What if the way we see the world is closer to a dream than we think? In this dharma talk, Head Teacher Sensei Katherine Senshin Griffith takes up Nansen and the Peonies, a Zen koan Hakuin counted among the hardest to pass through.

A longtime student quotes a beautiful teaching to his teacher, Nansen (Nanquan): heaven, earth, and I share one root. Nansen points at the peonies in the garden and says people see these flowers as if in a dream. Senshin asks what it takes to see directly instead of through ideas. She draws on the Heart Sutra, Dōgen, and the Verses on the Faith Mind, and names the "dualistic snags" that pull us out of our own lives: good day, bad day, productive, waste of time. The talk moves between grief and humor, from remembering two beloved residents to a story from a hospital hallway, and ends with simple advice for sitting, walking, and breathing.

For anyone curious about koans, meditation, or how Zen practice meets ordinary life.

Recorded July 22, 2026 at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, during the "Just Summer" Sesshin.

IN THIS EPISODE

00:00 Welcome and a nursery-rhyme prologue

[01:30] The koan: Nansen and the Peonies

[04:35] Remembering Charles Jinko Duran and John Heart-Mirror Trotter

[05:57] Gratitude and a story from the ER

[10:50] Why Hakuin called this one of the hardest koans

[12:20] Nansen, the minister, and Master Jō

[17:00] What dream? Kyōzan, the Diamond Sutra, and the Buddha's flower

[22:00] What's right here: pine cones, raccoons, full inboxes

[25:45] Dualistic snags

[30:00] Withdraw and cease: effort without striving

[34:30] Practice: mind in the hara, breathing the universe

[36:00] Master Jō's last verse and Dōgen's bird and sky

ABOUT THE TEACHER

Sensei Katherine Daiki Senshin Griffith is the Head Teacher of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. She began Zen practice at New York Zendo Shobo-ji in 1987 and came to ZCLA in 2001 to study with Roshi Egyoku Nakao. She served as Program Steward from 2010 to 2023, was empowered as an independent Zen teacher and Preceptor in 2019, and was installed as Head Teacher in 2023. She is also a professional actor, comedic performer, and writer.

TEXTS AND RESOURCES

Nansen and the Peonies: Book of Equanimity, case 91; Blue Cliff Record, case 40

Sandōkai (The Identity of Relative and Absolute), Sekitō Kisen

Genjōkōan, Dōgen Zenji

Verses on the Faith Mind (Xinxin Ming)

The Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra

The Blue Cliff Record, translated by David Hinton

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These talks are offered freely. If you feel moved to make a donation to the Zen Center, just click here.

ZEN CENTER OF LOS ANGELES
www.zcla.org

We can all agree that life seems to be a mixed bag. There are blessings and there are unfortunate occurrences. There are days where everything feels like your good merit is coming to fruition and days where nothing seems to be going right. Master Yunmen, one of the most revered Chan masters of the Tang Dynasty, challenged his students to see that "every day is a good day," regardless of relative circumstances. This teaching can be found in Case 6 of the Blue Cliff Record koan collection, and that is where Bill Tetsui Press picks it up.

Tetsui, who will be recognized as a Dharma holder on August 23rd—essentially a junior teacher in the White Plum tradition of Zen—lives in Berkeley, CA although he has been a very regular part of our sangha here at ZCLA for a number of years. He began his practice in San Diego under the late Charlotte Joko Beck and is currently a student of Roshi Kipp Ryodo Hawley. Tetsui has also led our online morning zazen group on Zoom for a number of years.

In this talk, Tetsui relates the koan to his own experience, as he is currently undergoing cancer treatments. As he says, “All practice is asking us to do is to experience our life, what’s actually happening, exactly as it is.” Attending to our circumstances, without placing a value judgement on them, or insisting on a particular outcome, can reveal our innate spaciousness which can then help us appreciate what we have. “Every day is our life, just as it is," Tetsui continues. "Thoughts and emotions are life itself. Alive. A good day."

Join us online this Sunday morning to witness Tetsui's recognition ceremony with Roshi Ryodo officiating. Find the link at ZCLA.org/upcoming-events

Support the show

These talks are offered freely. If you feel moved to make a donation to the Zen Center, just click here.

ZEN CENTER OF LOS ANGELES
www.zcla.org

Here's a teisho (Dharma talk) from our archives by founding Abbot Maezumi Roshi. The recording was made in 1993 as Maezumi Roshi was about to depart for a teaching tour. He left the sangha with some reflections on Sandokai: Identity of Relative and Absolute. Maezumi had given two series of talks on this topic previously, once in 1973 and again in 1988.

We're posting this talk in conjunction with our current summer intensive which also focuses on Sandokai, in part by making use of these recordings. Sensei Dharma-Joy Reichert, current abbot of ZCLA, is leading these study and chanting sessions over Zoom during the month of August. Please join us if you can!

