Zen Mind

This talk was given as an opening talk to a workshop on “Breath Practice.” It explores breath as our most vital form of nourishment. Breath practice has two intertwined dimensions: supporting health and well-being, and serving as a path of spiritual awakening. The first part of the talk looks at the foundations of healthy breathing, drawing on both science and direct experience. From there, it turns to the Buddhist tradition, highlighting four core principles found in key mindfulness sutras: 1) Go to a quiet place—not just externally but inwardly, 2) Invite the spine into uprightness, 3) Notice the sensations of breathing at the front of the body (nostrils and abdomen), and 4) Breathe through the whole body. As part of a spiritual path, the aim of breath practice isn’t to perfect the breath, but to discover—through the subtle, whole-body experience of breathing—a deeper sense of who we are.

The talk draws from these three books:

• ​​​​​​​Will Johnson; Breathing through the Whole Body: The Buddha's Instructions on Integrating Mind, Body, and Breath
  
  
• James Nestor; Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
  
  
• Patrick McKeown; The Oxygen Advantage: Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques to Help You Become Healthier, Slimmer, Faster and Fitter―Improve Your Health and Fitness with Efficient Breathing Techniques

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Consider becoming a Premium Podcast subscriber for only $9/month. Dive deeper into the topics through Q&A sessions related to each of the talks. You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives. Learn more here: https://zenmind.supercast.com/

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected].

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

This talk was given as part of a One-Day Sitting at the Boulder Zen Center. It reflects on moments when we are touched by life. Nothing special, just ordinary moments -- washing the dishes, looking at your child, seeing the grasses outside your window swayed by the wind. To be touched by life is maybe our deepest longing. However, the human mind has the tendency to replace the intimacy of direct experience with concepts, stories, and identities, thus alienating itself from what is most fulfilling. Our practice is not to stop all our thinking and make some special experience called awakening happen. It is to free attention from being captured by the narrowness of thought, and instead shift it to breath, body, and phenomena. Breathing, feeling, and sensing are doors to the present, and the present is the door to a spacious and timeless field of awareness. Experiencing our human form located within this wider field then functions as a continuous invitation to be touched by life.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber for only $9/month. Dive deeper into the topics through Q&A sessions related to each of the talks. You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives. Learn more here: https://zenmind.supercast.com/

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected].

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

We human beings tend to generate stress—and sometimes even burnout— by perceiving situations and ourselves as not enough. This talk starts out with the question "When is there enough?" and tries on the view that "Just now is already enough." By recognizing that we are always already significantly supported by breath, food, shelter, and our society (however crazy it might appear), we can learn to rest in a basic satisfaction and inner peace. From a Buddhist point of view, this depends on letting go of grasping and resisting, releasing ourselves into the field of "undivided activity," and realizing that we are an expression of that field. The talk elucidates how we can use the classic understanding of the middle path between self-indulgence and self-mortification as a way to develop an "Art of Enough." This art doesn't deny the need for improvement and doesn't shut down engagement with personal and societal problems. However, it does emphasize that a basic sense of enoughness needs to come first if we want to avoid being captured by a race to more and more that can easily lead to emotional and energetic burnouts.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber for only $9/month. Dive deeper into the topics through Q&A sessions related to each of the talks. You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives. Learn more here: https://zenmind.supercast.com/

We have a NEW, self-paced course, "Undivided Activity", now available! In this course, Zenki Roshi offers a complete commentary and experiential translation in a series of talks on Dogen's essay 'Undivided Activity'. Learn more and purchase the course here: https://www.boulderzen.org/undivided-activity

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected].

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

This talk was given as part of a Weekend Sitting at the Boulder Zen Center. It examines the feeling of alienation that comes from the mental construction of a separate self with an internal and an external space. What is the cure for such alienation? Learning to locate ourselves in an experiential space, in which all the contents of our lives (the physical world as well as our feelings and thoughts) are allowed to happen just as they are happening. Despite the serious personal and societal problems we face in this complicated world, we can discover that the experience of being alive is magnificent and luminous. This is intimacy! – the feeling that all that appears right now is my life right now. This intimacy exists before thought and thus separation arises. Zazen is a way to make this intimate, luminous space before thought arises our true home.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber for only $9/month. Dive deeper into the topics through Q&A sessions related to each of the talks. You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives. Learn more here: https://zenmind.supercast.com/

We have a NEW, self-paced course, "Undivided Activity", now available! In this course, Zenki Roshi offers a complete commentary and experiential translation in a series of talks on Dogen's essay 'Undivided Activity'. Learn more and purchase the course here: https://www.boulderzen.org/undivided-activity

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected].

