Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Upaya Zen Center welcomes beloved Buddhist author and visionary activist/scholar, Joanna Macy, to address our Socially Engaged Buddhist Training Program, along with the extended Upaya world community. With her are close colleagues Roshi Joan Halifax, Stephanie Kaza and Wendy Johnson. In this challenging time of unresolved war and environmental crisis, Joanna Macy’s work is informed by over six decades of committed activism addressing psychological and spiritual issues of our nuclear age, the cultivation of deep environmental awareness, and the vital resonance between Buddhist practice and post-modern science. During this special teaching and training session, Joanna, with support from Roshi Joan, Wendy Johnson and Stephanie Kaza, draws on the richness of her groundbreaking new work that includes an adaptive framework for personal, social change, and environmental transformation. Please join us for this vivid teaching and training as Joanna calls us to go forth into our wounded world as peaceful warriors committed to the Bodhisattva Path of transformation of suffering in this crucial planetary time. This is the 2nd segment of this program. Click here for Part 1. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.

Upaya Zen Center welcomes beloved Buddhist author and visionary activist/scholar, Joanna Macy, to address our Socially Engaged Buddhist Training Program, along with the extended Upaya world community. With her are close colleagues Roshi Joan Halifax, Stephanie Kaza and Wendy Johnson. In this challenging time of unresolved war and environmental crisis, Joanna Macy’s work is informed by over six decades of committed activism addressing psychological and spiritual issues of our nuclear age, the cultivation of deep environmental awareness, and the vital resonance between Buddhist practice and post-modern science. During this special teaching and training session, Joanna, with support from Roshi Joan, Wendy Johnson and Stephanie Kaza, draws on the richness of her groundbreaking new work that includes an adaptive framework for personal, social change, and environmental transformation. Please join us for this vivid teaching and training as Joanna calls us to go forth into our wounded world as peaceful warriors committed to the Bodhisattva Path of transformation of suffering in this crucial planetary time. This is the 1st segment of this program. Click here for Part 2. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.

Many of us experience disturbing emotions that drive harmful behaviors causing unnecessary suffering to others and ourselves. In this program, we explore the powerful resources that make it possible for us to meet uncertainty, fear, failure, and futility with compassion, strength, and equanimity. Both Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax bring decades of experience working with those suffering from destructive emotions. They offer their unique expertise in transforming destructive emotions and in supporting a return to joy. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.

Dekila Chungyalpa is an environmental scientist, Buddhist practitioner, and director of the Loka Initiative, an environment and climate education platform for faith leaders. She talks about how Buddhist perspectives and practices can contribute to climate activism, how Mother Wisdom, or Prajna Paramita, has inspired her environmental work, and how our relationship with water is always at the center of it all

Matthew Kozan Palevsky and Dorotea Mendoza provide the following three topics for writing practice: * 3 ideas I’m attached to * List of 3 things – you avoid bearing witness to * 3 actions that heal myself and others Dorotea discusses how through writing practice we can become present to our lives and of service to others. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Inside Out 2022

Matthew Kozan Palevsky guides a seated meditation and Dorotea provides the following topic for writing: Quote from Zen monk Ikkyu: “I’d love to give you something, but what would help?” Dorotea then talks about how to integrate writing practice into your daily life, how to make writing practice communal, and why writing practice is a political act. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Inside Out 2022

Matthew Kozan Palevsky reads a koan about two birds fighting over a frog and the beginning of Dogen’s Time-Being (Uji), exploring the question of what it means to bear witness. He then provides this topic for writing: Take an object at hand that is not your notebook. What is included in this object? Dorotea Mendoza gives tips on what to do when we’re writing or listening and we find our minds floating away in distraction. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Inside Out 2022

Matthew Kozan Palevsky begins the morning with a guided meditation, encouraging us to be present to whatever arises. He then suggests a writing topic on the practice of bearing witness: recall someone or something that you fully bore witness to – pet, object, person. What did you see in their eyes? Also: Dorotea Mendoza gives a “refresher” teaching on writing practice and then guides us through an oral “writing” practice. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Inside Out 2022

