Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

The first talk of the Social & Environmental Justice day long at Upaya, ‘recovering politician’ Heather Mcteer Toney, points to the critical role of identity in climate solutions. Because of this nation’s history, Communities’ of Color’s mistrust has left them out of participating in local and national climate solutions. In response, she recommends 3 points to regain community trust: 1) Deep Listening; 2) Accountability; & 3) Action. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Social and Environmental Justice (2021)

Self-hate is a particularly modern, western phenomenon. Buddhist literature up until the 21st century lacks any notion of self-compassion. Why is that? Compassion garners a large role with the advent of the Mahayana movement, in its capacity to liberate us from the second veil of ignorance, the distinction between self and other, self and world. Going beyond the Arhat, ‘…the point of the Buddha is to serve others to free themselves… they are great teachers…’ who free others by teaching them the nature of reality. ‘True awakening is free from perspective,…teaching from the standpoint of others…. Buddha’s don’t have opinions!’ The West’s ‘subjective turn’ sees an emphasis on the ‘self’, a story-telling of the ‘self’. A self-focusing with strong correlations to depression. A possible reframing of compassion in the form of renunciation can provide us with the motivation to free sentient beings from suffering’, but without turning the self into an object or story, without the self-soothing, ‘…dropping into the pain and letting go of the story…getting good at not taking the story of the self seriously.’ This talk was given by John Dunne.

In this Wednesday night Dharma Talk, Dr. Richard Schwartz starts us off by orienting the audience with the fundamentals of Internal Family Systems. He further expands, by suggesting that we can only be compassionate with others if we learn how to be calm, curious, and compassionate with our internal parts. He ends the discussion with a small practice for us to get to know our internal parts, or so-called our, ‘defenders‘ and ‘exiles‘. Join us for this powerful talk and practice.

Here, Stephanie Kaza braids all the previous talks to present a conceptual lens in showcasing how farming, gardening, and ecology are fundamentally issues of justice. What is the role of an awakened action? How do justice and culture regenerate the soil and human health? How can we reckon with the past, be responsible today and shift our human relationships with ourselves and the earth from the ever-dominant models of extraction and consumption? For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Planting Life, Growing Justice (2021)

In this beautiful and eye-opening presentation, Konda Mason speaks about her work with Jubilee Justice in addressing wealth and inequality because of black land loss.  To remedy the exploitation and loss of black land, Jubilee Justice’s work focuses on three main spheres: Journeys, the Rice Project, and Potlikker Capital. Journey convenes transformative gatherings in addressing the internalized racism and capitalism we hold within. The Rice Project, empower’s black farmers through ‘…regenerative farming and cooperative ownership…’, and Potlikker Capital ‘…supplies reparative capital and legal services.’ To donate to Konda, please put a note “for Konda” For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Planting Life, Growing Justice (2021)

Wendy Johnson begins by reminding us of the previous day’s planting of the three sisters in the Upaya garden. The ancient sisters of squash, beans, and corn. In such difficult times, gardening as a practice allows us to not look away from our grief. It is of the utmost importance to stop, not turn away, and look deeply to grieve. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Planting Life, Growing Justice (2021)

In the first talk of the day, renowned artist, sculptress, and Tewa leader, Roxanne Swentzell, speaks to the incredible journey of re-establishing the pre-European Tewa diet. Through the process of re-encountering mother-salt, re-learning the ancient methods of processing and storing food, and doing it in community, Roxanne shows us how inextricably linked our very blood and bones are to our land, how important it is for us to find this visceral connection, and how that bond re-aligns our physical, psychological and spiritual health. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Planting Life, Growing Justice (2021)

‘First, we braid grasses and play tug of war; then we take turns singing and keeping a kickball in the air. I kick the ball and they sing, they kick and I sing, time is forgotten the hours fly. People passing by point at me and laugh, ‘why are you acting like such a fool’. I nod my head and don’t answer. I could say something, but why? Do you know what’s in my heart? From the beginning of time, ‘just this, just this’. With this Ryokan poem, Hoshi Kigaku Noah Roen ends his Dharma talk exploring the Blue Cliff Record 80, A New Born Baby. A timely koan in Kigaku’s life, just a week shy of his baby’s expected birth. In his inquiry, Kigaku gives us both science’s view on baby consciousness, the zen literature’s oft-referenced views on ‘…being like a child, like a newborn’ and his own anticipation and excitement to encounter this new consciousness.

