The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Thursday 08/25/2022 - Yunen explores how "emptiness is form" is expressed and illustrated in the Vimalakirti Sutra and shares his appreciation of its relationship to practice.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 08/24/2022 - From the Mahayana teaching The Uttaratantra Shastra - The Buddha Treasure - What is it that makes Buddhist meditation, liturgy, teachings, practices, the precepts that we follow, the vows that we take, a path to liberation? And how is it that we can awaken to the three treasures - the Buddha, Dharma & Sangha - in our everyday lives? Shugen Roshi encourages us to see the Buddha Treasure right within ourselves.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 08/21/2022 - One way or another, we've all experienced impermanence; we all know that we're going to die... And we don't know. How is that? How do we maintain that? Dharma Holder Gokan shares his poignant reflections on the Five Remembrances and the continuous practice of impermanence.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 08/21/2022 - What role does space and spaciousness play in our practice? How can we cultivate space, and work with blockages? In this talk, Shoan speaks about the art of attuning to what isn't here - the space that permeates our physical universe and experience, yet is often harder to notice than the concrete manifestations of our world and mind. To the extent that we can allow this natural space, we open ourselves to relief, freedom, and joy.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 08/14/2022 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 16 - Magu Shakes His Staff - Why do we practice mindfulness, why do we develop concentration, why do we do meditation? These and other aspects of practice... What do they bring us to? Shugen Roshi asks us to look carefully about what we think we're after; what are we aiming for? For instance, how do we manifest compassion, living in a world of good and evil, without creating more entanglements, without getting caught in the realm of right and wrong?

Chikyuu Donohue, Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Brooklyn 08/14/2022

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 08/07/2022 - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 8 - Hsi-chung Makes Carts - The Buddha realized, and taught, that it is our sense of self, our sense of our individual person within, that is the source of everything we create that causes distress and confusion and unhappiness. Salvation from this dukkha is not about finding a way out of it but about finding a way into it. If we want to actually free ourselves we have to practice freeing ourselves right now, just now.

Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 08/07/2022 - In this talk, Yunen explores Dogen's teachings on zazen through his Fukanzazengi. One of Dogen's central questions was "If all beings possess the Buddha nature, then what is the need for vigorous practice?" Yunen interweaves an account of Dogen's life with an inquiry into how he practiced this Great Doubt.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/31/2022 - Our own beliefs, conventional wisdom, our enculturated consciousness; these encompass the paths we follow in life. As practitioners of The Way, Shugen Roshi encourages us to look carefully into and through this conditioning and see that what we're moving towards is already here. - Concluding his talk, Shugen Roshi offers a poem in tribute to the Woman of Taishan: On the road to Mount Taishan a Tea Dragon serves illness and medicine for the well-being of the thirsty traveler. Please don't be deceived by her humble appearance. She has the power to change a life in an instant. Don't feel the need to adorn her humble appearance. She is majestic and noble, just as she is. Can you hear? Oh, person of the way, which road will you take to the great and calling mountain? - (The Woman of Taishan appears in a koan in both The Book of Serenity, Case 10, and The Gateless Gate, Case 31.)

Patrick Yunen Kelly, Senior Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 07/31/2022 - How can we bring alive appreciation in our practice? Yunen speaks to cultivating appreciation that does not depend on external circumstances. He brings in the Meal Gatha as an expression of our interdependence and an example of liturgy that can cultivate great appreciation.