Explore every episode of the podcast Zen Mind
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attention to Attention (Part 2) | 22 Aug 2024 | 00:47:27 | |
This talk continues to explore bringing attention to how attention functions in our lives. The distinction between focused consciousness (contents of mind) and nonfocused awareness (field of mind) is discussed as two different kinds of concentration. Learning to rest in and trust this nonconscious field, which is marked by interdependence and impermanence, is an essential part of the spiritual journey. While giving up control ("ungrasping") is difficult, we are rewarded with a sense of spontaneity and openness that will make our life feel more easeful and integrated. The four stages of this journey of bringing attention to attention can be characterized as (1) being absorbed in the contents, (2) being aware of the contents, (3) being aware of awareness, (4) being absorbed in awareness. | |||
| Attention to Attention (Part 1) | 08 Aug 2024 | 00:45:57 | |
Attention is our most precious resource. Where our attention goes, our life goes. The cultivation of attention is at the center of Zen practice. This talk points out that this cultivation is extra challenging under the conditions of what social scientists and critics have come to call the ‘attention economy’ and ‘surveillance capitalism.’ We’re not just dealing with the typical entanglement of attention with discursive thinking, we are now also facing algorithms that lead to ‘attention fragmentation’ because they have been carefully designed to maximize our screen time by getting us hooked to keep clicking. While one dimension of practice is to be able to sustain focus (a skill that's relevant for our everyday life and work), in Zen it is essential to discover and stabilize a nonfocused awareness. It is through this 'field of mind' that we can notice and appreciate the 'rich webs of connectedness' (Bernard Stiegler's term) from which both we and the objects of our attention arise. Bernard Stiegler, Taking Care of Youth and the Generations https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=17590
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| Genjo Koan (Part 9): Buddha-Nature in Action | 03 Apr 2024 | 01:01:20 | |
This talk concludes the line-by-line commentary on the Genjo Koan. Dogen has given us a clear (and maybe disappointing) vision of practice. We are never done with our practice. It's not like we are practicing in order to reach enlightenment, and once we have realized it, we're good. Instead, we are challenged to express enlightenment through our practice — one moment and one action at a time. From this emerges a revised understanding of Buddha-nature. Buddha-nature is not something we HAVE—like a jewel at the core of every being that can be uncovered by removing endless layers of dirt (afflictions, bad habits, mindless distractions). And we don't become a "Buddha-person" if we just practice diligently and hard enough. Rather, we realize the Buddha-nature we always already ARE by continuously enacting "Buddha-moments" of non-reactivity and response-ability. | |||
| Non-Self – Dis|Continuity | 04 Sep 2019 | 00:42:48 | |
This talk was recorded by Zenki Dillo Roshi in 2019, prior to the publication of our podcast, but we wanted to share these dharma teachings with you despite the lack of a formal podcast description. | |||
| Non-Self – Forgetting The Self | 28 Aug 2019 | 00:40:50 | |
This talk was recorded by Zenki Dillo Roshi in 2019, prior to the publication of our podcast, but we wanted to share these dharma teachings with you despite the lack of a formal podcast description. | |||
| The Five Skandhas | 21 Aug 2019 | 01:01:24 | |
This talk was recorded by Zenki Dillo Roshi in 2019, prior to the publication of our podcast, but we wanted to share these dharma teachings with you despite the lack of a formal podcast description. | |||
| Zazen – Four Gates of Breath Practice | 14 Aug 2019 | 00:42:37 | |
This talk was recorded by Zenki Dillo Roshi in 2019, prior to the publication of our podcast, but we wanted to share these dharma teachings with you despite the lack of a formal podcast description. | |||
| Zazen – Uncorrected Mind | 01 Aug 2019 | 00:47:12 | |
This talk was recorded by Zenki Dillo Roshi in 2019, prior to the publication of our podcast, but we wanted to share these dharma teachings with you despite the lack of a formal podcast description. | |||
| The Four Noble Truths | 24 Jul 2019 | 00:47:03 | |
This talk was recorded by Zenki Dillo Roshi in 2019, prior to the publication of our podcast, but we wanted to share these dharma teachings with you despite the lack of a formal podcast description. | |||
| The Bodhisattva Ideal | 18 Jul 2019 | 00:39:26 | |
This talk was recorded by Zenki Dillo Roshi in 2019, prior to the publication of our podcast, but we wanted to share these dharma teachings with you despite the lack of a formal podcast description. | |||
| How Things (Don’t) Exist | 22 May 2019 | 00:43:07 | |
This talk was recorded by Zenki Dillo Roshi in 2019, prior to the publication of our podcast, but we wanted to share these dharma teachings with you despite the lack of a formal podcast description. | |||
| Harmony With Nature? | 01 May 2019 | 00:50:39 | |
This talk was recorded by Zenki Dillo Roshi in 2019, prior to the publication of our podcast, but we wanted to share these dharma teachings with you despite the lack of a formal podcast description. | |||
| Genjo Koan (Part 8): Life Is a Bird, Life Is a Fish | 20 Mar 2024 | 00:56:40 | |
