The Jizo-an Zen Community Podcast

The Platform Sutra of Hui-Neng, the sixth patriarch of Chinese Zen (chan) is one of the most influential texts of Chan Buddhism. Hui-Neng was an illiterate woodcutter who attained enlightenment, and who went on to demonstrate the depth and clarity of his insight. This 'jungle dog', the once uncultured southerner, Hui-Neng, validates to generations of Zen students and spiritual seekers that awakeni...

Practice, like all our actions, ripples out into the world. We may not always realize the benefits of our practice, or the merit of our efforts and its impact, but our practice matters. Zen Master Dogen taught that there is no separation between practice and our daily life and activities. Thus, our daily efforts become the activity of all Buddhas—past, present and future. Practice and living an aw...

The beautiful art form of mandalas – from their origins in the first century BCE in India to the modern-day sand mandalas created by Tibetan Buddhist monks, these wonderful creations bring about wonder and a deeper 'pointing' towards practice. The uses of mandalas in meditation practice and as instruments of healing will also be explored. The various forms of mandalas and the symbolism contained i...

Manjushri is the Bodhisattva that represents clear seeing and wisdom. How challenging is it to SEE things as they are? Is it possible for us, humans, to access this wisdom that resides in each of us? Learning about Manjushri can help us dig a little bit into how to cultivate wisdom and perhaps rely on this bodhisattva as a vehicle for reaching into our innate wisdom. His mantra can be a wonderful...

We can think of a 'being' as a noun, describing an individual (as in the expression 'all sentient beings'). Or, we can think of being as a verb describing an experience (as in being somebody). So when we hear the expression, "for the time being," what do you hear? Are we speaking about a person in the context of time, or simply the period of time that we inhabit temporarily in what we call 'now'?...

During these dark and challenging times that we are all experiencing, what is perhaps most needed in our lives is simple loving-kindness and compassion. This builds community, togetherness, and resilience, while transforming ignorance, duality, and separation. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama has often said that his religion is simple loving-kindness. Perhaps more relevant now than ever before, the Me...

"Emptiness" is a translation of the Sanskrit word 'Sunyata,' and is a central teaching in Buddhism, but its true meaning is often misunderstood. The teachings, disciplines and insight are at the core of what practice is about, all the way back to Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment. From it came the many different schools of Buddhism that sought to share that which can't be transmitted through words...

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche stressed the importance of the path of meditation, that if we could learn to sit and embrace, just sitting, without looking for results, a gap could be created in ego's constant defenses, and awareness could begin to shine through. Zen practice emphasizes letting go of any ideas of gaining or attaining anything, even enlightenment. Any attachment to ideas of attaining, or...

At its heart, Zen liturgy is a Koan. It is fertile ground for seeing our own mind coming alive. Whether done at home or in the Zendo, it strikes to the heart of practice, opening us up to an aliveness and closeness with our life. Liturgy expresses gratitude, compassion, our vows, mindfulness and healing, but doesn't exist outside of the mind expressing it. That is its power, and its life as a Koan...

In Vasabandhu's Thirty Verses; The 29th verse states: "Without thought, without conception, this is the supramundane awareness: The overturning of the root, the ending of the two barriers." The two barriers are: afflictive emotions and delusion which he already pointed at when he named the afflictions...the first of them being desire, aversion and delusion. Maybe this sounds too easy or maybe it d...

As human beings, we are wonderful storytellers. We have the capacity to create magnificent stories about the many aspects of our human existence, and storytelling can be a beautiful and essential art form. But there is another aspect to our storytelling. Human beings are also capable of creating stories, and narratives that circumvent or avoid reality... we tend to create these narratives for ours...

The path of seeking and finding is different for each spiritual tradition. In Zen it's known as the gateless gate...until you are able to open the gate and pass through, you can't fully understand the meaning of the Zen teachings. Yet all your mental efforts fail to open the gate. The gate only opens when you bring your whole being, not just the intellect, to the process and allow this paradox to...

