Emily Eslami - Ceaseless Practice

“We’re surrounded by days of monotony, and yet here’s Dogen telling us that this one day of ceaseless practice can never be found again. These days of monotony can never be found again.” - Emily Eslami

In another timely talk, Emily tackles Dogen's "Ceaseless Practice," where Dogen opens up in personal terms about his own struggles with the frustrations of an endless practice. How is giving up practice is still part of practice? What do they mean "let go of letting go of attachments" and can we still love our loved ones? How does our practice create the whole universe?? How can we make friends with time and play video games like the whole world depends on it??? Join us for a loving look at these days of monotony we will never see again.

Dave Cuomo - Having Once Paused (History of Zen - Ikkyu)

“I know it’s nothing but then I taste the world’s sweet juicy plum. How is this fake dream so beautiful? All of its craziness, why?” - Ikkyu

In a special History of Zen, Dave turns to the life and poetry of Ikkyu to try to answer the question of how Zen has historically responded to times of crisis. In Ikkyu’s case the answer was great art, bad behavior, and a desperate need to get to the ultimate truth of a world that felt like it had left any such thing behind. Join us as Dave brings us his compelling life story along with some bawdy and beautiful poetry, including an extended reading from Stephen Berg's classic free verse translations “Crow With No Mouth.”

Emily Eslami - Equanimity

“Why crave happiness, why push away the sadness. Why not just let everything be? We put so much energy into resisting the things we have no control over (which is actually everything), it’s a little silly.” - Emily Eslami

Emily wraps up her series on the Bramaviharas with the very timely subject of equanimity or, how to be cool without going cold.

Jason Dodge - What Am I Doing Here?

“I came here on a monday night and it was like, wow, a bunch of weirdos staring at a wall, this is where I need to be. I still don’t know what I’m doing here but I think thats a good thing.” - Jason Dodge

Jason Dodge tells us the story of what he’s doing and why he’s here, while just maybe we learn something about those things for ourselves. In an especially warm and fuzzy installment, the sangha doubles down and shares their own stories too!

Dave Cuomo - Blinding Darkness

“I love this creation myth because it’s such a moral story, but also not at all. Even if you spend your entire time here screwing up and getting sent to hell, that’s just going to help us all learn and find our way out of this suffering universe in the end anyway. So, thanks for your efforts.” - Dave Cuomo

Dave gives us an in depth look into the Buddhist creation myth. it's the question Buddha famously  refused to answer (except of course for when he changed his mind). It's a beginning in an ending and a story with no beginning and no ending. It's a story of nothing that confused itself for something, and was cursed to wander for endless kalpas trying to forget that one pesky thought. What the hell are we talking about?? We're talking about the story of everything! No one said it was going to be simple, but it's a good yarn and the sangha goes all in and laughs along with the ridiculousness of life, the universe, and everything, because in the end, what else can you do?

Love & Emptiness w/ Emily Eslami

     “What if there was no qualifications for the things that we accept in ourselves? What if it was just us? What if it was all just reality? We think of light as this shining good thing and darkness as this dark thing, but we have both inside of us and we have nothing inside of us, and we have emptiness inside of us…” - Emily Eslami

Let’s talk about love! We all know Zen can be reluctant to talk about mushy things like love and kindness, but Emily bravely tackles loving kindness head on in the latest installment of her series on the Bramaviharas. From Buddha, to Dogen, to us, it’s a 2500 year long epic love story where the happy ending is always right here and now. How do we love the people we hate? (Boundlessly!) How do we let go of the ones we love? (By letting them go!) And what do we do about those pesky tree demons bothering us when we sit?? (Love them too!)

Dave Cuomo - Good Friends (History of Zen - The Platform Sutra)

“Your mind already contains a Buddha. That’s the real Buddha. If you didn’t already have a Buddha mind, where else would you go find one?” - Huineng

In our latest installment of History of Zen, Dave gets very excited about sharing one of his favorite books with us that also happens to be the original defining text of Zen as we know it. In this 1300 year old sutra, Dave reads to us the warm words of our self professed good friend Huineng, who offers up a surprisingly modern take on secular spirituality. With humble wit and good humor, Huineng lays out a religion that asks us to only believe in what we already know - that we are perfect just the way we are. And in case we ever forget, there will always be a good friend here to help remind us.

Michele Roldan-Shaw - Street Buddhism (Jataka Tales)

“This is street buddhism… There’s no right or wrong. Sometimes there is no good option  Sometimes your’e backed into a corner and just have to live with the results or do nothing at all.” - Michele-Roldan-Shaw

Michele Roldan-Shaw spins classic Jataka Tales (folk tales of the Buddha's past lives) for us with all their ambiguities, tough love, and hard choices. We get to meet sea spirits, unruly crows, guilt ridden partridges, and yes a renunciant hermit disappointing his parents, all running around out there trying to figure out how to be decent beings in a world that rarely wants to make that easy for us.

You can check our more of Michele's work at - https://www.micheleroldanshaw.com.

And our own Brad Warner posted a video about the stories and this talk up here! - https://youtu.be/SHOHnzQl9xg

Erik Andersen - Worry Time

“Zen is about finding certainty in uncertainty, it’s about not knowing anything that’s going on and being completely solid about that.” - Erik Andersen

Erik looks at anxiety in a wide ranging and well informed discussion of everything from the intricacies of classic Zen literature to contemporary psychology and all the vulnerable (and personal) twists and turns he takes to be able to share them with us. With readings from the great Huangpo, and tips and techniques from the latest in mental health science, Erik generously presents us with his own in the moment process of the anxiety of giving the talk itself to bring us a full meta exploration of how to manage and maintain through the method of no methods.