This talk is the eighth in the series on Dogen's Genjo Koan. Dogen views realization not as an experience of oneness or a discovery of the ground of being but as an endless and groundless path of engaging the mystery and challenge of the present moment. In comparing our human life on this earth to the life of a bird in the sky and a fish in the ocean, he shows that each person in each moment is the expression of the totality of interdependent being (the 10,000 dharmas). This expression takes place here-now, and it is from this here-now that our path unfolds. This expression, however, is not passive, it requires our full attention and engagement—one moment and one dharma at a time. | |||
| Genjo Koan (Part 2): Flowers Fall, Weeds Spread | 06 Mar 2024 | 00:58:19 | |
This talk is the second in the series on Dogen's Genjo Koan. It is a close reading of the first four sentences. First, it provides an understanding of dharmas as momentary experiential units. Then it discusses Dogen's seemingly contradictory presentation of the dharma (the teaching of liberation) in light of the classic path of awakening, the teaching of emptiness, and an approach that doesn't get caught in one or the other. The talk ends with a threefold reading of the famous line, "In attachment flowers fall, and in aversion weeds spread." One important lesson is that Zen doesn't aim at transcending our humanity but at arriving more fully in it. | |||
| Genjo Koan (Part 1): To Complete That Which Appears | 21 Feb 2024 | 00:46:07 | |
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 complete. KO can be understood as the universal, while AN points to what is particular and unique. So GENJO KOAN means: to complete what appears as simultaneously universal and unique. As a practice, the Genjo Koan asks us to realize in our everyday actions how each appearance is an expression of the two truths: always already complete (an emergent product of the interdependent whole of existence) and in need of completing (a moment that challenges us to take the next appropriate step). | |||
| An Appropriate Way of Life (Everyday Bodhisattva Practice) | 07 Feb 2024 | 00:44:32 | |
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 explores how to go beyond the value judgments implicit in the Lay/Monastic distinction. At the root of all transformative practice is the sincere, committed search for an appropriate way of life. This is the Bodhisattva Way. However, there is no universal recipe; what's truly appropriate is unique to each practitioner. Therefore, we must each find our own way. Rather than adopting a fixed pattern of practice, we must commit to a process that adjusts to observations and feedback we receive along the way. | |||
| Continuous Opening | 24 Jan 2024 | 00:46:36 | |
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 also employ language and understanding for that purpose of illusory grounding. Zen is not about perfecting our sense of self or our conceptual understanding; it is a practice of continuous opening to change and disturbance. The world is not a constellation of separate things. The many things are one inter-activity. This interactive complexity shows up in our bodyminds as an experiential, felt 'implexity.' We need the practice of continuous opening to be intimate with and participate in this implexity to take appropriate action and lead lives that feel true. | |||
| Beginning Anew | 10 Jan 2024 | 00:51:12 | |
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 with Buddhist notions of continuous birth and beginner's mind, and with practices of forgetting and forgiving. The talk ends with a reflection of how renewed intentions, purpose, and meaning can appear in our lives when we forget preconceived ideas and learn to attend to those aspects of our lived contexts that call on us to respond. | |||
| What is Being Authentic? | 27 Dec 2023 | 01:06:42 | |
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 condition. It starts with a statement by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, "When you become you, Zen becomes Zen. When you are you, you see things as they are, and you become one with your surroundings." It explores notions of small self vs. True Self, conceptual thought vs. pure awareness, contents of mind vs. field of mind. Finally, it proposes that it is the "bodily felt sense of a situation" that guides us in carrying a situation forward—step by step—in a way that is non-manufactured and non-arbitrary and that could be called "authentic." This non-arbitrariness is rooted in the interrelatedness (undivided activity) of all things and points a way out of the dreadful aspects of the postmodern condition. | |||
| Thorough Practice of the Great Way | 13 Dec 2023 | 00:47:32 | |
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 field of mind and gives pointers for how to verify them in one's own experience. | |||
| On Gratitude | 29 Nov 2023 | 00:47:15 | |
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 expression of such gratitude. We can practice bowing to our parents and ancestors acknowledging the gift of life that has come to us through them. As we bow to the Buddha, we bow to the matrix of interdependence that brings forth this very moment. Gratitude is a gateway to the joy of being alive for no other reason than being alive. As we practice appreciating how we are supported by breath, earth, family, friends, teachers, culture, society, and the whole web of life, we can explore whether we can begin to include even our own suffering in the widening circle of gratitude. | |||
