Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

By Joan Halifax | Zen Buddhist Teacher Upaya Abbot

Society & Culture Education Philosophy Religion & Spirituality Buddhism

What's Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast about?

The Upaya Dharma Podcast features Wednesday evening Dharma Talks and recordings from Upaya’s diverse array of programs. Our podcasts exemplify Upaya’s focus on socially engaged Buddhism, including prison work, end-of-life care, serving the homeless, training in socially engaged practices, peace & nonviolence, compassionate care training, and delivering healthcare in the Himalayas.

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Wendy Johnson: Grass Boundl...

01.30.2023

On the fourth night of Winter Practice Period sesshin, Sensei Wendy Johnson explores Case 89 of The Book of Serenity, “Dongshan’s “Place of No Grass.””

Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast episodes:

01.30.2023 Wendy Johnson: Grass Boundless: Inside the Gate, Outside the Gate On the fourth night of Winter Practice Period sesshin, Sensei Wendy Johnson explores Case 89 of The Book of Serenity, “Dongshan’s “Place of No Grass.””
01.23.2023 Stepping Off A 100 Foot Pole: Case 79 The Book of Serenity “When we all have enough, we can fully let go. When we fully let go, we know what it is to have enough.” In this joyful and moving talk, Sensei Matthew Kozan Palevsky breaks open Case 79 from The Book ...
01.16.2023 The One Who Is Not Trifling With a combination of playfulness and humility, Sensei Noah Kodo Roen presents Case 21 of Book of Serenity, “Yunyan Sweeps the Ground,” and explores the dichotomy of mindfulness and busyness, as well as the connections of Yunyan and Daowu to ...
01.09.2023 On Joy “What are you doing?” a mom asked her young son who she found sitting cross legged, smiling, with eyes closed on the couch. “I’m enjoying my body,” he replied. From power outage induced darkness, Sensei Amie Diller offered us in ...
01.02.2023 Talking on Empty “Many of our friends are no longer alive or we don’t see them anymore. [Writing poetry] is a way we hold them.” Natalie Goldberg reflects on the end of the year and on friendship by looking at the work of ...
12.26.2022 Dekila Chungyalpa: Wisdom of Winter: Rest, Regeneration, and Rebirth “Does your breathing change when you imagine it’s the landscape breathing?” Dekila Chungyalpa invites us to explore different ways of looking at time (as nature and different species view time, time as seasonal) that exist outside of our human tendency ...
12.19.2022 Eloquent Silence In this poetic talk, Fushin James Bristol reflects on the role of silence in zen practice and in our lives. Sharing personal stories, music knowledge, Buddhist history, and other moving anecdotes from a wide array of sources, Fushin elucidates all ...
12.16.2022 Buddhist Visions of Leadership 2022 (Part 4) In Part 4 of this multipart series, John Dunne discusses some more of Nagarjuna’s policies around leadership and considers how they can create personal and world transformation. Roshi Joan Halifax and John take questions from the Zoom participants at the ...
12.15.2022 Buddhist Visions of Leadership 2022 (Part 3) In Part 3 of this multipart series, Joan Dunne delves into ancient Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna’s work The Ratnavali or The Jewel Garland which offers counsel to kings or all who are king-like. Roshi Joan Halifax and John take questions ...
12.12.2022 Joan Halifax: Rohatsu: Green Dharma (Part 1) Sensei Kaz Tanahashi and Roshi Joan Halifax open the first full day of Rohatsu Green Dharma sesshin with their dharma talk on Indra’s Net and what it means to hold this mindset. Due to technical difficulties, the first part of ...
12.05.2022 Dorotea Mendoza: Show, Don’t Tell: How the Practice of Writing Can Teach us About Engagement and Service In this wonderful talk, Dorotea Mendoza “walks the talk” of showing rather than telling by sharing some of her personal experiences, e.g. how she misses the Philippines, the country of her origin, and how to actualize writing and service from ...
11.28.2022 John Dunne & Joan Halifax: Buddhist Visions of Leadership 2022 (Part 2) In Part 2 of this multi-part series, Roshi Joan Halifax considers the qualities of a leader as modeled and taught by the Buddha. Roshi speaks of the Buddha as a social reformer, being one who disapproved of the caste system, ...
