The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZCNYC – 4/5/26 – The Buddha began with generosity—dāna pāramitā—as the ground of all practice and the basis of being truly teachable. The precepts live within this spirit, expressing how we give and share this life with others. What does it mean to give in the most complete, unsurpassable way?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 4/5/26 – From the Book of Serenity, Case 37 – Guishan’s “Active Consciousness” – Who is this “self,” the one we’ve taken ourselves to be all our lives? On the path, this question must be clarified intimately, so we can truly take responsibility for how we live. This requires seeing every arising of mind—even thos...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 3/29/26 – Prajna Paramita is the wisdom of the other shore, encompassing all of the paramitas and expressing the non-duality of wisdom and compassion. As the theme of this Dharma Encounter, Shugen Roshi invites sangha members to present their understanding and their questions about Prajna Paramita, as well as “turning words” which express the...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 3/28/26 – The subtle healing energy of zazen is likened to an acupuncture needle by Hongzhi, and Shugen Roshi explores how this teaching functions in our own practice life. Within zazen, are we truly engaging what is right in front of us? The simple and direct nature of zazen brings us back again and again, and so we return and settle into th...

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 3/27/26 – In this Renewal of Vows (Fusatsu) talk, Shoan Sensei offers the perspective that we are practicing within samsara, exactly where we are. Here we can come very close to the narrow habits and patterns that create suffering—something we cannot do in some imagined fantasy of a Buddha Land. Taking up the place where we find ourselves as th...

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho – ZMM – 3/26/26 – A very human practice is to go into unfamiliar places, maybe on a pilgrimage or a journey of some sort into the unknown. What might be the benefit of this type of practice, why did it come to exist? Gokan Osho explores the Buddha’s teachings on facing one’s own mind, free of attachments. When we relax, and get very close to our direct...

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei – 3/25/26 – ZMM – Hogen Sensei asks the question: what is it to just rest? To let our busy preoccupation with our thoughts come to rest. Accepting all streams, everything becomes “one taste,” non-dual and not in opposition to anything. To truly settle down and allow the busyness to rest is to let the continuous flow be present just as it is, revealing the...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 3/22/26 – Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of the MRO Spring Ango 2026 training period, “The Turning Words of Hongzhi”.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZCNYC – 3/22/26 – Join Hojin Sensei for her Spring Ango opening remarks at the Temple. Auspicious Beginning of Spring! Homage to the buddha, dharma, sangha treasures! How auspicious! What does it mean to dwell peacefully—together—right here in the midst of things as they are? To take delight in development? Ango gives us a field to see this clearly.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 3/15/26 – As the first of the Paramitas, or perfections, generosity is a virtue that leads to releasing the suffering we all experience, which was the primary focus of the Buddha’s teaching. Shugen Roshi reminds us that when we practice the dharma with the mind of generosity, we can hold everything that arises, and let diminish the disconnect...

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei and Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZCNYC – 3/15/26 – Buddha and Mara are figurative ways of portraying a fundamental seeming opposition within our human nature: Buddha stands for a capacity for awareness, openness, and freedom; with Mara representing a capacity for confusion, closure, and restriction. In this collaborative Dharma Talk Shoan and Hojin expl...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 3/8/26 – When we are complete within ourselves, nothing is left aside as unimportant. All of it is important. We can look to the great bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, as one who does not make any distinctions whatsoever. All things have their skillful use, can be turned toward benefit, even those most difficult things, those most...

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZCNYC – 3/8/26 – From The Hidden Lamp, Case #1: The Old Woman of Mt. Wutai – What is this desire to have a defined path in life and might the pointing in this koan give some friction to ask the larger question of what is moving us? Hojin takes up this teaching to address the mind that leans forward — imagining fulfillment later, somewhere else.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 3/1/26 – What did Vimalakirti say when Manjushri asked him to speak? In our own lives, how do we find freedom amid the dualities we encounter—sick or well, right or wrong, left or right? And what does the nonduality of form and emptiness reveal? When nothing stands opposed, where is the other side? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the nond...

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZCNYC – 3/1/26 – Listen to this invitation from a small convent in medieval Japan—Tōkeiji—where generations of nuns practiced zazen before a mirror, contemplating this question: “Where is a single feeling, a single thought, in the mirror image at which I gaze?” Awareness does not stand apart from experience. What might this mean in a world that so ofte...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 2/22/26 – Known by many different names throughout the Buddhist world—Avalokitesvara, Kwan Yin, Kannon—they are the hearer of the cries of the world. This being embodies that compelling ability to relieve all suffering and lead beings to complete, perfect enlightenment. Unburdened, we are thereby able to free others and ourselves from sufferi...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 2/21/26 – Our unified being—seeing body and mind as one reality—is profoundly affected by outside circumstances. Zazen practice turns us inward, to meet ourselves and what is arising in this mind-body. Shugen Roshi brings The Metta Sutta alive as the Buddha’s instructions on how to practice this dynamic flow of both inward and outward with lo...

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho – ZMM – 2/19/26 – Coming into the experience of our emotions and thoughts, we can find the way our minds shape our experience from one moment to the next. If we’re not grounded in this embodied experience, and willing to feel our feelings, we may tend to push them away or numb ourselves. This informal talk given during February sesshin invites us to ge...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 2/18/26 – This early sutra of the Buddha describes the practice of metta, offered as a beneficial aid to settle the mind and body and ease fear and vexation. Even within the wild restlessness of our minds, the troubles of our hearts and ways in which we struggle, taking these instructions to heart and understanding it’s intent can help us set...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 2/15/26 – All along the bodhisattva path, we make vows to serve others. When the conditions of our lives grow difficult—when stress feels real and urgent—these vows become more vivid and deeply personal. Shugen Roshi shares stories and leads a renewal of our commitment to the well-being of all who seek refuge in the Sangha. On this long path,...

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 2/8/26 – Invoking Dogen’s fascicle on Continuous Practice, Shoan Sensei reminds us that we turn toward spiritual practice to take refuge. In doing so, we take our seat as Buddha, taking refuge in the Dharma and relying on the Sangha all around us. From this refuge arises a continuous, sustained, real practice, even when it is uncomfortable or d...

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZCNYC – 2/8/26 – Coming together, falling apart, are these the same? Different? Practice can show us the freedom of mind responding according to circumstance. In this talk, Hojin Sensei reflects on the koan from the Hidden Lamp, Chiyono’s No Water, No Moon, and what it means to keep practicing the dharma, to keep caring for something— even when it seem...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 1/31/26 – The wellspring of wisdom in Zen is meditation. Yet wisdom alone is not enough; the path of liberation must also fully embody compassion. Compassion is not separate from awakening but an essential and indivisible expression of it, permeating every aspect of practice and life. In this Sesshin talk, Shugen Roshi encourages us to draw c...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 1/28/26 – Freeing ourselves through seated meditation, zazen, is the foundational practice at the heart of Zen Buddhism. In this exploratory talk, Shugen Roshi encourages us to be clear about what we’re doing, and how to do it, as well as why we are aiming to free ourselves and others from the suffering of this world.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 1/25/26 – The bodhisattva path is not known as such to everyone who walks it, and this was especially true for Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who dedicated all his efforts to bringing about a renewed commitment to liberty and justice in our troubled country. His life was a bodhisattva life. Our own efforts to change the streams of harmful cond...