The Zen Studies Podcast

Bodhisattva Activity is enacting vows to free all beings as well as yourself. This is an acknowledgment that you are interdependent with all beings and things, and such an aspiration can give a sense…

In Episode 272, I discussed the third chapter of Zen Master Keizan’s book The Denkoroku, or the Record of the Transmission of Illumination. In the interest of thoroughness, I figured I’d start back a…

The eighth Field of Zen Practice is Realization, gaining a direct, personal experience of the truth. Realization helps you respond appropriately, allowing you to live by choice instead of by karma. E…

This episode is the second half of the seventh chapter of my book-in-progress, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners. Listen to/read the previous episode (288) first, where I talk about t…

The seventh Field of Zen Practice is Opening Your Heart. Working explicitly to open your heart not only benefits other living beings, it puts you in accord with the Dharma and supports all other aspe…

In a time of political divisiveness, many of us look to the three treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha for solace, strength, and guidance. I offer a few Dharma teachings I have found useful for pr…

In the last episode, I offered seven points about the role of Dukkha in our life and practice and discussed the first five points. In this episode I’ll finish the discussion with point #6: Buddhism o…

While physical and emotional pain, discomfort, and longing are an inevitable part of human life, Dukkha is existential angst we add to such experiences, ranging from subtle uneasiness to acute anguis…

It’s challenging to make our Dharma practice continuous – maintaining awareness and appropriate conduct each moment of our lives. In his essay Gyoji, or “Continuous Practice,” Zen Master Dogen doesn’…

Our goal in practice is to live in accord with the truth, or the Dharma - not only while sitting in meditation or studying Buddhism, but every moment of our lives. In other words, we strive to make …

This is part two of my discussion “Cutting Moral Corners: Is Buddhism Compatible with 21st-Century Life?” In Part 1 I talked about the moral stress that arises from living a modern life, where almost…

As long as we remain engaged in 21st-century life, at least in any industrialized society, we are part of an infinitely complex web of karma that covers our planet. Even the details of our lives beco…

In a lineage tradition like Zen, your understanding, manifestation, and expression of the Dharma is deeply influenced by your teachers, and by their teachers. Whether you are a member of my Zen Cente…

I am on sabbatical for the month of August, so this is a recent live talk* I gave at Bright Way Zen. This is, of course, a very timely topic with a major election coming up in the U.S. in just over t…

I'm on sabbatical the month of August, so this episode is an informal, live talk* I gave in response to a question: "Is everything a Zen teacher does a 'teaching'? How do you know?" This led to discu…

In this episode and the previous one, I do something radical and share my experience of a sesshin I recently attended, describing it day by day. There are many reasons not to do this, and I went into…

In this episode I’m going to do something radical and share with you my experience of the sesshin I attended last week, describing it day by day. There are many reasons not to do this, which I will g…

This episode is the third installment of chapter five of my book-in-process, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners. In the first episode, I described the central role of Precepts in Zen a…

This episode is the second part of chapter five of my book-in-process, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners. In the last episode, I described the central role of Precepts in Zen and cove…

The fifth Field of Zen Practice is living according to moral Precepts. The Buddhist precepts guide our ethical conduct, ensuring we minimize the harm we do to self and others. Such conduct is a prere…