Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

In this Dharma Talk, Natalie Goldberg speaks to the incredible power small acts of kindness can have on individual lives. She speaks to the story of Jimmy Lai and the act which catalyzed his life. Furthermore, Natalie speaks to the radicality inherent in community life and zazen’s strength in making everything anew.  

Episode Description: On the last sesshin dharma talk of the Gateless Gate, Winter Practice Period, Sensei Wendy Johnson chooses Case 6 of the Mumonkan, Twirling the Flower. ‘Our practice is to see each other…Zen isn’t a puzzle to be figured out by wit…but spiritual food for those who are hungry, those who want to digest and are really hungry.’ For Program/Series description, please visit Winter Practice Period 2021 INTRO: Passing through the Gateless Gate. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

On the fourth day of the Gateless Gate sesshin, Monshin Nannette Overley speaks about Case 32 of the Mumonkan, The Buddha Responds to an Outsider. “The moment of slipping is the moment of learning, we don’t need ladders.  The gift of case 32’s verse is to trust life, to know that we will fall, to step into this moment of life with less fear, jumping from the cliff with open hands. When we can’t keep it together, we can’t let go with our hands wide open. Jump into this, this moment, this pain, this boredom,…whatever it is. Roshi Joan and Hongzhi said it: ‘not one single atom opposes us‘…So let go.” For Program/Series description, please visit Winter Practice Period 2021 INTRO: Passing through the Gateless Gate. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

In this Dharma Talk and the third full day of sesshin, Hoshi Kigaku Rossetter speaks about Case 24, Leaving Words and Silence Behind. Today, the koan tradition exists because of Fuketsu, the protagonist of Case 24. With this case, Hoshi Kigaku leads us into an inquiry into responding non-dualistically. For Program/Series description, please visit Winter Practice Period 2021 INTRO: Passing through the Gateless Gate. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

Episode Description: In this Dharma Talk, Enkyo Roshi speaks to case 38 of the Mumonkan, ‘Wu-tsu’s Buffalo Passes through the Window’. Roshi speaks about the koan’s ability to open the heart, and be alive to us. Furthermore, how the seemingly ‘easier’ koans can have unsuspecting lessons. For Program/Series description, please visit Winter Practice Period 2021 INTRO: Passing through the Gateless Gate. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

In this Wednesday night Dharma Talk, Hoshi Kozan Palevsky delves both into his personal history in civic engagement and the broader history around Buddhist leaders engaging with their communities. From Ambedkar to Joanna Macy, this talk serves as a means to ‘flake’ the rope, to till the soil for the beginning of Upaya’s year-long Socially Engaged Buddhist (SEB) program. At 56:15, the Dharma talk converts to a short forum answering any initial questions in regards to the SEB program.

Series Description: The Gateless Gate January, Winter Practice Period is capped off with this 6 day sesshin. Everyday a case from the Mumonkan is selected and presented by one of the Practice Period teachers. Episode Description: As the first day of the Gateless Gate Sesshin for Upaya’s 2021 Winter Practice Period, Roshi Joan Halifax comprehensively enframes the heart, body, and mind, to take full advantage of the gift of sesshin. How alive are you willing to be? Can you commit to full presencing? ‘Sometimes practice feels like a cold hard winter, maybe practice awakens the spring in us,… to who we really are…the spirit of zazen is non-alienation, absorption into all of life, to make life genuine, through practice…we taste zazen.’ For Program/Series description, please visit Winter Practice Period 2021 INTRO: Passing through the Gateless Gate. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

In this week’s Dharma Talk, as part of the Winter Practice Period, Sensei Kaigetsu looks at case 28 of the Mumonkan, Ryutan Blows Out the Candle. Throughout the talk, Sensei Kaigetsu engages us in a process of perspective-taking by taking on the role of each character in the koan. For Program/Series description, please visit Winter Practice Period 2021 INTRO: Passing through the Gateless Gate. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

