Roshi reminds us that today’s devastating times are not so unusual, that there have been many epochs when people have thought world disaster was immanent. The question is: do you go along with it, or not?

“Turning away and touching are both wrong.” Ryotan Sensei talks about ordinary mind through the light of our Ango study text, The Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness.

Soshin explores the difficulties we have with unwanted feelings, unconscious biases, and pre-conceived notions of “the other.”

YûJin reminds us that seeking refuge in our practice can be of great help in times of great trouble.

In this the last talk of our Winter Retreat, Roshi appreciates the deep silence and vast quality of union that our Sesshin practice has provided. She then explores the metaphor of Indra’s net where each one of us is a multi-faceted jewel in an interconnected web. She describes the mirror that is in the title […]

In this inspiring talk, Joshin Sensei goes deep into our impulses to obey and follow useless structures; structures of external societal forces, as well as forces within us that isolate us and calcify our true nature. In our meditation we can contemplate these structures and see how they cut us off from the flow. She […]

In this the third Dharma talk of our winter retreat, Ryotan Sensei starts by telling us about a young man he met at a gym in NYC, who was a natural spiritual seeker. He told Ryotan that he was looking for a “basis that could be relied on.” Ryotan questions this notion with the story […]

In this the second talk of our winter retreat, Myoko Sensei explores the philosophy of contemporary poet Michael Longly, comparing his solace in returning home to the ordinary aspects of life, with our retreat practice and our Zen practice generally. Seeing the subtle differences as we revisit the same story, we move deeper towards the […]

In this powerful and emotional talk on the first day of our winter retreat, Shinryu Sensei asks “What is it?” and brings us the experience of ancient masters Tao Wu, Yun Yan, Dong Shan all who practiced hard and long to be able to recognize “just this” as it is. Shinryu lovingly remembers the life […]

In this talk Tokyu explores how our Zen study and meditation can help us make space to mourn and heal from the 2016 election results.