Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Wendy Johnson encourages us to practice gratitude in everything we do, including being grateful for our meditation seats because “with gratitude comes a basic ferocity of intention.” Along those same lines, to cultivate an attitude of freshness and originality in your practice. What does gratitude look like for you? For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series:: Sesshin: Ancestral Heart

Led by an extraordinary team of teachers, including Roshi Joan Halifax, Wendy Johnson, Matthew Kozan Palevsky, and Kigaku Noah Rossetter, this sesshin looks at the deep roots of practice through the lens of direct experience and the stories of the Denkoroku, or the Transmission of the Light. To begin our sesshin, Roshi Joan Halifax and Kigaku Noah Rossetter talk about how they first met and the early, enthusiastic practice of the beginner. Roshi also cautions us on what practice is for saying that, “It’s about liberating your narratives, not adding a classy, Zen identity on top of it.” To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series:: Sesshin: Ancestral Heart

This week Sensei Kaz Tanahashi explores in great detail his quest to design the perfect meditation bench. It raises the question: how far do we go to create a comfortable situation in meditation while also learning to sit with and befriend pain?

Laying the groundwork for the upcoming ‘Way of Haiku’ weekend program, Natalie Goldberg explores the impact haiku has had on her life. Through exploring the works of Richard Wright and Mitsu Suzuki, Natalie shares how haiku brings us to a “big, open space and relieves the great suffering of the Western world.”

In the final talk of the Winter Practice Period, Roshi Joan Halifax leads a discussion on Dogen as we commemorate his birthday. Wendy Johnson, Kigaku Noah Rossetter, and Matthew Kozan Palevsky are also on hand as Upaya residents and guests describe their experiences of Dogen’s writing and practice. We finish with an exploration of Dogen’s own case from the Transmission of Light. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Winter Practice Period: Beginner’s Mind, Ancestral Heart

Building on Roshi Joan’s Dharma Talk from January 16th, 2020; Kigaku Noah Rossetter expands further on Roshi’s valuable meditation instructions. From there a fascinating discussion of the Denkoroku chapter from the Transmission of Light and how the experience of lucid dreaming could provide some insight into the koan. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Winter Practice Period: Beginner’s Mind, Ancestral Heart

Today’s talk is primarily given by Roshi Joan Halifax with Wendy Johnson, Kigaku Noah Rossetter, and Matthew Kozan Palevsky joining her near the end. Roshi Joan goes into great detail about the process of meditation and the experiences of breakthrough or awakening that can occur. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Winter Practice Period: Beginner’s Mind, Ancestral Heart

Wendy Johnson and Kigaku Noah Rossetter begin with stories from Wendy’s early days at  Tassajara and the San Francisco Zen Center. From there we wrap up on Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind with readings from the epilogue and group discussion. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Winter Practice Period: Beginner’s Mind, Ancestral Heart

During Zazenkai, Wendy Johnson speaks to us as “cloud and water wanderers.” She encourages us to “feel ourselves as wanderers, those seeking the way in.” And to be a person of no rank;  aimless, drifting, unstable, unpredictable, and undecided. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Winter Practice Period: Beginner’s Mind, Ancestral Heart

Dogen asks, “If nothing is separate from this very place, why journey away?” Matthew Kozan Palevsky offers encouragement and insights from Dogen’s Fukan Zazengi in today’s talk. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Winter Practice Period: Beginner’s Mind, Ancestral Heart

In today’s talk, Wendy Johnson asks, “How will we sincerely continue on this path?” She points out that this is Epiphany Day, defined by the appearance of sudden manifestations. She also explores the roots of originality, which comes from a rising and settling mind. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Winter Practice Period: Beginner’s Mind, Ancestral Heart

Led by an extraordinary team of teachers, including Roshi Joan Halifax, Wendy Johnson, Matthew Kozan Palevsky, and Noah Kigaku Rossetter, this winter’s practice period explores Shunryu Suzuki Roshi’s classic book: Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind and  includes selected cases from Transmission of Light by Zen Master Keizan. To begin our Winter Practice Period series, Wendy Johnson, Matthew Kozan Palevsky, and Noah Kigaku Rossetter welcome everyone and talk about what practice period is for and how we move through it. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Winter Practice Period: Beginner’s Mind, Ancestral Heart

In this Dharma Talk in the middle of the Winter Practice Period, Matthew Kozan Palevsky relates his recent experiences at Chaco Canyon with the Mahakashyapa chapter from the Transmission of Light. When Zen Master Keizan says that we don’t understand Kashyapa’s awakening, how do we incorporate that into our reading? “One understanding,” Kozan says, “might be that we wake up to the suchness of life that is always already there—nobody can give it or take it away.”

In the final session of our Beginner’s Mind weekend, Wendy Johnson, Matthew Kozan Palevsky and Kigaku Noah Rossetter return to offer their takeaways from the weekend of practice and study. This is followed by a discussion with the sangha. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Beginner’s Mind Weekend

In the afternoon’s session Wendy Johnson describes Suzuki Roshi’s life and what led him to teach in the United States where he felt his students had real “Zen spirit” despite their dirty feet. Wendy explores what it means to embody that spirit and understanding that Zen is not a puzzle that we solve; it’s our real life coming into form. For Series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Upaya Podcast Series: Beginner’s Mind Weekend