Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Episode Description: Sensei Wendy Johnson begins her talk by drawing our attention to the many challenges confronting us today: the extreme climate swings around the world, the death and despair from the global pandemic, the 100 year anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre, and the legacy of genocide and racism in the USA. ‘Old zen…,’ Wendy goes on to say, ‘…is a practice of sitting in the saddle, and acting in the world.’ In the run-up to the Planting Life, Growing Justice weekend, Wendy elucidates how the ethos and pathos of planting isn’t a metaphor to confront life’s challenges but is actually the very method and attitude to confront life’s challenges. How important it is to discern, when to stop and when to act. How important it is to, ‘find your place where you are, and allow practice to occur.’

In this powerful talk, Breeshia Wade, author of the recently released Grieving While Black, explores how the underlying truth of impermanence relates to states of grief and loss, and that if we wish to bring about change in an unjust system, for example to deal with racial inequality, then we must accept that this change will give rise to a sense of grief and loss in those who are accustomed to the privileges that inequality provides. We must be ready to embrace this grief and loss if we are ever to bring about the change we wish to see in the world.

As a prelude to the resident sesshin on Dogen which started later that night, Matthew Kozan Palevsky delves into Dogen’s language of suchness, and how we can “micro-dose” moments of meditation to realize the heart of Dogen’s teaching.

Episode Description: In his talk on Enacting Hope, the philosopher Evan Thompson reviews Gabriel Marcel’s view on Hope through his differentiation between a conditioned, and an unconditioned hope. Given our historic situation, unconditioned hope acts as an antidote to despair by requiring an inner creative process of transformation, rooted in the security of our very being. Oriented towards love, embodied in communal life, and recognized in each other, it provides a bond that unites life. ‘We hope in Earth, for all of us.’

Episode Description: In this Wednesday night, and SEBT Dharma Talk, Dr. Larry Ward speaks on sorrow and grief. Trauma,  Dr. Ward points out, is a normal human occurrence rooted in the biology of the human being. Being inundated by trauma triggers, how are we able to transform grief and sorrow into love? How can we process grief and sorrow as a human/earthling collective?

In this Wednesday night Dharma Talk, Lama Rod Owens speaks on the importance of recognizing and being intimate with one’s own grief. This is how we can bloom to be lotuses, and serve others. Nevertheless, blossoming from mud to lotus is dirty, messy, and complex work, ‘…if you aren’t willing to get messy with complexity, you aren’t ready for the responsibility of being free… nor are you ready to free others.’

In the final Dharma Talk of the Spring Practice Period, and Sesshin, Sensei Kathie Fischer speaks on the last two chapters of the Bodhicaryavatara: Wisdom and Dedication. Sensei brings up notions of beginner’s mind, interdependent co-arising, and buddha-nature. She ends with Dedication and requests we write our own verses of inspiration and benefit for others.  Our pain and grief are windows in finding others, exchanging ourselves with others, and ultimately, forgetting ourselves. This SESSHIN is part of the Spring Practice Period 2021. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Spring Practice Period 2021: The Way of the Bodhisattva

On this day 5  of the Spring Sesshin, Hoshi’s Kigaku Noah Rossetter and Matthew Kozan Palevsky tag team to speak on Prajna Paramita, or the Perfection of Wisdom in the Bodhicaryavatara. Kigaku does an ‘unprecedented’ slide show, depicting how concepts reduce our perceptions of a rainbow’s panoply of colors to mere dozens. Similarly, our distinct experiences of self, others, and life reduce the robust experience of reality. Kozan speaks on the notion of the two truths: the relative and the absolute.  Conceptually, in the world of the relative, the best that can be hoped for is pointing to the absolute. As he leads us into meditation,  he reminds us of the non-separation between our personal experience and the cosmos, manifested with our cosmic mudra. This SESSHIN is part of the Spring Practice Period 2021. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Spring Practice Period 2021: The Way of the Bodhisattva