Sensei Kathie Fischer explores the core tenets of Mahayana Buddhism, inviting us into deeper dialogue regarding the principles of non-duality, form, emptiness, and self. She brings us into the depth of Vilmalakirti’s thunderous silence, reminding us that it penetrates our lives and that it is close at hand when we drop the preferential mind. She reminds us that we throw ourselves into language, into objects, without noticing, we are attaching to these experiences of our lives without mindfulness, and we can transform this and instead rest in silence, and abide in the action and being of love. This talk doubles up as Fall Practice Period (2021) SESSHIN (Part 4 of 6). For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Fall Practice Period 2021: The Bodhisattva Way of Vimalakirti

Wendy Johnson discusses the Vimalakirti sutra and connects this text and its teachings with the living teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh. She explains that Vimalakirti is a wounded healer boddhisatva, “dangerous to settled life in every way and alive with the feral vow to benefit all beings.” She shares with us that bodhisattvas become sick due to their “embodied emergent enactive compassion; a compassion animated by raw love for others and recognition of how many of us are sick.” Wendy honors her root teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh, who continues to teach “vividly and authentically from his sickbed,” by sharing various teachings she has received. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Fall Practice Period 2021: The Bodhisattva Way of Vimalakirti

Monshin Nannette Overley weaves together the talks we’ve heard during the Fall Practice Period on emptiness and compassion, while exploring the difference between sentimental compassion and true compassion. She calls us to remember the true gift of having a practice, in this world, to wake up. She  reminds us that our practice is a treasure which allows us to experience all that life has to offer and supports us in taking action from a place of true compassion. She encourages us to go beyond dualistic thinking and remember that there is no difference between the helper and the one being helped. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Fall Practice Period 2021: The Bodhisattva Way of Vimalakirti

Matthew Kozan Palevsky delves into Chapter 5 of the Vimalakirti sutra.  He begins by reminding us how sickness can open up the possibility for connection and healing, saying “In illness we can feel uniquely undefended, unpretentious, unmitigated, unquestioning, undone. At times this can feel like overwhelming intimacy with whomever is with us, or with all of life.”  He then delves into the causes of Vimalakirti’s sickness, which is our sickness, and how we are to understand its cure.  He tackles this central topic of Zen by breaking it down into two sicknesses and two cures, saying:  “For the first, we apply the view of emptiness to a mind that wants to cling to duality.  And for the second sickness we use Great Compassion to heal the broken heartedness that arises from Great Compassion. Of course, this is only one sickness, which is no sickness at all.”  Kozan closes with a case from the Blue Cliff Record that expresses Vimalakirti’s invitation to meet the world with Wisdom and Upaya — with Great Compassion. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Fall Practice Period 2021: The Bodhisattva Way of Vimalakirti

Reigetsu Susan Moon reviews chapter 7 of Vimalakirti, The Goddess. She shares the story of the Goddess and Shariputra and illuminates insights from the sutra involving non-duality, opposites being necessary and complementary, gender as a social construct, and body as an illusory form. She encourages us to put ourselves in other people shoes in order to realize self as other, and reminds us that the oath of renunciation and the path of compassion are both right and in perfect agreement. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Fall Practice Period 2021: The Bodhisattva Way of Vimalakirti

Robert Thurman reads from his translation of The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti,  summarizing this sutra as a text of discovering inconceivable liberation through direct realization of the interconnectedness of all beings. He reminds us that to understand this text is to understand that we are buddha, and to realize this we have to go beyond dualistic thinking. Thurman explains that through increasing cognitive dissonance tolerance and meditation practice, we come to understand that we are beyond conceptual ideas of individuation. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Fall Practice Period 2021: The Bodhisattva Way of Vimalakirti

Sensei Shinzan Palma speaks to us of the importance of practice to wake up. He teaches us that whether we are monastic or lay practitioners, the dharma is available to us in every aspect of our lives. He reminds us that we have the opportunity in every moment to realize the dharma despite the conditions of our lives; we only have to commit to practice.