Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

In this talk, Roshi Joan Halifax calls us to commit to practice to “uphold ourselves in the midst of suffering,” in order to perceive clearly and build more capacity so that we may spend our lives being of benefit 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: Love and Death 2021

Series Description: This online, donation-based program explored the powerful equation of love and death. This whole life is a place where we make real our dedication to awakening, in living and dying, in caring and being cared for, in loving and receiving love. Being completely and vividly present for the rich details of our lives and the lives of others is the means that we use to discover truth and come home to who we really are. Love and death then are experiences of discovery. This program, was led by two pioneers in the end-of-life care field and long time Buddhist practitioners, is an exploration of how we bring depth and dedication into our whole life and the life of the world. Through teachings, exchanges, and unique practices and processes, we explored the profound relationship between love and death, engaged practice and the role of love and compassion in how we serve others, different forms of love, how art reveals the connection between love and death, and practices that related to the power of impermanence and surrender. Program was led by Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax. Episode Description: In this opening session, participants are asked to reflect and share their intention of attending this program on Love & Death. Frank invites us to not “turn away, the feeling is always found by turning towards the suffering, that’s where we find what actually supports us. 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: Love and Death 2021

In the concluding part of the final session Roshi Joan Halifax reflects on perspectives coming from the spirit of practice. Roshi Joan reminds us that Dogen’s teacher Rujing seemed to have seen that Dogen realized non-separateness, the non duality of beingness and of time in a radical intimacy, or the wholeness of all of life. She claims that Dogen’s fundamental teachings are “about the continuous liberation of the practitioner of binary thinking.” Roshi Joan’s talk is followed by a discussion amongst all four instructors. 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: Dogen and Nonduality 2021

In the first part of the final session of Dogen and Non-Duality, Steven Heine shares his upcoming book and unpacks koans that help us to realize non duality. Steven’s talk is followed by a discussion amongst all four instructors. 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: Dogen and Nonduality 2021

In the second part of this program, Roshi Enkyo O’Hara shares her perspective on Dogen’s views and realization in relation to non-duality. She shares texts that support and inform her practice and realization of non-duality. Roshi Enkyo’s talk is followed by a discussion amongst all four instructors. 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: Dogen and Nonduality 2021

Series Description: Zen Master Dogen’s writings are prolific and profound. In this intensive, we followed his practice of meditation and explored the essential meaning of his teaching in relation to the direct experience of nonduality. The power of studying Dogen’s ideas involving the oneness of practice and realization, the unity of being-time, and the universality of Buddha nature can be understood in relation to an integrated experience of continuous practice in relation to everyday life. In exploring Being-time (Uji), Recommending Zazen to All People (Fukanzazengi), On the Endeavor of the Way (Bendo-wa), and Spring and Autumn (Shunju), we considered how Dogen’s approach to nonduality goes beyond the typical view that seeks to unify or combine opposites. Instead, Dogen emphasizes that nondual realization encompasses full awareness of the multiplicity of possibilities so that delusion and realization, or entanglement and awakening are intertwined at every stage of cultivation. Instructors: Roshi Enkyo O’Hara, PhD; Sensei Kaz Tanahashi; Steven Heine, PhD; Joan Halifax, PhD. Join this marvelous group of teachers in this unique program for a plunge into Dogen’s vision of nonduality. Episode Description: In this first session Sensei Kaz Tanahashi shares reflections on Dogen’s life work and the concept of non-duality. He introduces us to Dogen’s Shobogenzo, or Treasure of the True Dharma Eye, while emphasizing that all translations are imperfect. Kaz invites us into realizing non duality “with the entire being, not just with our heads, to experience with our feelings and our body, and to act accordingly, that is the real challenge.” Sensei Kaz’s talk is followed by a discussion amongst all four instructors. 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: Dogen and Nonduality 2021

Hoshi Kigaku Noah Roen continues Upaya’s series on the precepts with a talk on the Three Pure Precepts: doing no harm; doing good; doing good for others. In dialogue with the texts of Bernie Glassman, Reb Anderson, and Shohaku Okumura, Kigaku suggests that rather than looking at these precepts as means to enlightenment, we see them as descriptions of the enlightened mind itself. When we live the Pure Precepts, we are practicing our already-awakened state.

Months of isolation exacerbate a pre-existing crisis of loneliness that poses as grave a threat to public health. For many it gives rise to a distinct 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 community. We 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. Program was led by Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.

In this final dharma talk of winter practice period, Roshi Joan Halifax and Sensei Wendy Johnson recite the couplets of the Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi. They reflect on the time that we spent together in practice period and the importance of practicing together to create intimacy and entrust ourselves to belong to life as it is. 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

Sensei Al Kaszniak shares a poem by Ryokan and discusses its relationship to suchness and The Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi.  Sensei Al poses the question: “do the causes and conditions [of our lives] cause our suffering or do we have agency?” He reminds us through personal experiences of pain and suffering we can go beyond the experience and become one with it to embody wholeness. He invites us to respond to life instead of reacting to it. 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

Hoshi Matthew Kozan Palevsky explores the nature of atonement in our practice.  Taking cues from Shohaku Okumura’s Living by Vow, he discusses zazen as one part vow, one part atonement.  These two aspects arise together as one, like Dogen’s expression of practice-realization.  Kozan then turns to the three perspectives of atonement before applying these perspectives to the 16 Precepts. The three views are the literal, compassionate and intrinsic perspectives.  He teases out the nature of these distinct and interrelated views by applying them to the precept of non-lying.  He looks at Lotus Sutra’s parable for compassionate speech in which the father lies to his three children in order to save them from dying in a burning house.  He then pivots to a modern example, introducing us to the “Birds Aren’t Real” semi-satirical conspiracy theory as an example of compassionate right speech practice today right in the middle of the burning house of our political discourse.

In this talk, Matthew Kozan Palevsky takes up the question, “what is space?” through an exploration of Dogen’s fascicle “Koku.” He implores us to become intimate with it rather than our mere idea of it. In exploring two koans on the subject we meet Yunyan and his famous phrase “Just this is it” echoed in Master Ma’s voice. Kozan concludes with two meditations on connection and the ultimate spaciousness of this very body, one by Rujing and the other by Thich Nhat Hanh. 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

In this talk, Hoshi Kigaku Noah Roen talks about the aspects of a mirror and reflects on the mirror as a metaphor for our practice. He reminds us that we settle our minds through zazen  which helps us to calm our body and mind so that the natural mind of clarity, emptiness, and luminosity can be revealed. He discusses the five buddha families and how they relate to practice and mirror wisdom. He reminds us that our practice should be enlivened with inquiry, encouraging us to ask ourselves in deep practice: “What is this?” 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

In this talk, Roshi Joan Halifax delves into the term “intimate” which appears in the Song of the Jewel Mirror of Samadhi. She asks us to become truly intimate with the nature of our minds and offers us a framework of returning to who we really are through the 3 valences of intimacy. 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: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Jewel Mirror of Samadhi

What does it mean to become a Buddhist? Hoshi Kigaku Noah Roen kicks off a series of talks on the precepts with a discussion on the ceremony of taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. He explores various ways of understanding the meaning of “taking refuge” and invites us to consider that we all take refuge in something, whether it’s a spiritual path, good or bad habits, or relationships. And for those of us allergic to “isms” and “ists” of all kinds, is it possible to take refuge in the Three Treasures without calling oneself a Buddhist at all?