There seem to be so many pitfalls on the road of life...almost all creatures would not argue this and yet the Buddha stated that we can be free from suffering; it can be transformed. So what would be transformed? No more potholes? No more addictions? No more physical, mental and emotional pain? And finally, no more confusion? The story that we carry of life turns out to be just that...it's a story...

In Zen practice, we begin with the basic understanding that we are all innately Buddhas. We are endowed with Buddha Nature. But what does this mean? If we are all innately Buddhas, then why practice? Buddha Nature is ultimately inconceivable. It cannot be expressed in words. And yet, as human beings, we must use words to help us communicate and understand that which is ultimately unknowable concep...

Opening the door to all that arises, we learn to sit with watchful patience, beginning with ourselves. As our practice matures we develop wider circles of inclusive compassion for all. Facing our fears, we sit in their presence without withdrawal or avoidance...simply watching the subtle response mechanisms that occur both mentally and physically. In equanimity there is a warm-hearted, balanced at...

In an ever-increasingly troubled and challenging world, full of so much division, separation and hyper-individualism; where see new horrors and injustices on an almost daily basis around the world...how do we walk the path of Dharma in our daily lives? How do we live the ways of the Bodhisattva and maintain our commitment to our families, jobs and obligations? Sila Paramita: The practice of moral...

The plight of the Hungry Ghost is a powerful teaching for us to consider. In Buddhist lore Hungry Ghosts are beings that are never satisfied. Don't we all have some way that we feel like we are forever yearning, never satisfied? This is the heart of suffering of addiction, whether it be to a substance, a behavior or an ideal. We are constantly looking outside of ourselves for something to relieve...

The path to Awakening cannot be broken down into a series of steps or procedures. It is not a problem to be solved through calculation or technique. Rather, we learn to listen, to wait and allow doubt to simmer, while having no expectations of outcome...over time we develop faith in the process, as we see it begin to bear fruit in our daily lives. The Dharma practices of meditation and contemplati...

Skeptical doubt is one of the traditional Five Hindrances in Buddhism. It is a vexation or obstacle that can cause us a great deal of confusion, fear and discontentment, both in our practice and our everyday life. Great doubt, however, is one of the Three Pillars of Zen; an essential part of our practice and maturation on the path. How can this be? It is a matter of clear seeing and discernment of...

Why do we so often busy ourselves with more, better and different? We're led astray by all the distractions we seek. In the end, there is so much more joy to be found in the work that is right in front of us—right between the eyes of our suffering. Putting aside diversions, we are re-energized. Aspiration is the first necessary step, providing direction, but when and how do I begin doing the work,...

This talk explores right intention, or right thought, as the second factor of the Noble Eightfold Path and emphasizes that the path is an interconnected, circular practice rather than a linear progression. Drawing on Buddhist teachings, it examines how right view gives rise to intentions of renunciation, goodwill, and non-harming, and how meditation helps us recognize and cultivate thoughts that s...

Genjo explores ego as the self-centered filter that distorts perception and keeps us caught in confusion. Learning to recognize ego in action creates a moment of clarity in which we can step out of habitual self-reference and return to a more direct experience of reality.

Sensei Emyo explores bowing as more than ritual etiquette, presenting it as an embodied expression of humility, respect, and interdependence. Through the physical act of bowing, Zen practice gives form to a deeper recognition of our relationship with others and the larger universe.

Genjo reflects on impermanence not simply as loss, but as a fundamental quality that gives life movement, beauty, and possibility. Practice invites us to encounter change creatively and intimately, loosening our demand for permanence while appreciating the fleeting character of experience.

Historically it is said that after his elightenment experience, The Buddha's first discourse was defined as the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. He offered the first teaching of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path to five fellow seekers, who at first denied him an audience...but after noticing something different in him, sat and listened. They became the first Sangha; the commu...