Zen Mind

Traditional Buddhism doesn't explicitly address the topic of meaning. But for us contemporary Westerners, meaning is an important topic. Living a meaningful life includes such things as purpose, values, ethics, and the significance of life events. An important insight is that meaning is not be found within the "self," which from a Buddhist point of view doesn't exist in an individualized, permanent fashion. Rather meaning emerges from moment to moment in the interaction between you and your circumstances as a response to what is asked of you by the 10,000 things. A fruitful way to address the topic of meaning within a Buddhist worldview is to see it as a Middle Path between nihilism (nothing matters; everything is only subjectively constructed) and eternalism (meaning is inherent, objective, and guaranteed by God or some kind of pop-spiritual oneness). In other words, meaning emerges from a dance that doesn’t get fixated on inherent meaningfulness nor ubiquitous meaninglessness.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Please consider donating to our annual fundraiser.

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. 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 You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives.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/

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!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

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 explores birth and death as a practice of moment-to-moment change—in addition to birth and death as biological events. While it appears situations come and go and beings are born and die, things ultimately don't come into and go out of existence. Instead, everything is a continually changing expression of what Dogen calls "undivided activity"—everything-all-at-once coming together and manifesting as this moment. Our practice is to stop defending against the groundlessness of this here-now-presence and to entrust ourselves to being the always-changing form that expresses it.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Please consider donating to our annual fundraiser.

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. 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/

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!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

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 continues the exploration of everyday life practice as a dance of form and emptiness. The focus is on the contradiction yet undividedness of order and chaos in work activities (such as sweeping), in the mind (as clarity and discursiveness), and in how we organize time (schedule and spontaneity).

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Please consider donating to our annual fundraiser.

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. 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/

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!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

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.

What if we stopped trying to dispel disturbance, confusion, and crisis from our experience and, instead, made use of these unwanted mind states as gates to appreciating our lives as a continual dance of form (fixations) and emptiness (radical openness)? This talk provides an initial conceptual understanding of emptiness as change, interdependence, and non-self. As always, intellectual study is not enough. So how can we use everyday circumstances—such as having opinions, going through a crisis, being creative, or having one's expectations disappointed—to realize freedom? Moment by moment, our challenge is to accept life as a process that can be lived without hope or fear of a permanent direction.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Please consider donating to our annual fundraiser.

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. 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/

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!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

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 the public portion of a Weekend Workshop, during which a number of Boulder Zen Center practitioners came together to prepare for a Bodhisattva Precepts Initiation Ceremony. The Bodhisattva precepts are a practice of investigating one's ethical conduct based on the principle of doing no harm. In the midst of our everyday activity, what does it mean to vow to do no harm? And what is the relationship between our meditation practice and our commitment to ethical conduct?

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Please consider donating to our annual fundraiser.

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. 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/

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!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

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 explores the relevance of a practice and culture of transformation in the face of an ecological crisis that will more likely than not lead to a severe degradation of living conditions, especially for future generations. How will we respond pragmatically, compassionately, and responsibly to this crisis? And how will we maintain self-respect and dignity in the midst of our actions? The talk highlights the pivotal importance of practicing and realizing what Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen in Japan, calls "being constantly intimate with the field of mind." The practice of intimacy with the field of mind holds the potential for developing a number of mental resources that will probably become crucial in the future: unconditional joy of aliveness, the ability to be satisfied with less, resilience in the face of pain and adversity, a sense of connection and care with all beings, and the clarity of mind to do what's right independent of outcomes and any hope for success. Another crucial mental virtue will be self-compassion as we explore the limitations and inertia of our own minds and the societies we live in.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Please consider donating to our annual fundraiser.

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. 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/

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!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

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.

The freedom we can realize through Zen practice (or any existentially honest spiritual practice) manifests not so much through THE CONTENT of our experience but through HOW WE RELATE to our experience. This HOW is a fundamental attitude—an attitude that expresses itself throughout our lives. This talk uses Master Yunmen's teaching phrase" Every Day is a Good Day" as well as a couple of expressions by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi to explore this fundamental attitude. Finally, the talk asks how zazen (or meditation in general) is a practice and expression of this attitude.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Please consider donating to our annual fundraiser.

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. 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/

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!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

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 explores the distinction between two perspectives on our human existence: aliveness and life. Aliveness is this here-now moment unfolding as ever-changing sensorial contents within a field of mind. Our life, in contrast, can be understood as the result of a weaving of past and future into a life story. The unsatisfactory nature of our life presents us with the question and task of how to give aliveness to our life. In other words, how can we unfold our life from the perspective of aliveness? This also brings up the question of what makes our lives meaningful or meaningless.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Please consider donating to our annual fundraiser.

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. 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/

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!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

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.

The ability to deal with our manifold problems is rooted in the craft of being present with what is happening in our life. What is the importance of cultivating mindfulness of the body (bodyfulness) in this? This talk explores the fruits of learning to locate ourselves in and through the body: (1) transforming the NOW of the present moment into a HERE that covers the whole of the sphere of experience; (2) deepening the ability to sustain concentration (samadhi); (3) developing the body as the medium of true compassion; (4) finding joy in being alive for no other reason than being alive; and (5) establishing stability and fearlessness in the midst of groundlessness.


Welcome to Zen Mind!

Please consider donating to our annual fundraiser.

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. 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/

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!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

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 introduces some of the main themes of Zenki Roshi’s book “The Path of Aliveness.” It was given to an audience largely new to Buddhism at the Aspen Chapel. At the core of all Buddhist practice is recognizing suffering (our desire for life to be other than it is) and committing to a path of liberation (allowing our experience to be exactly what it is). The talk reframes our deep wish to be happy and recommends four simple but profound practices: returning to one's immediate experience, becoming bodyful, committing to kindness, and resting in presence. Finally, it asks how all of this applies to being in relationship and what "loving thy neighbor as thyself" might mean from a Buddhist point of view.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. 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/

Learn more about our upcoming Weekend Seminar, An Appropriate Response — The Essence of the Buddhist Path. Available online and in person.

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!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at [email protected] or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

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.