“How do you practice not wasting time?”         Stories have impact. Our thoughts and beliefs can take over our minds and actually take us out of relationship. Koshin Sensei reminds us, “We waste a lot of time indulging our thoughts.”       In this recent dharma talk, Koshin draws on the myths and narrative resonances of easter to shed light on our tendency to treat what we think and believe as most important. “What actions are we cultivating?” Koshin asks. We are invited again and again to come back to the practice of zazen, to ‘think non-thinking.’ Dogen Ze ..read more

“It is a form of generosity, how we show up.”         What do we do with the stories we often tell ourselves about ourselves? Many of us worry, ‘Am I good?’ or think, ‘I am no good’. Many of us feel, ‘No one sees me,’ or are sure that ‘Everyone is judging me.’ These stories are not new or unique. They are very human. What if we stopped telling them?         In this recent dharma talk, Koshin Sensei invites us to engage with our stories in a new and playful way. Drawing on Kodo Sawaki’s assertive teachings, Koshin shows us how we get caught up in our litt ..read more

“We indulge in our fears way too much in the guise of protecting our freedom.”     In this dharma talk, Koshin Sensei asks us to look closely at what separates us from ourselves and each other. There is difference and we are all one. But our fears hold us back and create distance between us. Fear, at least as ancient as our species, may have kept us alive, but it also confines us to our own little caves. We are invited to look more closely at our fear, to practice with more devotion.       “Devotion is a gateway to oneness,” Koshin teaches. Our lineage is replete with ..read more

“If the practice is going well no one is becoming like anyone else.”     In this dharma talk, Koshin Sensei invites us to experience what happens when we wholeheartedly practice. What changes within ourselves? What blooms between one another?     Genyu Kojima Roshi asks his sangha to consider what ‘bad’ religion is. It can happen when everyone is told they must become the same thing. There is another way, a community where everyone commits to being who they actually already are. There is liberation in becoming who we are and no one else. Koshin invites into this possibility ..read more

“Do not take anything for granted. See everything as a gift.”   The sixteen bodhisattva precepts are guidelines to live by, aspirations to live into. In this talk, Chodo Sensei introduces us to an extended study of the precepts with a moving story from his experience as a hospice chaplain. It is about a “tiny lady with an enormous presence” and we are invited to witness her clarity of mind.     At the end of this talk, we walk with Chodo along 23rd Street in Manhattan, seeing what he sees, and learning to affirm life in all of its forms and expressions. The storytelling is great ..read more

“How do we create the conditions to become more free?”    We are here because of those who came before us. In this talk, Koshin Sensei gratefully reminds us that our continuing practice and commitment have deep roots going back eighty eight generations through ancestors from India, China, and Japan. From teacher to student, or from ‘warm hand to warm hand,’ in the heartening phrase from Jisho Warner, Soto Zen carries on in the awakening path. Rooted, expansive, free.      While our individual bodies are ‘essential flesh’, we must always keep the larger view in mind. A ..read more

“How often do you live in fear of what is going to happen?”    Can you actually be where you are and nowhere else? In this talk, Koshin Sensei explores this simple question as an invitation to experience its truth in your everyday life. Zen ceremonies are about bringing your mind’s full attention to this moment. Koshin asks, can you see that your whole life is a ceremony?   Through the teachings of Dogen and Kodo Sawaki, we learn how to trust being nowhere else. Can we notice how fears and shadows take us away from the here and now and out of relationship? We create harm when ev ..read more

“It is not through ease that we open, but through challenge, the challenge of being in relationship.”    In this talk, Koshin Sensei encourages us to face our discomfort and notice all the ways we distance ourselves from everyone and everything around us. Imagine what encountering your life might look and feel like. Koshin explores fundamental questions posed by Charlotte Joko Beck and formative stories about Zen ancestors recounted by Keizan Zenji. Through fits of laughter and anecdotes of monks behaving badly, Koshin teaches us to summon our inner cowgirl and throw open the doors o ..read more

“Buddhism teaches that just like all of our other qualities, the love we possess is boundless…rather than view this as a limited resource to be shared sparingly, authentic love powers our commitment to support others and enable us to grow ever more human in the process.”   On the final evening of the Contemplative Care retreat, Chodo Sensei shares poignant vignettes on love from his own life experiences. His honest and intimate storytelling offers a rare glimpse of what compassion and wisdom can look like in caring relationships. As if this were not enough, Chodo concludes his talk by des ..read more

“And what does Zen really look like? As if it actually looks like anything. When we think it looks like something, we’re on the wrong path. Mountains and rivers away from it. If it were to look like anything, it would be like the wind. We would hear and feel it. We wouldn’t see it. Just know it.”   In this dharma talk from our recent Winter Sesshin, Chodo Sensei explores foundational questions about the forms Zen practice takes. What does sesshin, a silent retreat, have to do with chanting and bowing; robes and bells? Through the teachings of Kodo Sawaki and Zen Master Raven, Chodo offers ..read more