Brooklyn Zen Center

Recorded on October 30, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY On the first day of our three-day fall sesshin, Charlie Korin Pokorny walks us through the Hungry Ghost ceremony — sometimes called the Gate of Sweet Dew — that the sangha would hold together the next day, on October 31. With rice, fruit, and maybe a few Skittles, the ceremony aims to make a small offering fill the universe, in...

Recorded on October 17, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY Charlie Sensei continues with a teaching based on BZC's Fall Ango (practice period), "Liberating Response: Engaged Practice in Ourselves and in the World." References: Website of People's Institute for Survival And Beyond:  https://pisab.org/ The  BZC Podcast  is offered free of charge and made possible by the donatio...

Recorded on October 10, 2026 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. Rev. Doyeon Park, a minister of the Manhattan Won Buddhist Temple and Buddhist spiritual life advisor at Columbia and NYU, explores the complex nature of compassion in her Dharma talk at Brooklyn Zen Center drawing from personal experiences as a student and as a minister. True compassion, she explains, comes from the Latin for...

Recorded on October 10, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY This talk considers the PISAB principle of Learning from History and its connection to Zen practice—specifically, the discipline of studying ourselves. Sarah Sensei explores ways we can engage with both our personal histories and the collective narratives that shape our lives, our places, and our social conditioning. Through th...

Recorded on September 26, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY This talk considers what is the relationship between how we investigate and inquire into ourselves, and how we show up with compassion in the world. The  BZC Podcast  is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If these teachings have benefited your life, please consider supporting the p...

Recorded on September 12, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY Welcoming the sangha back after the August break, Charlie Korin Pokorny, BZC Dharma Teacher, explores awakening through the teachings of 13th-century Sōtō Zen founder Dōgen. Themes include Buddha nature as a dynamic, impermanent process rather than a fixed essence; awakening as "doing" rather than seeing; intimate illuminatio...

Recorded on July 25, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY The  BZC Podcast  is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If these teachings have benefited your life, please consider supporting the program with  a donation  (suggested $2-7/episode, or whatever feels right for you!). You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.o...

Recorded on July 11, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY Sarah Sensei begins with an invitation to become aware of one’s body, asks those present, “What do you want or need that brought you here?”, and collects individuals’ responses.  Sarah’s dharma talk considers the koan “Dizang Planting the Fields” ( The Book of Serenity , Case 12), in which Xiushan asks, “What are you doing in...

Recorded on June 27, 2026 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY, during a one-day retreat This dharma talk was given by guest teacher,  Maitriveer Nagarjuna . Dhamma teacher and Buddhist scholar, Maitriveer-Nagarjuna (also known as Dr. Santosh Raut) shared a passionate portrait of the Indian social reformer and political leader Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and his approach to engaged Buddhist pra...

Recorded on June 20, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY In this dharma talk, Charlie brings up BZC involvement with Pride Month and discusses the practice of conversation – being in conversation with others, with our experience, and with everything – as a basis of liberation from suffering. He suggests elements of accountability to keep in mind so that literal conversations can be mutu...

Recorded on June 6, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY This dharma talk was given by guest teachers,  Chodo Robert Campbell  and  Koshin Paley Ellison,  of New York Zen Center. They spoke about how essential the practices of making atonement and taking responsibility are within Soto Zen practice. They addressed the challenge of working skillfully with these practice...

Recorded on May 16, 2026 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. Please enjoy this dharma talk by BZC teacher Sarah Dōjin Emerson. Sarah explores the teachings of Zen master and author Norma Wong about the wisdom of community and collective leading; and the teachings of Paula Arai on ceremonies of healing. Sarah’s talk includes Norma Wong Roshi's chanting practice of calling in  aloha &nbsp...

Recorded on May 9, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY This dharma offering by guest teacher Kaira Jewel Lingo addresses how grieving abides in the body and how taking refuge in ourselves offers healing and stability. Her offering includes a brief period of paired sharing, a guided meditation practice, a writing practice, a ceremony for holding grief together, and a dharma talk. The aud...

