Ordinary Zen Sangha - Dharma Talks

Bearing witness from the Don’t-Know Mind is being in a Buddha-world.

We create a fake world by chasing our attachments. What can we discover about ourselves by practicing Zen?

 The invisible light in your life that is always there... 

Zazen is just this.

Without a map, how does the monarch butterfly migrate through reality? Beyond definition lies the actual reality of our lives.

Transmitting the Dharma. How many minds do you have?

Interdependent origination: suffering globally and personally.

The non-outflow of the six perfections. The Six Perfections (or Pāramitās) are the core practices of the bodhisattva path.

A willful nature is hard to tame. 

The first Picture of the 10 Ox Herding Pictures and cultivating the way through the practice of meditation.

Sitting with sore legs.

Zazen is intimacy and freedom.

The simple, difficult teaching. Don’t make Zazen; just sit.

Interdependent Origination: Universal Sacredness.

Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch says, “one day a shopkeeper ordered a load of firewood brought to his store. After he took the delivery and paid me, I walked toward the door and met a customer reciting the Diamond Sutra out loud. As soon as I heard the words, my mind felt clear and awake, and I asked the man, ‘Where did you get this scripture you’re reciting?” And so began the journey of one of Zen’s most revered teachers.

Attempting to be the problem solver is the source of anger.

The three principles of practicing the Middle Way.

You have never lost it. Why are you seeking it?

What causes the tangled messes we find ourselves in? How do you untangle the mess?

 What keeps us coming back to our practice? Experienced practitioners respond to the question in this podcast. 

What is your original face before your father was born?

Silence on a retreat and Kongans, what do they have in common?

The immeasurable and the relative.

Our practice is getting to know ourselves, which is forgetting the self, and being actualized by all dharmas.

Here, our essential self is compared to an ox. We seek the ox, grasp it, tame it, and finally the self which has always been seeking becomes completely one with the ox. But this is also forgotten, so that we now simply carry on our ordinary lives.

We all have mothers; motherhood and Buddhahood are not different, yet not not different.

The Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are the three treasures. How to take refuge.

How is our practice center different from a Buddhist Temple?

 Communication, it's not what you think! Do you really know your mind? 

What is the thread that weaves through all of existence?

 The secret to living the eight-fold path and ending suffering. 

Why are there Buddhist Precepts?

Seeking leads to the rabbit hole of misinformation.

Why do we act like everything remains the same even as everything is always changing?

The relative and the absolute, are they different or the same? Where are you now?

Being authentic, genuine, and reflecting true wisdom.

 Bearing witness instead of turning your back on life. 

Dropping off body, mind.

Smile as the mockingbird sings.

When all distinctions drop away, “alles ist gut”