Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Episode Description: In this wide-ranging session of the program, Richie touches upon the topics of complexity and consciousness, gamma oscillations, synchrony, and consciousness, the consequences of unconsciousness, epigenetics, contemplative practice in children, and ends with a beautiful "call for humility" in the face of the extraordinary complexity of the human brain. 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: Following John Dunne's talk (Part 7 of this series), the Zen Brain faculty field 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: In this Dharma talk, Sensei Kaz paints a beautiful verbal picture of the circle. Kaz touches on the history of the circle throughout Buddhism expressing it's importance as a symbol of enlightenment. He also relates a number of wonderful stories from his own life as a calligrapher, translator as well as student and teacher of Zen. Kaz's discussion of Dogen's teachings on "painted rice cakes" alone is well worth the listen. Not to mention the anecdotal story of Suzuki Roshi drawing a circle in the air when from his death bed. 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.

Episode Description: This Dharma talk, offered by Natalie Goldberg, focuses on the writing practice of haiku, particularly the haiku of Buson. Buson, a student of the great haiku master Basho, is considered one of the four greatest Japanese haiku writers. However, there is only one complete translation of Buson's haiku available in English ("Haiku Master Buson" published by White Pine Press). Natalie fell in love with the haiku of Buson when she read this one in 1992: "Ah, grief and sadness/ the fishing line trembles/ in the autumn breeze." While on a recent trip to Japan, Natalie paid a visit to Buson's gravesite on the outskirts of Kyoto to pay respect to the great master. Touchingly, Buson is buried very near his master Basho's old grass hut, and the graves of Buson's own haiku disciples surround his own. Natalie recounts this beautiful pilgrimage in some detail, interspersing a persistent admonition that we must each live our own lives, not trying to be someone we're not, not trying to emulate our teachers, and making every effort to "materialize our desires." Natalie ends her talk by reading a number of Buson's haiku and taking a few questions from the audience. Bio: Natalie Goldberg is the author of ten books, including Writing Down the Bones, which has sold over one million copies and has been translated into twelve languages. She has also written the beloved Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America, a memoir about her Zen teacher. For the last thirty years she has practiced Zen and taught seminars in writing as a spiritual practice. She lives in northern New Mexico.

Episode Description: In this segment of Zen Brain, which coincides conceptually with Neil Theise's talk (Part 1 of this series), John Dunne presents an elegant overview of the evolution of several Buddhist philosophical systems. The goal of all Buddhist systems is the elimination of suffering, suffering which arises due to confusion about the nature of "something." As we progress from early Buddhism, to the Sautrantika system, to Yogacara, then to Madhyamika, and finally to Mahamudra and Dzogchen, that "something" about which we are confused changes. Each system presents a slightly subtler "cause" for our confusion. Importantly, however, no single system can claim to have the best account of reality. No explanatory system is ultimately true. A system is "better" than another only insofar as it is better at eliminating suffering, at leading us to freedom. 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

Episode Description: Following Rebecca Todd's talk (Part 4 of this series), the Zen Brain faculty field 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: In this segment of Zen Brain, Rebecca Todd discusses the processes of affect-biased attention and affective enhancement of perception in relation to the complex adaptive system of the human brain. Affect-biased attention refers to how our emotional states bias what we pay attention to in the world before we are even exposed to a stimulus, while affective enhancement refers to how an emotionally-laden perception is made more vivid by our brain. Rebecca discusses these concepts in relation to genetics, epigenetics, and also offers some clinical implications of the data she shares. 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: Following Evan Thompson's talk (Part 2 of this series), the Zen Brain faculty field 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: In this second session of Zen Brain, Evan Thompson follows on what Neil Theise introduced in the first session (Part 1 of this series), in a wide-ranging exploration of complexity and consciousness. Evan touches upon concepts such as autopoiesis, sense-making, the Buddhist idea of dependent co-arising, enaction, sentience, and the emergence of mind. 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

Series Description: Increasingly, cognitive science presents us with a vision of mind as grounded in the complex transformative processes of life, while neuroscience presents us with a vision of the brain as a complex adaptive system that constantly re...

