Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Episode Description: As the afternoon session resumes, Roshi continues discussing the importance of activism in nonviolence. That we must intelligently put ourselves in harms way based on compassion. But that we have to be really careful about narcissism in this work lest it become about ourselves. It is fundamentally about humility and one must realize there is no glory; that much of it is about doing scut work. Roshi then discusses the archetype of the BodhIsattva and breaks down the Four Vows. Carefully explaining the meaning of each vow and it's importance within the Mahayana path. The session concludes with a number of questions from the audience. One question: "Is there a word one can use which means non-violence but does not use the word violence?" For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Lotus in a Sea of Fire Series: All 6 Parts

Episode Description: In this, the first part of the afternoon session, Roshi Joan and Father John resume the conversation on nonviolence by addressing questions posed by the audience. "Is violence in the eye of the beholder?" "Is there a place for compromise?" "Is there enough food to feed the planet if we went totally organic?" "Would a nonviolence response to the Nazis work?" Father John fields a question regarding the Gospel of John. And also mentions that Cesar Chavez once told him that "nonviolence happens only in the streets." Roshi concludes the session by discussing passivity, action and engaged Buddhism drawing from her own path through life. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Lotus in a Sea of Fire Series: All 6 Parts

Episode Description: In this episode, the morning session continues with Father John sharing the fundamental teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and Jesus. He presents Gandhi's five basic points: "1) Nonviolence implies as complete self-purification as is humanly possible. 2) The strength of nonviolence is in exact proportion to the ability, not the will, of the nonviolent person to inflict violence. 3) Nonviolence without exception is superior to violence. 4) There is no such thing as defeat in nonviolence. 5) The ultimate end of nonviolence is total victory." Father John then recounts the teachings of Jesus Christ primarily drawing from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5,6, and 7. The session concludes with retreat participants offering comments and asking questions. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Lotus in a Sea of Fire Series: All 6 Parts

Episode Description: Roshi opens this Saturday morning session with a brief guided meditation touching on a number of points: groundedness - being an "ally" of gravity, gathering our attention and "strong back, soft front." Father John then introduces the topics for the morning, indicating that he will talk a little bit about nonviolence in general, Gandhi's basic teachings on nonviolence and finally some of Jesus' teachings on peace. He starts by sharing some events from his recent trip to South Africa before moving on to talk about peacemaking and the path of nonviolence. John discusses his own theory on the cultivation of nonviolence which has three practices. The first to be "deep into being nonviolent to ourselves." The second is to "practice perfect meticulous interpersonal nonviolence." And finally the third is to be part of the global grassroots movement of nonviolence to help save the planet and humanity. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Lotus in a Sea of Fire Series: All 6 Parts

Series Description: In our imperiled world, the call of peace and compassion becomes more important with the unfolding of each year. Father John Dear, a visionary Jesuit peacemaker, and Roshi Joan Halifax, Founding Abbot of Upaya Zen Center, explore in a dynamic process, peacemaking and nonviolence, based on the life and teachings of Gandhi and the vision of the Bodhisattvas and Christ. This weekend is part retreat and renewal for people of all faiths and all hearts. It is as well a deep exploration for old and young, chaplains and clinicians, for all of us, of the path of peacemaking in our lives, institutions, and the world. Episode Description: Roshi introduces the retreat by offering an explanation of the title: "Lotus in a Sea of Fire." Vividly describing the imagery and meaning inherent in the lotus plant. One really important aspect is that "the lotus plant plunges its roots into the mud, into the waste, into our suffering and feeds off our suffering." To awaken we must work with and confront our own hatred, greed and delusion. "At the same time we are in a field of suffering, social suffering, global suffering that is causing our seas to burn." Roshi continues by describing the imagery of the Bodhisattva Manjusri holding a blue lotus flower. Father John then offers his own interpretation of the title. That we are called to be a person of peace and nonviolence, living in a world of total war and violence. "That the person who can go perfectly deep into peace disarms and heals a million people." Father John then frames challenge that we face by noting all of the war, the extent of climate damage, and the extreme poverty in this sea of fire. The retreat then breaks into small groups to discuss a number of topics and concludes with participants sharing their thoughts and questions. John Dear is an internationally known voice for peace and nonviolence. A Jesuit priest, pastor, peacemaker, organizer, lecturer, and retreat leader, he is the author/editor of 30 books, including his autobiography, “Persistent Peace.” In 2008, John was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A longtime practitioner and teacher of nonviolence, John has written hundreds of articles and given thousands of talks on nonviolence. His many books include, among others: “Lazarus, Come Forth!”; “Living Peace”; “The Sacrament of Civil Disobedience”; “Seeds of Nonviolence”; “Our God Is Nonviolent”; and “Oscar Romero and the Nonviolent Struggle for Justice.” Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy. After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh,

