Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Time: 35:10 Talk 1: Recorded December 01, 2006, Upaya Zen Center In this introductory talk, the teachers give inspiring words about the heart of practice: Kaz Sensei provides background explanation of Rohatsu; Enkyo Roshi gives a talk on concentration meditation, and Roshi Joan provides instruction for meditation, intentionality, and precautions for sesshin. In this series of talks given by Kazuak...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, November 23rd, 2006 Time: 47:11 Roshi Joan Halifax gives her annual Thanksgiving Dharma talk beginning a poem by Billy Collins, Aimless Love: This morning as I walked along the lakeshore, I fell in love with a wren and later in the day with a mouse the cat had dropped under the dining room table. In the shadows of an autumn evening, I fell for a seamstress still at he...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, November 1st, 2006 Time: 47:11 "Having just returned from Tibet, Roshi Joan Halifax discusses her experiences. She is joined by Charla Malamed, who served as Roshi's anja and personal assistant during the pilgrimage. From their respective perspectives, the two discuss the essence of pilgrimage as they describe their journey to Kham." Tibet, a place of great altitude,...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, October 12th, 2006 Time: 56:39 "In my bowl violets and dandelions are mixed Together with the Buddhas of the three worlds." -Ryokan In this talk, Eido Roshi gives personal insight into the way of begging and ownership. She has a powerful premise - it's not new, but we have to constantly remind ourselves: we don't own anything. Nothing actually belongs to us. We simply...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, September 28th, 2006 Time: 53:13 In this talk, Eido Frances Carney Roshi discusses the ways of opening the heart and the subtle work required to perform this act. She uses one of Ryokansan's poems to show this as a basic teaching of an enigmatic master. Eido Roshi is excellent at correlating this Chinese-style prosody-an approach typical of Ryokansan-to everyday exper...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, September 13th, 2006 Time: 43:13 In this talk recorded during their writing retreat held at Upaya, Natalie Goldberg and Wendy Johnson speak on writing and Zen. They use the interdependence of these domains to show that living through writing is natural and can be fluid. Natalie discusses her time teaching children - her most treasured occupation. She also delves into...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 6th, 2006 Time: 1:02:16 Roshi begins her talk with a quote from Shantideva: This entire world is disturbed with insanity, due to the exertions of those who are confused about themselves. - Santideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva's Life. She then reminds us of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's words: "Universal responsibility is the feeling for other people's suffering...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 23rd, 2006 Time: 55:45 Roshi Joan Halifax reminds us of Milarepa's words: "To sum up: First, a vivid state of mental tranquility and a sustaining energy together with a discerning intellect are indispensable requirements for attaining perfect insight. They are like the first steps of a staircase. Second, all meditation, with or without form, must begin from dee...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 16th, 2006 Time: 51:13 Photo by Patrick Rentsch In this dharma talk, Kyojo Bakker and Roshi Joan explore Jukai, the conferring of the Buddhist precepts. They speak about their own experience of receiving the precepts and review the precepts. Jukai, according to Roshi Joan, is a way that we not only protect our mind but also protect the world. She reminds us tha...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 15th, 2006 Time: 1:11:44 In this dharma talk, Roshi Joan explores the koan of Sunfaced Buddha, Moonfaced Buddha. Master Ma is ill, and his accountant comes visits him and asks him how he is doing. Master Ma replied: Sunfaced Buddha, Moonfaced Buddha. She explores with students why it is that the accountant is present in this koan. Who is this "accountant" to us...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center , August 13th, 2006 Time: 1:06:22 Roshi Joan begins her dharma talk with a quote from John Fire Lamedeer that explores silence and facing the western horizon, the horizon associated with going within, with loneliness, with death. She then opens a discussion on the Koan: Guishan's "Do Not Betray Others": Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo, Case 47, translated by Kazuaki...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 11th, 2006 Time: 56:15 Roshi Joan opens the Summer Ango Sesshin with the words to "show up." She explore the bonds that link us as practitioners. And she reminds practitioners to be present for whatever shows up, be it illness or bliss. She describes sesshin as a ceremony, a rite of passage. She notes that the word ceremony comes from the same root as "cure." W...