During Roshi Joan Halifax’s talk, we find ourselves in a beautiful discussion about integrity, the spaces we live in and how they reflect our very own heart/minds.

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Upaya Podcast Series:: Sesshin: Ancestral Heart

It’s day four of sesshin and Kigaku Noah Rossetter leads us on a deep discussion of intimacy. Working with translations, we find that intimacy can also be considered to be “secret”, “dense”, “hidden”, and even, “within.” From there, we explore cases from the Transmission of Light and instances of intimacy throughout.

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Upaya Podcast Series:: Sesshin: Ancestral Heart

On day three of sesshin, Matthew Kozan Palevsky cautions us about how much bigger the waves of thought and feeling can be as we become more sensitized to them. As we work with all these experiences and all the stored energy from practice, he points to Hui-Neng who says, “If you don’t take refuge in your own nature, there’s no other place of refuge.”

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Upaya Podcast Series:: Sesshin: Ancestral Heart

Wendy Johnson encourages us to practice gratitude in everything we do, including being grateful for our meditation seats because “with gratitude comes a basic ferocity of intention.” Along those same lines, to cultivate an attitude of freshness and originality in your practice. What does gratitude look like for you?

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Upaya Podcast Series:: Sesshin: Ancestral Heart

Led by an extraordinary team of teachers, including Roshi Joan Halifax, Wendy Johnson, Matthew Kozan Palevsky, and Kigaku Noah Rossetter, this sesshin looks at the deep roots of practice through the lens of direct experience and the stories of the Denkoroku, or the Transmission of the Light.

To begin our sesshin, Roshi Joan Halifax and Kigaku Noah Rossetter talk about how they first met and the early, enthusiastic practice of the beginner. Roshi also cautions us on what practice is for saying that, “It’s about liberating your narratives, not adding a classy, Zen identity on top of it.”

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Upaya Podcast Series:: Sesshin: Ancestral Heart

This week Sensei Kaz Tanahashi explores in great detail his quest to design the perfect meditation bench. It raises the question: how far do we go to create a comfortable situation in meditation while also learning to sit with and befriend pain?

Laying the groundwork for the upcoming ‘Way of Haiku’ weekend program, Natalie Goldberg explores the impact haiku has had on her life. Through exploring the works of Richard Wright and Mitsu Suzuki, Natalie shares how haiku brings us to a “big, open space and relieves the great suffering of the Western world.”

In the final talk of the Winter Practice Period, Roshi Joan Halifax leads a discussion on Dogen as we commemorate his birthday. Wendy Johnson, Kigaku Noah Rossetter, and Matthew Kozan Palevsky are also on hand as Upaya residents and guests describe their experiences of Dogen’s writing and practice. We finish with an exploration of Dogen’s own case from the Transmission of Light.

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Upaya Podcast Series: Winter Practice Period: Beginner’s Mind, Ancestral Heart

Building on Roshi Joan’s Dharma Talk from January 16th, 2020; Kigaku Noah Rossetter expands further on Roshi’s valuable meditation instructions. From there a fascinating discussion of the Denkoroku chapter from the Transmission of Light and how the experience of lucid dreaming could provide some insight into the koan.

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Upaya Podcast Series: Winter Practice Period: Beginner’s Mind, Ancestral Heart

Today’s talk is primarily given by Roshi Joan Halifax with Wendy Johnson, Kigaku Noah Rossetter, and Matthew Kozan Palevsky joining her near the end. Roshi Joan goes into great detail about the process of meditation and the experiences of breakthrough or awakening that can occur.

For Series description, please visit Part 1.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:

Upaya Podcast Series: Winter Practice Period: Beginner’s Mind, Ancestral Heart