Zencare Podcast

“The challenge is not sustaining the silence (on retreat), but bringing the silence with you when you leave.”

In this dharma talk from the final day of our recent summer silent retreat, Chodo sensei e…

“Sangha (community) is not a retreat from suffering but a mirror to it.”

In this lively and direct dharma talk, Koshin Sensei invites us to explore what it truly means to cultivate serenity and quietu…

In this dharma talk, Koshin Sensei shares a day of stark contrasts: one meeting filled with praise — “You’re awesome, the best teacher” — followed by another with harsh criticism — “You’re the worst,…

“Zen is not interested in making us feel good. It is about being real. Sometimes this feels good. Sometimes this feels awful.”

In this dharma talk, Koshin Sensei celebrates the graduates of our Contem…

“How can I arouse the spirit of reconciliation and harmony right now?”



In this recent dharma talk, Koshin Sensei invites us to reflect on what it means to truly grow up and live with wisdom.

Quoting …

When illness and loss touch our community, how can we transform uncertainty into deeper practice?

In this recent dharma talk, Koshin Sensei explores how life's fragility can awaken rather than paralyz…

“What would it be like to realize that you're not missing anything, that the brightness is not somewhere else and it's not someone else.”

We share one final excerpt from last winter's Commit to Sit as…

“It’s one of the challenges of our school: to be prepared, and then to drop it.”

What can a 13th-century Zen master teach us about the courage needed to challenge institutional barriers?

This week, we …

“My storehouse having burnt down, nothing obscures the view of the bright moon. All of our previous conceptions, our preferences, our ideas, our understandings of the way the world works have to go u…

What’s the difference between empathy and compassion—and why does it matter so deeply for those in caregiving professions?

In this moving and insightful conversation, our Guiding Teachers Koshin Paley…

Each of us is carrying so much—lugging around feelings and stories of deficiency, blame, or unworthiness. How can what we carry no longer separate us, but instead become the very ground of connection…

In this powerful and poignant talk from the midst of our Commit to Sit practice period, Koshin Sensei explores the teachings of Punyamitra, the 26th ancestor in the Zen lineage.

As a crown prince see…

Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset once remarked: “Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.”

A capacity to pay attention grows as we continually practice being recepti…

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In this recent dharma talk from our winter silent retreat, Koshin Sensei offers teachings on the eve of the Hossenshiki ceremony, a rare occasion in which a teacher entrusts their head student, the …

What does it really take to build a lasting, loving relationship? In this special episode from the 10% Happier Podcast, Koshin Sensei and Chodo Sensei join Dan Harris and his wife, Bianca, for a cand…

“…when you practice and practice in this way and there is agreement between thoughts and words, it will truly be like intimate friends meeting, or self nodding to self. ” – Keizan Zenji

Even in t…

“Completing the ordinary things we do every day, one by one, with all of our heart—this is enlightenment itself.”

At the end of January, 120 members of the NYZC sangha gathered for a five-day ret…

“How do we trust what is actually fresh and coming from a soft, unknowing place? This is the whole reason to practice.” – Koshin Sensei 

Each moment is an opportunity to notice from where our thoug…

“This sangha, here and on Zoom, represents 88 generations of practitioners—how incredible to be part of this living lineage.”

Our upcoming Commit to Sit is starting this week and so we share one fi…

“The world will always need compassion and wisdom. In our lifetime and after our lifetime.” – Koshin

The interconnectedness of everything is not an idea or a belief. No separation is a truth to exp…