The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Chris Yudo Abraham, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday  09/18/2022 - From Shunryu Suzuki: "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" - What is beginner's mind? Where is beginner's mind?  Yudo describes his path in zen practice as one of appreciating Beginner's Mind and the constant returning to Zazen as the heart of it.

Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 09/18/2022 - Yunen offers insight into the thusness of negative experiences and emotions. He explores what comes when we allow sad to just be sad, tribulations to simply be tribulations.

Katie Yosha Scott-Childress, Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 09/25/2022 - Yosha expounds on the Karaniya Metta Sutta and it's applications in our everyday lives.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/11/2022 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 35 - The Dialog of Manjusri and Wu Cho

"In the first moment of contact, what we see, what we hear, is not obscured. Sound and form are purely real, they are just as they are, they are not anything other. But our mind, in an instant, before we know it, without our seeing it, floods that image or that sound or that taste, or touch, with all of our mind’s karmic burden. All our perceptions, our views, our beliefs, our memories, and so on. While our senses simply perceive things, non-obscured, our mind then begins to in a flash obscures and gives meaning, which is taught. Everything in society teaches us what those things mean. All of those ways we separate and exclude and include and create conflict and wealth and poverty, the whole mass of suffering."

"To be able to separate the profound from the naive, to distinguish a jewel from a stone, is actually necessary. If we can’t discern within our own practice of what is practice according to the dharma and what is not, what is a serving or habitual desire, and what is an impulse or sense of a direction that we can trust, it’s going to be very difficult to practice. So we need to learn how to distinguish. But to do so without malice, without ill will. With clarity. And without infusing a sense of absolute truth into those things that we are discerning."

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 09/04/2022 - Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of our 90-day Fall Ango Intensive training period, "Moon Thusness." If you'd like to learn more about our Ango program and possibly participate, please click here: https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/ango/

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 09/04/2022 - Hojin Sensei offers opening reflections on the Fall 2022 Ango training period, introducing the primary texts that training students will be working with as well as the themes of art practice, nature contemplation, and Dogen's Fascicle "The Moon."

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 08/28/2022 - From the Mahayana teaching The Uttaratantra Shastra - The Sangha Treasure - Shugen Roshi encourages us to look deeply and realize the three treasures as our own nature, our own body and mind. And although we manifest them (how we relate to the ancestors, how we receive the teachings, how we practice, how we gather together as a community, etc.) in terms particular to the Buddhist path, when we truly take refuge in the three treasures we are realizing them as the nature of all of humanity. No boundaries. Sangha is community. We can think of it as "the sangha of one"; i.e. you and the many beings that populate your mind and body. We can think of it as this community practicing together. Sangha is the virtue of harmony. Sangha is the Three Treasures.

Degna Chikei Levister, Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 08/28/2022 - Chikei Levister explores practicing in the midst of our busy lives. She discusses harnessing attention as a means to better understand our anxiety and fear of missing out.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 08/27/2022 - From the Mahayana teaching The Uttaratantra Shastra - The Dharma Treasure - "Dharma" refers to The Law, The Teachings, Reality. But what is it actually, beyond the superficial? Shugen Roshi explores all the many aspects of Buddhist practice which together bring us to a true encounter with the Dharma.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 08/26/2022 - From The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind - "The Buddhas and all living beings are only one Mind. There is no other reality." Shoan uses Huang-Po's teachings to reflect on the notion of progress in Zen training, encouraging us to relax and let go of this kind of seeking and instead use our wholehearted practice as a way of open discovery. Have faith and trust yourself!