Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Reigetsu Susan Moon discusses and reads from her new book, Alive Until You’re Dead: Notes on the Home Stretch. Susan’s big question is: How do we live given that we’re most definitely going to die? Susan tells stories from her own life about getting lost, becoming a grandmother, and adopting ancestors from both Zen and Western literary traditions. In the end, Susan encourages us to celebrate death as an event that gives meaning to life.

In this fourth talk from Rohatsu 2021, Roshi Enkyo O’Hara of Village Zendo in New York takes us deeper into Dogen’s Mountains and Rivers Sutra. Dogen’s Sutra insists that we recognize our interconnectedness with the mountains and rivers flowing over Earth, ever-present and ever-changing. Dogen’s message is one against despair: everything is always changing; sometimes it can appear it is changing for the worse and sometimes for the better; and amidst this change we never give up but continually realize that our response, however seemingly small, matters, and is, in reality, inextricable from the whole. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Rohatsu: Mountains and Rivers 2021

In this “confession” of a Zen multitasker, Kigaku Noah Roen talks about what we lose when work on multiple projects at once and gives tips on practicing uni-tasking and even zero-tasking. He explains how the uni-task of meditation prepares us to take care of one thing at a time in our daily lives and how taking care of one thing at a time prepares us to meditate. Kigaku concludes with an exploration of shikantaza: just sitting without method, without distraction, without any task to accomplish whatsoever.

In this talk from Rohatsu 2021, Roshi Joan Halifax explores the interplay of stillness and motion, asking the question: How do we remain in stillness while moving through the ever changing phenomenal world? Roshi Joan calls Rohatsu a time of reckoning in which we ask ourselves, “How do we move in this world? How do we treat ourselves, others, and this Earth?” It’s a time to become aware of our habits, to face them, and to wake up. Can we trust ourselves to the wholeness of our moment to moment experience? Can we dwell deeply in our constantly changing lives? And can we respond  to the suffering of our world with a compassionate stillness? To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Rohatsu: Mountains and Rivers 2021

In this second talk of Rohatsu 2021, Roshi Enkyo O’Hara initiates an exploration of Dogen’s Mountains and Waters Sutra. She invites us to engage our practice, both on and off the cushion, with the stillness of a mountain and the fluidity of water, letting go of all fixed concepts, remaining present to whatever arises. Roshi Enkyo reminds us that wherever we are, whether in the mountainous desert of Santa Fe or on the streets of Manhattan, the great earth is inviting us to wake up and take care of the gifts that are constantly being offered to us. Part 1 of this 2021 Rohatsu Sesshin was published as Episode # 1907 on Dec 6th, 2021. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Rohatsu: Mountains and Rivers 2021

Series Description: Gratefulness is not simply a response to life’s blessings. It is a cultivated attitude of heart and mind, a natural expression of generosity, a way that we share love and joy. Gratefulness fosters a spirit of belonging and nourishes positive social and cultural change. In this special program, Frank and Roshi explored the power and gift of gratefulness through teachings, meditation, and exploration with our community. Instructor(s): Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD; Hoshi Frank Ostaseski. This is the 2nd, and final, segment of this program. Click here for Part 1. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.

Series Description: Gratefulness is not simply a response to life’s blessings. It is a cultivated attitude of heart and mind, a natural expression of generosity, a way that we share love and joy. Gratefulness fosters a spirit of belonging and nourishes positive social and cultural change. In this special program, Frank and Roshi explored the power and gift of gratefulness through teachings, meditation, and exploration with our community. Instructor(s): Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD; Hoshi Frank Ostaseski. This is the 1st segment of this program. Click here for Part 2. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.

Lama Rod Owens, author, activist, and authorized Lama in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, invites us to a radical self-care, based not on cutting ourselves off from the world, but rather on engaging with it fully. We do this through the recognition and practice of spaciousness, first by waking up to the space between thoughts within our own minds, and then offering this spaciousness to others.

Rhonda Magee, M.A., J.D., known as the mother of the movement to integrate mindfulness and racial justice, discusses three components that are necessary to a socially engaged Buddhism. First, there is the personal, or the way we care for ourselves. Second, there is the interpersonal, or the way we care for each other. And third, there is the systemic or collective level, and this is how we engage political and economic systems through the lens of our Buddhist values.

This is the final part of  Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021

This part is a continuation of  Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021

This part is a continuation of  Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021

This part is a continuation of  Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021

This part is a continuation of  Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021

This part is a continuation of  Faith Beyond Duality 2021 program and is led by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Roshi. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Faith Beyond Duality 2021