Tuesdays: August 4, 11, 18, 25 
7-8pm

Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7683133522?pwd=VUNJWlB5TDhjSHZIZzlsR2Y1aW1nZz09

Meeting ID: 768 313 3522

Passcode: 130827

Music in this episode by Chris Genzan Hackman

Support the show

These talks are offered freely. If you feel moved to make a donation to the Zen Center, just click here.

ZEN CENTER OF LOS ANGELES
www.zcla.org

"Here there is aim, but no target. So we just sit in the midst of this contradiction."

 In this Dharma talk, delivered during our Sunday program, Sensei Dharma-Joy illuminates the agenda-less goal of zazen practice. Whether we are counting the breaths, doing shikantaza, or working with koans, he says, our task is not to contemplate, solve a problem, or meditate on any thing because this enacts a separation. “We’re just letting go. And in letting go, we can just be completely present, and that’s what we call being free. To really reconnect with our natural original freedom.”

Sensei Dharma-Joy invokes the words of Dogen Zenji, Keizan Zenji, Kodo Sawaki Roshi, and Reverend Issho Fujita. All of them, in different ways, emphasized how zazen requires dropping our "gaining mind" and stepping out of the day-to-day business of being human.

Case 17 of the Blue Cliff Record koan collection is also brought to bear on the topic.

Music for this episode by Leopold Genzan Hackman.

Support the show

These talks are offered freely. If you feel moved to make a donation to the Zen Center, just click here.

ZEN CENTER OF LOS ANGELES
www.zcla.org

Today we're inaugurating a new podcast series we're calling LA Zen: a series of conversations with Buddhist practitioners investigating the question(s) of how to live in these times (of poly-crisis) and in this place (of Los Angeles) without falling into despair on one side, or let's say self-satisfaction on the other.

Our first guest is Bill Earth-Mirror Corcoran. When Earth-Mirror received his English language dharma name from Roshi Egyoku Nakao around the turn of the century, the meaning could not have been clearer. Corcoran was already deep at work as an organizer and activist within the environmental movement, a space where he continues to be active, even after his "official" retirement in 2023. 

Earth-Mirror is now a Dharma Holder in the White Plum Asanga, leading retreats and offering talks that merge his interests in ecology and spirituality, and seeing those as one common understanding. 

In this conversation, he speaks with ZCLA Development Steward Hokyu JL Aronson about the balance of home life and sangha life, and how the collective organizational structure of the Zen Center helped inform his own leadership approach at the Sierra Club where he worked for 27 years.

We hope you enjoy.

Extras:

A transcript of a dharma talk by Earth-Mirror on the teacher-student relationship.

An essay by Earth-Mirror called "Embodying Ecodharma."

Support the show

These talks are offered freely. If you feel moved to make a donation to the Zen Center, just click here.

ZEN CENTER OF LOS ANGELES
www.zcla.org

From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 18: "The Seamless Tomb"

This talk by Dharma Teacher Jitsujo Gauthier took place on March 22, 2026 at ZCLA where she led those present in a conversation that included the following themes: being centered vs. being grounded, the work of a death doula, and what it might mean to be bathed in "the Buddha's light" right in the present moment.
 
Rev. Jitsujo is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Buddhist Chaplaincy department at University of the West here in Los Angeles. She received Dharma transmission from Roshi Egyoku Nakao in 2024 and serves as a Co-Spiritual Director for the Zen Peacemaker Order.
Discover more about Rev. Jitsujo’s work at Jitsujo.com

Support the show

These talks are offered freely. If you feel moved to make a donation to the Zen Center, just click here.

ZEN CENTER OF LOS ANGELES
www.zcla.org

From the Wumen Kuan, the Gateless Gate koan collection, Case 16: "The Sound of the Bell and Five Paneled Robe." Sensei Mukei offered this talk during our Beginner's Mind meditation intensive (sesshin). Using a favorite koan as a starting off point, Mukei describes Shakyamuni's own journey as that of a beginner's mind, always questioning, open to new information, and determined to be free.

Support the show

These talks are offered freely. If you feel moved to make a donation to the Zen Center, just click here.

ZEN CENTER OF LOS ANGELES
www.zcla.org

This dharma talk given at ZCLA, explores the Buddhist teaching of the four kinds of horses, mirroring four types of learners. Sensei Senshin begins by exploring Case 65 from the Blue Cliff Record, a koan entitled, "A Non-Buddhist Questions the Buddha." 

Support the show

These talks are offered freely. If you feel moved to make a donation to the Zen Center, just click here.

ZEN CENTER OF LOS ANGELES
www.zcla.org

Sensei Darla Myoho Fjeld

Bodhi Day Talk - Rohatsu Sesshin 2025

Recorded 12/8/25 at ZCLA

Support the show

These talks are offered freely. If you feel moved to make a donation to the Zen Center, just click here.

ZEN CENTER OF LOS ANGELES
www.zcla.org

Sensei Darla Myoho Fjeld

Case 39 of the Mumonkan: "You Have Misspoken"

Recorded 2/7/25 at ZCLA

Support the show

These talks are offered freely. If you feel moved to make a donation to the Zen Center, just click here.

ZEN CENTER OF LOS ANGELES
www.zcla.org