Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/30/25 - While many people search outside for the causes of feeling constrained and limited, the radical step toward transformation is to turn the light around. Coming close enough to see clearly our own constraining, deluded thinking—to see the truth in our own delusions— takes great courage and honesty. Before we can heal the world, we need to get clear about our own thinking and go beyond what appears to us as the limits of our freedom. This empowerment is always ultimately in our own hands. - From the Transmission of the Light, 32nd Zen Ancestor: Daoxin

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/24/25 - What is it to pass through something? Or to not pass through? In koan practice this image is utilized over and over again, and here a buddha made of wood cannot pass through a fire. To pass through or not presents a dilemma, the duality of good or bad, easy or difficult. How does the dharma help us to reach true freedom of mind? Shugen Roshi reminds us that suffering is always in the mind, and the end of suffering is the miraculous activity of our life itself. - Part 3 of 3. From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 96: Chao Chou's Three Turning Words

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/23/25 - The discriminating function of our minds has many benefits, and at the same time we need to reveal how it can become weaponized against ourselves. The furnace of a gold buddha might be seen as the more difficult entanglements of our lives, and yet within these circumstances we are empowered to completely transform the mind that resists and defends. Liberation takes determination and commitment to release our own obstructions. - Part 2 of 3. From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 96: Chao Chou's Three Turning Words

Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho - ZMM - 8/22/25 - As we practice over time, we mature in our practice and if we’re lucky we can also experience and appreciate that ripening in each other. Sharing the words of realized women and men from six centuries ago, Shoan Osho brings home our common commitment, shared questions and aspiration within ourselves and our dharma ancestors. Engaging our minds is the simple and direct way to deepen our understanding of our commonality, as well as our own unique ways of walking the Path.

Prabu Gikon Vasan, Senior Lay Student - ZMM - 8/21/25 - Understanding the many negations in the Heart Sutra, and the concept of “emptiness,” requires effort and faith. It asks us to examine what we take as true, and to verify that through practice. Buddhism does not limit this inquiry to abstract concepts; it directly engages our lived experiences and beliefs in order to ease suffering. If there is no value put on something--like a coin before it’s stamped--then what is it worth? Senior lay student Gikon takes up the path of practice, clarifying the essential teachings of form and emptiness.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/20/25 - In the language of koans, we are invited to step right into the embodied experience of the koan, which in this case is a Buddha made of mud which cannot pass through water. Can you immerse your mind in the muck and entanglement of a mud buddha? Is this mind trustworthy? To reveal our minds to ourselves, we can take up the method of focusing our own “miraculous awareness” within zazen, to bring forward the freedom and generosity to which we aspire. - Part 1 of 3. From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 96: Chao Chou's Three Turning Words

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/17/25 - Shugen Roshi reminds us that mind is the basis of all conflicted action, and so it is to mind that we direct our aspirations and intentions to bring goodness and ease into the world. Using mind to intentionally bring a joyful, generous state of being forward, as Shantideva’s verses encourage, can shift even the most divisive moments we encounter in our world of activity. Our willingness to practice this edge makes all the difference.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/10/25 - Living within the present world, surrounded by many acts of cruelty and hatred, each of us is called to recognize, liberate, and transform samsara as we are able to. The path to creating peace requires that we live within this reality, meeting our own strong emotions like frustration and despair and making use of the dharma to bring renewed energy and aspiration to the path. We can each ask: “What does my sphere of influence include?” What does this mind of practice encompass as a “Buddha Field,” and how within that reality can each of us serve?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/3/25 - How do we meet our conscious mind, skillfully? Mind training offers us ways to see our self-centered thinking habits, meeting our minds directly, and using this quality to learn about ourselves and to experience humility. In this way, our capacity for compassion can increase and we can hold the world in an unconditional way. - From the Book of Serenity - Case 14 - "Attendant Huo Passes Tea"

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 8/3/25 - Often overlooked, kinhin (walking meditation) is a most important, exquisite practice of the transition of rising up off our mountain seat and walking into our everyday lives in an undivided manner. How do we walk in accord with the Dharma—touching this great earth with wisdom and care, amidst all that life presents to us? Are we walking towards or away greater understanding? Are these different? Hojin Sensei begins by sharing her own daily ritual for maintaining harmony and offers the teaching of Master Dogen, "We must devote ourselves to a detailed study of this virtue of walking.”