Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Sensei Kaz Tanahashi and Sensei Shinzan Palma talk about the Heart Sutra in more detail and the importance of community. Sensei Kaz discusses the Four Noble Truths and how the Heart Sutra prescribes a freedom from craving. He also explains his four principles for large-scale transformation. Sensei Shinzan relays two stories which illustrate the role of community and the ripple effect of seemingly small acts of kindness. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: SESSHIN: Bodhisattva Perspectives on the Heart Sutra

Natalie Goldberg asks a fundamental question in this talk: what does it mean to realize ourselves? In answer, she explains, “Realizing ourselves is not what we think realizing ourselves is. It’s not one thing that will do it. If you sit zazen, or if you do writing practice, we’re endless, and we’re not only endless, there’s no beginning or end.” Natalie discusses uplifting political news, advice for living and dying, advice for writing, and, of course, insightful poetry. Quoting the female haiku master, Chiyo-ni, Natalie reads, “Clear water, no front, no back.”

Sensei Kaz Tanahashi and Sensei Shinzan Palma talk about how zazen is an opportunity for us to deal with the issues that accumulate when we try to avoid them in our day-to day-lives. They also discuss the 16 precepts, and one of Dogen’s basic teachings which is that there is no separation between practice and enlightenment. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: SESSHIN: Bodhisattva Perspectives on the Heart Sutra

Sensei Kaz Tanahashi and Sensei Shinzan Palma explore one of the core teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, the Heart Sutra. This is also known as Prajna Paramita Hridaya, or Heart of Realizing Wisdom Beyond Wisdom. This series addresses many questions: What is emptiness? What is awakening? How can we practice without attempting to attain or achieve anything? Senseis Shinzan and Kaz use a well-proportioned blend of humor and lightheartedness to transmit the wisdom of the Heart Sutra. They explore such themes as gratitude, the benefits of practice, existence, awakening, and freedom. In the first talk of this sesshin, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi and Sensei Shinzan Palma discuss being happy while serving others, the five skandhas, the role of mantras in practice, the three marks of existence, and the importance of experiencing impermanence. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: SESSHIN: Bodhisattva Perspectives on the Heart Sutra

As we finish our Haiku weekend, Clark Strand, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi, Roshi Joan Halifax, and Natalie Goldberg share their own haiku and some haiku that they love. Clark reads several of author Richard Wright’s haiku including: In the falling snow, a laughing boy holds out his palms until they are white. Kaz reads his own poem he wrote during the retreat: One-third of Nat’s face expounds her stormy past of haiku. Roshi Joan recalls Kobin Chino Roshi’s life and reads his haiku including: When you shoot an arrow at yourself, make sure your aim is true. To write haiku, Natalie suggests, “Don’t be shy. Let yourself be dumb and not know. Writers are dumb, Zen students are dumb. Otherwise they wouldn’t become writers or Zen students. So really take your life seriously.” For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Five Hundred Years of Haiku

Clark Strand reads examples of noted modern haiku and speaks about some of the ways in which modern haiku differ from traditional poetry. From Shōwa period female poet Mitsuhashi Takajo: Climb this tree and you’ll be a she-devil, red leaves in the sunset glow. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Five Hundred Years of Haiku

Natalie Goldberg and Clark Strand speak about the beginnings of haiku. Clark talks about the collaborative nature of haiku, some of its implicit rules, and the reason for its popularity. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Five Hundred Years of Haiku

“When you’re a beginning haiku writer,” says Natalie Goldberg, “it’s better to keep practicing and don’t edit too much.” In her years of studying haiku and writing poetry, Natalie found haiku, “gave me a little refreshment. It allowed me to find another place in my mind.” In this talk, she gives a sampler of the four great haiku poets: Basho, Busson, Issa, and Shiki, as well as the Buddhist nun, Chiyo-ni who wrote: To tangle or untangle the willow, it’s up to the wind. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Five Hundred Years of Haiku

Wendy Johnson and Rob Wilder discuss the early experiences which led Wendy to gardening and to Zen Buddhism, and they discuss her book, “Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate.” One of the central themes of the talk was the metaphor of a “tangle.” Wendy explains, “The inner tangle and the outer tangle, —this generation is entangled in a tangle… It cannot be untangled; we go into the tangle and meet this world.” The mystery of not knowing, the benefits of interacting with soil, the relationship of dharma and farm, this episode is fertile compost for the enrichment of life.

