Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

“The Buddha way is about radical freedom in this world and radical love in this world which is so resistant to freedom and love. To hold on to a fixed truth is to limit this love in this world and to be bound by that truth.” – Norman Fischer In this Fall Practice Period Dharma Talk, Roshi Norman Fischer talks about The Heart Sutra being foundational to our practice and all of Mahayana Buddhism. He also explores the universality of the Lotus Sutra and looks at how the teachings of Buddhism traveled throughout India, China, and Japan. Lastly, Roshi Fischer talks about exclusion and the history of voting in the USA. To see video of the teachings, please sign up for our Fall Practice Period by clicking here. For Series description, please visit Fall Practice Period Opening. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: FALL PRACTICE PERIOD 2020: The Heart Sutra

In the midst of this suffering world, Roshi Enkyo talks about how we can find protection in the Heart Sutra. The teaching of Prajna – experiencing our world before knowing; before “other” and “I” illustrates for us a life in which we exist as joyful beings integrated into the entire wholeness of humanity. To see video of the teachings, please sign up for our Fall Practice Period by clicking here. For Series description, please visit Fall Practice Period Opening. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: FALL PRACTICE PERIOD 2020: The Heart Sutra

In this Dharma Talk, Sensei Jose Shinzan Palma explains how the Heart Sutra appears in our everyday practice. The six paramitas of practice, he says, when fully embodied, reveal the flowing river of boundless possibility. The essential element of how to integrate practice into our life involves appreciating the flow of that river, thereby letting the current pull us into new and expansive landscapes. To see video of the teachings, please sign up for our Fall Practice Period by clicking here. This talk is also our usual Wednesday evening dharma talk. For Series description, please visit Fall Practice Period Opening. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: FALL PRACTICE PERIOD 2020: The Heart Sutra

In this Dharma Talk, John Dunne explores different versions of the Heart Sutra including the shortest version, “Ah.” He also speaks to the relationship between wisdom and compassion within the context of the Heart Sutra. In addition, he gives listeners a sense of the narrative elements of the Sutra, and how the Sutra can be understood as a marking of the difference of thinking between pre-Mahayana Buddhists and Mahayana Buddhists. To see video of the teachings, please sign up for our Fall Practice Period by clicking here. For Series description, please visit Fall Practice Period Opening. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: FALL PRACTICE PERIOD 2020: The Heart Sutra

“What is in the way is the way.” In this Fall Practice Period: Heart Sutra dharma talk, Sensei Zenshin Florence Caplow, talks about fearlessness and the path of courage. Sensei Zenshin also looks at the 5 hindrances of the mind and reframes them as being essential to practice. To see video of the teachings, please sign up for our Fall Practice Period by clicking here. For Series description, please visit Fall Practice Period Opening. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: FALL PRACTICE PERIOD 2020: The Heart Sutra

Practice Period (Ango or “peaceful dwelling”) is a traditional intensive training period common to many 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. This year’s Fall Practice Period: Heart Sutra will be lead by Sensei Sokaku Kathie Fischer, Sensei Shinzan Palma and Hoshi Matthew Kozan Palevsky. Guest instructors include: Enkyo O’Hara, PhD; Roshi Norman Fischer; Sensei Shun’E Ulrike Greenway; Stephen Batchelor; John Dunne, PhD; Zenshin Florence Caplow; Monshin Nannette Overley; Kigaku Noah Rossetter; and Jane Steinberg. The bodhisattva ideal is one of the great contributions of Mahayana Buddhism to world spirituality. Tirelessly and enthusiastically working for the benefit of others, bodhisattvas practice Prajna Paramita, the Perfection of Wisdom, the wisdom that sees the empty, interconnected, and boundless nature of reality. Referred to as “Mother of the Buddhas,’ Prajna Paramita is most succinctly described in the Heart Sutra, which we chant each day and is easily committed to memory. The sutra expounds the teaching of sunyata (boundlessness, emptiness, interconnection): all beings are non-separate and therefore connected; personal enlightenment is impossible. For bodhisattvas, love and compassion is the core of Buddhist practice. In this Ango Opening Ceremony Sensei Sokaku Kathie Fischer, Sensei Shinzan Palma, and Hoshi Matthew Kozan Palevsky set forth the guiding principles of this Fall Practice Period at Upaya Zen Center. To see video of the teachings, please sign up for our Fall Practice Period by clicking here. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: FALL PRACTICE PERIOD 2020: The Heart Sutra

