Episode Description: In her timely talk, Roshi Enkyo O’Hara invites us to sing along with Tina Turner, “What’s Time Got To Do With It?” and explores the process of overwhelm overwhelming overwhelm in Dogen’s fascicle Time-Being. Roshi Enkyo translates Dogen into modern idiom, relating that “FOMO (fear of missing out) is a universal fear that can […]

Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Enkyo O'Hara: What’s time got to do with it?

When you Greet Me I Bow, Roshi Norman Fischer’s latest book came about differently from his past writing endeavors. For Norman, and his editor, the past four decades of writing can be condensed into four main themes: A) Relationships; B) Buddhist Emptiness teachings; C) Culture & its Shapings, and D) Engagement. As a precursor to […]

Norman Fischer: When You Greet Me I Bow: Notes and Reflections from a Life in Zen

Rhonda Myozan V Magee leads us in the inquiry of how the racist mind takes seed in all of us. She reminds us that we need to turn towards the legacy of racism and colonization in order to face the harm and impact in our communities. Rhonda invites us to look at how we embody […]

Rhonda V. Magee & Kritee Kanko: Deconstructing Race, Liberating the Racist Mind: Practice-Based Insights from Contemplating the Elements

In today’s talk Stephanie Kaza explores moral injury: We can be morally injured by the damage done to the environment. The moral injury leaves us feeling ashamed, guilty, and helpless, and ‘…threatens our belief in our society.’ Looking at other traditions like the ancient Christians and the Navajo, their wisdom demonstrates that we must ‘…take responsibility […]

Stephanie Kaza: What is Moral Injury?

Hoshi Kozan Palevsky asks us: What has this pandemic given you and what has it allowed you to let go of? He asks us to look at this upheaval through the lens of a Jubilee, the Biblical practice of letting go of debt and other forms of bondage during a year of renewal. Kozan ends […]

Matthew Kozan Palevsky: Jubilee: Exploring Radical Freedom

Episode Description: Sensei Wendy Johnson begins by reminding us of the previous day’s planting of the Three Sisters in the Upaya garden. The ancient sisters of squash, beans, and corn. In such difficult times gardening as a practice allows us to not look away at our grief. The importance of stopping, not turning away, in order […]

Wendy Johnson: Planting Life, Growing Justice

In The Poetry of Awareness on an Ordinary Day,  Fushin James Bristol explores the profound practice of awareness in our day to day life–“…doing what I’m supposed to be doing now.” Awareness arises from the tangled thoughts during Zazen and moves into our life and activities in the world, where what happens each day–from the stark moments to […]

Fushin James Bristol: The Poetry of Awareness on an Ordinary Day

Episode Description: Sensei Wendy Johnson begins her talk by drawing our attention to the many challenges confronting us today: the extreme climate swings around the world, the death and despair from the global pandemic, the 100 year anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre, and the legacy of genocide and racism in the USA. ‘Old zen…,’ Wendy […]

Wendy Johnson: Elemental Zen Gardening in Challenging Times

In this powerful talk, Breeshia Wade, author of the recently released Grieving While Black, explores how the underlying truth of impermanence relates to states of grief and loss, and that if we wish to bring about change in an unjust system, for example to deal with racial inequality, then we must accept that this change will […]

Breeshia Wade: The Cost of Losing Privilege: Addressing Grief and Fear of Loss

As a prelude to the resident sesshin on Dogen which started later that night, Matthew Kozan Palevsky delves into Dogen’s language of suchness, and how we can “micro-dose” moments of meditation to realize the heart of Dogen’s teaching.

Matthew Kozan Palevsky: Dogen Sesshin: Using The Sky To Stand Up

Episode Description: In his talk on Enacting Hope, the philosopher Evan Thompson reviews Gabriel Marcel’s view on Hope through his differentiation between a conditioned, and an unconditioned hope. Given our historic situation, unconditioned hope acts as an antidote to despair by requiring an inner creative process of transformation, rooted in the security of our very being. Oriented towards love, embodied in communal […]

Evan Thompson: Enacting Hope

Episode Description: In this Wednesday night, and SEBT Dharma Talk, Dr. Larry Ward speaks on sorrow and grief. Trauma,  Dr. Ward points out, is a normal human occurrence rooted in the biology of the human being. Being inundated by trauma triggers, how are we able to transform grief and sorrow into love? How can we […]

Larry Ward: Embracing and Healing America’s Racial Karma

In this Wednesday night Dharma Talk, Lama Rod Owens speaks on the importance of recognizing and being intimate with one’s own grief. This is how we can bloom to be lotuses, and serve others. Nevertheless, blossoming from mud to lotus is dirty, messy, and complex work, ‘…if you aren’t willing to get messy with complexity, you aren’t […]

Lama Rod Owens: The Path of Grief, Justice, and Liberation

In the final Dharma Talk of the Spring Practice Period, and Sesshin, Sensei Kathie Fischer speaks on the last two chapters of the Bodhicaryavatara: Wisdom and Dedication. Sensei brings up notions of beginner’s mind, interdependent co-arising, and buddha-nature. She ends with Dedication and requests we write our own verses of inspiration and benefit for others.  Our pain and grief […]

Kathie Fischer: SESSHIN: The Perfection of Wisdom & Dedication (Part 6 of 6)

On this day 5  of the Spring Sesshin, Hoshi’s Kigaku Noah Rossetter and Matthew Kozan Palevsky tag team to speak on Prajna Paramita, or the Perfection of Wisdom in the Bodhicaryavatara. Kigaku does an ‘unprecedented’ slide show, depicting how concepts reduce our perceptions of a rainbow’s panoply of colors to mere dozens. Similarly, our distinct experiences of self, […]

Kigaku Noah Rossetter & Matthew Kozan Palevsky: SESSHIN: The Perfection of Wisdom (Part 5)

The Upaya Dharma Podcast features Wednesday evening Dharma Talks and recordings from Upaya’s diverse array of programs. Our podcasts exemplify Upaya’s focus on socially engaged Buddhism, including prison work, end-of-life care, serving the homeless, training in socially engaged practices, peace & nonviolence, compassionate care training, and delivering healthcare in the Himalayas.

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