Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Starting with a Q&A session, Roshi Joan Halifax and John Dunne address the sticky issue of working with anger and how to use that energy in a skillful way. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: EMPTINESS AND COMPASSION

In this expansive session, Roshi Joan Halifax and John Dunne discuss the three trainings of ethics, meditation and wisdom. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: EMPTINESS AND COMPASSION

Roshi Joan Halifax and John Dunne take questions from the group. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: EMPTINESS AND COMPASSION

“All other perfections are included in the act of giving. The giving of wisdom, the wisdom of giving.” With these words, Roshi Joan Halifax and John Dunne continue their discussion of the six perfections before moving onto a discussion of negative mental states and how to confront them. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: EMPTINESS AND COMPASSION

The six perfections are an important part of Shantideva’s teachings. Roshi Joan Halifax and John Dunne break down the perfections and delve into the first chapters of A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: EMPTINESS AND COMPASSION

Roshi Joan Halifax and John Dunne open today’s talk with a description of Shantideva’s life as he went from one failed job to another before ending up as a great yogi cave dweller. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: EMPTINESS AND COMPASSION

Marilyn Whitney has lead a fascinating life raising horses, performing medical research and currently working as a Chaplain in a cancer ward. Drawing from her Buddhist practice, Marilyn explores her work as an interfaith Chaplain while practicing the three tenants of not knowing, bearing witness and taking action.

Shantideva’s A Guide to The Bodhisattva Way of Life is a foundational text that guides the reader through the development of bodhicitta, or the awakening of the heart-mind through a nondual perspective that embodies the wisdom of emptiness and compassion. To put it more simply, Roshi Joan Halifax asks, “What do you want to give away to benefit all beings?” In this series, Roshi Joan Halifax and John Dunne explore this foundational text and Shantideva’s own life as a source of deep inspiration for our modern times and practice. According to John Dunne, we can learn from this work that “the radical transformation of the mind is possible for anyone, and even the smallest steps in that direction can have powerful effects.” In this opening talk, Roshi Joan Halifax and John Dunne begin by exploring the basis for Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. What does it really mean to be compassionate? How can we use our own suffering to cultivate our capacity to serve others? Through exploring these questions, the stage is set for a fascinating exploration of Shantideva’s life and writing. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: EMPTINESS AND COMPASSION

In this inspiring talk, Seigen Chuck Overley explores the process of finding ease and joy in difficult situations. From teaching meditation to inmates at the Penitentiary of New Mexico to art classes with the elderly, Chuck delves into why “showing up” to face suffering takes courage and cultivates compassion.

Dr. James S. Gordon, founder of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine and author of The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma, encourages us to see that, “trauma is a part of life, and not apart from it.” Through sharing heartfelt stories of transformation from many cultures around the world, Dr. Gordon offers different ways of working with trauma and turning it into, “the soil in which wisdom and compassion can grow.”

Monshin Nannette Overley speaks on the three areas of what is classically referred to in Buddhism as the perfection of patience. They include patience with personal pain and hardship; patience with the suffering caused by our interactions with other people; and patience with painful truths about our human life. “Patience is considered an antidote to acting out in anger,” says Nannette, but, “it’s not necessarily passive…It’s a different kind of spirit of meeting the situation that’s there even though it’s not what we’re asking for at the moment.”

As Sensei Jose Shinzan Palma puts it, “the bad news is that this sesshin is coming to an end, and the good news is that this sesshin is coming to an end.” This talk explains the five “skandhas,” also known as the five aggregates. The aggregates, composed of form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness, collectively create a sense of self. When we recognize the aggregates, we can relax our grip on this sense of self and experience less suffering. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Fall Practice Period 2019 The Diamond Sutra

“The Diamond Sutra is bird song from 2000 years ago,” says Sensei Sokaku Kathie Fischer. In her talk, Sensei Fischer tells of the widespread influence of the sutra, citing the work of Zen Master Dogen, koans, the rise of the sudden enlightenment school in China, and the bodhisattva ideal, as well as the notion of upaya. Her talk is a reminder that practice freshens and enlivens us, and that it is a practice of loving-kindness. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Fall Practice Period 2019 The Diamond Sutra

Matthew Kozan Palevsky gives an eloquent talk on seeing things just as they are. To see “our tears just as tears, our joy as joy… We have to show up fully to notice, we have to decide to be here.” His talk includes what are known as the six paramitas, and it highlights the first of the six, generosity. Generosity is one of the front doors to our practice, and acts of gift giving are emphasized in the Diamond Sutra. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Fall Practice Period 2019 The Diamond Sutra

Sensei Jose Shinzan Palma reminds us that we can’t meditate with our heads. It is when we realize that all of the Zen books that we’ve read are useless that we settle into non-conceptual mind states. Shinzan sprinkles in advice such as, “stop judging your situation, that’s when you are totally free; fully embrace it. Don’t try to find a shortcut to make it less painful.” For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Fall Practice Period 2019 The Diamond Sutra