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

This talk was given at the Austin Zen Center. It addresses the twin Bodhisattva virtues of wisdom and compassion. These ideals can sound lofty, maybe even unattainable. However, if we understand them as momentary expressions of the practice of not-knowing, they are near at hand. Not-knowing isn't willful ignorance or the random rejection of knowledge; it is a practice of radical openness in the present moment. Openness means to let go of conceptual frames, comparisons, and habituated stories and enter into what Buddhists call suchness. Such openness allows for an intimate resonance of the body-mind with the complexity and uniqueness of the situation at hand. As we learn to make openness and resonance our own continuous practice, we naturally find ourselves walking the Bodhisattva path of wisdom and compassion one step at a time.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber for only $9/month. Dive deeper into the topics through Q&A sessions related to each of the talks. You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives. Learn more here: https://zenmind.supercast.com/

We are excited to announce that a NEW, self-paced course, "Undivided Activity", is now available! In this course, Zenki Roshi offers a complete commentary and experiential translation in a series of talks on Dogen's essay 'Undivided Activity'. Learn more and purchase the course here: https://www.boulderzen.org/undivided-activity

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected].

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

For many practitioners zazen practice is about quieting the mind. Thoughts and feelings are supposed to stop or at least slow down to achieve peace of mind. When this doesn't work, a sense of frustration or even failure can arise. Two misunderstandings need to be corrected here: (1) a quiet mind isn't a mind without contents; it is a mind that is not disturbed by the coming and going of contents, and (2) the right kind of effort is not to shift attention from one focus (thinking) to another focus (say breathing) but to release focus altogether and let attention widen out into an undivided presence that is aware of everything all at once and nothing in particular. Suzuki Roshi refers to this field awareness as the "emptiness of the mind” and the "readiness of the mind that is wisdom." (The talk uses three quotations from Suzuki Roshi's book 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind' that can be found in the show notes below.)

Show Notes:

Three quotations used in the talk from from Shunryu Suzuki Roshi’s book 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice' (Shambhala Publications).

"To stop your mind does not mean to stop the activities of mind. It means your mind pervades your whole body. Your mind follows your breathing. With your full mind you form the mudra in your hands. With your whole mind you sit with painful legs without being disturbed by them. This is to sit without any gaining idea.” (p. 40)

"Concentration is not to try hard to watch something. In zazen if you try to look at one spot you will be tired in about five minutes. This is not concentration. Concentration means freedom. So your effort should be directed at nothing. You should be concentrated on nothing. In zazen practice we say your mind should be concentrated on your breathing, but the way to keep your mind on your breathing is to forget all about yourself and just to sit and feel your breathing. If you are concentrated on your breathing you will forget yourself, and if you forget yourself you will be concentrated on your breathing. I do not know which is first. So actually there is no need to try too hard to be concentrated on your breathing. Just do as much as you can. If you continue this practice, eventually you will experience the true existence which comes from emptiness.” (p. 111)

"Your thinking should not be one-sided. We just think with our whole mind, and see things as they are without any effort. Just to see, and to be ready to see things with our whole mind, is zazen practice. If we are prepared for thinking, there is no need to make an effort to think. This is called mindfulness. Mindfulness is, at the same time, wisdom. By wisdom we do not mean some particular faculty or philosophy. It is the readiness of the mind that is wisdom. So wisdom could be various philosophies and teachings, and various kinds of research and studies. But we should not become attached to some particular wisdom, such as that which was taught by Buddha. Wisdom is not something to learn. Wisdom is something which will come out of your mindfulness. So the point is to be ready for observing things, and to be ready for thinking. This is called emptiness of your mind. Emptiness is nothing but the practice of zazen.” (p. 113-114)

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber for only $9/month. Dive deeper into the topics through Q&A sessions related to each of the talks. You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives. Learn more here: https://zenmind.supercast.com/

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected]. 

