A. Jesse Jiryu Davis's dharma talks

A dharma talk I gave during the New Palz Zen Center's June retreat, a few days before our sangha member Monshin gave her first talk. I was just back from a trip to Nepal and India, and I described how the rituals, symbols, and language we use today go back at least 5000 years in India and Europe. We have a duty today to preserve our ancestors' tradition and to innovate, even though someday Buddhis...

My father's dishonesty was frustrating and disappointing to many people, but I think he got the worst of it. Here's a dharma talk I gave to New Paltz Zen Center and Village Zendo on May 10, 2026. https://emptysqua.re/blog/the-kid-is-not-my-son/

Certain topics seem off-limits in Zen, like: What's the goal of meditation? How do I get better at it? What is everyone else experiencing when they sit? I spoke at the  New Paltz Zen Center about getting stuck at a plateau in meditation skill, and about Zen communities' reluctance to discuss peak experiences, progress, and goals. Here's a written version: https://emptysqua.re/blog/speak-up-if-your...

Which animals are sentient, and how can we liberate them from suffering? I review the philosopher Jonathan Birch's book "The Edge of Sentience" and shares good news about humanity's moral progress regarding animal welfare.

This is a dharma talk I gave at the Village Zendo December 12, 2024, about my mother's brain surgery and end-of-life decisions. Here's the video and a transcript .

You can find yourself in a critical situation without warning. Is Zen practice preparing you? Here's a dharma talk I gave to the  Village Zendo on September 5, 2024, about the classic koan, "Nansen kills the cat." Video and transcript here .

Bodhisattvas smile, though they hear the suffering cries of the world. You should smile too! A Zen talk I gave against doomerism.

Rich countries and drug firms act selfishly the COVID pandemic. Selfishness is natural, but we can strengthen our universal goodwill through training.

The United States as we know it will someday come to an end. It's shocking to see how vulnerable our democracy is, but as Buddhists we aren't surprised: Buddha told us that nothing lasts, and we can't rely on anything except the truth revealed by our own practice. A talk at the Village Zendo, November 8, 2020.

Buddhists must respond to the current political crisis, just as abolitionists like Frederick Douglass did in the 19th Century. A talk at the Village Zendo, September 3, 2020.

Our leaders are plainly untrustworthy. And when we hear about toilet paper hoarders, or protestors storming the Michigan governor's office, or covidiots crowding together on beaches, we stop trusting each other, too. But there is someone we can trust. Listen to find out.

Japanese Americans founded our practice, and they preserved and adapted it to life in the internment camps during WWII. Today we must adapt our practice in a crisis, are we up to the challenge?

Panic obliterates the self. We need a strong self to face fear in meditation and all of life. Dharma at the Village Zendo, February 23, 2020. Photo: Sam Bald https://www.flickr.com/photos/28931095@N03/3115110964

On a visit to some Buddhists incarcerated on a jail barge, I had to improvise how to practice Zen, just like we always have to improvise our practice.

Everyone deserves a place where we can practice together. Everyone deserves the opportunity for redemption. A talk I gave at the Village Zendo on December 5, 2019.

Meditation can transform your life, but it only works if you sit regularly. You can establish a strong, serious practice following these five methods. Recorded October 3, 2019, and the Village Zendo.

When you do something with attention, your self merges with your activity. Watch how the self shifts and moves, and you'll start to see through the illusion of ego.

We waste our lives chasing temporary, superficial things, and our disappointment leads to grief. Here's a practice that loosens greed's grip on our minds, and frees us to appreciate this moment.

When we practice mindfulness of what we're experiencing here and now, we can be at peace and free of worry. But we can go much deeper than that. Buddha taught that we can see through our greedy, self-centered delusions and clearly comprehend the truth of our lives.

Each new year, Americans resolve to work harder and be more austere, for no reason. Let's stop torturing ourselves.

The old stories all have the same punchline: the monk was suddenly enlightened. What really happens when we have an experience of insight?   Transcript: https://emptysqua.re/blog/the-day-yunmen-broke-his-foot/

If we treat the Zen precepts as a set of rules to obey, that's just conformity. Let's use them instead as a tool for busting the hierarchy! Transcript: https://emptysqua.re/blog/rules-for-hyenas/

What if you knew you had 30 minutes to live? Would you want to be awakened?

In the Blue Cliff Record, Case 32, a monk named Jo asks Master Rinzai, "What is the essence of Buddhism?" In response, Rinzai grabs the monk and slaps him. Why? In this talk I explain what all this hitting and slapping is about in Zen. There's a lesson in this story, about sustaining our own meditation practice over the long haul.

A monk asked Unmon, "What is Buddha?" Unmon replied, "A dry shit stick." Why? Where is Buddha in this regular, shitty, unsatisfactory experience? I've heard a thousand times that ordinary mind is Buddha. Here, I try to explain how to actually practice this truth.