11.25.2022 John Dunne & Joan Halifax: Buddhist Visions of Leadership 2022 (Part 1) Series Description: Upaya’s Abbot and social activist Roshi Joan Halifax and the wonderful Buddhist scholar Dr. John Dunne guide participants through a unique and rich exploration of Buddhist visions of leadership. They draw on classical and contemporary Buddhist perspectives, including ...
11.21.2022 Monshin Nannette Overley: Always Maintain a Joyful Mind Sensei Monshin Nannette Overley explores the provoking Lojong slogan “Always maintain a joyful mind.” She examines perspectives on joy that go beyond our cultural view of “happy happy joy joy.” She considers how joy can manifest as and be born ...
11.14.2022 John Dunne: Bodhisattva Lineage “Without the lineage, we are like people without fire and we’re going to be out of luck.” Professor John Dunne speaks about the importance of the Buddhist lineage and how it can often be discounted in our society steeped in ...
11.07.2022 Wendy Johnson: A Harvest of Dharma and Ecology Sensei Wendy Johnson gives a characteristically energizing, inspiring, and poetic talk on ecology and Dharma practice. She discusses the process and practice of planting and harvesting Upaya’s garden this past year and the relationship she and Upaya have built with ...
10.31.2022 Sensei Noah Kodo Roen: Effortless Freedom Sensei Noah Kodo Roen reports on his first year of fatherhood and what he’s learned from his daughter Skyla. Try to imagine what it would be like to be a newborn baby meeting each thing for the first time, without ...
10.29.2022 Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: Training the Mind to Transform (9 of 9) In this final episode of Training the Mind to Transform, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, invites program participants to share any insights from their conversations in small groups, reminding us that we now only derive wisdom from our own confusion ...
10.28.2022 Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: Training the Mind to Transform (8 of 9) Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, invites participants in her Training the Mind to Transform program to discuss their experiences with Lojong training thus far. She prescribes certain slogans for particular difficulties, such as “Don’t turn gods into demons” for someone ...
10.27.2022 Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: Training the Mind to Transform (7 of 9) In this episode of Training the Mind to Transform, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, explores some potentially difficult sayings, such as, drive all blames into one, all dharmas agree at one point, and regard all dharmas as dreams in more ...
10.26.2022 Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: Training the Mind to Transform (6 of 9) In this episode of Training the Mind to Transform, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, continues to lead us through the Lojong trainings and the creation of our own mind training manuals. She reminds us of the driving points of mind ...
10.24.2022 Natalie Goldberg: Catching Your Insight “Sometimes it’s good to just shut up and pay attention.” Natalie Goldberg reminds us that it’s important to know human suffering, to not run away from it. Zen is about experiencing ourselves in the world as it is. “The world ...
10.23.2022 Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: Training the Mind to Transform (5 of 9) In part 5 of Training the Mind to Transform, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, continues her deep dive into the four slogans below, explaining phrases in the slogans that may be unfamiliar. It’s vital in this training to not let ...
10.22.2022 Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: Training the Mind to Transform (4 of 9) In part 4 of Training the Mind to Transform, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, takes a deep dive into the four slogans below, explaining phrases in the slogans that may be unfamiliar. It’s vital in this training to not let ...
10.21.2022 Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: Training the Mind to Transform (3 of 9) Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, provides a practice for engaging Atisha’s mind training slogans. She suggests writing down a slogan or training, pausing, reading the slogan again, and then writing a brief reflection on how the slogan applies to your ...
10.20.2022 Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: Training the Mind to Transform (2 of 9) Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams, Roshi, talks about the importance of approaching practice, Lojong and otherwise, as actual practice rather than mere intellectual speculation or performance. To this end, she substitutes the traditional Lojong “slogans” with Lojong “trainings,” empathizing that these ...
