The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Saturday 07/30/2022 - What is our understanding of Conventional Wisdom, or Relative Truth in Buddhist parlance, as it makes up what we call "the self"? Shugen Roshi brings in the writing of Marcus Borg, the American Christian Theologian, and examines what we are doing when we undertake the extensive project of "studying the self."

Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Friday 07/29/2022 - From the the Sutra of Hui-Neng (The Platform Sutra of the 6th Ancestor), Hui-Neng himself describes his realization: "I thought there was an I who sees and hears. That was a great mistake. It's only a sound perceived with a mind resting in no place. Now I understand there is no birth or death. This wide open state of mind is my original mind. The mountains, the rivers, the sun and the moon are all me." - Shoan brings up this fundamental teaching of "no-self"... OK. So, there is no self. And yet here I am. How do we hold these "two truths"? And our sense of identity... How does it come to us? And why does it often become such a seemingly unresolvable entanglement? Shoan encourages us to be mindful and patient and to hold our stories loosely.

Linda Shinji Hoffman - Zen Mountain Monastery - Lay senior Shinji Hoffman draws on her experience as a farmer to help explain the Buddha's teaching on the twelve-link chain of dependent origination, the teaching that everything arises due to causes and conditions. How can we use this teaching to transform our karma? How do we stop causing suffering for ourselves and others? Shinji gives examples of how to shift our deep negative habits at the chain link of feeling.

Robert Rakusan Ricci, Senior Monastic - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Wednesday 07/27/2022 - The three messengers: old age, sickness, and death. Why do we call them messengers? What do they tell us? Do we listen? And how do we respond? In this poetic offering, Rakusan talks about how he holds his personal encounters and experience of the three messengers in light of Master Dogen's teachings (...to study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self....) along with the wisdom of Leonard Cohen ("Who by Fire"). Rakusan gently admonishes us to heed the call of the three messengers and give voice to our Bodhisattva vows.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/24/2022 - How do we truly take care of each other? How do we truly take care of ourselves? How do we do both at the same time? Is there a difference? How do we soften any opposition that might arise? Gokan shares his own experiences and mindfulness practices while exploring these questions.

Tenfu Loisel, Lay Student - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Brooklyn 07/24/2022

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, Sunday 07/17/2022 - Hojin Sensei speaks on Chapter 7 from the Vimalakirti Sutra entitled "The Goddess." In this chapter, Manjushri asks Vimalakirti , "How should we regard living beings?" Hojin Sensei offers insight into the harm done through the oppression of particular human embodiments. She shares teachings on how to honor all aspects of ourselves and others: sameness and difference as one reality.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/17/2022 - Shoan reflects on what it is that we're doing and why it matters. How does "looking inward", rather than just outward, help us navigate our life? Shoan brings in three "boat parables" to illustrate. From Master Dogen's Genjokoan, Charlotte Joko Beck's "Everyday Zen", and a poem by 17th century Chinese nun Jingnou in "Daughters of Emptiness".

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - Zen Mountain Monastery -

Drawing from 12th century Zen Master Hongzhi, monastic and dharma holder Gokan provides us with guidance on turning inside and entering into our zazen practice. What does practicing true reality mean? How do we bring our life into the immense reality that it is?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 07/10/2022 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 82 - Ta Lung's "Hard and Fast Body of Reality" - In this crucible of our lives today, so full of so much, why, in Buddhism is there an emphasis on realizing emptiness? Similarly, why does realizing the nature of the self liberate us from our attachments? At the same time, we speak of the body of reality. That doesn't sound very empty, and we're certainly attached to our own bodies, the living manifestation of impermanence. So what is our true body, our body of reality? We speak of the three bodies of the buddha: Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya. Can we understand these as aspects of ourselves?