In this dharma talk, Zenshin Florence Caplow highlights the value and depth found with lay practice.  She points to Shantideva’s sparse attention given to meditation in his chapter, The Perfection of Meditation, and asks us to inquire, what has Shantideva chosen to speak about? How does it speak to us about our meditation practice? Also, Zenshin addresses Shantideva’s charnel ground practice of not only the loathsomeness of the body but specifically the loathsomeness of women. It is this sort of discourse that still perpetuates the marginalization of women practitioners. She quotes fascicles from the 13th century Soto Zen Patriarch Eihei Dogen on his view that regardless of gender, all can equally attain awakening. She ends by reminding us that we ‘…are all members of the world,’ and to inquire, ‘what is so special about me that I strive for my happiness and not of others? Can we see ourselves as members of the world?’ This SESSHIN is part of the Spring Practice Period 2021. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Spring Practice Period 2021: The Way of the Bodhisattva

On day three of the Spring 2021 sesshin, Sensei Al Kaszniak presents his views on chapter 8 of the Bodhicaryavatara, the Perfection of Meditation. He brings in parallels from Dogen’s Fukanzazengi, Bendowa, and the Genjokoan, in the importance of stabilizing concentration and renunciation of discursive thought. The importance of a curious open-heartedness in inquiring, ‘is that so’ to our phenomenal experiences, the importance of spiritual friendship, and the observation that those who are happiest serve others, while those who aren’t, serve themselves. This SESSHIN is part of the Spring Practice Period 2021. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Spring Practice Period 2021: The Way of the Bodhisattva

In this Dharma Talk, Sensei Irene Kaigetsu Bakker explores chapter 7 of the Bodhicaryavatara, the Perfection of Zeal. She tracks Shantideva’s progression from a fear-based warning against unwholesome deeds to an insight-based joy that arises from wholesome deeds. It is exactly through finding the joy in wholesome deeds that zeal is perfected. This SESSHIN is part of the Spring Practice Period 2021. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Spring Practice Period 2021: The Way of the Bodhisattva

In this day one Sesshin Dharma Talk, Sensei Jose Shinzan De Palma speaks on Chapter 6 of the Bodhicaryavatara, The Perfection of Patience. He points out how Shantideva doesn’t directly speak about Patience, or its cultivation but rather emphasizes its enemies and difficulties. Through the transformation of anger, jealousy, envy, hate, and pride we cultivate Patience. In particular, Shantideva stresses the importance of Patience in confronting anger/hatred. Shinzan implores us to see frustration arise in our lives and ‘not fight our practice’. Lastly, he reviews Gil Fronsdale’s three categories of patience: patience with perseverance, patience under insult, and patience with the acceptance of truth. He ponders if notions such as Patience and Commitment will be around much longer in our fast-paced, rushed society, or if, in fact, they’d be… ‘lost arts’. This SESSHIN is part of the Spring Practice Period 2021. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Spring Practice Period 2021: The Way of the Bodhisattva

In this Dharma talk, Hoshi Matthew Kozan Palevsky looks at Chapter 5 of the Bodhicaryavatara through a contemporary problematic. Shantideva warns and implore’s us to maintain the mind’s awareness for it is the basis of all other vows and practices. Not doing so leads us to the realm of the “Avicii Hell.” In a contemporary society, where profit derives from the commodification of our attention and emotions, how can understanding the phenomena of procrastination, both its craving and aversing aspects, support us to live present, content, and ethical lives? For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Spring Practice Period 2021: The Way of the Bodhisattva

Episode Description: In this Dharma Talk on Chapter 5 of the Bodhicaryavatara, John Dunne suggests the guarding of meta-awareness, better aptly describes the practice Shantideva recommends. A non-dual awareness which is non-objectifying and quotidian. He provides us with helpful aphorisms from the text we can use for moments when we go astray. Ultimately, suffering comes down to the way we experience, not exactly what we’re experiencing. Benefiting others, working on one’s mind, and reappraising our assumptions of others are some of the important aspects of practice that allow us to get to the other side. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Spring Practice Period 2021: The Way of the Bodhisattva

In this Dharma Talk, Monshin Nannette Overley speaks on Chapter 4 of the Bodhicaryavatavara, Attending to the Spirit of Awakening. Specifically, on the necessity of attentiveness in peacemaking for its capacity to tend to the spirit of service, its treasure as a guardian in keeping us from repeating mistakes, and support in continuously showing up. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Spring Practice Period 2021: The Way of the Bodhisattva