In this Dharma Talk, Sensei Sokaku Kathie Fischer teaches about Sūnyatā as it is described in the Prajna Paramita Sutra, which is normally translated as “emptiness.” In some Chinese translations, it is understood as “sky.” Sensei Sokaku Fischer says that the fullness of our “brokenhearted longing and joy” is experienced in this sky of ever-changing conditions. And, we can learn to rest in the full expression of our life by sitting in the wide compassionate lap of Prajna Paramita; the mother of all buddhas.

Miriam Sagan in her poetry wades through the darkness, explores the planets of our solar system, and searches for the smallest possible microcosms in the earth’s dirt. Language exists in windows of our lives, she says, and her relationship to it has evolved into an appreciation for the layer it builds between us and the things it creates.

“Our anguish is not so much a result of what it is we are seeing, needing, experiencing what it is unfolding.  It’s not the result of the divisions and the death and the negligence in meeting a global pandemic. It’s not just the experience of the isolation of the confusion of the unknowing. It truly is our desire to have it be some other way. Some other way than to simply pull ourselves up and lean-in to just what is unfolding before us. When we give our whole selves into the entire fabric of our lives: threads that are red and blue and black and white; threads that are golden and threads that are soiled – that are frayed but also that are whole. When we refuse the entirety of the fabric of our lives, that’s when we descend into a kind of madness that it seems impossible to return from” – Rev. Angel Kyodo williams, Sensei In this dharma talk, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Sensei talks wrapping ourselves completely in the Red Thread, or the soiled messiness of life. She also talks about directly meeting what is in front of us and of being prepared for anything and everything.

In this Dharma talk, Monshin Nannette Overley examines how we can use the teachings of Buddhist Chan poem, “Hsin Hsin Ming or Song of the Trusting Mind” in our practice and in relation to our vows. Monshin, also breaks down the meaning of the title Hsin Hsin Ming and looks at the historical confluence of Buddhism and Daoism in China.

“Love is a support for patience, it expands our hearts, it helps us to gently endure.“ In this Dharma talk, Frank Ostaseski talks about patience and impatience. He talks about the qualities that live in patience and invites us to look at the triggers and root feelings of our impatience.

In the final session of Awakened Action, Joanna Macy and Rebecca Solnit, talk about the 3 stories or versions of reality that are progressively shaping our world. These stories are business as usual, the great unrevealing, and the great turning. They also talk about honoring our pain for the world, hope, gratitude, and how to face the hardships that we will face in the coming years. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Awakened Action: Women Leaders Speak to Race, Poverty, Climate, and the Pandemic

In the fourth session of Awakened Action, Kritee Kanko and Heather McTeer Toney, talk about trauma, racism, our planet’s EKG, and the disproportionate impact of climate change on black and indigenous communities. They also discuss equality, equity, justice, white supremacy, voting, and resilience. A discussion stewarded by Dekila Chungyalpa is part of this talk. To see the video presentation of this talk, register for the Awakened Action program. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Awakened Action: Women Leaders Speak to Race, Poverty, Climate, and the Pandemic

In the third session of Awakened Action, Christiana Figures and Jane Fonda, talk about the environment, racism, embodied activism, social justice, and political change. They also discuss individual action within systems, the role of science, and feminine leadership. A discussion stewarded by Heather McTeer Toney is part of this talk. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Awakened Action: Women Leaders Speak to Race, Poverty, Climate, and the Pandemic

In the second session of Awakened Action, Diana Liverman talks about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPPC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C that she co-authored. Dekila Chungyalpa talks about the environmental work she has done with the WWF and with faith leaders from different communities. A discussion stewarded by Christiana Figueres is part of this talk. To see the video presentation of this talk, register for the Awakened Action program. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Awakened Action: Women Leaders Speak to Race, Poverty, Climate, and the Pandemic