Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 06/12/2022
With the teaching of Bodhidharma’s “Outline of Practice” and recalling Daido Roshi’s frequent admonition: “trust yourself”, Gokan offers us heartfelt encouragement to make these teachings our own.
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.
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.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, Sunday 11/28/2021
From Bodhidharma’s “Breakthrough Sermon”
Drawing inspiration from Bodhidharma’s “Breakthrough Sermon”, Gokan encourages us to behold our mind; this is the essential practice of Zen. When we are not attentive, the thoughts we allow to develop in our mind separate us from this world. However, we can choose to not be swallowed by our thoughts; by giving our awareness to this moment.
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
True Dharma Eye, Case 201
Zen Mountain Monastery, 02/24/2019
In the case, four of Bodhidharma’s disciples express their understanding in their own ways, and each answer contains the teacher’s whole being. All perspectives necessary, and none superior nor inferior, this talk earnestly invites us to consider the case as related to the time and place of Bodhidharma’s teaching and successors, as well our own. Aspiring toward an enlightened society that extends beyond these lives in which we find ourselves currently practicing, how will we manifest Buddha, now and into the future?
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 01/29/2023
From Zen Master Hakuin: “Song of Zazen”
At the conclusion to our New Year’s sesshin, Mn. Gokan explores “Song of Zazen,” an 18th century poem by Master Hakuin Ekaku. This text has served as an inspirational touchstone for generations of practitioners and is even chanted at some Zen temples as part of their daily liturgy. “The gateway to freedom,” Hakuin promises, “is zazen samadhi.” Gokan encourages us to develop “enthusiasm for meeting the rigors of practice” with a “joyful effort.” He summarizes that effort—and Hakuin’s intent—with the following prescription: “Don’t grasp, don’t crave, don’t push away, relax the mind, stop fighting with yourself; be gentle.”
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.