Episode Description: Sensei Alan begins this Dharma talk with a song, whose chorus is taken from a story from Chapter 20 of the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is a key early Mahayana teaching that is a foundational text in Zen and other East Asian Buddhist traditions. The essence of the chorus/story is the title of this talk, "I Will Not Abandon You." For Sensei Alan, this simple phrase is at the heart of Zen practice and is more complex than meets the eye. It doesn't mean "I will give you everything you need," but rather it is a vow to respond again and again. It is an intention to help and a willingness to "open the door, let you in, have a cup of tea, and listen." "I will not abandon you" is the practice of "saying yes," which is an attitude toward life based in acceptance and openness rather than selfishness. We say "yes" to life as it is presenting itself to us, just as in sitting meditation practice, we say "yes" to whatever arises in the mind. It is a practice of "turning toward others and turning toward ourselves," of "not disparaging others and not disparaging ourselves." Sensei Alan ends the talk by taking a few questions from the sangha, and closes by singing the chorus of his song once more. BIO : Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

Episode Description: This is the last of three morning talks offered during the sesshin. Sensei Kaz opens by addressing the first of the four bodhisattva vows, the vow the "save all sentient beings." What does this mean? How does one save all beings? Sensei Kaz briefly and beautifully discusses these questions. Changing topics, Brad offers personal anecdotes about teachers and practitioners in his life who love Dogen. A theme that emerges in this discussion is that, whereas Dogen was very much a monastic, bound to the temple, the people Brad has known lived and practiced outside of the temple. In Brad's view, we can live a life of practice, embodying Dogen's teachings, without strictly holding to forms and monastic practice. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Sesshin: Dogen's Circle of the Way Series: All 3 Parts

Episode Description: This is the second of three morning talks offered during the sesshin. After Sensei Kaz briefly discusses some of Dogen's writings on the "circle of the way," Brad explores first, how we are each deeply connected to everything around us, second, what it means to "not squander our lives," and third, why continuous practice matters. When we see that we are individuals but also inseparable from the whole universe, we begin to see that every moment of life has profound significance. We need to wake up and pay attention to each moment. Continuous practice enables this. It also simply helps us to enjoy life more. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Sesshin: Dogen's Circle of the Way Series: All 3 Parts

Series Description: Sesshin, meaning to gather the heart/mind, is an intensive meditation retreat done with others that deepens our relationship to our mind and to the world. In sesshin, the mind/body calms and settles, and the mind becomes clear and open. In this way, we experience our own true nature. This sesshin explores, with Sensei Kazuaki Tanahashi and Brad Warner, Zen Master Dogen's profound teachings on the unity of practice and awakening, and on the indivisibility of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Episode Description: In this first of three morning talks offered during sesshin, Sensei Kaz first discusses the idea of freedom. While we usually refer to freedom from external circumstances, Buddhist practice offers freedom from our limited conception of ourselves, allowing us to relax our boundaries and see our interpenetration with all things. Brad then takes his portion of the talk in a slightly different direction, musing on the meaning and importance of sitting meditation practice. For Brad, practice helps us to deepen our experience of each moment, giving us the opportunity and freedom to really live, and stop wasting, life. Kazuaki Tanahashi born and trained in Japan and active in the United States since 1977, has had solo exhibitions of his calligraphic paintings internationally. He has taught East Asian calligraphy at eight international conferences of calligraphy and lettering arts. Also a peace and environmental worker for decades, he is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. Brad Warner was born in Ohio in 1964. In 1983 he met Zen teacher Tim McCarthy and began his study of Zen while he was still the bass player of the hardcore punk band Zero Defex, whose big hit was the eighteen-second masterpiece "Drop the A-Bomb on Me!" In the 1980s he released five albums of psychedelic rock under the band name Dimentia 13 (that's the way he spelled it), though Dimentia 13 was often a one-man band with Brad playing all the instruments. In 1993 he moved to Japan, where he landed a job with Tsuburaya Productions, the company founded by Eiji Tsuburaya, the man who created Godzilla. The following year Brad met Gudo Nishijima Roshi, who ordained him as a Zen monk and made him his dharma heir in 2000. Brad lived in Japan for eleven years. In 2003 he published his first book, Hardcore Zen, followed by Sit Down and Shut Up! in 2007 and Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate in 2009. These days he travels around the world leading retreats, giving lectures, and looking for cool record stores. At last report he was living in Minneapolis with two rambunctious kitties. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Sesshin: Dogen's Circle of the Way Series: All 3 Parts

Episode Description: This Dharma talk offered by Sensei Alan is essentially a commentary on a lecture given in 1971 by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, found in the book Not Always So. The basic theme of the lecture, and this talk, is that we will always have "problems;" how we view and address our problems becomes a measure of our minds and our practice. Dogen Zenji, the founder of the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism, advises us to "establish your practice in your delusion." In other words, we should recognize our problems, our "stuck places," and "dig in." For Suzuki Roshi, we always have "just enough problems." We are always getting exactly what we need to practice with, and we are always getting help. Often though, we don't recognize this. We need to develop trust in what is arising, trust in our practice, witness what comes up, and then go forth into the world. Suzuki Roshi advises, "just sit and be ready to go to the marketplace as ripe apples." So we sit, discern and appreciate our problems, allow ourselves to ripen, and take action. The talk concludes with a Q&A session BIO : Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

