Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/11/25 - The connection between the creative process and the Dharma is an important entranceway to deepening our Zen practice. Engaging creative expression as a practice helps us leap free of the constraints of intellect, experiencing a resonance with the world beyond what we think of as “myself.” Our senses take in the whole world. So how are we not overwhelmed or deceived by our perceptions? How do we inhabit this “dharma body” with clarity, and commune with all reality? - From the Book of Serenity, Case 82 - Yunmen's Sound and Form.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 5/9/25 - What is it we wish to cultivate in our lives, to give energy to? Fusatsu is a chance to bring our intentions alive—especially where we have done harm—by taking responsibility for our actions. Being at one with our transgressions as well as our aspirations are at the heart of this ancient practice of atonement, or “being one with,” and allowing ourselves to resolve, forgive and release what burdens us. - Dharma Talk during the Fusatsu Ceremony at the Spring Ango Intensive.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/4/25 - How we take up the Dharma includes how we study, using words to go beyond words and concepts. How we see words being used in the world should give us an understanding of how we might get tangled in our own objectification of things. Freedom emerges hand in hand with how we learn to be free of grasping, even in the realm of language, and to apply what we hear in liturgy and the sutras to our own experience. - From the Book of Serenity, Case 45 - Four Sections of the Enlightenment Scripture.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 5/4/25 - To truly engage the many skillful means to awakening, we must imagine the possibility of moving beyond reactive patterns and socially imposed norms—to free the clinging mind from suffering. Hojin Sensei explores imagination as an essential part of the dharmic path, through which we begin to recognize, as the Buddha taught, what is true by direct experience. Can we imagine it?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/27/25 - How do we work skillfully with the teacher-student relationship in Zen training? What do we create with it in our minds? Working with a teacher, how can we learn to show up authentically, to meet ourselves? To work out the difficult moments we find ourselves in, and allow our vulnerable hearts to shine forth? Shugen Roshi concludes that even misstepping is an important part of the path, and what matters most is what we do next. - Dharma Encounter at the conclusion of the April 2025 Apple Blossom Sesshin.

Suzanne Taikyo Gilman, Senior Monastic - ZCNYC - 4/27/25 - Can we use our direct experience to express what words cannot adequately convey? Using a teaching from zen master Hongzhi, monastic Taikyo takes up this question of how to explore the vast universe within ourselves and share our dark fears, our vulnerability, and our joys, in traveling this path.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/26/25 - All beings have buddha nature and the capacity to fully realize ourselves; this is a fundamental teaching of the Dharma. Shugen Roshi explores the realization of Vasumitra, an early successor to the Buddha, in an encounter with his own transmission teacher. How is it to be fully met in the dharma, and be fully met by a teacher? To fully meet ourselves? Are we ready to extend our patience, vulnerability and integrity? Your own aspiration forms the vessel of the Dharma. It doesn’t happen anywhere else. - From the Transmission of Light, Case 8 - Vasumitra.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZMM - 4/25/25 - Skillful means, “Upaya,” are forms that the teachings take throughout our practice. How do we take up everything, including the edges that appear, rather than fight against them? How do we use our practice to explore and expand our capacity to be alive, fulfilled, and responsive to the world? - Dharma Talk during the Apple Blossom Sesshin 2025 Fusatsu Ceremony.

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 4/24/25 - Honesty is essential to serious spiritual practice. We need to become honest with ourselves about the nature of our suffering, our habitual reactivity and our fear, so that we can acknowledge them before being able to release them. This level of integrity is needed for the entrance to a loving and compassionate relationship with ourselves and others. As Hogen Sensei says, this intention affects every aspect of living and dying, and the choices we’re free to make along the way. - From Master Dogen's Treasury of the True Dharma Eye - Fascicle 31 - Continuous Practice (Gyoji)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/23/25 - The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra shows us there is no intrinsic right and wrong when we understand the nature of emptiness. Selflessness is a key aspect of this wisdom, and developing a clear understanding is essential. The self-less wisdom is what we can rely on to guide us within a world of dualities: good and bad, right and wrong, form and emptiness, seeing their true nature as non dual. In emptiness, nothing exists as separate on its own; all reality is interdependent. Not grasping, not holding on to, not forsaking anything, this is how Shugen Roshi explains the practice of the Perfection of Wisdom.