Explore every episode of the podcast Mountain Rain Zen Dharma Podcast
Dive into the complete episode list for Mountain Rain Zen Dharma Podcast. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
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Title
Pub. Date
Duration
Zazen is Embodied Curiosity - Practice Period Week Six - Wednesday
06 Nov 2025
00:29:02
Shuso Myosen River suggests that using zazen to avoid our bodies or demons is kind-of funny because it’s like hiding from the monster in our closet by going in with it.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Rohatsu sesshin - Living in Indra's Net: the Avatamsaka Sutra and Beyond (5)
05 Dec 2024
00:28:41
Daikan John Green, the MRZC practice period 2024 shuso, shares thoughts on tea-service, interdependence, and on Indra's Net as a manifestation of ceaseless arising and passing away.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Rohatsu sesshin - Living in Indra's Net: the Avatamsaka Sutra and Beyond (4)
04 Dec 2024
00:35:15
Myoshin Kate McCandless describes how even with our little internal monsters - with our backsliding, distraction, and confusion - if we look at ourselves with clear eyes, it is possible to recognize that we are all bodhisattvas on the path.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Rohatsu sesshin - Living in Indra's Net: the Avatamsaka Sutra and Beyond (3)
03 Dec 2024
00:36:50
With an invitation to enter the moment and be open to things of beauty, Shinmon Michael Newton explores the nature of vow as something that is practiced, never completed.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
We all, at some point in life, become aware of a longing that is not satisfied by any material thing or distraction or accomplishment. Shinmon Michael Newton explores the Avatamsaka Sutra’s list of 10 demons or personal obstacles met when walking this path of zazen.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Myoshin Kate McCandless shares more of Sudhana’s pilgrimage, the companions he meets along the way, including people, animals, and plants. Each has teaching to offer, not always easy to receive. All these stories help humanize Sudhana and make him relatable, more than just allegorical.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Daikan John Green offers images and metaphors for the infinite interconnections and feedback loops of Indra’s Net such as quantum entanglement or the root structure of a redwood tree. How can we practice with these infinities when we are only finite humans?
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Myoshin Kate McCandless introduces the Practice Period theme and describes how the lens will be turned onto what it is for us to live and awaken in the fullness of our embodied life in these difficult times on earth.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
How do we take in and then process the traumas of war, have our hearts broken over and over again, while abiding in the two truths, of relative and absolute? Myoshin Kate McCandless explores practices of patience and equanimity in the face of conflict offered in the Avatamsaka Sutra.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Daikan John Green helps peel back layers from Book 16 and 20 of the Avatamsaka Sutra, revealing that Mind is like an artist able to paint the world…
"If people want to really know/ All Buddhas of all time,/ They should contemplate the nature of the cosmos:/ All is but mental construction". (Thomas Cleary, translation of chapter 20)
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Myoshin Kate McCandless continues the exploration of Sudhana's story as he encounters a series of nine night goddesses. How can we open to, and be with, the fruitful and generative darkness?
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Shinmon Michael Newton explores Chapter 17 of the Avatamsaka Sutra, which focuses on boddhicitta - the way-seeking mind that is awakening for the benefit of all. How do we relax the tight self-centered grip of our usual way of being, to step into the teachings of ease?
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Daikan John Green, our Practice Period shuso, presents two questions posed by the bodhisattva Manjushri, regarding how to bring the teachings of Indra's Net into everyday life.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Myoshin Kate McCandless discusses meetings with teachers on the Path of awakening. Sometimes those meetings are pivotal, sometimes disappointing, and sometimes we don't even recognize or appreciate them at the time. She shares excepts from the Gandharva Sutra (last chapter of the Avatamsaka) and the Korean poet Ko Un's retelling of the young boy Sudhana's pilgrimage.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Myoshin Kate McCandless explores "worlds within worlds", the ways our mutual well-being depends on the complex interconnection of relationships within Indra's net, drawing on the Avatamsaka Sutra and the microcosmos.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Shinmon Michael Newton introduces Samantabhadra, one of the archetypical boddhisatvas and a teacher of many practices for realizing inter-being, including the ten qualities of mind.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Living in Indra's Net - Practice Period 2024 Opening Weekend (Saturday)
05 Oct 2024
00:33:58
Myoshin Kate McCandless weaves us deeper into the theme of Living in Indra’s Net: the Avatamsaka Sutra and Beyond. This is a profound evocation of the boundless interbeing of all existence, and has deep relevance to the challenges we face in our world today: social injustice, climate and ecological crises, and the many conflicts that cause so much suffering.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Living in Indra's Net - Practice Period 2024 Opening Weekend (Friday)
05 Oct 2024
00:23:13
Shinmon Michael Newton begins the 2024 Practice Period with a talk exploring the vast vision of reality offered by the Avatamsaka Sutra, and an invitation to be inspired by its lush imagery.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
How does zen practice lead to the whole body smiling with all it is? Hofu Louise Day shares some of her life experiences - from sitting with Suzuki Roshi when still in highschool, to finding inner peace again after intense loss and grief.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Everyday Life and Relationships (What is Zen? Chapter 12)
26 Sep 2024
00:27:34
Jikai Vicki Turay explores how, though much of practice appears to be solitary, zen is primarily based in relationships.
"Formal Zen practice: that of meditation, teachings, rituals serve as a training ground. Those activities support and encourage the actual practice - which happens all the time, in your own life, in your every encounter with others, in your heart and mind." (Zoketsu Norman Fischer)
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Jakushin Todd Slobogean continues our dharma seminar on What is Zen? by sharing personal reflections on the question of how a person changes after many years of practice.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Unmon Jacob Butula's talk offers a clear perspective on chapter 9 of Zoketsu Norman Fischer and Sue Moon's book What is Zen?
If our tradition is primarily about integrating the dharma into everyday life, with no steps and stages, why is zen so full of complicated rituals and hierarchies?
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
In this talk, Mysohin Kate McCandless suggests that the more we attend to our relationships with the elements, the better we can care for the beings and ecosystems with which our lives interdepend.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Nin-En Susan Elbe continues our dharma seminar on Sue Moon and Zoketsu Norman Fischer's book, What is Zen?, offering the insight that zen art can open us to an ineffable truth that goes beyond words. Can art be an expression of spirit?
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Shinmon Michael Newton explores how we might wholeheartedly engage the Way when cooking, cleaning, tending the sick and elderly, caring for a pet - asking if we can bring a joyful sense of service to our labour.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Right Livelihood and the Subversive Power of Volunteering
18 Aug 2024
00:27:15
In this ZED Talk (Zen Engaged Dharma), Roshin Carmen Mills illuminates how volunteer work – "selfless service" – serves the self, while also serving the greater whole and cultivating a deeply held sense of inherent value and connection. All the while, taking a sly poke at consumer capitalism.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
What's the Point of Zazen? (What is Zen? - Chapters 1-2)
08 Aug 2024
00:24:15
Shinmon Michael Newton presents the first in a series of seminars based on the lively Q&A book What Is Zen: Plain Talk for a Beginner's Mind by Norman Fischer and Susan Moon.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Myoshin Kate McCandless describes how the eight-fold path and the eight awakenings support us in knowing how much is enough, even as we are steeped in a culture of hyper-materialism.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
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 the realm of desires, aversions, categorization and separation. In this chapter, Uchiyama Roshi explores how practicing goal-less zazen can bring us to meet our "true" self, which fully realizes interconnection with all beings.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
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.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
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.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.
Living the Heart Sutra (M&W sesshin day 4 - evening)
24 Jul 2024
00:25:13
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.
These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate.
A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.