Episodes
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The sixth Field of Zen Practice is ending Dukkha (this is part of my book, The Ten Fields of Zen Practice: A Primer for Practitioners). While physical and emotional pain, discomfort, and longing are an inevitable part of human life, Dukkha is existential angst we add to such experiences, ranging from subtle uneasiness to acute anguish. It drives our unhealthy or harmful behaviors, so we seek to end Dukkha for the sake of self and others. Buddhism offers a holistic approach to doing this, including maximizing our overall spiritual health and working with our karma. However, Buddhismâs radical teaching is that Dukkha is a symptom of underlying spiritual illness caused by false views - so, through practice, our spiritual illness can be cured, and Dukkha ended.
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Itâs challenging to make our Dharma practice continuous â maintaining awareness and appropriate conduct each moment of our lives. In his essay Gyoji, or âContinuous Practice,â Zen Master Dogen doesnât offer practical tips for mindfulness and pure conduct in everyday life, but instead challenges our limited ideas about what practice is. In this episode (part 2), I continue discussing four points I think Dogen makes about Gyoji.
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Our goal in practice is to live in accord with the truth, or the Dharma - not only while sitting in meditation or studying Buddhism, but every moment of our lives. In other words, we strive to make our practice continuous. It can be extremely challenging to maintain mindfulness and good behavior all the time. How can we make our practice more continuous? Not surprisingly, in his essay âGyoji,â or Continuous Practice, Dogen does not give us practical tips but instead challenges our limited ideas about what practice is.
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This is part two of my discussion âCutting Moral Corners: Is Buddhism Compatible with 21st-Century Life?â In Part 1 I talked about the moral stress that arises from living a modern life, where almost every decision we make becomes a moral choice. I discussed how home leaving â or monasticism â was early Buddhismâs prescription for avoiding moral stress, and then how the Mahayana bodhisattva ideal become a model for lay practice. In this episode I address the matter of moral stress and how we might practice in the midst of it in order to free ourselves from dukkha, or suffering.
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As long as we remain engaged in 21st-century life, at least in any industrialized society, we are part of an infinitely complex web of karma that covers our planet. Even the details of our lives become moral choices, and it becomes increasingly difficult to live in a way that does no harm or that fulfills the ideal of the selfless Buddhist contemplative. Because of our interconnectedness with all things, we feel pain and moral stress when we act out of accord with our ideals. What does lay Buddhist practice look like in the midst of all of this?
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In a lineage tradition like Zen, your understanding, manifestation, and expression of the Dharma is deeply influenced by your teachers, and by their teachers. Whether you are a member of my Zen Center, Bright Way Zen, or a fan of this podcast, you may appreciate stories of my teachers Kyogen and Gyokuko Carlson in this live talk.* (*Most of my episodes are produced specifically for podcast listeners, but I am on sabbatical in August.)
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I am on sabbatical for the month of August, so this is a recent live talk* I gave at Bright Way Zen. This is, of course, a very timely topic with a major election coming up in the U.S. in just over two months. If politics is "the set of activities that associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status, none of us are able to opt out of politics. How can we engage in conversations about what we should do as a group, institution, organization, community, state, nation, or species, while remaining centered in our practice and true to our aspirations as Buddhists? (*Most of my episodes are produced specifically for podcast listeners.)
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I'm on sabbatical the month of August, so this episode is an informal, live talk* I gave in response to a question: "Is everything a Zen teacher does a 'teaching'? How do you know?" This led to discussion of other topics as well, related to having a formal relationship with a Zen teacher - What does it mean? What does it look like? Why would someone want this? (*Most of my episodes are produced specifically for podcast listeners.)
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In this episode and the previous one, I do something radical and share my experience of a sesshin I recently attended, describing it day by day. There are many reasons not to do this, and I went into those reasons in the last episode (part one), where I also described my first two full days of retreat. In this episode I describe days 3-5 and make some closing remarks.
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In this episode Iâm going to do something radical and share with you my experience of the sesshin I attended last week, describing it day by day. There are many reasons not to do this, which I will go into. I certainly donât intend to do it again. Still, despite my misgivings I thought it might be helpful for you to get an insight into what a sesshin is like for another person. In this episode I get through the first couple days of the retreat, and I will finish my story in the next episode.
