Mountain Rain Zen Dharma Podcast

Ninen Susan Elbe offers an exploration of koans and how they help us grapple with the mysteries of birth and death. _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate . A full archive of recorded teachings...

Jikai Vicki Turay continues our Dharma seminar asking: what strengths do you have when it comes to making practice your whole life? What challenges? How consciously and caringly can you breathe? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supportin...

Shinmon Michael Newton offers stories celebrating the strong influence of mothers within the Buddhist tradition. How do you cultivate a mothering spirit? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate...

Joko Claire Talbot continues the Wednesday evening Dharma seminar on Norman Fischer's Training in Compassion .  In what ways do you appreciate your lunacy and pray for help? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mo...

Zoketsu Norman Fischer 's second dharma talk from the MRZC weekend retreat is again full of wonderful teachings and stories from Dongshan. What is this life now,  beyond theologies and categories? [with apologies for rough audio] _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in th...

Rich with stories and teachings from Dongshan's life, Zoketsu Norman Fischer gives the first of two talks at the annual MRZC weekend retreat. [with apologies for rough audio] _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at m...

Our dharma seminar on Zoketsu Norman Fischer’s Training in Compassion continues.  Dai-i Flo Rublee offers that relative compassion helps ground the broad view of life’s empty nature in heart-connection and engagement. _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, pl...

Myoshin Kate McCandless gives a dharma talk on one of humanity's great koans: gender. Can we release our fixed views on identity?  _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate . A full archive o...

Myosen River Shannon continues the Dharma Seminar on Zoketsu Norman Fischer’s Training in Compassion .  How does caring for ourselves help us care for others? How do we not hide behind the dream-like quality of the absolute? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachi...

Zen Engaged Dharma (ZED) talk by Kokai Michael Drebert on Gardening and the Wild. ZED talks are informal talks by sangha members on how they take their practice into the world, and how their practice supports doing so. _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, p...

Shinmon Michael Newton gives the first talk in our new Dharma Seminar on Zoketsu Norman Fischer’s Training in Compassion , where we will explore the practice of Lojong. The first slogan, "Train in the Preliminaries," strengthens our resolve to practice and invites us to reflect deeply, whether we are an experienced practitioner or just beginning. _________________________________________...

Shinmon Michael Newton outlines how taking the bodhisattva vows reduces suffering and can help cultivate dignified presence. _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate . A full archive of recorded...

Shinmon Michael Newton gives the last talk in our Dharma Seminar on Charlotte Joko Beck's Everyday Zen - Love and Work , offering further insight into a formidable zen teacher.  What would it be like to live a life of no exchange? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in t...

Myoshin Kate McCandless emphasizes that religions can not only provide solace and inspiration, but also need to reckon with harms done in the name of "god". _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainze...

Using Joko Beck's Everyday Zen as a springboard, Myoshin Kate McCandless asks us to consider what kind of boundaries we are attached to, and which of the worldly winds blows us off our path. _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporti...

Nin-en Susan Elbe picks up the thread of Charlotte Joko Beck’s Everyday Zen by offering a talk on Chapter 8.  How do the paramitas help us make difficult choices? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.or...

ZED Talks (Zen Engaged Dharma) invite sangha members to tell their stories about how Zen practice manifests in their life. Zen priest Onsen Kerr from Middle Way Sangha in Victoria discusses how her lifelong art practice is one of realization and disruption, and explores the question of how Art and Zen co-exist – and for whose benefit?  See Onsen's work (as described in the talk) at: https://w...

To end our month long Genzo-e, Shinmon Michael Newton underlines that the moon is a symbol for awakening to non-dual reality and to impermanence. _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate . A full...

In this talk, Shinmon Michael Newton encourages us to not reject the incomplete and to not hang on to what is complete, but rather just to practice; to actualize the complete moon that is not yet full.  _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider s...

Shinmon Michael Newton offers insights into the moon as symbol for the formless dharma body. What preconceived notions do you have about zen practice and your life? Can you let go of that mode of thinking? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please conside...

In the last dharma talk on Dogen's Dream within a Dream ,  Myoshin Kate McCandless shares a dialogue between Ziyong, a 17th century Chinese nun at the end of her life, and her disciple Jingxuan.  How do we express the dream within the dream in times of great loss? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide...

In this dharma talk, Shinmon Michael Newton encourages us to “hold up the sun and moon on the top of a staff” and asks what we offer to this troubled and confused world? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrai...

Myoshin Kate McCandless asks: how can Dogen, and seven wise princesses, help us be fully alive and express the "dream within a dream"? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate . A full...

Shinmon Michael Newton asks that we get past "zero sum thinking" the better to cultivate and encourage buddha nature, wherever and whenever we can. _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/don...

"How can I express the dream of this life?" Myoshin Kate McCandless offers an exploration of what Dogen calls "twining vines" - the entanglement of our karmic lives and the intertwined nature of awakening. _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teach...