10.17.2022 Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: Training the Mind to Transform (1 of 9) Series Description: Rev. Angel Kyodo williams, Roshi, is one of the most remarkable Buddhist teachers in our world today. Her unique and powerful approach to practice has transformed the lives of so many. We are fortunate to welcome her to ...
10.16.2022 Frank Ostaseski & Joan Halifax: Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts (8 of 8) In the final portion of Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts, Frank and Roshi have an extended conversation with program participants about their experiences of love, death, and grief. Frank assures us that when we lose a loved one, ...
10.15.2022 Frank Ostaseski & Joan Halifax: Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts (7 of 8) In part seven of Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax discuss grief as a natural response to both loss of what we’ve cherished and to what we’ve wanted but never gotten. Frank assures ...
10.13.2022 Matthew Kozan Palevsky: Practice without Ceasing – Fall Practice Period 2022 (11 of 11) Sensei Matthew Kozan Palevsky gives the final Dharma talk of Upaya’s 2022 Fall Practice Period and sesshin. He discusses atoning and renewing vows on this last day of Ango during the ceremony of Fusatsu, and continuing to practice with sincerity, ...
10.12.2022 Shinzan Palma: Seeing Who We Really Are – Fall Practice Period 2022 (10 of 11) Sensei Shinzan Palma talks about how to deal with discomfort and pain during sesshin, and asks the question, why do we put ourselves through a process that is so difficult? If we made it easier, we may have moments of ...
10.10.2022 Kathie Fischer: Wind Blows, Moon Shines, and Beings do not Obstruct Each Other – Fall Practice Period 2022 (9 of 11) Sensei Kathie Fischer continues Upaya’s in depth investigation of Hongzhi’s teachings on silent illumination during its Fall Practice Period of 2022. Kathie explores the relationship between stepping back into awareness, prior to any “distinctions of shadow and light,” and stepping ...
10.09.2022 Matthew Kozan Palevsky: No Place Other than Yourself: Juzhi’s One Finger Zen – Fall Practice Period 2022 (8 of 11) Sensei Matthew Kozan Palevsky continues Upaya’s exploration of the teachings of Hongzhi, looking at the text “Thirty Years of Emptiness and Existence,” in which Hongzhi references the koan, Juzhi’s One Finger. “No place can be other than myself,” Hongzhi writes, ...
10.09.2022 Frank Ostaseski & Joan Halifax: Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts (6 of 8) In part 6 of Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts, Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski converse with program participants about grieving personal loss, including the tragic loss of suicide. The question is, how do we continue to love ...
10.08.2022 Frank Ostaseski & Joan Halifax: Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts (5 of 8) In part five of Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts, Frank Ostaseksi discusses the four Brahma Viharas or Divine Emotions (loving-kindness, compassion, joy with others, equanimity) as practices through which we cultivate a concentrated mind meeting an ever expanding ...
10.06.2022 Shinzan Palma: Silence without Self-Consciousness: How to Not Get Attached to the Empty Field – Fall Practice Period 2022 (7 of 11) “It seems that you’re all getting attached to the empty field!” Sensei Shinzan Palma jokes when he asks the community in the zendo and online how they’re doing and gets only silence in return. Upaya has been studying the Hongzhi’s ...
10.05.2022 Kathie Fischer: Accepting Things as They Are: First Day of Sesshin – Fall Practice Period 2022 (6 of 11) Sensei Kathie Fischer gives the first Dharma talk of Upaya’s Fall Practice Period 2022 sesshin. She generously shares her experience and wisdom with us on sitting a sesshin, including how to practice with emotional turbulence, repressed thoughts and feelings rising ...
10.03.2022 Sensei Noah Kodo Roen: Taking the Backward Step into the Infinite Field of Pure Potential – Fall Practice Period 2022 (5 of 11) As we’ve explored the practice of silent illumination this Fall Practice Period we’ve come across the phrases “take the backward step” and “turn the light around.”. But what do these phrases, used by both Hongzhi and Dogen, actually mean? And ...
