Mountain Rain Zen Dharma Podcast

Shinmon Michael Newton explores how, by taking a step backwards and shining the light inwards, we might realize the nature of Buddha. _____________________________________________________________ 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...

For the 1st Wednesday evening of MRZC's Genzo-e, Myoshin Kate McCandless explores how perhaps we are "within a dream expressing 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 ....

Themes from the Dogen Genzo-e opening retreat continue to be explored in the Sunday morning dharma talk. Can we practice humility and be open to wonder? In what ways do we express how we feel about miracles? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consi...

A call to the co-arising of "be alert!". Enlightenment is not a fixed state - it is the expression of our practice. And that is a great miracle. _____________________________________________________________ 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...

Mysoshin Kate McCandless offers a deep dive into what Dogen meant by saying miracles are " the tea and rice of buddha's house ". _____________________________________________________________ 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 a...

Dai-i Flo Rublee offers the last instalment in our dharma seminar - Chapter 5 from Charlotte Joko Beck’s Everyday Zen - with the suggestion that we don't have to be engaged in endless struggle with forces external to ourselves. "No old age and death. No end to old age and death. No suffering. No end to suffering." (the Heart Sutra) ___________________________________________________...

Kakuko Kaye Simard offers a talk on anger as a path of transformation. _____________________________________________________________ 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 going back over ten years is free and access...

Jikai Vicki Turay continues our dharma seminar on Charlotte Joko Beck’s  Everyday Zen asking the question: Do our ideals serve us or confuse us? Are they guiding principles or subtle forms of attachement? _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider...

In honour of the Buddha's parinirvana, Shinmon Michael Newton asks: how does realizing our self-nature free us from 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 archiv...

"Every moment of our life is relationship. There is nothing except relationship." (Charlotte Joko Beck) Shinmon Michael Newton continues our dharma seminar, exploring how we can perceive and navigate relationships with mindfulness and presence.  _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If...

Myoshin Kate McCandless asks, with so much seeming to be so awry in the world right now, how can we  meet beauty and truth in unexpected moments and guises. _____________________________________________________________ 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/dona...

Daikan John Green continues our dharma seminar on Charlotte Joko Beck's Everyday Zen , in which Joko describes how sitting can be like opening a Pandora’s box — which looks still and pretty on the outside, but can release a swarm of intense feelings. How do we experience these feelings as they arise, without being caught by ‘emotion-thought’? __________________________________________________...

In this second talk on working with anger, MRZC Priest Dai-i Flo Rublee uses Shantideva's writings in The Way of the Bodhisattva— along with Pema Chödrön's masterful analysis—to explore specific situations for practising patience in the midst of overwhelming emotion. She also reminds us of the value of our troublemakers: those people or situations that challenge us and give us opportunit...

In this first of two talks based on Shantideva's writings in the classic text The Way of the Bodhisattva , MRZC Priest Dai-i Flo Rublee unpacks how anger functions as a hindrance to happiness and affects all around us. She goes on to explain how, by cultivating patience, we can learn to sit through the 'pain of detox' and avoid biting anger's hook. _____________________________...

Myosen River Shannon continues our dharma seminar on Charlotte Joko Beck's book Everyday Zen and explores two questions Beck poses: "What is practice?" and "What is not practice?" _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider...

Michael Hare describes how his different communities of practice weave together like the threads of a martial arts belt. ZED (Zen Engaged Dharma) talks are short talks by sangha members about how they take their practice into the world, through work, art, activism, service, family life, etc. and how their practice supports them in doing so. _________________________________________________________...

Kakuko Kaye Simard begins a new dharma seminar on Joko Beck's book Everyday Zen: Love and Work .  If you are curious about the references made during the talk, please click below! Tales from the San Deigo Zen Center Joko Beck videos/documentary Dale S Wright - Humanizing the Image of a Zen Master: Maezumi Roshi   _____________________________________________________________ These talks are ma...

"All sentient beings have their existence and live within my life" -Uchiyama Roshi Shinmon Michael Newton asks us what our deep vows are, particularly in light of the many complex and difficult issues facing contemporary society. How can we open our hearts and see we are not separate from the ones we want to shun? _____________________________________________________________ These talks...

Hozan Alan Senauke was an American Sōtō priest, folk musician and poet residing at the Berkeley Zen Center. Myoshin Kate McCandless reads from Hozan’s tribute and shares some of his writing.   _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting...

Myoshin Kate McCandless offers insight into how, even with all the challenges the holiday season might bring, we can experience joy as one of the noble abodes.  _____________________________________________________________ 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/...

Shinmon Michael Newton asks how we might best respond to the uncertainty that is always present in our lives. In what way does living in sangha provide an opportunity to meet the unexpected and experience what enables the heart to be at peace?  _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find v...

Mysohin Kate McCandless  gives the last talk of sesshin and concludes the story of Sudhana’s pilgrimage.  Because we only exist within the vast matrix of Indra’s Net, the work of a Bodhisattva is never solitary. The greatest gift we can bring to the world is to give up our self-clinging. _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations...

Continuing the exploration of Samantabhadra's Ten Vows, Shinmon Michael Newton reminds us to never give up on ourselves, and to dedicate the merit we accrue towards the good of all beings. _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting...

Daikan John Green , the MRZC practice period 2024 shuso, shares thoughts on tea-service, interdependence, and on Indra's Net as a manifestation of ceaseless arising and passing away.  _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our...

Myoshin Kate McCandless describes how even with our little internal monsters - with our backsliding, distraction, and confusion - if we look at ourselves with clear eyes, it is possible to recognize that we are all bodhisattvas on the path. _____________________________________________________________ These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value...