Mountain Rain Zen Dharma Podcast

Nin-en Susan Elbe offers the final talk in our ten week dharma seminar on Kosho Uchiyama Roshi's book: Opening the Hand of Thought. 

We each live in the world as an individual self operating within th…

Shinmon Michael Newton shares teachings about mantra and suggests the Heart Sutra is chanted the better to drink it in, helping gather body and mind in times of distress, loss, and confusion. 

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Mysohin Kate McCandless discusses how to practice with hindrances. When we free ourselves from fear, that gift extends out through the world in ways that we may never know.

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Myoshin Kate McCandless asks if we can enter mountain time and invites us to explore the notion that we might all be wind-bells in the dharma wind, manifesting the particular song of our lives.

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Myoshin Kate McCandless describes the senses as dharma gates, through which we interact with our environment. The Heart Sutra suggests that this body - this life - is the medium, the gift we are give…

Shinmon Michael Newton gives an insightful overview of dependent origination - how everything affects everything. You and I are all part of a great dance, and are woven in to the process of causal re…

Shinmon Michael Newton affirms the culture of mutual support and interdependence which makes sesshin a safe place for practicing being open to our non-separateness. 

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Shinmon Michael Newton begins to examine in what way the Heart Sutra provokes, evokes, and points a finger at the boundless nature of our lives.

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Myoshin Kate McCandless opens the ninth annual MRZC Summer sesshin by introducing the theme for the week: The Heart Sutra - Great Wisdom Beyond Wisdom. 

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Shinmon Michael Newton helps unpack the final chapter of Kosho Uchiyama  Roshi's book, Opening the Hand of Thought, in which there are seven clear instructions on how to orient our lives to practice.

In this ZED talk (Zen Engaged Dharma), Myokai Nik Bladey investigates artificial intelligence and dharma practice, asking us how we find union within the particularity of each moment of our lives, an…

Joko Claire Talbot explores how, given human beings live in the flow of impermanence and suffer the burden of thought, in what way does zen help us learn to enjoy every sandwich and every bike ride?!

Myoshin Kate McCandless shares experiences from her recent pilgrimage to Ireland, and asks how we might reconcile human contradictions at the personal, national and global levels. How do we resolve t…

Is zazen selfish? What is the self? Are we belligerent squashes or are we all in this together? Myosen River Shannon explores these and other questions in her talk on Opening the Hand of Thought chap…

Daikan John Green shares a few thoughts about what could be considered a true teaching, and what might be conveyed or created by something else in the past. 

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Guest monk, Rev. Gyokei Yokohama, ponders what stays the same, what gets lost in translation, and what influences are shared back and forth between the way people practice in North America and the wa…

Jakushin Todd Slobogean tames the relentless meandering of his neuro-diverse mind to bring us thoughts on the Kalama Sutra and the Island Sutra (the Attadiipaa Sutta - The Buddha’s Last Teaching). 

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Hotei Denis Fafard explores how being a boddhisatva is fundamentally an audacious act of imagination.

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These talks are made possible thanks…

Continuing the dharma seminar on Kosho Uchiyama's writing, Kakuko Kaye Simard describes intensive practice, shikantaza, and  how sesshin is an opportunity to sink firmly and nobly into our bones.

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Jikai Vicki Turay shares insights and anecdotes from her path and practice to lay entrustment. 

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These talks are made possible thanks to do…