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?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 8/9/26 - With effort in practice, we bring forth our natural aliveness. To do this we make an effort to let go of self-clinging and other ways we deplete our energies. Even with expectations of the way we imagine “letting go” to be, when we encounter the reality of how tight we grasp on to our attachments, can we yield our fixed and self-centered ideas? Shugen Roshi explores this energy of aliveness with the Five Powers of the Buddha as well as a koan from Dogen’s 300 Koan Shobogenzo. (From The True Dharma Eye, Case 44: Guishan's "I have already exhausted myself for you.")

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 8/9/26 - The Buddha said that all conditioned things—all things that begin to exist at a particular time—are impermanent, and will eventually decay and disappear. Aging is normal. Illness is normal. Death is normal. Yes, I will be separated from what I hold near and dear. My only real possessions are my actions. This is normal for everyone, no matter where we are. Is Buddhism, then, pessimistic—negative for bringing these facts to our attention? No. Hojin Sensei elucidates the difference between destructive pessimism and the wise acceptance of impermanence, quoting Rebecca Solnit, who offers this insight: “Pessimism is like a sinking ship. Even when we are faced with the possibility of hope and action, we dismiss hope as, ‘These people are naive. I know what’s going to happen. I know the real deal. This is gonna sink.’” She says, “It’s kind of like not even being able to see lifeboats that are bobbing all around us.” To see impermanence clearly is not to give up hope. It is to open ourselves to creation.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 8/2/26 - Koan study can turn our minds inward, showing us where we get stuck in our own habitual tangles and ways of thinking about reality. What is the true nature that ’mind training’ can reveal? Shugen Roshi brings alive the subtle teachings of Zhao Zhou with this question. Through practice, we gain some ground in working with our own minds, therefore finding ways to untangle ourselves and live in true freedom. (From the Gateless Gate, Case 11 - Zhao Zhou Examines the Hermits.)

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - 8/2/26 - “A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies, there is no end to the air.” Following a retreat at the temple, Avian Traces, Hojin Sensei speaks about being with her mother recently in her dying process, and a bird showing up on the windowsill making contact. She links this with other stories of birds and the fact that birds have been showing up in the Buddhist teachings going back to the time of the Buddha.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - 7/26/26 - In sesshin, the deep work of transformation is held within a supportive container. Yet each of us must still discover the capacity for faith as we learn to settle the mind and realize our true nature—our fundamentally free nature. This cultivation of faith can be understood in three ways: faith in practice and the path, faith in the boundlessness of the bodhisattva vow, and faith in the truth of cause and effect. In this talk, given at the conclusion of ZMM's Interdependence Sesshin, Shoan Sensei offers guidance for navigating these dimensions of faith.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 7/25/26 - Zazen practice of shikantaza, “just sitting” comes from the Chan practice of Silent Illumination. In solitude we find our way, in the support of the teachings and learning to allow our minds to settle and come to rest. How we can understand this practice requires knowing that it’s open and available all the time. Gokan Osho reminds us that this path of liberation, of silent illumination, is never far away when we clarify it for ourselves.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 7/12/26 - Ancient masters offer us teachings that speak to us in subtle ways, communicating insights that can be transformative even though they may not yet be our conscious experience. Hongzhi’s guidance speaks directly to our practice, toward how we can let the thinking mind go and let everything reveal itself. Gokan Osho says the revolution of practice is to see the mind, to see how we are creating our reality and, with awareness, let things be as they are.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 7/5/26 - Celebrating July 4th by looking at the dharma teachings on interdependence, Shugen Roshi leads us through the fundamental question of how suffering is created, and our personal and collective ability to heal as we affect the reality—the whole picture—of the physical, moral and metaphysical aspects of our lives. (From the Koans of the Way of Reality.)

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)