Episode Description: This short Dharma talk, offered by Upaya head priest Shinzan Palma during his Shuso Hossen ceremony, centers around a koan, or "public case," found in Mumon's koan collection The Gateless Gate. The koan reads: "[Zen master] Wakuan asked, 'Why has the western barbarian no beard?'" Shinzan explains that the "western barbarian" refers to the first Zen ancestor Bodhidharma and that the koan is confusing because Bodhidharma is usually depicted *with* a beard. For shinzan, this koan taps into two perspectives, the perspective of the "relative" and the perspective of the "absolute." From the relative perspective, Bodhidharma has a beard and from the absolute, he has no beard. And the question is, how do we move between these perspectives in our practice and in daily life? The talk is followed by a brief period of "Dharma combat," in which sangha members ask Shinzan rapid-fire questions about the koan and about practice. 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: This final segment of the series is mainly dedicated to a discussion of compassion. However, John precedes this with a brief foray into the idea of the "two truths." The two truths refer to two ways of speaking about reality, the "ultimate" and "conventional." The conventional is our phenomenal experience and the ultimate, in a way, is a perspective that prevents us from reifying the conventional. All suffering can be traced to the reification of reality, to a sense that we are real beings experiencing a real world, "out there." Adopting the stance of the ultimate enables us to see that there is no "real" reality and that there are no "absolute truths," including the very idea that there are no absolute truths! From here, John segues into compassion. As explained, the "samsaric stance," the stance of suffering, is that we are real agents in a real world. Suffering is imbued with a rigid conception of subject and objects. By contrast, the stance of compassion decentralizes this rigid conception. Compassion includes empathy, of feeling with others, and a sense of the flexibility, even contingency, of our subjectivity. By wisely practicing compassion, the rigid samsaric perspective can fade. John then introduces us to several beautiful compassion practices. He closes the seminar by tying compassion back to wisdom, stressing again that wisdom is fundamental to the bodhisattva path in that it is only with wisdom that a bodhisattva can be of maximum benefit, bringing happiness to sentient beings and eliminating their suffering. For Series description and Teacher BIO, please visit Part 1a. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: The Way of a Bodhisattva Series: All 6 Parts

Episode Description: In this first part of the final session, John offers a brief summary of the seminar so far. Self-compassion, which is better understood as renunciation, begins the bodhisattva practice. Renunciation is the recognition that your way of life is not working, and the subsequent deep aspiration to be free from suffering. A bodhisattva also recollects the preciousness and purpose of this human life, reflects on death and impermanence, and takes refuge. Other important practices on the bodhisattva path include the recognition of kleshas, or negative mental states, as well as the skillful use of kleshas, the practice of mindfulness, which is being aware of what you are doing and how you are doing it, seeking to be of benefit and to minimize harm, avoiding the eight worldly concerns, and to be a joyous and wise servant of sentient beings. Indeed, a bodhisattva should, according to Shantideva, "always look directly at sentient beings, as if drinking them in." Of course, John reminds us, all of these practices and attitudes are part of a context, the bodhisattva story, and a bodhisattva will skillfully use this story to eventually move beyond the need for any stories. Following this summary, John addresses several questions from program participants. Finally, John segues into a discussion of wisdom, which is critical on the bodhisattva path in order to maximally help sentient beings. For Series description and Teacher BIO, please visit Part 1a. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: The Way of a Bodhisattva Series: All 6 Parts

Episode Description: In this second part of the second session, John continues his discussion of chapter 3 of Shantideva's "The Way of the Bodhisattva." A bodhisattva is a servant of all beings and as such, owns nothing. A central task for a bodhisattva is the shift in attitude from ownership, from identifying with "stuff," to one of "wise poverty," of seeing everything as borrowed, including one's own body. This shift in attitude enables a bodhisattva to be a joyful servant of others without being taken advantage of. Indeed, while a servant, a bodhisattva is also a "hero," which John discusses in the context of chapter 4 of Shantideva's text. A bodhisattva is a heroic being at war against the kleshas, negative mental states like ignorance, attachment, and greed, present in the minds of all beings. Importantly, Shantideva also explains how a bodhisattva can apply these kleshas to eradicate kleshas. A bodhisattva, for instance, can use anger to be "angry at anger" and can be "attached" to awakening for the benefit of all beings rather than being attached to an object of desire. So while a bodhisattva wages war against the kleshas, she can also make skillful use of the kleshas. John finally discusses chapter 5 at length, which he views as one of the most important chapters in the text. Chapter 5 is about mindfulness, which is composed of two facets of mind: smrti and samprajanya. Smrti is the mental factor that knows the object of meditation, such as the breath, and which holds the mind on the object. In this sense, smrti refers to "what" you are doing. Samprajanya is the mental factor that knows the quality of attention on the object, or "how" you are doing what you are doing. These two facets of mind are critical to balance in practice. If you lose smrti, you can become dull and thus should inject some energy and strictness into practice. If you lose samprajanya, you can become overly tight and narrowly focused, requiring a loosening of energy. Finally, chapter 5 instructs a bodhisattva to move beyond certain unhelpful attitudes, called the eight worldly concerns: gain and loss, fame and obscurity, praise and blame, and pleasure and pain. For Series description and Teacher BIO, please visit Part 1a. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: The Way of a Bodhisattva Series: All 6 Parts