This talk explores the experiential territory of the famous slogan from the Heart Sutra: "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form." At first, the talk differentiates between a realizational and a developmental approach in practice: Are we allowing our experience to be exactly as it is [realizational] or are we trying to alter and improve our experience [developmental]? The two approaches exist in an unresolvable tension but complement and complete each other like a dancing couple—just like emptiness and form. Emptiness can be understood and explored as openness, and conversely, form functions as layers of closure. The talk explores examples for how we can maintain openness (spaciousness) in the midst of closure, and how, on the other hand, we must always express and articulate that openness in concrete forms (closures).

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber for only $9/month. Dive deeper into the topics through Q&A sessions related to each of the talks. You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives. Learn more here: https://zenmind.supercast.com/

We are excited to announce that a NEW, self-paced course, "Undivided Activity", is now available! In this course, Zenki Roshi offers a complete commentary and experiential translation in a series of talks on Dogen's essay 'Undivided Activity'. Learn more and purchase the course here: https://www.boulderzen.org/undivided-activity

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected].

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

This talk was given as a closing talk for the 2025 Boulder Zen Center - Everyday Bodhisattva Practice Period. It reviews the basic ingredients of practice and summarizes them as (1) daily zazen, (2) working with views, and (3) cultivating relationships. In traditional Buddhist terms, this can be understood as a commitment to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The talk then explores constancy in practice as the most important attitude for making our practice fruitful. Instead of viewing our practice as a struggle to permanently replace the state of suffering (samsara) with a state of liberation (nirvana), it suggests using each moment to establish Big Mind (a widened sense of here-now-ness and self) and thus releasing grasping, resisting, and fixed views—the three tendencies in the human mind that turn experience into dissatisfaction and suffering.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Did you enjoy the topic of Dogen's essay, Undivided Activity, and want to delve deeper? Zenki Roshi offers a complete commentary and experiential translation in a series of talks on this specific essay. You can now access the full series of talks! All of the material is now part of a self-paced course. Learn more and purchase the course here: https://www.boulderzen.org/all-courses

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber for only $9/month. Dive deeper into the topics through Q&A sessions related to each of the talks. You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives. Learn more here: https://zenmind.supercast.com/

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected].

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

This talk was given as part of a sesshin (7-day meditation intensive) at Boulder Zen Center. It begins by examining the limited view we have in our Western culture of the body as a material object and introduces an alternative view of the body as flow—material as well as energetic flow. The Western word 'energy' is often used to translate the Eastern concept of 'qi,' but this can lead to misunderstandings if energy is understood as the name for a 'quantifiable physical property' rather than a pointer to experiencing a 'dynamic relational vitality' through our very own body. We can discover and cultivate our energy (qi) through various practices of interrelating attention, breath, movement, and space. After exploring examples of such practices, the talk suggests how awareness of our energy body can be used in Zen practice to support and refine the zazen posture, and how it can lead to an experiential understanding of emptiness and interdependence.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

If you would like to listen to all 7 of the Dharma talks given during this intensive and from other intensives, please become a premium podcast subscriber! Doing so will give you access to talks given during all of our intensives plus the recorded Q&A sessions with Zenki Roshi that follow each of the regular public Dharma talks. Memberships begin at only $9/mo! Your support goes a long way towards helping  the continuation of the Boulder Zen Center and Zenki Roshi’s teachings. 

Become a BZC member here (all levels include premium podcast subscription)!

Subscribe to Zen Mind premium podcast for all the talks from this intensive.

Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better!

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected].

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

This is a special conversational episode. Zenki Roshi is interviewed by Nicky Antonellis, a co-founder of the nonprofit organization, Dharma Gates, which aims to connect young adults to deep meditation practices. One of their many offerings is a podcast which features different perspectives on the Buddhist path. You can find out more on the Dharma Gates website.

In today’s conversation, Nicky asks Zenki Roshi about the background and motivation that eventually led to him to Soto Zen practice. They explore the roles of embodiment and concepts in meditation, as well as stages in practice and the curriculum that arises from everyday life. Zenki Roshi offers shifts in views he experienced as a result of practice, for example how he made sense of the initially opaque instruction “to just sit.”

The full conversation is 2 hours, and it is broken up into two episodes. In part two, Nicky asks Zenki Roshi about how to relate as a Buddhist practitioner to issues we face in today’s world, such as climate change, the resurgence of war, and AI—and the anxiety that accompanies these issues.

If you find the conversation meaningful, we hope you’ll tune in to hear the rest. Part 2 of this conversation is available now on the Zen Mind Premium Podcast! 

Check out the Dharma Gates podcast here!

Welcome to Zen Mind!

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected].

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.