Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/28/26 - This teaching from ancient master Yunmen calls us not to ignore the strife around us, but to see it all through the eye of wisdom and compassion which does not get entangled by it. Even when the outer circumstances are not favorable—which is typical for samsara—we still have agency to affect things beyond our understanding when we take the Dharma as our refuge. (From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 6 - Every Day is a Good Day)

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 6/27/26 - Practicing zazen, seeing into our minds, is what makes it possible to loosen the grip and let our true self be known. We are called to actualize in our present bodies, in this life, the actual body and life of Buddha. On the path of awakening to the truth of this, we awaken to the truth of the “self-born wisdom deity” of the Buddha ancestors.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/25/26 - Resistance to change often underlies our suffering and shows up in feelings such as anxiety, irritation, impatience and so on. As an essential teaching of the Buddha, impermanence calls on us to reflect and study this as the condition of all life, allowing us to loosen the tension, to accept what is true, and find ways to move in accord with things. (From the Book of Serenity, Case 75 - Ruiyan's "Constant Principle")

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/21/26 - The sense of separation — from life, from happiness, from anything we feel apart from — lies at the root of what brings many of us to a spiritual path. The Buddha taught that suffering arises from the duality created by conceptual thinking. To truly end our troubles, and the troubles we create in the world, we must see into this directly. Shugen Sensei explores how we can deepen the practice of seeing the mind and experiencing our true nature. Through mindfulness, wisdom, and compassion, we can discover that we are not separate; we were never separate at all.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 6/14/26 - The Buddha said, “All things are ultimately liberated; they have no abiding place.” In this koan, the teenage Satsujo, completely devoted to practicing the Dharma, was sitting in her room when her father peeked in and saw her seated on a copy of the Lotus Sutra. Shocked, he shouted, “What are you doing sitting on this precious scripture?” Satsujo replied, “How is this wonderful sutra different from my ass? Quickly! What is this body-heart-mind before thoughts of sacred and profane arise?” Hojin Sensei uses this encounter to invite us to question the familiar divisions and fixed ideas in which we can become stuck—those habits of mind that separate sacred from ordinary and can become a source of confusion and suffering. (From Hidden Lamp: Stories from Awakened Women #72 – “Satsujo Sits on the Lotus Sutra”. Japan, 18th century.)

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 6/14/26 - What is already present is the authentic form of Buddha, not different than your own body and mind. We may think there is something broken that needs to be fixed about ourselves, or that we’re lacking in some way. Zazen is the authentic form of Buddha, and returning to yourself again and again is the contemplation of our own true self. Gokan Osho takes up this teaching and encourages us to see ourselves “without distractions and without duality, going beyond conceptualizing,” to contemplate Buddha.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 6/13/26 - When inquiry is alive within us, every thought we think can end with a question mark — perhaps even an exclamation mark — rather than a period. There is freedom in this openness, in loosening our fixed certainty and allowing experience to remain alive and fresh. Hojin Sensei explores a passage from the Diamond Sutra: “Develop a mind that abides nowhere.”

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/7/26 - How Buddhism uses the term "attachments" is often misunderstood as being something bad, which should not happen, but our sense of self is made up of a series of attachments: to identity, position, and so on. When we see through these many ideas of who we are, we can eventually settle our minds and experience our true nature. Using an ancient koan and the words of Henry David Thoreau, Shugen Roshi explores the world of attachment and how to bring clarity by exploring the inner wilderness to find the true nature of the self. (From the Gateless Gate, Case 44 - Basho's Stick.)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 5/31/26 - Mundane truth, enlightened truth, from the beginning are all together one. But there are snags that grab us, some of them repeatedly. Hongzhi describes our original mind this way: “from the beginning it is fundamentally all together complete, undefiled, clear down to the bottom.” In this Dharma Encounter with the sangha, Shugen Roshi asks: how do each of us use our difficulty, troubles, heartache and anger to relieve our suffering? How do we heal? The sangha shares the many ways we turn, rather than heaping on destruction, and practice reality with a heart of wisdom and compassion.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 5/30/26 - Zen is filled with koan stories asking this question: do they see it or not? Do you see “it”? Shugen Roshi says that we see only as far as our penetrating vision can reach at any time. And yet that is plenty. Our present experience invites us to look further and not solidify our moment to moment experience. The Path is not linear in the usual sense, although there is practice and realization, much more valuable is learning to ask, to get curious, and to practice every aspect of our lives. (From the Book of Serenity, Case 51 - Fayan's "Boat or Land".)