Recorded on April 25, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY This dharma talk by BZC teacher Charlie Korin Pokorny describes the closing ceremony for the Ancestral Heart Monastery, in Millerton, NY, which took place on April 18, 2026, and offers guidance in how Zen practice addresses loss and grieving. The  BZC Podcast  is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations...

Recorded on April 4, 2026 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. Please enjoy this dharma talk by BZC teacher Sarah Dōjin Emerson, which explores allowing the principle of care to guide our interactions in all settings and relationships.  Sarah Sensei refers to the following online sources: “Care is a Lifeforce,” episode of the podcast “Becoming the People with Prentis Hemphill,” with gues...

Sarah Dōjin Emerson’s talk, entitled “Renewal and Reverence,” recorded on March 21, 2026, during the three-day sesshin in preparation for the Jukai ceremony, at Boundless Mind Temple, Brooklyn. In this second and final dharma talk of the sesshin, Sarah-sensei explores engaging Zen practice tenderly, for the sake of love, as a training in reverence. Sarah shares a quotation from an interview with T...

Recorded on March 20, 2026 during the three-day sesshin in preparation for the Jukai ceremony for receiving the Bodhisattva Precepts, at Boundless Mind Temple, Brooklyn, NY. In this first dharma talk of the sesshin, Charlie Korin Pokorny explores Jukai as a ceremony of bearing witness to radical relationality, and of asking how to allow one’s life to become a testament to the reality of...

Recorded on February 19, 2026 at at the Online Parent/Caregiver Monthly Sangha. Over the next few months, the Parent Sangha will be exploring together the traditional cultivation of lovingkindness, or Metta, through the lens of parenting. This guided meditation is the grounding and foundational practice for this cultivation. While this practice uses the lens of caregiving, it's a practice anyone c...

Recorded on February 19, 2026 at at the Online Parent/Caregiver Monthly Sangha. A short offering from the Parent Sangha exploring parenting as a path of awakening and social change. This talk is aimed at parents and caregivers, though the insights are relevant to all practitioners. The  BZC Podcast  is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If these teachings have be...

Recorded on March 7, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. Please enjoy this interfaith dialogue on engaged action as spiritual practice with guest teacher, Reverend Mira Salwani of The Riverside Church, and Sarah Dojin Emerson. The  BZC Podcast  is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynz...

Recorded on February 28, 2026 at Boundless Mind Temple, Brooklyn, NY. Referenced in the talk: The  BZC Podcast  is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If these teachings have benefited your life, please consider supporting the program with  a donation  (suggested $2-7/episode, or whatever feels right for you!). You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Ce...

Recorded on February 14, 2026 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. Please enjoy this dharma talk by guest teacher, Won Buddhist Kyomunim, Rev Grace Song which includes an excerpt of a letter from James Baldwin to his nephew and ends with a guided meditation. The  BZC Podcast  is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Cent...

Recorded on February 7, 2026 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. Resources: • Podcast about collective action in Minnesota: • How to Survive the End of the World:  An Emergency Dispatch from Occupied Minneapolis: "Intense, Frightening, Surreal and Inspiring." • Movement Memos:  Minneapolis Community Defense is "Riding on the Learning Edge of a Whirlwind" • Norma Wong's new book "Who We Are B...

Recorded on January 31, 2026 at Boundless Mind Temple, Brooklyn, NY. The  BZC Podcast  is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If these teachings have benefited your life, please consider supporting the program with  a donation  (suggested $2-7/episode, or whatever feels right for you!). You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen....

Recorded on January 17, 2026 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. Resources Referenced in This Talk Article by Liz Bucar "Proof" by Cornelius Eady The  BZC Podcast  is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If these teachings have benefited your life, please consider supporting the program with  a donation  (suggested $2-7/episode, or whateve...