The Tanha Sutta's core teaching, Hogen explains, is that craving turns the fluid, ever-changing experience of being alive into a fixed identity — "I am this," "I am that" — which then must be defended and reinforced. This talk explores this as an attempt to become a solid "thing" and how that goes against reality itself, making us smaller and more fearful rather than secure.

This talk explores the observation that craving turns ordinary desire into compulsive thinking, creating a tangle of self-concepts — "I am a failure," "I am a success" — that we then mistake for fixed truths. 

This talk explores patience (kshanti), one of the six Paramitas in Mahayana Buddhism, as an essential practice in a culture built for instant gratification and constant phone-driven distraction. Bansho distinguishes true patience from mere "waiting," framing it instead as fully meeting the present moment without needing it to be different.

This talk on reflects on the Five Remembrances — that we are of the nature to age, get sick, die, and be separated from loved ones — as a practice for living wisely rather than in denial. Rather than being purely somber, these reflections are offered as a way to "sweeten the deal," deepening appreciation for the present moment and one's relationships.

This talk explores how the ups and downs of a single sitting period mirror the larger arc of a retreat or an entire life of practice.  
Drawing on the image of a snake in a bamboo tube, a long marriage and retreat as a modern rite of passage, they explore how difficulty, doubt, and disillusionment aren't failures but essential parts of deepening commitment.

Drawing on the eleventh-century yogini Machig Labdron's uncompromising slogans—confess your hidden faults, approach what repels you, help those you think you cannot help—this talk explores how genuine spiritual growth requires more than acceptance. 

This talk is a teaching on the ageless, ever-present awareness beneath our changing thoughts and circumstances. Drawing on the Mangala Sutta, this talk explores how recognizing (not manufacturing) this ground allows the mind to remain unshaken "beyond all sorrow."

Drawing from an annual outdoor meditation retreat , this talk explores how sitting in silence among deer, mosquitoes, and fallen apples can reveal our inseparability from the natural world

This talk explores the inner critic as a habitual pattern of thought, emotion, and body sensation—not a fixed truth- as well as offering practices of self-compassion.

By stepping out and seeing the noisy marketplace of endless consumption and self-fixation, we align with a source that never loses its luster. Living from this allows us to begin meeting every person and situation as our family, and embody the true spirit of the Bodhisattva Vow in everyday life.