| What Would A Buddha Do? | 25 Jul 2024 | 00:46:01 | |
This talk is about habit change from a Buddhist perspective. In one sense, it is a preview of BZC‘s upcoming Practice Course “Transforming Habits” (Oct 4-Nov 9, 2024). However, it also stands on its own. It explores what happens when we bring the question “What would a Buddha do?” to every moment in which we feel a misalignment between our habituated actions and our inmost intentions. What kind of decisional map and directional guidance does our felt sense of what a Buddha is provide for our day-to-day living and our intention to transform dysfunctional habits? | |||
| Zen Ethics | 13 Nov 2023 | 00:53:17 | |
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 that avoids the extremes of universalism and relativism. The precepts can be understood and practiced on three levels: (1) guarding against self-centeredness, (2) balancing the needs of self and other, and (3) realizing intimacy. | |||
| No Inside, No Outside | 27 Sep 2023 | 00:44:57 | |
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 held in mind as an antidote to culturally or personally ingrained views. When we investigate common sense distinctions such as internal/external and self/other, we come face to face with our tendency to objectify what is perceived to be outside and the resulting sense of alienation. The talk provides embodied practices for entering a space of intimacy so that sight and sounds as well as thoughts and feelings can be perceived as appearing in the same undivided space. | |||
| Don't Worry, Stay Present | 20 Sep 2023 | 00:45:33 | |
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 starts out with an example that presents anxiety and worrying as a habit that is rooted in a defense against anxiety. Physical, emotional, and mental behaviors can all become habits with addictive qualities when they are employed to mask or medicate disturbing feelings for the short-term reward of feeling distracted or a little bit better. But the price can be minor or major harm in our daily life. The talk suggests to intentionally extend the practice of "being present" into the very fabric of our most dysfunctional habits. | |||
| An Appropriate Response | 06 Sep 2023 | 00:48:13 | |
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 Buddha offered over the course of his lifetime. The talk explores how Yunmen could have answered by explaining Buddhism through its main views, its core practices, or its expected fruits. Instead, Yunmen bypasses all forms of explanation and points us directly to this very moment. How are you responding to the situation here now? How is this responding appropriate or inappropriate? | |||
| Ask Me Anything with Zenki Roshi | 31 Aug 2023 | 00:33:22 | |
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 email at office@boulderzen.org. | |||
| The Every Day Dance of Form and Emptiness (Meaning and Meaninglessness) | 23 Aug 2023 | 00:53:37 | |
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, values, ethics, and the significance of life events. An important insight is that meaning is not be found within the "self," which from a Buddhist point of view doesn't exist in an individualized, permanent fashion. Rather meaning emerges from moment to moment in the interaction between you and your circumstances as a response to what is asked of you by the 10,000 things. A fruitful way to address the topic of meaning within a Buddhist worldview is to see it as a Middle Path between nihilism (nothing matters; everything is only subjectively constructed) and eternalism (meaning is inherent, objective, and guaranteed by God or some kind of pop-spiritual oneness). In other words, meaning emerges from a dance that doesn’t get fixated on inherent meaningfulness nor ubiquitous meaninglessness. | |||
| The Everyday Dance of Form and Emptiness (Birth and Death) | 09 Aug 2023 | 00:43:21 | |
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, things ultimately don't come into and go out of existence. Instead, everything is a continually changing expression of what Dogen calls "undivided activity"—everything-all-at-once coming together and manifesting as this moment. Our practice is to stop defending against the groundlessness of this here-now-presence and to entrust ourselves to being the always-changing form that expresses it. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| The Everyday Dance of Form and Emptiness (Order and Chaos) | 26 Jul 2023 | 00:48:48 | |
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 sweeping), in the mind (as clarity and discursiveness), and in how we organize time (schedule and spontaneity). Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| The Everyday Dance of Form and Emptiness (Introduction) | 12 Jul 2023 | 00:49:26 | |
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 of form (fixations) and emptiness (radical openness)? This talk provides an initial conceptual understanding of emptiness as change, interdependence, and non-self. As always, intellectual study is not enough. So how can we use everyday circumstances—such as having opinions, going through a crisis, being creative, or having one's expectations disappointed—to realize freedom? Moment by moment, our challenge is to accept life as a process that can be lived without hope or fear of a permanent direction. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Doing No Harm | 28 Jun 2023 | 00:54:46 | |
