The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

By Zen Mountain MonasteryReligion & Spirituality Buddhism

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Typical duration
42 min
per episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast episodes

July 15, 2019 Illness and Medicine
Prabu Gikon Vasan, Senior Lay Practitioner
Zen Mountain Monastery, 07/13/2019
What happens when someone on a spiritual path encounters difficulty, especially when the things that had maintained ones wellbeing are jeopardized or outright vanish? Turning to teachings of Zen Master Torei, senior lay student Gikon explores the wisdom of facing the conditions in our present reality, whatever it is, bringing all of our inner resources to light.

37 min
July 07, 2019 Fayan Points to a Blind
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, 7/7/2019
Book of Serenity, Case 27
How is it when a vow is made without clarity of our true intentions, or who will be impacted, or the results of our actions? How do we revisit, again and again, that commitment or vow and make it “more perfect”? This ancient Dharma teaching from Master Fayan and the pledge behind our own Independence Day vows—the Constitution of the US—both reflect and create our world, and our place in it.
48 min
July 07, 2019 Working With The Hindrances
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic Zen Center of New York City, 7/7/2019
In this talk, Senior Monastic Gokan explores some of the barriers along the Buddhist path and ways to work with them. He asks us to consider: What is a thought? Where does it come from, and what is it made of? When we release them, and what is it that’s left? How do we work skillfully with our minds and all that arises, both on and off the meditation cushion?
42 min
June 30, 2019 Ordinary Mind is the Way
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, 6/30/2019
Gateless Gate, Case 19
Zhouzou asks Master Nanquan, “What is the way?” and is instructed, “Ordinary mind is the way.” What are we to make of this, where clearly there is more below the surface to be reckoned with? This talk is third in a series on sacred mountain training, this time looking at living and practicing within the world of distractions, contradictions and trouble. Shugen Roshi cites the tenth Ox-herding verses to describe the mystery and groundedness of ordinary mind:
Barefooted and naked of breast,
I mingle with the people
of the world.
My clothes are ragged and dust-laden,
and I am ever blissful.
I use no magic to extend my life;
Now, before me, the dead trees
become alive.
46 min
June 30, 2019 Unmon Stretches His Arms
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei Zen Center of New York City, 6/30/2019
Blue Cliff Record, Case 54 In this talk, Hogen Sensei uses the dialogue of this koan to explore our fundamental sense of who we are and to remind us that practice is always our own, a journey of discovering and realizing our true nature. The answers to what we seek are within our own lives, aided by our own ability to listen, and our clear intention to be of benefit in the world, and to manifest realization in all aspects of our lives.
40 min
June 29, 2019 Zhaozhou’s Mu
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi
Zen Mountain Monastery, 6/29/2019
Gateless Gate, Case 1
A student asked the master, “Does even a dog have buddha nature or not?”
The master replied, “Not.”
For a thousand years or so, this exchange between two practitioners of ancient China has been a perplexing poison/medicine to Zen students—shriveling the ego’s defenses and uncovering the fertile ground below. In many schools, it is the first koan one is assigned. In some schools, it is the only koan to be ever assigned. It is “the great barrier gate of wise ones and sages.” And despite all the mythologizing and cultural/historical distance, as Shugen Roshi points out in this talk from Summer Solstice Sesshin, for each person who takes it up, it always boils down to one intimate moment.
52 min
June 29, 2019 Where is the Other?
Horace Kaishu Moody, Senior Lay Student
Zen Mountain Monastery, 06/28/2019
Going in to the heart of the Bodhisattva precepts, this talk asks “what is other?” – much like we often ask in relationship with the world, “what is self?” How is this apparent self and other, in fact, not clearly separate at all? Sharing the grieving and remembrance of a cherished friend, or taking responsibility for our own thoughts and actions, can be inexplicable and wonderful when there is no separation of self and other.
48 min
June 28, 2019 Attention Attending
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei Zen Mountain Monastery, 06/27/2019

Quoting an old Zen story, a student asks what is the basis of great wisdom and the teacher answers “Attention!” Hojin Sensei speaks about the student’s struggle to understand and see what is profound and subtle in this instruction, attention attention attention! How can whole-hearted and simple attention help us to work skillfully with what is directly in front of us?
39 min
June 27, 2019 Guishan’s Active Consiousness
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi Zen Mountain Monastery, 6/26/2019
Book of Serenity, Case 37
Citing Dogen’s fascicle on Thusness and passages from the Lankavatara Sutra, Shugen Roshi explores being true to oneself and true to the dharma in sacred mountain training. The question for practitioners is: what is it to whole-heartedly live, and how do we take that up in each moment? This encounter between Guishan and Yangshan is one of many koans using a call and response to explore the deeper intimacy between teacher and student and within the student’s own mind of inquiry.
47 min
June 23, 2019 T’ien P’ing’s Travels on Foot
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi Zen Mountain Monastery, 6/23/2019
Blue Cliff Record, Case 98
How does working with a koan help to illuminate ones mind, to clarify the nature of suffering and bring peace to the world? In this discourse Shugen Roshi explores how a student can work with a koan in the context of zazen and with the guidance of teachers, and how any aspect of our lives can become a lived koan, in formal training and in everyday life.
49 min

About The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

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The Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO) is a Western Zen Buddhist lineage established by the late John Daido Loori Roshi and dedicated to sharing the dharma as it has been passed down, generation to…