Zen Mind
Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the Guiding Teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the Center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom, and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within Western cultural horizons while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodied practice.
- Update frequency
- every 13 days
- Average duration
- 47 minutes
- Episodes
- 136
- Years Active
- 2019 - 2025
Genjo Koan (Part 1): To Complete That Which Appears
This talk kicks off a lecture series on Dogen's most celebrated writing, the Genjo Koan. It explores the meaning of the title phrase, which informs the entire text. GEN means to appear, JO means to c…
An Appropriate Way of Life (Everyday Bodhisattva Practice)
This talk was given as an opening talk for the 2024 Boulder Zen Center - Everyday Zen Practice Period (Jan 20 - April 13). It discusses the concept and tradition of 'Three-Month Practice Periods' and…
Continuous Opening
This talk explores how in times of crisis we can feel shaken by an experiences of groundlessness, and how we try to maintain and hold onto a sense of self as a defense against such groundlessness. We…
Beginning Anew
The philosopher Hannah Arendt considered the "capacity to begin anew" the essence of being human. This talk, given on the day before New Year's Eve, weaves our longing for new beginnings together wit…
What is Being Authentic?
This talk is a wide-ranging exploration of seemingly disparate topics such as 'a life lived authentically," subjectivity vs. objectivity, truth, spiritual awakening, transcendence, and the postmodern…
Thorough Practice of the Great Way
This talk was given as part of a weekend zazen intensive. Based on the opening paragraphs of Dogen's fascicle 'Zenki' (Undivided Activity), the talk explores the Buddhist views of interdependence and…
On Gratitude
Given during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, this talk explores the experience and practice of gratitude. Gratitude is the appreciation of that which nourishes and sustains us. Bowing is an express…
Zen Ethics
This talk introduces the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts ahead of an annual Precepts Initiation Ceremony at Boulder Zen Center. It presents the precepts as a pragmatic approach to practicing an ethical life …
No Inside, No Outside
This talk explores how to make use of the turning phrase "No inside, no outside." A turning phrase is a verbal expression that can transform our sense of self and being in the world. The phrase is he…
Don't Worry, Stay Present
This talk is about one of the most common questions among practitioners — "How do I bring practice into my everyday life?" The answer is simple but the practice is not easy — "Stay present.” It start…
An Appropriate Response
This talk was given as an introduction to a Weekend Seminar titled "An Appropriate Response," which is a well-known Zen phrase Master Yunmen gave as an answer to a question about the teachings the Bu…
Ask Me Anything with Zenki Roshi
This bonus episode is our first Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Zenki Roshi. Each month, Zenki Roshi will answer 3 questions that have been submitted by our listeners. You may submit your questions via em…
The Every Day Dance of Form and Emptiness (Meaning and Meaninglessness)
Traditional Buddhism doesn't explicitly address the topic of meaning. But for us contemporary Westerners, meaning is an important topic. Living a meaningful life includes such things as purpose, valu…
The Everyday Dance of Form and Emptiness (Birth and Death)
This talk explores birth and death as a practice of moment-to-moment change—in addition to birth and death as biological events. While it appears situations come and go and beings are born and die, t…
The Everyday Dance of Form and Emptiness (Order and Chaos)
This talk continues the exploration of everyday life practice as a dance of form and emptiness. The focus is on the contradiction yet undividedness of order and chaos in work activities (such as swee…
The Everyday Dance of Form and Emptiness (Introduction)
What if we stopped trying to dispel disturbance, confusion, and crisis from our experience and, instead, made use of these unwanted mind states as gates to appreciating our lives as a continual dance…
Doing No Harm
This talk was given as the public portion of a Weekend Workshop, during which a number of Boulder Zen Center practitioners came together to prepare for a Bodhisattva Precepts Initiation Ceremony. The…
A Culture of Transformation (in the Age of Ecological Crisis)
This talk explores the relevance of a practice and culture of transformation in the face of an ecological crisis that will more likely than not lead to a severe degradation of living conditions, espe…
Every Day Is a Good Day
The freedom we can realize through Zen practice (or any existentially honest spiritual practice) manifests not so much through THE CONTENT of our experience but through HOW WE RELATE to our experienc…
Giving Aliveness to Life
This talk explores the distinction between two perspectives on our human existence: aliveness and life. Aliveness is this here-now moment unfolding as ever-changing sensorial contents within a field …