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 Bodhisattva precepts are a practice of investigating one's ethical conduct based on the principle of doing no harm. In the midst of our everyday activity, what does it mean to vow to do no harm? And what is the relationship between our meditation practice and our commitment to ethical conduct? Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| On Community (Part 2) | 11 Jul 2024 | 00:46:13 | |
This talk continues the exploration of how to discover and develop a sense of community. It differentiates between intimacy as undividedness with all beings (the spiritual dimension of community) and intimacy as closeness (the conventional longing for being known and understood by others in our physicality, feelings, and thoughts). Regarding this longing for closeness, the talk examines the typical meditation instruction of LETTING GO of feelings and thoughts. This practice can engender the freedom of non-attachment but can also, when misused, generate spiritual bypassing and a more or less subtle sense of separation and loneliness. To counteract this tendency, the practice can be fruitfully expanded into LETTING feelings and thought COME, letting them BE, and letting them UNFOLD. For the practice of unfolding, the importance of non-conceptual situational knowing (felt sense) is emphasized. | |||
| A Culture of Transformation (in the Age of Ecological Crisis) | 14 Jun 2023 | 00:42:10 | |
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, especially for future generations. How will we respond pragmatically, compassionately, and responsibly to this crisis? And how will we maintain self-respect and dignity in the midst of our actions? The talk highlights the pivotal importance of practicing and realizing what Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen in Japan, calls "being constantly intimate with the field of mind." The practice of intimacy with the field of mind holds the potential for developing a number of mental resources that will probably become crucial in the future: unconditional joy of aliveness, the ability to be satisfied with less, resilience in the face of pain and adversity, a sense of connection and care with all beings, and the clarity of mind to do what's right independent of outcomes and any hope for success. Another crucial mental virtue will be self-compassion as we explore the limitations and inertia of our own minds and the societies we live in. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Every Day Is a Good Day | 31 May 2023 | 00:38:45 | |
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 experience. This HOW is a fundamental attitude—an attitude that expresses itself throughout our lives. This talk uses Master Yunmen's teaching phrase" Every Day is a Good Day" as well as a couple of expressions by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi to explore this fundamental attitude. Finally, the talk asks how zazen (or meditation in general) is a practice and expression of this attitude. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Giving Aliveness to Life | 17 May 2023 | 00:59:05 | |
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 of mind. Our life, in contrast, can be understood as the result of a weaving of past and future into a life story. The unsatisfactory nature of our life presents us with the question and task of how to give aliveness to our life. In other words, how can we unfold our life from the perspective of aliveness? This also brings up the question of what makes our lives meaningful or meaningless. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Why Bodyfulness? | 03 May 2023 | 00:48:22 | |
The ability to deal with our manifold problems is rooted in the craft of being present with what is happening in our life. What is the importance of cultivating mindfulness of the body (bodyfulness) in this? This talk explores the fruits of learning to locate ourselves in and through the body: (1) transforming the NOW of the present moment into a HERE that covers the whole of the sphere of experience; (2) deepening the ability to sustain concentration (samadhi); (3) developing the body as the medium of true compassion; (4) finding joy in being alive for no other reason than being alive; and (5) establishing stability and fearlessness in the midst of groundlessness. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Present, Spacious, Alive | 19 Apr 2023 | 00:39:54 | |
This talk introduces some of the main themes of Zenki Roshi’s book “The Path of Aliveness.” It was given to an audience largely new to Buddhism at the Aspen Chapel. At the core of all Buddhist practice is recognizing suffering (our desire for life to be other than it is) and committing to a path of liberation (allowing our experience to be exactly what it is). The talk reframes our deep wish to be happy and recommends four simple but profound practices: returning to one's immediate experience, becoming bodyful, committing to kindness, and resting in presence. Finally, it asks how all of this applies to being in relationship and what "loving thy neighbor as thyself" might mean from a Buddhist point of view. Learn more about our upcoming Weekend Seminar, An Appropriate Response — The Essence of the Buddhist Path. Available online and in person. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Open to Complexity | 05 Apr 2023 | 00:51:54 | |
