Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 8/30/26 - Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of the MRO 90-day Fall Ango 2026 training period: "Buddha Nature."

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 8/30/26 - Join Hojin Sensei offering opening remarks to the practitioners at Fire Lotus Temple in Brooklyn to begin the Fall Ango Practice Period:

"Now the hundreds of grasses are actually gathering for the Fall.

Plucked from the entire earth, there would be ten million stalks.

One flower with five petals opens in the sky and the mud.

Without doubt it will naturally bear fruit."

—Dogen’s words opening an Ango practice period.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/29/26 - Breathing, sitting, walking, all of these ordinary activities offer the capacity to train the mind. But in what? Awareness, non-grasping, insight, stability, all these good qualities essential for liberating ourselves and others. Training is a vessel, it holds whatever we bring and it carries us along as well, a vehicle for practice. Shugen Roshi reminds us that trust in the process of Zen training is essential, but we will need to take that first step to enter training, and to continue coming back to receive the benefits of what it has to offer.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 8/29/26 - The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta is where Buddha gives the four postures: walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. The instruction is essentially to know the body as it is disposed: “when standing, one knows, ‘I am standing.’” walking they know: ‘I am walking.’ When sitting they know: ‘I am sitting.’ And when lying down they know: ‘I am lying down. When our body is aligned and upright the bodies energies begin to settle and circulate in a way that is balanced and the mind too settles into a calmer place. In this talk Hojin explores “when standing, one knows, ‘I am standing.’ It seems simple to just stand, but is it? (Zazenkai Talk)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/23/26 - Breath is the quality that brings and sustains life--an inspiration of what enters us and provides nourishment. To have aspiration, in a sense, is the desire and motivation inspired by the Dharma which brings us into practice, inspired by our own internal call. When we cultivate even a small aspiration toward awakening, we encounter the possibility of freeing ourselves and liberating others. Shugen Roshi reminds us that we each have influence within our own sphere of living. So, what is our aspiration? What will we do with this very precious life?

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 8/23/26 - Someone asked the teacher: “Are you lonely”? Hojin takes up these senses of loneliness, solitariness and aloneness. The Buddha taught, “All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.” Can you relate? (From The Hidden Lamp #48: The Old Woman's Relatives)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/22/26 - Many times our practice can be simple and straightforward. But when conditions become adverse, how do we stay on the path? The Dharma points us toward beneficial qualities within ourselves that we can cultivate and draw upon for strength—to support our focus, deepen our faith, and develop clarity. Sometimes called the Beautiful Qualities, or Beautiful Mental Factors, these qualities can sustain and strengthen our practice, especially as we encounter negative conditioning and our habitual patterns.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 8/21/26 - What do we aspire to in our practice? What are we looking for? This deeply personal question can help us find our way among the many Dharma offerings we encounter, which can sometimes feel difficult to take up. In this vast, wide world, why practice? Why? This fundamental question opens many fruitful avenues of practice. Looking within—deepening our zazen—we discover this vastness, this world, and, within it, our freedom. (From the Gateless Gate, Case 16 - The Sound of the Bell and the Seven-Panel Robe.)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 8/19/26 - What are the qualities that help, or hinder, our ability to enter and sustain practice on a path of liberation? What to cultivate, what to mindfully let go of? The Buddha and later practitioners studied and taught these ways to support our practice, to best support us in this life, for the life of all beings. Shugen Roshi offers this guiding talk during the Hazy Moon sesshin.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZMM - 08/16/2026 - Drawing on Dogen’s Mountains & Rivers Sutra and various texts on walking meditation, Hojin Sensei brings alive a study of how we move through space and time. Drawing on the “virtue of walking” as a constantly alive practice , she asks: how does stillness move? How does practice on the cushion stand up and move through all aspects of our lives?