Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/04/2022
Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of our 90-day Fall Ango Intensive training period, “Moon Thusness.” If you’d like to learn more about our Ango program and possibly participate, please click here: https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/ango/
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 09/04/2022
Hojin Sensei offers opening reflections on the Fall 2022 Ango training period, introducing the primary texts that training students will be working with as well as the themes of art practice, nature contemplation, and Dogen’s Fascicle “The Moon.”
Dear Sangha,
Looking toward this Fall 2019 Ango, I feel the excitement and trepidation of a child starting a new school year, eager to learn, and fearful that I will fall short. I gain courage knowing we will be learning together as a sangha, and walking with the green teeming mountain into yellow, orange and brown, before going quiet.
When Shugen Roshi asked me to serve as Chief Disciple, I felt intimidated and humbled taking on this role. Like starting other service positions, I sense it will be awkward, challenging, and with the help of sangha, deeply rewarding. Hojin Sensei once said, as she was training a group of us to be servers, “this is a place where we learn to fail gracefully.” The graceful part, for me, is what we create together as we each do our best to practice sincerely, and hold our own shortcomings and those of others lightly.
May we study and embody each facet of the Noble Eightfold Path during this ango in order to transform our own suffering and the suffering around us. With Right Intention, let us clarify our aspirations for the ango, and strive ardently to be of benefit in this troubled world. We manifest Right Effort by showing up for each other in the wee hours of the day whether at home or in the zendo, and make this difficult and rewarding practice possible by doing it together and leading others by our own example. May we sip from the honey cup of our peaceful dwelling over the next 90 days, creating a Buddha-verse of kindness and clarity.
Love,
Katie Yosha Scott-Childress, began practicing with the MRO in 2005, became a student of Daido Roshi in 2007, and received the precepts in 2014. Living near Mt. Tremper, she has been able to participate in the life of the Monastery in different ways over the years, first bringing her two children to the Zen Kids program, and currently serving as a NBPS practice adviser. She works as a public library director, and has a creative urge that sometimes takes form in cooking or making clay pots.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, 4/04/2019
The second Fusatsu talk of the Spring Ango on Dogen’s fascicle “Refrain from Unwholesome Action.”
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic
Zen Center of New York City, 3/31/2019
Gokan takes up Dogen’s opening lines of the Ango fascicle, “Refrain from Unwholesome Action,” and asks what is refrain from? Gokan suggests we cultivate reverence.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, 3/29/2019
Even in our ignorance of the impact we have on others, karma is created. Hogen Sensei explores how we can use dharma practice to investigate what it is to “just refrain from,” both wholesome and unwholesome activity, as Dogen describes in the fascicle being studied during this Ango.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, 3/14/2019
This Fusatsu talk invites us to reflect deeply on Dōgen’s teaching from the Spring Ango study fascicle: “Refrain from unwholesome action. Do wholesome action. Purify your own mind. This is the teaching of all buddhas.” Shugen Roshi explores how all actions (positive, negative, and neutral) are unborn, undefiled, and are reality manifest in various ways. Study of our thoughts, words, and actions with an undivided heart offers insight to understanding intentions, desires, and karma. Refraining from unwholesome action is how is “the power of practice immediately actualized” which Dōgen describes.
Prabu Gikon Vasan, Senior Lay Practitioner
Zen Center of New York City, 11/18/2018
Gikon uses the teachings of early Theravada nuns, in particular the experience of Kisa Gautami, to examine the meaning of true freedom, and relates their struggles our modern day experiences of meeting barriers and attachments.
Robert Rakusan Ricci, Senior Monastic
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 01/26/2023
Acting with reverence and devotion, acting with faith, with a willingness to be open to whatever arises in our experience… Is this all prayer? Inspired by a Ken McLeod essay, “Where the Thinking Stops”, and drawing on a song of Leonard Cohen, “Lady Midnight”, and the teachings of the mystics, Rakusan encourages us to keep going above and beyond ourselves and see how and where prayer fills our lives.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 01/25/2023
From The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (traditionally attributed to Asvaghosa)
What does Faith mean and what does it encompass in our Buddhist tradition? In this 3-part series, based on this text, Shugen Roshi talks about the Aspiration to Awakening Through Faith and it’s many aspects which are the essentials of Buddhist teachings and practices.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/22/2023
On this auspicious day, Shugen Roshi officiated the shukke tokudo ceremony for Jeffrey Kien Martin. Tokudo marks the formal taking of monastic vows and, in our tradition, expresses a lifetime commitment to the Monastery. Kien was given the monastic name Jogo, the meaning of which Shugen Roshi beautifully explains near the end of the ceremony. In short, it can be interpreted as “Steady Strength.”
Degna Chikei Levister, MRO Senior Lay Student
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 01/15/2023
This talk is part of a special Sunday morning program commemorating the life and teachings of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Fire Lotus Temple and Zen Mountain Monastery.
Senior student Degna Chikei Levister draws from Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and gives voice to his compassionate, courageous words and actions. Chikei connects Dr. King’s teachings to Buddhist teachings, expanding on his lived message to “attack forces of evil, not persons doing evil” when addressing racism and other forms of oppression.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/08/2023
From Master Dogen’s 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 105 – “The Hands and Eyes of Great Compassion”
In this New Year’s season of reflections and resolutions, Shugen Roshi encourages us to turn our attention toward the great Bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, and to look incisively into how they operate within our own lives.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 01/08/2023
Hojin Sensei speaks about the simple and profound practice of breathing. The breath, she shares, brings us into the body and into the present, gradually unifying body and mind.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday, New Year’s Eve 12/31/2022
Teisho during the Rohatsu Sesshin Fusatsu Ceremony
Shugen Roshi reflects on the vitality of actualized vows in the context of the Paramitas, and urges us to recognize and nurture the basic quality of kindness in our intentions and actions.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Saturday, New Year’s Eve 12/31/2022
Dharma Talk during the New Year’s Eve Fusatsu Ceremony
Hojin Sensei welcomes in the new year with a Fusatsu at Fire Lotus Temple. She invokes the power of vows and the importance of choosing them well.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 12/30/2022
From the Book of Serenity, Case 67 – The Flower Ornament Scripture’s “Wisdom”
Shugen Roshi talks about the Scriptures as the Body of Wisdom. That’s not simply a metaphor; that’s the wisdom of direct experience over the ages. Each and every one of us are intimately included in that living body. We make it whole.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 12/29/2022
From the Buddha’s own life story to contemporary somatic mindfulness, Shoan reflects on how we can recognize and trust the embodied source of our liberation.