Zen practice can be thought of as a craft of opening our minds to complexity—to the complexity of our lived lives that cannot be conclusively grasped by our thinking minds. It is common to feel overwhelmed by complexity and frustrated that it cannot be reduced to black-and-white concepts. This talk continues the discussion of the teaching of the Five Skandhas (see March 8, "Empty of Separate Self"). By becoming familiar with the non-thinking experiential domains of perception and feeling, a new way of living with and from complexity can emerge. This is called wisdom. Welcome to Zen Mind! Learn more about our upcoming Weekend Seminar, An Appropriate Response — The Essence of the Buddhist Path. Available online and in person. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! 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 the Western cultural context while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| The Moment-to-Moment Path to Being Present | 22 Mar 2023 | 00:43:24 | |
This talk was given at the beginning of a weekend intensive. It provides a framework for how to cultivate attentiveness—on an off the cushion. The fundamental mental posture in meditation and mindfulness practices is to allow one's experience to be exactly what it is at this very moment. However, to be able to be present to the present in this all-encompassing way, we need a path to cultivate our attentional skills. Welcome to Zen Mind! Learn more about our upcoming Weekend Seminar, An Appropriate Response — The Essence of the Buddhist Path. Available online and in person. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Empty of a Separate Self | 08 Mar 2023 | 00:48:14 | |
The dis-ease with our existence often manifests as a lingering feeling that there is something wrong with us and/or the world. The first sentence of the Heart Sutra gives an instruction for how to liberate ourselves from this kind of suffering. It asks us to practice the realization that the five skandhas—the experiential domains of form, feeling, perception, conditioning, and consciousness—are empty of a permanent, independent self. When we empty these domains of our desire for permanence and separateness, they reveal themselves to be "full" of change and interdependence. This talk is about how to explore this shift in our meditation practice. Welcome to Zen Mind! Learn more about our upcoming Weekend Seminar, An Appropriate Response — The Essence of the Buddhist Path. Available online and in person. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Continuous Practice | 22 Feb 2023 | 00:45:52 | |
This talk explores the relationship between zazen mind, awakening, and everyday activity. In Zen, we use bodily markers and shifts to create a sense of continuous practice. Essentially, this is about finding a way to maintain the presence of the FIELD of mind in the midst of the ever-changing CONTENTS of our lived life. Welcome to Zen Mind! Learn more about our upcoming Weekend Seminar, An Appropriate Response — The Essence of the Buddhist Path. Available online and in person. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Good For Nothing | 08 Feb 2023 | 00:39:51 | |
In Soto Zen practice we say, "Zazen is good for nothing." Or we say, "You should sit without any gaining idea?" There is a disturbing paradox here: We all start to practice because we want an answer to an existential question or a solution to a deep-seated problem, and yet the teaching tells us to just sit and allow our moment-to-moment experiencing to be exactly what it is—not expecting any improvement, not even enlightenment. This talk explores how this good-for-nothing approach to zazen helps us have confidence in our true nature. Rooted in this confidence, we can begin to treat our seemingly existential problems as practical issues that inevitably come with being alive as a human being. Welcome to Zen Mind! Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Pause for the Pause | 27 Jun 2024 | 00:39:58 | |
This talk was given as part of a Weekend Sitting at the Boulder Zen Center. It highlights the distinction between the contents of mind and the field of mind and its importance for practice. Dogen encouraged his students "to be continuously intimate with the field of mind." The talk presents two attentional practices to discover and establish oneself in the field of mind: (1) "To pause for the particular," a version of mindfulness practice that emphasizes the creation of a dharmic pulse within one's perceptual process, and (2) "to pause for the pause," which invites the stillness of the field to come to the foreground. Perceiving sensorial contents within the context of the field trains the mind in non-attachment and non-identification. Based on these practices, the talk suggests to view Zen rituals as a succession of still points and action, ultimately fostering an embodied integration of stillness and activity. | |||
| What Am I? | 25 Jan 2023 | 00:49:01 | |
What if we (like Bodhidharma) refrain from answering the question ‘Who am I?’ with the concepts and categories our culture provides and expects? What if we allowed ourselves to exist outside of the culture—not functionally, but fundamentally? Instead of trying to define our identity, we can practice being intimate with the basic ingredients of our existential activity (attention, sensation, intention, and cognition) and learn to use and mix them differently. What does that have to do with becoming a buddha? Welcome to Zen Mind! Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better! Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| On Intent and Hope | 11 Jan 2023 | 00:52:58 | |
