The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho – ZMM – 1/18/26 – In a series of talks on the Eightfold Path, Gokan Osho looks at effort, one of the core concentration factors of the path. Early on in our lives we mostly overreach, becoming competitive or extremely self-critical, and sometimes give up all together. We get ourselves in tangles before we can learn through practice to undo the expectat...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 1/11/26 – Three core aspects of Zen practice are morality, calming the mind, and insight into the nature of reality. Without this third element, wisdom-insight, Zen isn’t truly a liberating practice. Shugen Roshi explains that insight differs from analytical or conceptual thinking; it’s a direct, lived experience. The path requires that these...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 01/04/2026 – With a new year upon us we all have the chance to start fresh. This is always true because nothing is fixed, everything is subject to change, a truth of the dharma which we can verify for ourselves. We have accumulated experiences, memories, expectations, but those are not fixed either. In this perspective, the new year is auspic...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – New Year’s Eve 12/31/25 – Moral and ethical conduct in Zen practice involves the ongoing work of recognizing when we have fallen short of kindness, compassion, or honesty. The Renewal of Vows ceremony is an ancient Buddhist ritual that addresses the harm we cause. Through atonement, we acknowledge our transgressions—an essential act of...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 12/30/25 – Harmonizing inner and outer life is the essence of our practice, says Shugen Roshi in this koan talk from Rohatsu sesshin. Those habits of mind which obstruct our harmonious equanimity, keeping us from feeling whole and at-ease, are the very grist of practice. When we settle the mind, even in the midst of discord, we become clearer...

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 12/28/25 – During the year-end Rohatsu sesshin, Shoan Sensei offered this koan talk on the nature of mind as it’s experienced and expressed in Zen Buddhist practice. The koan offered from the Gateless Gate points to “turning the light around”, beholding the nature of what we call reality, and learning through experience how we can r...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 12/21/25 – In celebration of Hojin Sensei’s formal installation as abbot of Zen Center of New York City and Fire Lotus Temple, Shugen Roshi takes up Master Wu-Men’s Gateless Gate Case 22—Mahākāśyapa’s Flagpole—unfolding its historical resonance to illuminate the journey of women in Buddhism and their enduring place in the living t...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 12/14/25 – In this season of giving, we naturally think of celebration, connection, and gratitude for the family, friends, and community that sustains us. Dana Paramita invites us to open our awareness and our hearts to those around us who may be struggling, alone, or lacking what we ourselves enjoy. So… these days we might ask ourselve...

ZMM – 12/07/25 – Shugen Roshi officiates the Novice Monastic Ordination ceremony for Rebecca Shindo Kisch; a joyful occasion – both a home-leaving and a homecoming – that Master Dogen described as “a day for turning cartwheels.” Shindo is currently the Monastery’s Gardener, and helps coordinate the National Buddhist Prison Sangha. She became a formal stude...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 11/30/25 – This talk on a koan from an early Chan teacher is taken up by Shugen Roshi to look at the ubiquity of our dualistic habits of mind. Koans work with language to help us see our minds more clearly, to see where we cloud ourselves with judgements and bias and distract ourselves with endless arguments. Just forget the two sides and see...

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – 11/23/25 – How do we know what is ultimately true? In this koan from the Mumonkan, Shoan Sensei delves into the ordinariness of profound truth that is everywhere, its depth and benefits within reach. And yet there is still practice and investigation that must be engaged to feel into the distinction. – From Master Wu-men’s Gateless Gate, Case 19...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 11/22/25 – This final section of Shugen Roshi’s Genjokoan commentary looks at the dynamic tension between conceptual learning and the experience of insight. Insight brings clarity, but it is practice which allows the space to open, so that wisdom and compassion arise together. When we experience what reaches everywhere, the tyrannical repetit...

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 11/21/25 – How do we know what is ultimately true? In this koan from the Mumonkan, Shoan Sensei delves into the ordinariness of profound truth that is everywhere; its depth and benefits within reach. And yet there is still practice and investigation that must be engaged to feel into the distinction. – From Master Wu-men’s Gateless G...

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei – ZMM – 10/20/25 – The moment when each person decides to step into the unknown, to an authentic life where our karma does not determine our choices, is a turning point. Hogen Sensei picks up the opening line from Genjokoan, ”When all dharmas are Buddhadharma…” as that moment when everything has the great potential to change.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 11/19/25 – Our personal experience is what guides and corrects our steps on a dharma path, and this section of Genjokoan provides this reminder again of the deep conviction that arises only from experience, the verification that truly liberates, within our everyday lives. – Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks – Part 1...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi and Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 11/16/25 – After introducing Shoan Sensei, and after Shoan offers her Vows to the sangha, Shugen Roshi begins his discourse with the story of one of our great women ancestors, Moshan Liaoran Daiosho. It is a story pointing to the intimacy of the path itself, and to the question of how we understand “trans...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 11/9/25 – Shugen Roshi officiates the November 2025 Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery. Today, five students formally receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts, taking up these living teachings, living vows in the company of the sangha with family and friends: Rami Dokyo Eskelin (The Way of Reverence), Sushravya Jigo Raghunath (Compass...

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 11/6/25 – The beautiful activity of Fusatsu, taking the time to recognize/acknowledge harm, atone (become one-with), and thereby shore up our footing on the Path. It’s a way to bring to the fore the Buddha’s earliest teaching: the pure precepts; To not create evil, to practice good, and to purify the mind (practice good for others.)...

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei – ZMM – 10/22/25 – Our biggest challenges often take form in how we create or perpetuate suffering, and these are likely to be in stark contrast to the peace and groundedness experienced in zazen. In zazen we experience our true nature up close, but it often doesn’t seem to be in alignment with our restless and uneasy mind. How do we close the distance, ta...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 10/05/25 – The opportunity our lives offer is simply to live—not in the past, nor the future, but now—and this requires a measure of both faith and appreciation for all that is present, right now. Rather than living in memory and recollection, or in our hopes and fears, Dogen’s Genjokoan emphasizes that the dharma state of any phenomenon is j...

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei – ZMM – 9/28/25 – Manifesting absolute reality—awakened reality—in everyday life is Genjokoan. In this lively Dharma Encounter with Hogen Sensei, the awakened reality of everyday life is explored as our fundamental practice. Sensei says “true realization manifests as compassionate action in the world; that’s the bottom line,” and asks that we each consider...

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZMM – 9/26/25 – Taking responsibility allows us to make fresh and new karma, to heal what needs to be healed. The vows of atonement or repentance are at the center of this ceremony of Fusatsu. Hojin Sensei explores what the words of our vows in this context mean, and how our intentions can turn the tides of harmful karma — born of greed, anger an...

Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho – ZMM – 9/25/25 – Being receptive to our minds and trusting in the path are essential ingredients for a zazen practice that is vibrant and alive. In a way, this is what distinguishes rote practice from real practice — receptivity, devotion, and wakefulness. Are we asking ourselves, “What is it?” Or are we filling in the blanks with our delusive inability...

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho – ZMM – 9/14/25 – The Eightfold Path offers us a way to bring the Dharma teachings directly into the practice of our lives. In this talk, Gokan Osho continues exploring these core teachings, turning to how we understand ourselves and how we engage through body, speech, and mind. With attention to moral and ethical conduct, he examines our relationship...

Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho – ZMM – 8/22/25 – As we practice over time, we mature in our practice and if we’re lucky we can also experience and appreciate that ripening in each other. Sharing the words of realized women and men from six centuries ago, Shoan Osho brings home our common commitment, shared questions and aspiration within ourselves and our dharma ancestors. Engaging ou...