as well as the efforts put forth by Daido Roshi, his teacher Maezumi Roshi, two of Maezumi’s teachers, Yasutani Roshi and Koryu Roshi, as well as all the students who were training with them.
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.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic
Zen Mountain Monastery, 11/15/18
In this talk, Shoan evokes the pervasive presence of the ancestors in our practice of zazen, oryoki, and liturgy. She cites the writings of women ancestors across space and time, speaking to the mystical truth-seeking heart of every religious tradition.
Zuisei Goddard, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, 09/14/2018
What does it mean to cultivate selflessness and, when needed, to embody self fully, in this female form? Zuisei Sensei invokes a few of our women ancestors and contemporaries, including Otagaki Rengetsu, Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams, Hojin Sensei, and her own experiences in light of this question.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 11/27/2022
Beginning with the poem “In Between Your Eyebrows” by Nelly Sachs, Shugen Roshi talks about healing and awakening, the self and mind, giving and receiving; experiencing their equivalence and realizing that we’re dwelling in Buddha Nature.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 11/13/2022
From The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women – “The Old Woman’s Miraculous Powers.”
How do we view the ordinary acts of our lives? Hojin Sensei examines the ways in which we split our lives into “important” and “unimportant,” and the implications of that view. She reminds us of our capacity for wonder, which does not depend on conditions.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 11/19/2022
From the Koans of the Way of Reality – Dongshan’s “How Dirty is the Water”
In the midst of what we think we know, we can be fooled into believing we’re seeing clearly. How can we see into our implicit biases, our dualistic, judgmental tendencies and discover a place of equanimity?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday Evening 11/18/2022
Teisho during the Shuso Hossen Sesshin Fusatsu Ceremony
Shugen Roshi talks about the spirit of atonement, and how the grave precepts and the the paramitas, taken to heart, intricately guide us on the Bodhisattva path.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 11/17/22
Mumonkan (Gateless Gate) Case 45 – Wu-tsu: “Who Is That Other?”
“Who am I?” and “Who is the Other?” These questions continuously show up in our lives. How do we live them, live with them? Hogen Sensei encourages us to keep them present and open, and alive.
Linda Shinji Hoffman, Senior Lay Student
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 11/16/2022
Lay senior student Shinji Hoffman shares the poetry of T.S.Elliot and 13th Century Chinese Zen Master Wu-Men, and the practices of 14th century European farmers and other stories looking at the ways in which we think of and perceive, hold and use time and its many facets.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 11/13/2022
Shugen Roshi officiates the Fall 2022 Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery. Today, five students – Hogetsu, Shinrin, Sonju, Jiko, & Chian – formally receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts, taking up these living teachings, living vows in the company of the sangha with family and friends.
Stephanos Hogetsu Koullias (“Liberated Moon”)
Walter Shinrin Burton (“Facing Truth / Facing Reality”)
Tasha Sonju Ortlof (“Reverent Pearl”)
Jesse Jiko Caudill (“Compassionate Peace”)
Weston Chian Minissali (“Peaceful Ground”)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 11/06/2022
From the Book of Serenity, Case 53 – Huangbo’s “Dreg-slurpers”
The Buddha said we all have Buddha Nature; we all have an already completely present and perfect enlightened mind, an enlightened nature. Shugen Roshi talks about spiritual practice, the “path of non-attachment” and its meaning in the context of the world in which we live wherein there is such a strong inclination to go against that.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 10/30/2022
Dharma Encounter at the Conclusion of the 2022 Harvest Sesshin
In the midst of our delusions, attachments, false views, deep habit patterns, we endeavor to live a life of alleviating suffering, not adding more pain and confusion, wanting to be clear in our actions, wanting to feel that we’re doing the right thing… So how can we be confident about that? And what is that confidence; is it trustworthy? How do we practice an enlightening path from within the place where we are? Shugen Roshi takes up these questions with Ango participants in a heartfelt discussion.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 10/29/2022
From The True Dharma Eye, Case 247 – Ruiyan Calls “Master!”
How do we experience this “all inclusive world”? It’s our basic situation; this intimacy that all sentient beings share. But it’s hard to have faith in that and we can knot ourselves up and stay in the confines of what we think we know. Shugen Roshi reminds us to ask “What is this”, not “Why is this”, and to ask “What do we not know.”
