Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 06/26/2022
Drawing from the teachings of Longchenpa (14th Century Tibet), Shantideva (8th century India) and Dogen (13th century Japan) Shugen Roshi speaks of The Four Immeasurables. He reminds us of the importance of reciting them as a practice each morning. The recitation is a raising of intention, a setting of our attitude – an attitude of love, compassion, sympathetic joy and impartiality. What’s next? Shugen Roshi encourages us to keep that intention in mind all day long, to “set out” to actualize them for others and ourselves in our everyday activities, continuously practicing and opening, with the guidance of the precepts and the Six Paramitas (Giving, Discipline, Patience, Diligence, Concentration and Wisdom.) In this discourse, Roshi continues the exploration begun last week, in Setting Out with Bodhichitta.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 06/25/2022
Drawing from the teachings of Shantideva (8th century India), Dogen (13th century Japan) and Longchenpa (14th Century Tibet), Shugen Roshi speaks of bodhicitta, the wish to realize enlightenment for the benefit of others. “This bodhicitta is not something. It’s alive, it’s inexpressible, it’s inconceivable. It doesn’t belong to buddhism but buddhism understands it profoundly. It’s available to every person but you cannot possess it. You can’t lose it. But it can grow dim. It is born from faith, it is nurtured by faith, it is verified by faith, within ourselves.”
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 08/14/2022
From the Book of Serenity, Case 16 – Magu Shakes His Staff
Why do we practice mindfulness, why do we develop concentration, why do we do meditation? These and other aspects of practice… What do they bring us to? Shugen Roshi asks us to look carefully about what we think we’re after; what are we aiming for? For instance, how do we manifest compassion, living in a world of good and evil, without creating more entanglements, without getting caught in the realm of right and wrong?
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 08/07/2022
From Master Wu-men’s Gateless Gate, Case 8 – Hsi-chung Makes Carts
The Buddha realized, and taught, that it is our sense of self, our sense of our individual person within, that is the source of everything we create that causes distress and confusion and unhappiness. Salvation from this dukkha is not about finding a way out of it but about finding a way into it. If we want to actually free ourselves we have to practice freeing ourselves right now, just now.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/31/2022
Our own beliefs, conventional wisdom, our enculturated consciousness; these encompass the paths we follow in life. As practitioners of The Way, Shugen Roshi encourages us to look carefully into and through this conditioning and see that what we’re moving towards is already here.
Concluding his talk, Shugen Roshi offers a poem in tribute to the Woman of Taishan:
On the road to Mount Taishan a Tea Dragon serves illness and medicine for the well-being of the thirsty traveler. Please don’t be deceived by her humble appearance. She has the power to change a life in an instant. Don’t feel the need to adorn her humble appearance. She is majestic and noble, just as she is. Can you hear? Oh, person of the way, which road will you take to the great and calling mountain?
(The Woman of Taishan appears in a koan in both The Book of Serenity, Case 10, and The Gateless Gate, Case 31.)
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 07/30/2022
What is our understanding of Conventional Wisdom, or Relative Truth in Buddhist parlance, as it makes up what we call “the self”? Shugen Roshi brings in the writing of Marcus Borg, the American Christian Theologian, and examines what we are doing when we undertake the extensive project of “studying the self.”
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 07/29/2022
From the the Sutra of Hui-Neng (The Platform Sutra of the 6th Ancestor), Hui-Neng himself describes his realization: “I thought there was an I who sees and hears. That was a great mistake. It’s only a sound perceived with a mind resting in no place. Now I understand there is no birth or death. This wide open state of mind is my original mind. The mountains, the rivers, the sun and the moon are all me.” Shoan brings up this fundamental teaching of “no-self”… OK. So, there is no self. And yet here I am. How do we hold these “two truths”? And our sense of identity… How does it come to us? And why does it often become such a seemingly unresolvable entanglement? Shoan encourages us to be mindful and patient and to hold our stories loosely.
Linda Shinji Hoffman, Senior Lay Student
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 07/28/2022
Lay senior Shinji Hoffman draws on her experience as a farmer to help explain the Buddha’s teaching on the twelve-link chain of dependent origination, the teaching that everything arises due to causes and conditions. How can we use this teaching to transform our karma? How do we stop causing suffering for ourselves and others? Shinji gives examples of how to shift our deep negative habits at the chain link of feeling.
Robert Rakusan Ricci, Senior Monastic
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 07/27/2022
The three messengers: old age, sickness, and death. Why do we call them messengers? What do they tell us? Do we listen? And how do we respond? In this poetic offering, Rakusan talks about how he holds his personal encounters and experience of the three messengers in light of Master Dogen’s teachings (…to study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self….) along with the wisdom of Leonard Cohen (“Who by Fire”). Rakusan gently admonishes us to heed the call of the three messengers and give voice to our Bodhisattva vows.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/24/2022
How do we truly take care of each other? How do we truly take care of ourselves? How do we do both at the same time? Is there a difference? How do we soften any opposition that might arise? Gokan shares his own experiences and mindfulness practices while exploring these questions.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 07/17/2022
Hojin Sensei speaks on Chapter 7 from the Vimalakirti Sutra entitled “The Goddess.” In this chapter, Manjushri asks Vimalakirti , “How should we regard living beings?” Hojin Sensei offers insight into the harm done through the oppression of particular human embodiments. She shares teachings on how to honor all aspects of ourselves and others: sameness and difference as one reality.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/17/2022
Shoan reflects on what it is that we’re doing and why it matters. How does “looking inward”, rather than just outward, help us navigate our life? Shoan brings in three “boat parables” to illustrate. From Master Dogen’s Genjokoan, Charlotte Joko Beck’s “Everyday Zen”, and a poem by 17th century Chinese nun Jingnou in “Daughters of Emptiness”.
