Buddhist Geeks

Creativity Without Grasping

Martine Batchelor explores the process of grasping and its amplifying/exaggerating effects. She also goes into how meditation can help us to de-grasp/release our holding thus allowing for a more creative engagement and creative response.

Mixing Science and Dharma

Willoughby Britton, contemplative scientist and neuroscience researcher, speaks about mixing Dharma with scientific enterprise. Scientific research of meditation is undoubtedly one of the forces behind the proliferation of the Dharma, and offers much promise as a “Dharma technology”. However, Britton asserts that significant challenges remain before we can harness the full power of scientific enterprise.

These programs were produced by Buddhist Geeks.

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.

Konrad Ryushin Marchaj, Sensei

The Best Deal You’ve Ever Been Offered

Imagine you meet a man on the street who offers you a deal: “Give me everything, and I’ll give you nothing in return.” This is Bodhidharma, offering us the path to complete freedom. In giving away everything we’re attached to, the whole universe naturally offers us everything back.

The koan in this talk is “Bodhidharma’s ‘Emptiness’,” Case 2 from the Book of Equanimity It was given at ZCNYC on October 27, 2012.

John Daido Loori, Roshi

Just Close the Gap

In this helpful talk, Daido Roshi takes up the Buddhist teachings on the nature of mind, looking at how Zen trains us to study and realize this mind directly, and at zazen as a practice of closing the gap between ourselves and the universe.

The koan in this talk is “The Sixth Ancestor’s ‘Your Mind is Moving,’” Case 146 from the True Dharma Eye. It was given at ZMM in September 1999.

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

What Brings Us to Practice?

From within a dream how do we begin to get the sense that we are dreaming? How do we begin to aspire to wake up? How do we come to a genuine spiritual path? In this discourse Shugen describes what it is like to live a life when we are just chasing after things and what it means to turn to the Way.

The koan in this talk is “Ching Ch’ing’s Sound of Raindrops,” Case 46 from the Blue Cliff Record. It was given at ZCNYC on March 17, 2013.

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.

Loving This Earth

The Promised Land: Queen of the Forest Canopy

Nalini Nadkarn has spent decades climbing the trees of Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea, the Amazon, and the Pacific Northwest, exploring the world of animals and plants that live in the canopy 30 to 200 feet up in the air. She has also reached into correctional facilities and harnessed the enthusiasm of prisoners for botani to help her in her research. “When we come to understand nature, we are touching the most deep and most important parts of ourself.”

This show was originally produced for the program The Promised Land, for American Public Media.

Konrad Ryushin Marchaj, Sensei

The Best Deal You’ve Ever Been Offered

Imagine you meet a man on the street who offers you a deal: “Give me everything, and I’ll give you nothing in return.” This is Bodhidharma, offering us the path to complete freedom. In giving away everything we’re attached to, the whole universe naturally offers us everything back.

The koan in this talk is “Bodhidharma’s ‘Emptiness’,” Case 2 from the Book of Equanimity It was given at ZCNYC on October 27, 2012.

Story Hour

Stories for a Winter’s Night

As the last of the snow melts from the mountain side, let’s curl up and listen to some Native American tales, performed by Joan Henry.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei

What Brings Us to Practice?

From within a dream how do we begin to get the sense that we are dreaming? How do we begin to aspire to wake up? How do we come to a genuine spiritual path? In this discourse Shugen describes what it is like to live a life when we are just chasing after things and what it means to turn to the Way.

The koan in this talk is “Ching Ch’ing’s Sound of Raindrops,” Case 46 from the Blue Cliff Record. It was given at ZCNYC on March 17, 2013.