Dorotea Mendoza and Matthew Kozan Palevsky take questions from program participants. Then program participants read excerpts of their writing while other participants practice listening without judgment. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Inside Out 2022

Beloved Tibetan Buddhist teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche and bestselling science author Daniel Goleman are interviewed by Roshi Joan Halifax about their new book, Why We Meditate. Some of the questions explored by these renowned teachers include: How do we go beyond our initial introduction to mindfulness practice? How do we approach our own minds compassionately and not aggressively? What can Western and Eastern cultures teach each other about mind? This is an excellent episode for those just getting started on their meditation journeys, Buddhist or otherwise, and for those who are looking to deepen their established practice.

Matthew Kozan Palevsky leads a guided meditation. Dorotea Mendoza and Kozan provide the following topics for writing practice: * What has found you? 5 minutes * See the blank page as something unfamiliar. You don’t know what is going to show up. What will you ask the wind? 5 minutes * What request for forgiveness have you not given voice to? 7 minutes * Tell me about a time you fell in love. 5 minutes To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Inside Out 2022

Dorotea Mendoza gives more tips on writing practice and provides the following writing topics: What has found you? See the blank page as something unfamiliar. You don’t know what is going to show up. What will you ask the wind? What request for forgiveness have you not given voice to? Tell me about a time you fell in love. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Inside Out 2022

Roshi Joan Halifax discusses the Three Tenets in light of her journey through zen practice, including her relationships with her teachers Seung Sahn, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Bernie Glassman. She also goes over Zen Master Keizan’s difficult teaching: “Do not find fault with the present.” To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Inside Out 2022

Series Description: Sometimes the weight of suffering—personal, interpersonal, universal—and our desire to alleviate it can either be paralyzing or make us go into overdrive. Sometimes we may be doing more harm than good, to ourselves, to those around us, to this planet. Sometimes we may cling to ideas of how the world should be fixed, which closes us off to possibilities and which could blind us to the point where we can no longer see one another. How do we practice the Three Tenets of not-knowing, bearing witness, and compassionate action right here and now!? What is the relationship between our inner life and the outer world? How can the practice of writing help us stay fluid, unstuck, awake to each moment?  How can it help us navigate all that’s going on within and without? This is a weekend to dive into writing practice, meditation, and the continuous inquiry of being in the world. We do this in community. We sit and walk meditation together. We write together. We read aloud and listen deeply to each other. Open to all levels. Some familiarity with Zen Buddhism will be helpful. That said, whether you’re a beginning writer or have been writing for decades, this retreat is for you. The main requirement is an open mind, the willingness to relax, get messy, and let things unfold, and the commitment to work—to put pen on paper. This Upaya program is co-sponsored by the Buddhist Action Coalition, Black Breath Sits, and Sari-Sari Women of Color Arts Coup. Episode Description: Matthew Kozan Palevsky and Dorotea Mendoza introduce the Inside Out writing and meditation program. Kozan describes the program’s theme of the Three Tenets: I vow to penetrate the unknown I vow to bear witness I vow to heal myself and others Kozan asks us to consider the following questions in light of the Three Tenets: What keeps us separate? What keeps us from thinking that we know the right way? What keeps us from seeing our unity? What are the practices that help us and all beings experience our interdependence? After a guided meditation, Dorotea introduces us to writing practice and provides us with writing topics. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Inside Out 2022

Months of isolation exacerbate a pre-existing crisis of loneliness that poses a threat to public health for many. Isolation and loneliness can give rise to a deep yearning for community. Something within each of us cries out for belonging. The Buddha taught that good spiritual friends are the whole of the holy life. He encouraged us to take refuge in the Sangha, in the community of practice, in each other. Frank Ostaseski and Vinny Ferraro, two beloved Buddhist teachers, explored the power of community and the related responsibility that follows an appreciation of our interdependence, including supporting equity among people, symbiosis with other species, and the sustainability of the planet. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.