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, July 26th, 2006 Time: 1:05:11 Roshi Joan Halifax opens the talk with a quote from Carl Jung on making conscious the dark. She goes on to explore through dharma, story, and poetry the perspectives in Buddhism and shamanism that open through the experience of "turning inward." She illustrates this in the beginning of the talk with the story of Torani, the Earth Goddess,...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 4th, 2006 Sunday morning session from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha" Time: 58:20 Stephen begins his talk with an exploration of the "sublime" which he sees as an experience of the fascinating which can also be somewhat terrifying! Poetry can reveal to us this sense of the sublime by taking us beyond the strictly representational. The effect of being on pilgrim...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 4th, 2006 Sunday morning session from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha" Time: 1:05:20 Stephen begins his talk with an exploration of the "sublime" which he sees as an experience of the fascinating which can also be somewhat terrifying! Poetry can reveal to us this sense of the sublime by taking us beyond the strictly representational. The effect of being on pilgr...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 3rd, 2006 Saturday Evening Session from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha" Time: 1:25:54 Stephen discusses how ideas, beliefs and views find form in the form, using the medium of art from both the Christian and Buddhist traditions. Using the teachings of the "Three bodies of the Buddha" Stephen argues that awaking is not adequately understood until it has found a...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 3rd, 2006 Saturday Afternoon Sessions from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha" Time: 1:12:15 Stephen explores and describes the different types of meditation practices available. He goes on to describe the differences between an intellectual understanding of them and a complete embodiment of the practice both on the cushion and in daily life. We gratefully thank ou...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 3rd, 2006 Saturday Morning Session from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha" Time: 1:06:55 Making reference to the canonical texts, going back to the source, Stephen explores the life long relationship between Mara and the Buddha, using material that has been largely overlooked. He begins to draw out the historical pattern of duality that appears to exist between go...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 2nd, 2006 Evening Session from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha" Time: 52:25 As humans we appear to have the tendency to go beyond and outside of ourselves, to rely on something or someone external to us for our salvation. However, the Buddha suggested that our true experience arises out of our relationship with the material, messy, contingent world The Buddha ac...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 2nd, 2006 Afternoon Sessions from "A Retreat on the Secular Buddha" Time: 1:07:30 Using the teachings of the Satipattana Sutta, Stephen invites us to begin to develop awareness that can lead to an understanding of what we are experiencing moment by moment.  Returning again to a realization of contingency and the inevitable arising and passing of all phenomena. Ma...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 2nd, 2006 Time: 1:12:16 Morning Session Stephen began to lay out for us his view of the Secular Buddha where dharma practice is primarily concerned with this world, as the focus for our love, compassion and enquiry. He continues this exploration with an explanation of his view of contingency - dependent origination, everything in this world is a condition that br...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, June 1st, 2006 57 minutes Opening the retreat, Stephen Batchelor opens the retreat with the importance of considering study as practice. He suggests that we call this exploration "beginning all over again." We need to go back to that place that is beyond limitations, to leave the palace walls as did the Buddha, so that we can pose questions about existence; ie, to go...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 23rd, 2005 Scholar Kazuaki Tanahashi speaks about the Bodhisattva Manjushri following practices to complete "pure practice of body/speech/mind." He then explores the word "vow" and the importance of good intentions in our lives and our practice. Roshi Joan Halifax explores the theme of compassion, through the inflections of the Bodhisattvas. Roshi mentions Sama...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, August 20th, 2005 1 hour,  0 minutes The scholar Kazuaki Tanahashi introduces us to the Avatamsaka Sutra, the great Mahayana Sutra bringing forth the Buddha's enlightenment. Roshi Joan Halifax explores the Sutra in relation to our experience of practice and our realizations through practice. She speaks of the Avatamsaka world as a world of unselfishness. She then expl...

Recorded at Upaya Zen Center, December 6th, 2005. 1 hour, 5 minutes Scholar Kazuaki Tanahashi gives background on the dates of Buddha's life. Then Roshi Joan Halifax gives a talk on the final events of the life of the Buddha, a life that appears to have been much more difficult than legend leads us to believe. We gratefully thank our friend of Upaya, Ottmar Liebert for his contribution of music an...