Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday Evening 04/29/2022
Dharma Talk during the Apple Blossom Sesshin 2022 Fusatsu Ceremony
Not Creating Evil, Practicing Good, and Actualizing Good For Others — these are The Three Pure Bodhisattva Precepts. But what does it mean to truly take up these vows in our own lives? In this talk, Hojin Sensei explores the meaning of each precept and how they can guide us in our practice.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 04/03/2022
This Dharma Encounter with Hogen Sensei took place at the conclusion of the March Founding Sesshin. What does it mean to take refuge in the Buddha? What does it mean to take refuge and what exactly are we taking refuge in? Hogen Sensei takes this question up with Ango participants in a lively discussion.
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday Evening 04/01/2022
Dharma Talk during the Founder’s Sesshin 2022 Fusatsu Ceremony
The tenth Buddhist Precept is to “Experience the intimacy of things; Do not defile the Three Treasures.” How do we understand and apply this Precept? In this talk, Hogen Sensei takes up this profound teaching, imploring us to look closely at our practice and our lives.
Horace Kaishu Moody, Senior Lay Student
Zen Mountain Monastery, 06/28/2019
Going in to the heart of the Bodhisattva precepts, this talk asks “what is other?” – much like we often ask in relationship with the world, “what is self?” How is this apparent self and other, in fact, not clearly separate at all? Sharing the grieving and remembrance of a cherished friend, or taking responsibility for our own thoughts and actions, can be inexplicable and wonderful when there is no separation of self and other.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Center of New York City, 02/07/2019
What is giving? What is stealing? Within Buddhism there are many ways to understand this. Literally, on its face; with an openness, acknowledging that when rules are rigid they can result in less compassion than if the rules are not adhered to; and further, with respect to time, place, person and position.
In this question and answer teaching, the sangha and Shugen Roshi explore, together, what this precept is, its many meanings, and the sometimes complicated ways in which we can apply it and it affects our lives.
*Note: We experienced Technical Audio difficulties with this talk. There are some sections of the audio which we were unable to repair around 37:00-39:30, and 48:30. The second problem section included a lost question.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, 11/11/2018
Shugen Roshi officiates a ceremony in which Nancy Meyer-Emerick (Eisho, “eternal bloom”), Constanza Ontaneda (Sokyo, “everyday sutra”), Steve Miron (Seigan, “sacred eye”), Achong Chen (Jusan, “pearl mountain”), Jonathan Rosenthal (Seiko, “boundless peace”), and Polly Horn (Kiho, “radiant dharma”) receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts and are given their new dharma names.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic
Zen Center of New York City, 11/11/2018
Drawing on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, Chan Master Sheng-Yen, and IMS Teacher Joseph Goldstein, Gokan offers insight into how we stop creating evil, practice good, and actualize good for others. How does zazen help us to do that, to stay in our own experience? And how do zazen and the precepts give each other life?
Chris Yudo Abraham, Senior Lay Student
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/18/2022
From Shunryu Suzuki: “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”
What is beginner’s mind? Where is beginner’s mind? Yudo describes his path in zen practice as one of appreciating Beginner’s Mind and the constant returning to Zazen as the heart of it.
Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 09/18/2022
Yunen offers insight into the thusness of negative experiences and emotions. He explores what comes when we allow sad to just be sad, tribulations to simply be tribulations.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/11/2022
From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 35 – The Dialog of Manjusri and Wu Cho
“In the first moment of contact, what we see, what we hear, is not obscured. Sound and form are purely real, they are just as they are, they are not anything other. But our mind, in an instant, before we know it, without our seeing it, floods that image or that sound or that taste, or touch, with all of our mind’s karmic burden. All our perceptions, our views, our beliefs, our memories, and so on. While our senses simply perceive things, non-obscured, our mind then begins to in a flash obscures and gives meaning, which is taught. Everything in society teaches us what those things mean. All of those ways we separate and exclude and include and create conflict and wealth and poverty, the whole mass of suffering.“
“To be able to separate the profound from the naive, to distinguish a jewel from a stone, is actually necessary. If we can’t discern within our own practice of what is practice according to the dharma and what is not, what is a serving or habitual desire, and what is an impulse or sense of a direction that we can trust, it’s going to be very difficult to practice. So we need to learn how to distinguish. But to do so without malice, without ill will. With clarity. And without infusing a sense of absolute truth into those things that we are discerning.”
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.”
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 08/28/2022
From the Mahayana teaching The Uttaratantra Shastra – The Sangha Treasure
Shugen Roshi encourages us to look deeply and realize the three treasures as our own nature, our own body and mind. And although we manifest them (how we relate to the ancestors, how we receive the teachings, how we practice, how we gather together as a community, etc.) in terms particular to the Buddhist path, when we truly take refuge in the three treasures we are realizing them as the nature of all of humanity. No boundaries. Sangha is community. We can think of it as “the sangha of one”; i.e. you and the many beings that populate your mind and body. We can think of it as this community practicing together. Sangha is the virtue of harmony. Sangha is the Three Treasures.
Degna Chikei Levister, Senior Lay Student
Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 08/28/2022
Chikei Levister explores practicing in the midst of our busy lives. She discusses harnessing attention as a means to better understand our anxiety and fear of missing out.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 08/27/2022
From the Mahayana teaching The Uttaratantra Shastra – The Dharma Treasure
“Dharma” refers to The Law, The Teachings, Reality. But what is it actually, beyond the superficial? Shugen Roshi explores all the many aspects of Buddhist practice which together bring us to a true encounter with the Dharma.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 08/26/2022
From The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind
“The Buddhas and all living beings are only one Mind. There is no other reality.” Shoan uses Huang-Po’s teachings to reflect on the notion of progress in Zen training, encouraging us to relax and let go of this kind of seeking and instead use our wholehearted practice as a way of open discovery. Have faith and trust yourself!
Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student
Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 08/25/2022
Yunen explores how “emptiness is form” is expressed and illustrated in the Vimalakirti Sutra and shares his appreciation of its relationship to practice.
