In this Wednesday night Dharma Talk, Lama Rod Owens speaks on the importance of recognizing and being intimate with one’s own grief. This is how we can bloom to be lotuses, and serve others. Nevertheless, blossoming from mud to lotus is dirty, messy, and complex work, ‘…if you aren’t willing to get messy with complexity, you aren’t ready for the responsibility of being free… nor are you ready to free others.’


Lama Rod Owens: The Path of Grief, Justice, and Liberation

The Upaya Dharma Podcast features Wednesday evening Dharma Talks and recordings from Upaya’s diverse array of programs. Our podcasts exemplify Upaya’s focus on socially engaged Buddhism, including prison work, end-of-life care, serving the homeless, training in socially engaged practices, peace & nonviolence, compassionate care training, and delivering healthcare in the Himalayas.

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Fresh off a two-week pilgrimage to Japan, Roshi Joan and Upaya’s priests share reflections on their experience. For Roshi Joan, this pilgrimage was about connecting to the historical roots of Zen, cultivating relationships with modern-day practitioners, and touching the ethos of care in Japanese culture. Meeting with old and new friends from temples across the country, the trip was an opportunity to create and deepen relationships and learn through the exchange of cultures. From scroll glue that takes five years to make, “one-tooth” shoes worn to minimize harm to the Earth, and floors that have been cleaned so many times they look like mirrors, this embodiment of care and respect was a theme that repeatedly emerged. For others what stood out was the deep surrender of Japanese practitioners or the profound impact of Upaya’s G.R.A.C.E. trainings in Japan. For many priests, the experience of this pilgrimage is still being processed, but a question arose out of it: What is the heart of Zen practice?

Reflections from Japan

This is the closing session of this program with Roshi Joan leading it with comments from the participants.
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The Way Of Haiku: Waking Up Through Writing (9 of 9)

In this impassioned talk, Jimmy Baca shares deeply personal experiences to illustrate the transformative power of writing and the significance of engaging with the present through art. He recounts his journey from being “just a number” as an inmate to becoming a profound voice for the marginalized. He tells of realizing a gift and using it to capture emotions and experiences in words to connect deeply with others and transcend barriers. Baca emphasizes the importance of using one’s talents not for self-aggrandizement but to serve and uplift those around them, embodying the spirit of giving back to the community that supported his own transformation. The talk shifts towards the relevance and application of Haiku in today’s world, advocating for its evolution from a venerated tradition to a dynamic, inclusive medium that resonates with contemporary issues and audiences.
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The Way Of Haiku: Waking Up Through Writing (8 of 9)

Pico Iyer discusses Haiku as a reflection of Japanese culture, highlighting its brevity, impermanence, and communal aspect. He notes Haiku’s integration into modern Japanese life, from education to public displays, underscoring its function as an exercise in mindfulness and a celebration of nature’s rhythms. Through anecdotes, Iyer illustrates how Haiku and Japanese cultural practices emphasize interconnectedness, minimalism, and attentiveness to the present moment. He shares the poignant life story of the Haiku poet Issa, whose works embody resilience and gratitude amidst personal tragedies, drawing a parallel between Issa’s outlook and the Dalai Lama’s approach to life’s hardships. Iyer concludes by reflecting on Haiku’s ability to foster a collective spirit and realistic acceptance of life’s impermanence
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The Way Of Haiku: Waking Up Through Writing (7 of 9)

Jane Hirshfield reads a Haiku by Basho about a horse eating roadside rose mallow, highlighting its simplicity, descriptive nature, and the human perception it conveys. She elaborates on the poem’s themes of impermanence, the cycle of life, and the shared experiences of life and death, using it to illustrate how Haiku captures and conveys the essence of human depth and allows for surprising clarity through its concise form. She contrasts Haiku with a longer poem of her own to illustrate the differences in conveying meaning and the potential of Haiku to evoke multiple resonances and associations due to its brevity. Hirshfield also dives into the origins of Haiku, and other forms of Japanese poetry at the time of its creation.
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Lama Rod Owens: The Path of Grief, Justice, and Liberation

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