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This episode is the third installment of chapter five of my book-in-process, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners. In the first episode, I described the central role of Precepts in Zen and covered the Three Refuges, Three Pure Precepts, and two of the Grave Precepts. In the last episode, I talked about the Grave (serious, or weighty) Precepts 3-8. In this episode, Iâll discuss Grave Precepts nine and ten, and talk about how we work with Precepts.
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This episode is the second part of chapter five of my book-in-process, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners. In the last episode, I described the central role of Precepts in Zen and covered the Three Refuges, Three Pure Precepts, and two of the Grave Precepts. In this episode, I talk about the Grave (serious, or weighty) Precepts three through eight. In the next episode, Iâll discuss Grave Precepts nine and ten, and talk more about how we work with Precepts.
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The fifth Field of Zen Practice is living according to moral Precepts. The Buddhist precepts guide our ethical conduct, ensuring we minimize the harm we do to self and others. Such conduct is a prerequisite for the peace of mind we need for spiritual practice. The precepts also serve as valuable tools for studying the self; when we are tempted to break them, it alerts us to our self-attachment and reveals our persistent delusion of self as a separate and inherently-existing entity. Keeping the precepts familiarizes us with acting as if the self is empty of inherent existence. This episode is the first part of chapter five of my book-in-process, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners.
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According to Zen master Keizanâs Denkoroku, Ananda spent 20 years at the Buddhaâs side. He had a perfect memory, understood all the teachings, was an impeccable practitioner, and attained arhatship. Despite this, the Buddha made Kashyapa his Dharma heir, and Ananda spent another 20 years practicing with Kashyapa. Finally, Ananda asked Kashyapa, âWhat am I missing?â This chapter of the Denkoroku discusses their subsequent exchange and Anandaâs long-awaited awakening.
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This episode and the last, âDharma Study: Wrestling with the Teachings,â comprise chapter four of my book, The Ten Fields of Zen Practice: A Primer for Practitioners. In the last episode, Part 1, I talked about the value of Dharma Study and how best to approach it. Then I discussed how to go about deciding what you want to study. In this episode I offer a list of eight fundamental teachings I recommend becoming familiar with, along with suggested texts to begin your investigation of each topic. Iâll end with a discussion of how to engage the teachings you study in a meaningful way.
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The fourth Field of Zen practice is Dharma Study, or becoming familiar with and investigating Buddhist teachings. The texts and teachings in Buddhism include tools we can use for practice and inspirational guidance for our behavior, but the most critical part of Dharma Study is challenging the ideas and views we already hold, not acquiring new ones. The teachings describe Reality-with-a-Capital-R and invite us to investigate and verify the truth for ourselves. We donât seek to acquire insight into Reality for its own sake, but because it is liberating and transformative.
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We all have negative aspects of ourselves we want to fix, disown, or even expunge completely from our being, but even with practice some things are extremely hard to change. As we strive to break free of our less-than-helpful aspects of self, we typically employ violent means, ranging from subtle rejection to vicious and debilitating self-loathing that may even manifest physically. Regardless of the severity of the violence, it causes damage. Much more transformative than our typical approaches to change is making a vow of complete, unconditional, inner nonviolence and then working toward complete acceptance and integration.
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Last week I led a sesshin, or silent Zen retreat. Participants participated in a 24-hour schedule of zazen, chanting, silent work, formal meals, and rest. Once or twice a day, I offered a "teisho" during zazen. "Tei" means to offer or put forth, and "sho" means to recite or proclaim. Teisho are sometimes called "encouragement talks," and they are meant to help listeners connect with the Dharma in spaciousness and silence of zazen. Teisho are not about explanations or the imparting of information, and they generally not recorded. They are offered spontaneously, just for the moment, just for those listening. Although you may not be sitting zazen while you listen to this episode, I thought I would offer you a teisho as if you are.
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The third Field of Zen practice is Mindfulness, which is cultivating clear awareness of what is happening, moment by moment, within you and around you. Mindfulness is absolutely fundamental to Zen practice, allowing you to practice within all the other Fields. Without awareness, you canât live your life by choice instead of by karma.
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Recently, someone submitted a Dharma question for me to address: âI wonder what Buddha would say to us about the crises facing humanity, particularly the suffering of our own making?â I can't know, but I dare to put some words in the Buddha's mouth and then present follow-up questions.
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