Voices of Change

The Promised Land: The Story of Cheryl Rogowski, Farm-to-Plate innovator.

Cheryl is a fourth-generation farmer, growing 200 varieties of fruits and vegetables and the first farmer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. Here Cheryl shares how her agricultural programs also address community, social, civic and education needs.

This program was originally recorded for APM, American Public Media.

Konrad Ryushin Marchaj, Sensei

An All-Encompassing Yes

“Everything is sufficient its way,” Ryushin Sensei says. This includes your life, your mind, your body, the patch of ground you’re sitting on. Underneath our heartbreak, distraction, or suffering, the natural order of life is an all-pervasive, joyous, yes. The way to see it? Through unremitting, thorough practice.

The koan in this talk is “The World Honored One Points to the Ground,” case 4 of the collection Book of Equanimity. This discourse was given at Zen Mountain Monastery on November 4, 2012.

John Daido Loori, Roshi

Carrying the Lantern

Daido Roshi looks at the student-teacher relationship through the lens of this koan. He delves into what appears as a simple conversation, looking at the subtle ways that the dharma is transmitted, and how, when it comes to zen masters, there are no innocent questions.

The koan in this talk is “Tianran’s ‘Have You Eaten Yet?’” from the collection Koans of the Way of Reality. This discourse was given at Zen Mountain Monastery in November 2003

Grace Notes

Enter the stream of 2013 with songs of passion for life, acceptance and the yearning for freedom.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei

Turning Towards Home

Having found our way to the dharma, we may have only a vague sense of what we’re seeking or why. At the same time, it all seems quite familiar, like catching a glimpse of an old friend we haven’t seen in years. What is that connection that grabs us? How do we find our way in the dark?

The koan in this talk is “Yunmen’s Sixty Blows,” case 280 from the True Dharma Eye. It was given at ZCNYC on March 24, 2013.

Opening the Gate

Moving Beyond Fear & Anger, part 1

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei

Buddhism teaches that anger is one of the three primary sources of human suffering and that it leads to some of our most long-lasting and painful karma. In this powerful retreat, Shugen Sensei looks closely at the mind of fear and anger through the Buddhist teachings, showing us how Zen practice can expose the falseness behind anger. When we see through this feeling clearly, we can gain the courage to face our own and others’ anger with compassion and earthy intelligence.

CDs and downloadable mp3s of this retreat are available for sale at The Monastery Store.

Opening the Gate…Continued

Moving Beyond Fear & Anger, part 1, continued

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei

CDs and downloadable mp3s of this retreat are available for sale at The Monastery Store.

Konrad Ryushin Marchaj, Sensei

An All-Encompassing Yes

“Everything is sufficient its way,” Ryushin Sensei says. This includes your life, your mind, your body, the patch of ground you’re sitting on. Underneath our heartbreak, distraction, or suffering, the natural order of life is an all-pervasive, joyous, yes. The way to see it? Through unremitting, thorough practice.

The koan in this talk is “The World Honored One Points to the Ground,” case 4 of the collection Book of Equanimity. This discourse was given at Zen Mountain Monastery on November 4, 2012.

Crossing Paths

Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi, on Mindful Eating

Eating is one of the most intimate things we do, and if we’re fortunate, we do it several times every day. How much attention to we give to this sacred activity? Do we appreciate the pleasures of taste? Do we notice the nourishment we receive from eating? Are we trying to nourish something else when we turn to food? Chozen Roshi takes up these questions in her workshop on Mindful Eating that she offered at ZMM last year and guides us in addressing them ourselves.

Recorded in May 2012 at ZMM.

Sounds from Zen Mountain

Dharma Encounter: The Fundamental Truth of Illness

In dharma encounter students work one-on-one with the teacher very much like in dokusan, except that it’s done with the whole sangha present. Here, Shugen Sensei invites the sangha to explore sickness from the perspective of the Zen teachings–not just physical illness, but the deeply important truth of psychological, emotional, and spiritual dis-ease as well.

This dharma encounter was held at ZCNYC on April 8, 2012.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei

Turning Towards Home

Having found our way to the dharma, we may have only a vague sense of what we’re seeking or why. At the same time, it all seems quite familiar, like catching a glimpse of an old friend we haven’t seen in years. What is that connection that grabs us? How do we find our way in the dark?

The koan in this talk is “Yunmen’s Sixty Blows,” case 280 from the True Dharma Eye. It was given at ZCNYC on March 24, 2013.

John Daido Loori, Roshi

Carrying the Lantern

Daido Roshi looks at the student-teacher relationship through the lens of this koan. He delves into what appears as a simple conversation, looking at the subtle ways that the dharma is transmitted, and how, when it comes to zen masters, there are no innocent questions.

The koan in this talk is “Tianran’s ‘Have You Eaten Yet?’” from the collection Koans of the Way of Reality. This discourse was given at Zen Mountain Monastery in November 2003