Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Zenshin Florence Caplow and Reigetsu Sue Moon offer us the wisdom of Zen Crones through storytelling and reference of their collaboration The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women. They encourage Zen practice and teaching as medicine for the anxieties of the 21st century. They encourage us to turn to Zen crones who hold the wisdom of grandmother’s mind which can support us in healing and moving towards the truth of interconnectedness.

Heather McTeer Toney speaks on recovery from climate disasters as a pathway to building resilient communities. She reminds us that people of color know this pathway well and have been engaged in the fight for climate justice long before today. She encourages us to take collective action that follows the lead of community organizers who have the experience to lead the way in the midst of climate change.

In this classic Dharma Talk with Venerable Pannavati Bikkhuni from the Heartwood Refuge in North Carolina, we are reminded of the deep interconnectedness of generosity and gratitude, and ultimately, equanimity, and how this timeless practice of meditation and ethics can help us navigate in the modern world.

Frank Ostaseski invites us back into the body to experience the fullness of life, in order to lean into the mystery of life and death. He invites us to look at life and death through the lens of the elements, and into the realization of the interconnectedness of all things.

Sensei Sara Jisho Siebert shares her journey as a Zen practitioner and the ways she has learned from the experiences in her life to stay with the unpleasant feelings and suffering that can arise in order to expand our capacity for empathy. She shares that the practice of being with our own suffering can lead us to hold space for others which will lead us to the path of liberation for all beings.

William deBuys writes about his 2016 and 2018 medical expeditions in Upper Dolpo while participating in the Nomad’s Clinic through Upaya. He shares three excerpts from the soon-to-be-released book titled The Trail to Kanjiroba.

Osho Zenju Earthlyn Manuel and Roshi Joan Halifax engage in a dialogue to discuss the shamanic practice that is zen. She invites us into seeing za zen as a daily ceremony, a ceremonial elixir that is devoid of the clutter of the world. She invites us to see this ritual that we can re-engage with the world and the moments of initiation of our lives both individually and collectively. Click here to pre-order your copy of The Shamanic Bones of Zen.

In this wholly contemporary talk that is also deeply rooted in the Buddhist contemplative tradition, Rhonda Magee brings us into the classic practice of Satipatthana – mindfulness of body, feeling, thought, and phenomena, to help work with identity-based suffering. She shares how the Four Establishments of Mindfulness remind us that to be alive is a gift and a miracle, and to recognize that it is precious. Through personal narrative, Rhonda invites us into cultivating awareness of the more complex embodied sensations that occur from identity-based suffering. By becoming aware of embodied sensations, we can understand our reactions to situations that may be rooted in cultural and societal narratives and from our past. Rhonda invites us to return to our practice to support us in letting go of narratives and returning to not knowing.

In her timely talk, Roshi Enkyo O’Hara invites us to sing along with Tina Turner, “What’s Time Got To Do With It?” and explores the process of overwhelm overwhelming overwhelm in Dogen’s fascicle Time-Being. Roshi Enkyo translates Dogen into modern idiom, relating that “FOMO (fear of missing out) is a universal fear that can trigger a sense of inadequacy that can blind us as spiritual seekers to the very moment that is arriving for us right now.” How do we practice stillness and presence in the midst of the overwhelming environmental crisis that faces us today? How can we “surf” the wave of present moment as it moves along the path of time? And how do we include the past in our “now,” remembering the people that have come before us, and the place where we currently reside?

When you Greet Me I Bow, Roshi Norman Fischer’s latest book came about differently from his past writing endeavors. For Norman, and his editor, the past four decades of writing can be condensed into four main themes: A) Relationships; B) Buddhist Emptiness teachings; C) Culture & its Shapings, and D) Engagement. As a precursor to his day-long Saturday program at Upaya, Roshi Norman spent the hour speaking to us about the first theme of his book, Relationships. In the recounting of two stories of ancient Zen masters and their students, it becomes evident that their relationships aren’t marked by the standards of the contemporary sort. One where we seek to fulfill each other’s needs, or even be kind and supportive. But rather, these ‘…characters meet on another plane entirely, the Dharma gate of deepest truth…between them there is a deep harmony and trust…no one needs to understand anyone else,…their encounter goes beyond, their love runs deeper.’ As Roshi Norman goes on to underscore, ‘Sometimes people complain about Zen being excessively formal. Isn’t it all about formality? The point is that it enacts, whether we get it or not, the transcendent sort of relationship… when we enter the Zen forms, we are literally practicing every day, being covered all over, by the whole world, till there is nothing left of us, inside and out, but the whole world.’

Rhonda Myozan V Magee leads us in the inquiry of how the racist mind takes seed in all of us. She reminds us that we need to turn towards the legacy of racism and colonization in order to face the harm and impact in our communities. Rhonda invites us to look at how we embody white supremacy and internalized racism through the lens of the elements in order to move towards the truth of equity of all beings. Sensei Kritee Kanko invites us into understanding the overwhelm of these times marked by the ongoing violence and oppression in our communities which leave us fixed in reactive trauma states. She lifts up the need to do grief work with each other so that we can reset our nervous systems out of our trauma-based states of fight, flight, and freeze to move into compassionate action for the world.

In today’s talk Stephanie Kaza explores moral injury: We can be morally injured by the damage done to the environment. The moral injury leaves us feeling ashamed, guilty, and helpless, and ‘…threatens our belief in our society.’ Looking at other traditions like the ancient Christians and the Navajo, their wisdom demonstrates that we must ‘…take responsibility for our healing which contributes to a better society.’ So how can Buddhist moral guidelines heal moral harm? By turning towards the harm, learning from it, we can engage collectively to ‘…restore the moral fabric of society…and our impact with each other.’

Hoshi Kozan Palevsky asks us: What has this pandemic given you and what has it allowed you to let go of? He asks us to look at this upheaval through the lens of a Jubilee, the Biblical practice of letting go of debt and other forms of bondage during a year of renewal. Kozan ends with the simple reminder from Shinran: “This has happened. Now something else may occur.”

Episode Description: Sensei 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 at our grief. The importance of stopping, not turning away, in order to look deeply and grieve.

In The Poetry of Awareness on an Ordinary Day,  Fushin James Bristol explores the profound practice of awareness in our day to day life–“…doing what I’m supposed to be doing now.” Awareness arises from the tangled thoughts during Zazen and moves into our life and activities in the world, where what happens each day–from the stark moments to the ordinary moments–has an impact and informs us, particularly if we are Aware. Deepening our awareness calls us to show up–to show up to what is right in front of you now, bringing everything in yourself, excluding nothing, fully aware, fully awake on this path of your life, knowing you are connected to all things of the universe.