Our first talk in the morning is from Sensei Kaz Tanahashi who explains some elements of Japanese grammar and explores Basho and haiku pre-dating Basho. Kaz says, “Japanese is a highly grammatical language…negative is negative, future is future, past is past. We cannot change it; it’s all defined. Except Japanese is also ambiguous in terms of subject; often the subject is implied.” Kaz finishes with a poem that is regarded as one of Basho’s haiku that represents “sabi”—a universal solitary loneliness and the beauty of old age. On the withered branch, a crow has perched. Autumn evening. NOTE: Click here for the PDF of the worksheet handed out during this talk. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Five Hundred Years of Haiku

In Upaya’s 5th year of our Haiku program Roshi Joan Halifax, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi, Natalie Goldberg, and Clark Strand explore this centuries-old art form. Our six-part series includes stories from the speakers which describe their personal experiences with writing haiku, Japanese grammar and some of the more technical aspects of writing haiku, and samples of the many unique forms of haiku which have been written by diverse groups of people over the years.  Upaya founder and Abbot Roshi Joan Halifax welcomes the participants: “Part of the virtue of being at Upaya is that it is a landscape internally that is also reflected externally, about space and light and health and civility, beauty, care, and compassion…to be in the spirit of this place.” The art form of haiku. On our first evening together, Roshi Joan Halifax, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi, Natalie Goldberg, and Clark Strand remember their favorite haiku and ask the audience to share their reasons for coming to learn about haiku at Upaya. Natalie begins the conversation by asking, “Why are you really here?” And Kaz shares his parody of Basho’s famous frog poem: Old frog, a pond jumps in, sound of water. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Five Hundred Years of Haiku

Episode Description: In this talk, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi and Sensei Shinzan Palma discuss the contents of the Heart Sutra, the notion of emptiness, different types of wisdom, and the notion of awakening. The Heart Sutra is regarded as the most succinct form of the Dharma. Its central theme is the concept of emptiness which can be interpreted to mean that divisions or boundaries between things are not important. This is why the word emptiness has also been translated as boundlessness. Sensei Shinzan elaborates on these ideas by explaining the importance of compassion and wisdom to our practice. “Compassion cannot exist if there is no wisdom, and, likewise, if there is no wisdom there is no compassion.”

Episode Description: In this episode, Sensei Joshin Byrnes talks about the final Vow, which is about embodying the awakened way. What is it to live life in an awakened way? Joshin quotes Roshi Bernie Glassman, saying, “The purpose of Buddhist practice is to awaken, the function of that awakening is learning how to serve.” Joshin reminds us that the vows and our whole practice manifests as service to others. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: SESSHIN: Four Great Vows

Episode Description: In this talk, Clark Strand speaks about the history of Haiku, how we might define it, and how he came to practice it. The word Haiku translates to “playful verse.” The best Haiuku, Clark says, “demonstrate what I would call profound play, meaning that they say something significant while appearing to say almost nothing.” Importantly, Haiku is a social art. It is meant to be engaged in with a playful, collaborative spirit, by communities of practitioners. Clark demonstrates these insights through anecdotes and his own experiences with writing Haiku.

Episode Description: In this episode, Matthew Kozan Palevsky discusses boundlessness and reality. “Reality is all things as they are,” he says. In boundlessness, nothing is excluded. Kozan also reads a fascicle by Zen Master Dogen called, “Reality of All Things.” Dogen poses an interesting question, he asks, “can we get out of the way of the world worlding?” For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: SESSHIN: Four Great Vows