A. Jesse Jiryu Davis's dharma talks
Talks on Zen from a senior student at the Village Zendo. Frequent delusion and swearing.
- Update frequency
- every 64 days
- Average duration
- 28 minutes
- Episodes
- 37
- Years Active
- 2015 - 2025
Rules for Hyenas
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/
The Meteor
What if you knew you had 30 minutes to live? Would you want to be awakened?
Why Did Master Rinzai Slap Jo?
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 h…
The Real Shit Stick
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 Bud…
Running in Circles
Running a half marathon, serving a prison term, practicing Zen for a lifetime: I'm trying to learn how people make friends with time, and how to appreciate each moment within an eon.
Why Generosity Turns To Rage, And What To Do About It
Living While Dying is Tasty
Your Nerve Plant
To focus the mind, you first have to understand and accept the mechanism of mind-wandering.
Memorial Day
My father-in-law is a soldier and my mother is a peace activist. On Memorial Day weekend, 2017, I describe how Buddha's Middle Way allows us both to honor veterans and to oppose war.
"For or Against?"
On the 15th anniversary of 9/11, I describe my difficulties practicing nonviolence in a world full of violence.
"I Saw You Fall So I'm Helping": The Feminist Awakening in the Software Industry
Women have been systematically excluded from computer programming for decades. But it wasn't this way in the past, and it doesn't need to be in the future. The software industry, it seems, is waking …
A Fierce Tiger
Practice with fear and overcome it, bit by bit, for the sake of a whole and liberated life. A talk I gave at the Village Zendo on April 7, 2016.
Year's End And The Insanity Of Self-Improvement
Being satisfied with what I have. A talk I gave at the Village Zendo in December 2015.
Facing Everything: Hiroshima and Our Complicity
On the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, I talk about our double complicity in the history of WWII, both as Americans and as Zen students. Can we face in both directions and see the facts…
Desires Are Inexhaustible
The second of the Four Vows is, "Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them." What do we really mean when we make this promise, and how can we accomplish it?
Yangshan Plants His Hoe
For my first dharma talk at the Village Zendo I take up the Book of Serenity Case 15, "Yangshan Plants His Hoe." The koan may seem obscure, but in fact it's about our work now in New York City, our w…