In this Zazenkai Dharma Talk, Natalie Goldberg speaks to case 3 of the Mumonkan, Chüh-chih Raises One Finger. ‘Zen corrects the habit of mind that ‘freezes’ the ‘eureka’ moment…when answering a koan, the mind is like a pearl rolling in a silver bowl. There is no, ‘I got it’ moment. It keeps rolling, that’s the practice of zen, it keeps rolling…The mind is greased.’ For Program/Series description, please visit Winter Practice Period 2021 INTRO: Passing through the Gateless Gate. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

In this week’s Dharma Talk, Hoshi Matthew Kozan Palevsky continues the Practice Period theme of Koan practice by looking at case 30, This Very Mind is Buddha. What does Mao-tsu mean when he says he teaches this ‘…to stop babies from crying.’?  Why does he teach ‘…this very mind is buddha.’, but three cases later teaches, ‘… there is no mind, there is no Buddha.’? This talk doubles up as Talk #5 of SESSHIN: Winter Practice Period 2021. For Program/Series description, please visit Winter Practice Period 2021 INTRO: Passing through the Gateless Gate. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

In this Dharma talk, Sensei Kathie Fischer speaks to case #2 of the Mumonkan, Baizhang’s Fox, the importance of showing up, and the strength of living by vow. “Showing up wholly, not dismissing or comparing or judging,…bearing witness to those minds, we can abide in witness, return to witness, allow witness to dissolve in this very moment, and we can feel held witnessing life itself just as it is, as a fox, worm or Buddha, life in the lap of grandmother’s mind… no past future or effect…this moment covering heaven and earth.” For Program/Series description, please visit Winter Practice Period 2021 INTRO: Passing through the Gateless Gate. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

In this Wednesday evening Dharma Talk, Roshi Norman Fischer speaks on case # 19, Ordinary Mind is the Tao. He dedicates the talk to the passing of his teacher Sojun Mel Weitsman Roshi and speaks to how like Chao-chou who lived a very long time and began teaching late in life, he had nothing to prove. “Nothing to prove, nothing to express, and maybe that’s awakening. Nothing to prove, nothing to uphold, nothing to defend.” For Program/Series description, please visit Winter Practice Period 2021 INTRO: Passing through the Gateless Gate. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

In this inspiring Winter Practice Period Dharma talk, Wendy Johnson uses the koan of the Oak in the Courtyard as a threshold to bring us into the ‘the root system of the great heart, of the great matter.’ ‘How we can let the koan soak us in,…for they are love stories, yet, we can love them so much we would never speak of them…’ and also, ‘…we can love them so much that we can never stop thinking of them.’ For Program/Series description, please visit Winter Practice Period 2021 INTRO: Passing through the Gateless Gate. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

Series Description: Practice Period (Ango or “peaceful dwelling”) is a traditional intensive training period common to most schools of Buddhism. Ango traces its history to the time of Shakyamuni Buddha and the early sangha. Each year, the community would gather together enabling everyone to deepen their practice and polish their understanding through the indispensable teachings of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Guided by an extraordinary team of teachers and friends, including Roshi Joan Halifax, Roshi Norman Fischer, Roshi Enkyo O’Hara, Sensei Sokaku Kathie Fischer, Sensei Wendy Johnson, Sensei Irène Kaigetsu Bakker, Sensei Jose Shinzan Palma, Natalie Goldberg, Monshin Nannette Overley, Hoshi Matthew Kozan Palevsky and Hoshi Kigaku Noah Rossetter, this unusual, online practice period took a deep dive into koans from the Mumonkan, The Gateless Gate. Episode Description: In this introduction to the Winter Practice Period: Passing through the Gateless Gate, both Roshi Joan and Sensei Wendy Johnson speak to the specific value of Koan practice in this current political churn. Hoshi Kozan and Hoshi Kigaku speak to the details and the importance of a Practice Period. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD 2021: Passing Through The Gateless Gate

Episode Description: In this last Rohatsu Teisho, Sensei Kaz speaks about ‘home-stretch’ mindfulness, it’s joy, and the value of these remaining moments of silence; Roshi Enkyo speaks to the parable of the magic city, and its treasure; and Roshi Joan speaks about the importance of letting go of narrow views and opening the heart to natural abundance, or wisdom beyond wisdom. Please click here to access the Resource page for this series, which encompasses all aspects of the live program. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: ROHATSU Wisdom Beyond Wisdom