Episode Description: In this talk, Shinzan discusses the importance of "noble friends" in the practice. He opens with the Buddha admonishing his attendant Ananda that "friendship is the whole of the holy life." While we often come to practice for personal reasons, because of "dissatisfaction" in our lives, we see over time the importance of relationships. In fact, the practice is all about relationships, all about our interconnectedness, which is what the Buddha meant. We are able to gauge whether we are advancing in practice through our relationships. We are driven to take full responsibility for our practice and for transforming our suffering through our relationships. Noble friends are not necessarily the people we want to "hang out with." Rather, they are the people who share our values, our intentions, make us accountable to ourselves and others, and inspire us in the practice. Noble friends can make us feel uncomfortable, in skillful ways, and bring us out of our comfort zones. Shinzan shares several personal anecdotes about noble friendship in his life, as well as stories from classical Buddhist sources. He closes with an excerpt from the Dhammapada. Bio: Shinzan Palma was born in Veracruz, Mexico. He has been practicing Zen since 1996. He met his former teacher, Korean Master Samu Sunim, in Mexico City and trained under his guidance for 8 years. He did a residential training for 4 years at the Zen Buddhist Temple in Toronto, Canada and was ordained as a novice priest by Samu Sunim in 2004. After leaving Canada, he was invited by Roshi Joan Halifax to come to Upaya in 2006. Shinzan asked Roshi to be her student and he was re-ordained as a Priest in 2007 by Roshi Joan Halifax. Since then, he has been at Upaya practicing with the community. He is now Head Priest and Temple Coordinator, giving guidance to the residents on Zen training. He became Dharma holder in March, 2010. He has a sincere and strong heart committed to the Dharma.

Episode Description: In this joint public talk offered on the first day of a sesshin (intensive meditation retreat), Sensei Kaz begins by introducing Brad Warner and then speaks a little about what a sesshin is. He then reads a poem by Eihei Dogen Zenji (13th century CE), the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen school of Buddhism. This poem serves to introduce the theme of the talk and of the sesshin, the "circle of the way." The circle of the way refers to the idea that every moment of practice is a circle, complete in itself. For Sensei Kaz, this is "good news;" the "bad news" is that we usually don't notice this. Brad then talks more about the circle of the way. Dogen started practicing Zen at an early age. However in Japan at the time, practice revolved around achieving enlightenment; practice was considered a means to an end. Frustrated by this, Dogen traveled to China where he encountered the notion that practice is "enlightenment itself." This radical notion is the crux of all of Dogen's subsequent thought, and encapsulates the idea of the circle of the way. For Dogen, practice is enlightenment, the means are the ends, the start is the finish, and perhaps in truth, there are no means, ends, starts, or finish lines. Every moment is continuous practice, every moment is the circle of the way. Kazuaki Tanahashi born and trained in Japan and active in the United States since 1977, has had solo exhibitions of his calligraphic paintings internationally. He has taught East Asian calligraphy at eight international conferences of calligraphy and lettering arts. Also a peace and environmental worker for decades, he is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. Brad Warner was born in Ohio in 1964. In 1983 he met Zen teacher Tim McCarthy and began his study of Zen while he was still the bass player of the hardcore punk band Zero Defex, whose big hit was the eighteen-second masterpiece "Drop the A-Bomb on Me!" In the 1980s he released five albums of psychedelic rock under the band name Dimentia 13 (that's the way he spelled it), though Dimentia 13 was often a one-man band with Brad playing all the instruments. In 1993 he moved to Japan, where he landed a job with Tsuburaya Productions, the company founded by Eiji Tsuburaya, the man who created Godzilla. The following year Brad met Gudo Nishijima Roshi, who ordained him as a Zen monk and made him his dharma heir in 2000. Brad lived in Japan for eleven years. In 2003 he published his first book, Hardcore Zen, followed by Sit Down and Shut Up! in 2007 and Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate in 2009. These days he travels around the world leading retreats, giving lectures, and looking for cool record stores. At last report he was living in Minneapolis with two rambunctious kitties.

Episode Description: In this final session of Zen Brain, the faculty address remaining questions from the program participants. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Zen Brain February 2014 Series: All 12 Parts

Episode Description: On the final morning of the program, the Zen Brain faculty offer some concluding thoughts before the final Q&A. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Zen Brain February 2014 Series: All 12 Parts

Episode Description: After a full day of presentations, the Zen Brain faculty address questions submitted by the program participants. For Series description and Teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Zen Brain February 2014 Series: All 12 Parts