10.02.2022 Frank Ostaseski & Joan Halifax: Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts (4 of 8) In part four of Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts, Roshi Joan Halifax guides us through a meditation designed to cut through the sense of loneliness and separateness that pervades so many of our lives. Frank Ostaseski and Roshi ...
10.01.2022 Frank Ostaseski & Joan Halifax: Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts (3 of 8) In the third part of Roshi Joan Halifax’s and Frank Ostaseski’s “Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts,” Roshi Joan tells a story about her teacher Thich Nhat Hanh falling in love as a young monk and how he learned ...
09.30.2022 Frank Ostaseski & Joan Halifax: Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts (2 of 8) “Love and death are the great gifts that are given to us; mostly, they are passed on unopened” -Rainer Maria Rilke This whole life is a place where we make real our dedication to awakening, in living and dying, in ...
09.29.2022 Monshin Nannette Overley: Relax Completely: Shitou’s Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage – Fall Practice Period 2022 (4 of 11) Upaya is in the middle of Fall Practice Period, studying the teachings of Hongzhi and the practice of silent illumination. The Caodong/Soto school of Hongzhi and Dogen, with its emphasis on just sitting, traces itself back to the 8th Century ...
09.26.2022 Kathie Fischer: Empty the Bright Mirror – Fall Practice Period 2022 (3 of 11) Sensei Kathie Fischer continues Upaya’s exploration of Zen Master Hongzhi’s teachings on the practice of silent illumination. She describes how Hongzhi, teaching during China’s Song Dynasty, bridges the gap between the early Chan (Zen) of the Tang Dynasty and that ...
09.22.2022 Matthew Kozan Palevsky: Returning to Who We Are: The Practice of Silent Illumination – Fall Practice Period 2022 (2 of 11) “The practice of true reality is simply to sit.” Matthew Kozan Palevsky continues Upaya’s exploration of silent illumination, or just sitting, discussing Taigen Dan Leighton’s collection of Zen Master Hongzhi’s writings, “Cultivating the Empty Field.” He invites us to consider ...
09.19.2022 Shinzan Palma: Stopping and Seeing: The Art of Just Sitting – Fall Practice Period 2022 (1 of 11) “Silent and serene, forgetting words, bright clarity appears before you. When you reflect it you become vast, where you embody it you are spiritually uplifted.” ~ Hongzhi Series Description: During this Ango, we will explore the teachings of the Zen ...
09.18.2022 Joanna Macy & Stephanie Kaza & Wendy Johnson & Joan Halifax: A Special Invitation: Joanna Macy and Our World (2 of 2) Upaya Zen Center welcomes beloved Buddhist author and visionary activist/scholar, Joanna Macy, to address our Socially Engaged Buddhist Training Program, along with the extended Upaya world community. With her are close colleagues Roshi Joan Halifax, Stephanie Kaza and Wendy Johnson. ...
09.18.2022 Joanna Macy & Stephanie Kaza & Wendy Johnson & Joan Halifax: A Special Invitation: Joanna Macy and Our World (1 of 2) Upaya Zen Center welcomes beloved Buddhist author and visionary activist/scholar, Joanna Macy, to address our Socially Engaged Buddhist Training Program, along with the extended Upaya world community. With her are close colleagues Roshi Joan Halifax, Stephanie Kaza and Wendy Johnson. ...
09.15.2022 Frank Ostaseski & Joan Halifax: Life in the Balance: A Path to Transforming Destructive Emotions Many of us experience disturbing emotions that drive harmful behaviors causing unnecessary suffering to others and ourselves. In this program, we explore the powerful resources that make it possible for us to meet uncertainty, fear, failure, and futility with compassion, ...
09.12.2022 Dekila Chungyalpa: Mother Wisdom: Learning to Embody the Sacred Feminine Dekila Chungyalpa is an environmental scientist, Buddhist practitioner, and director of the Loka Initiative, an environment and climate education platform for faith leaders. She talks about how Buddhist perspectives and practices can contribute to climate activism, how Mother Wisdom, or ...
09.10.2022 Dorotea Mendoza & Matthew Kozan Palevsky: Inside Out: Sitting, Writing, and Being Fully in this World (9 of 9) Matthew Kozan Palevsky and Dorotea Mendoza provide the following three topics for writing practice: * 3 ideas I’m attached to * List of 3 things – you avoid bearing witness to * 3 actions that heal myself and others Dorotea ...

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