Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

In this dharma talk, Hoshi Matthew Kozan Palevsky explores case 21, in the Book of Serenity, a koan between Dao Wu and Yun Yan about suchness. Kozan equates suffering with busyness. He explores what constitutes busyness and proposes the practice of suchness as an alternative to our collective enculturation to busyness. He invites us to “put down delusions and enlightenment, busy and not busy … [so] we can return to this experience and remember who we are and not make a big deal of it.” 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

In this beautiful talk, Sensei Wendy Johnson recalls her love story with Thich Nhat Hanh after his death just days earlier. Beginning with Dogen’s Fukanzazengi, she calls us into deep practice with our root teachers and admonishes us to show up like freshly unearthed turnips, all our roots showing. Wendy speaks of her deep and transformative journey with Thay, including his first visit to Green Gulch and their two hour walk to sea and back when he said: “You all have the most beautiful place for walking meditation, yet you’re most grim practitioners. Please find joy.” She ends with a guided meditation that she learned from Thay, recalling his love of sunflowers and the depth of his commitment to the world. This talk is also WPP 2022 Sesshin (Part 4 of 6). 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

Roshi Enkyo O’Hara speaks on the relevance of the Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi to our everyday lives. She calls us to the middle way, to recognize that in the midst of our life and our relationships is our opportunity to practice. She invites us to see that “as long as we are living beings in the midst of this life, of complexity, of the relativity, we are called to neither turn way nor touch; to face the oneness but not be absorbed by it.” It is through the middle way, that we can be a “bodhisattva citizen, turning towards suffering, fully engaging in our world to offer service and our presence.” 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

Sensei Wendy Johnson begins by sharing with us the history and tradition of the Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi. She reminds us that this song lives in us, and we are spending this month integrating and allowing it to become part of us. She tells us that “we shine by perishing” and invites us to “burn ourselves up completely and keep going” through our dedication to practice and service. 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

Korin Charlie Pokorny speaks to the couplets of the Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi, “It is like facing a jewel mirror, form and image behold each other, You are not it, yet it is you. “ He explores ways of relating and engaging this teaching of non-duality through various allegories, and suggests we can use ongoing inquiry and practice realization to embody a spirit of inquiry which always moves us towards integration. He explains that “non duality affirms we are not separate, and we are also distinct and individuated beings.” 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

Korin Charlie Pokorny introduces us to three intertwining aspects of how to care for the dharma of suchness: embodied practice realization, inquiry, and communal relational practice. He invites us to care for the dharma of suchness rather than efforting to attain anything. He asks us to allow it to “bring us to practice and to help us through practice.” 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

Day 2 Afternoon Session: Further exploration of the practice of Lojong and how to use it practically to support your life as a life informed by the dharma. Knowing that “I” am not a story, once we are free from the story, then we don’t have to behave in accord with that story, now we have the option to change it . 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: Exploring the Power of Lojong

In this Day 2 Morning Session, Roshi Joan Halifax introduces the slogan “Drive all blames into one.” John Dunne asks us to work on what we most need to work on, to uncover our deepest issues to work on and to use the aphorisms of Lojong to support our practice. 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: Exploring the Power of Lojong

In this Day 1 Afternoon Session, John Dunne and Roshi Joan Halifax further explore the Lojong. In this session we come to understand the two different kinds of bodhichitta, the aspirational and the actual. 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: Exploring the Power of Lojong

In this dharma talk, Taigen Dan Leighton explains the history and context of Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. He goes over the five main themes of this poem and asks us to recognize that the nature of reality itself is awakening. He ends this dharma talk with the invitation to sit and come to know the dharma of suchness, to care for it, and to preserve it well. 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

In this Day 1 Morning Session, John Dunne introduces us to the preliminaries of Tibetan “mind training” or the Lojong tradition in this morning session. Roshi Joan Halifax ends the morning with the preliminary practice of the four thoughts that turn the mind. 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: Exploring the Power of Lojong

This special weekend with Buddhist scholar Dr. John Dunne and Upaya’s Abbot Roshi Joan Halifax was a deep dive into the practices of the Tibetan “mind training” or Lojong tradition. Inspired by Indian masters such as Śāntideva, Lojong practice radiates out of the rich, pithy slogans, composed as early as the 11th century, that are powerful pointers to awakening. They have been integrated into Zen practice more recently. The weekend included an exploration of the history of Lojong and a plunge into the slogans and associated practices. Dr. Dunne explored the underlying philosophy of Lojong, and Roshi Joan focused on the practice dimension. In this Evening Opening Session, Dr. John Dunne and Roshi Joan Halifax introduce us to the Lojong and orient us to the coming days of study and practice. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Exploring the Power of Lojong

In this Dharma Talk, Natalie Goldberg reflects on loss, loneliness, and suffering. She invites us to practice with the three marks of existence to be in our lives fully. For our lives to bloom, she asks us to “sit with our own lives, our own pain and the pain we see around us.”  

In this conversation between two veteran Zen practitioners and old friends. The master cook, Deborah Madison, and the master gardener, Wendy Johnson speak about their time practicing together over the years, the lessons they still take with them today, and the projects which still enthuse their lives.  Join us for this warm conversation.

Can the Dharma really flourish in our own lands if it does not become native?  This is the guiding question to Alcio Braz’s Wednesday night Dharma talk. By discussing his rich ancestry, spiritual practice, and life, he emphasizes the importance of not allowing ‘… another layer of colonization …’ into a practice of liberation. The joyful, loving practice of Dharma allows us to ‘… find ourselves and recognize our differences, together…Loving-kindness has taught us that the dream is not over …’ we practice in order to care for each other, that’s the primary message of Zen. Zazen is care.