Around the transition from one year to the next, many people engage in the practice of year-end reflection and new-year resolutions. This talk, given on New Year's Eve, asks about the source from which intentions arise. What makes them stick or not stick? It explores the wisdom phrase 'If it's your intent, it's not pure intent," and asks about the role of the wider field, in which our individual lives are embedded. Finally, it looks at the role of hope and how different types of hope shape our relationship with the future differently. Welcome to Zen Mind! Support our annual fundraiser by becoming a Boulder Zen Center Member or through a one-time donation! It is the best way to support Zenki Roshi and the continuation of this podcast. Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now on sale! See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Longing for Resonance | 28 Dec 2022 | 00:45:54 | |
This talk was given during a Weekend Meditation Intensive. It begins by exploring zazen as a way of noticing layers of inner bracing and discovering a willingness to soften, accept, and be intimate with experience as it is, not as we desire it to be. Our modern culture of control conditions us to relate to the world more and more as a "point of aggression" (Hartmut Rosa's term). Zazen can help us to rediscover the world as a partner of resonance—and it is resonance that we truly long for, not control. Control makes resonance impossible. Welcome to Zen Mind! Support our annual fundraiser by becoming a Boulder Zen Center Member or through a one-time donation! It is the best way to support Zenki Roshi and the continuation of this podcast. Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, available in person or online. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now on sale! See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Don't Try to Control | 14 Dec 2022 | 00:48:55 | |
This talk relates the details of a particular koan story ("Don't try to control the 10,000 things") to the societal conditions of late modernity. Our culture has the means to bring more and more aspects of our daily lives under control and therefore implicitly, as well as explicitly, expects us to participate in that dynamic. Paradoxically, the more we live in a controlled world, the less alive we feel and the more we are prone to experience anxiety and depression. So what's the antidote? Deliberately give up the desire for control and cultivate the ability to resonate. This means to be willing to be vulnerable to the uncontrollable aspects of being alive! Welcome to Zen Mind! Support our annual fundraiser by becoming a Boulder Zen Center Member or through a one-time donation! It is the best way to support Zenki Roshi and the continuation of this podcast. Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks! Check our website for the schedule and Zoom link. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now on sale! See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| Liberation and Aliveness | 30 Nov 2022 | 00:53:33 | |
Welcome to Zen Mind! This talk was given in October 2021 to kick-off the second 8-week practice course in the Foundational Zen Teachings Series called "Liberation from Suffering". Generally speaking, we tend to interpret freedom from suffering as personal happiness (feeling good) and, on a societal level, as a world, in which big problems such as poverty, inequality, war, and the climate crisis are solved. Buddhism is more pessimistic, or shall we say realistic. It assumes that there will always be problems. Does this mean we don't care about improving our situation? Not at all. It means we need to learn to get the order right: If we first learn to not have a problem with having problems, we can then be better at solving them. The talk presents a guided body scan that directs attention to the freedom of "unconditional aliveness" and makes suggestions for how to fold this freedom into our daily lives. Support our annual fundraiser by becoming a Boulder Zen Center Member or through a one-time donation! It is the best way to support Zenki Roshi and the continuation of this podcast. Click here for information on the Foundational Zen Teachings course series. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now on sale! See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||
| The Inmost Request | 16 Nov 2022 | 00:41:09 | |
This talk was given in January 2021 to kick off an 8-week practice course called "Transformative Practice". It reflects on the nature of transformation and shows how it is grounded in what Zen calls the inmost request. The inmost request is what we truly want in life. It's not our calling, not our purpose; it's not about WHAT we are doing in our life but HOW we are doing it moment by moment. What we truly want is not exactly happiness, but to feel fully alive. While happiness is about feeling BETTER, aliveness is about FEELING better. Practicing meditation can strengthen this ability to be unconditionally open to our experience as it is at this very moment--whether we like it or not. It can help us access the joy of being alive for no other reason than being alive. Welcome to Zen Mind! Click here for information on the Foundational Zen Teachings course series. Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now on sale! Become a Boulder Zen Center Member! It is the best way to support Zenki Roshi and the continuation of this podcast. See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007. If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review! Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the 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 the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment. | |||