Dave Cuomo - Catastrophe! (History of Zen - Shenhui & The An Lushan Rebellion

“Welcome to Zen, it’s all built on a lie, but it’s a good lie, and the lie itself is true.” - Dave Cuomo

In the year 757 in the middle of a catastrophic civil war surrounded by ruins and disaster, a monk named Shenhui stands on a hastily built grass platform and invents Zen as we know it with fiery speeches of enlightenment right here and now. The country, and the fledgling Buddhist school, are torn apart and put back together into something new and unique in world history. Continuing our series on Shitou’s classic poem, “The Harmony of Difference and equality,” we also get to see the historical context of why that piece was written in a story of meeting the moment and finding harmony in conflict and chaos. 

Dave Cuomo - Siren Songs and Bluejays

“You are creating everything around you at the same time as everything is creating you. And when you start to really notice that, you realize you have nothing to lose and nothing to prove.” - Dave Cuomo 

Dave reads us excerpts from Suzuki's talk "The Bluejay Will Come Right Into Your Heart" and adds some of his own commentary on embracing distraction, sound and listening as practice, and fighting the urge to run after sirens. Along the way we get good advice on how to thoroughly hate the person next to sitting next to you on retreat, why maybe enlightenment is more trouble than it's worth, and how to be a good Dad by doing less. 

Emma Roy - Buddha's Anger

“Sometimes anger is like a sunset, even though it looks like anger, actually it is a beautiful red sunset. If a buddha is not upset when he should be upset, that is also a violation of the precepts.” - Sunryu Suzuki

Emma Roy takes us on a journey through one of our favorite pieces of Zen writing, The Harmony of Difference and Equality. We get a poetic reading of the piece, helpful context of the why, when, and where it comes from, and commentary from the great Sunryu Suzuki himself. The sangha runs with the conversation in a wide ranging discussion about how to measure time from the moving platform of life, whether learning is possible, how and when anger is necessary and good, some helpful dog training advice, and how this all relates to dating.

Dave Cuomo - Explaining the Joke (History of Zen - Shenxiu)

“Listening to someone explaining Zen is like listening to someone read a textbook on the academic theory of comedy. You can do it, but in the end a joke is just something that makes you laugh.”

In the year 700, a humble mountain monk named Shenxiu was called to the Chinese capitol by the Empress Wu. Within just a few years he almost single handedly made Zen the foremost religious school in China and was universally recognized as the greatest spiritual teacher of his time. Emperors bowed to him, thousands converted. For the first time, Zen was cool. But within decades of his death, Shenxiu's name was written into history as the biggest loser in Zen, his teaching was universally mocked, and even his poetry was said to be weak. 

What could turn such a beloved teacher into a laughingstock so quickly? Was his reputation deserved? Was his poetry really that bad???

This month on History of Zen, Dave takes a look at the story of Shenxiu, the famous anti-hero of the Platform Sutra, and what we can know about him beyond the legendary histories. We look at the so-called Northern School of Zen he comes from that all later Zen would define itself against to see if its was really as weak and corrupted as would later be said, delving into the books and teachings of Shenxiu and his forbears themselves to see what they have to say in their own defense. Along the way the sangha discusses the pitfalls of success, whether or not there’s such a thing as “true history,” and why explaining the joke is never as satisfying as laughing out loud.

Dave Cuomo - The Great Cosmic Joke (Nishijima’s Four Views)

 “You start to realize, my needy whiny little problems are the entire universe, even while the entire universe doesn’t give a crap what I want. That is the great cosmic joke.

   And then when I’m feeling really crappy, and wondering why I do all this Zen, this little voice starts to creep in whispering, “No, no, this too. This is part of it…” And that little whisper can get you through a lot.” - Dave Cuomo

Dave Cuomo delves into Nishijima’s Four Views with SOAR!, the handy four letter acronym that explains all reality. It’s the “philosophy of action” that Nishijima humbly tells us is “the solution to western philosophy.” It’s the place where the rubber meets the road, where your subjective experience meets an objective world that might very mush disagree, and the great sparks of reality that fly when that happens. It’s the ultimate battle of idealism vs materialism with all of reality at stake! And the whole universe always wins. Also it’s a handy way to remember who and what we are at the times we need it most, and how to make a perfect plan and see it through to an unpredictable reality. Have we oversold this one? We think not, but find out here!

Emily Eslami - Stupid Joy

“To better yourself - to be better, prettier, thinner, richer, more popular than the person next to you, is a myth they use to sell toasters. We have this myth that if I attain something my neighbor doesn’t have than I’ll be better, and if they attain something I don’t have then I’m worse. 

But there’s always a place for things. Maybe your eyes are lower than the eyebrows, but they can see. The misconception that not everything has its place is what stops sympathetic joy from arising, and only hurts you.” - Emily Eslami

Emily Eslami gives us a Zen take on sympathetic joy. With readings from Dogen, Sawaki, the Pali Canon and more she takes us through on honest and vulnerable look at the difficulty of taking selfless joy in the successes of others, even when that seems really hard to do…

Jack Taylor - What Am I Doing Here??

“I had to sit and think, what am I doing here?? Why do I do this? But that was very apparent when I wasn’t meditating at all.“ - Jack Taylor

Jack Taylor regales us with his personal practice story as part of our ongoing series where sangha members try to answer the question of what they’re doing and why they’re here in the off chance that we might learn something about those things for ourselves.

This month Jack looks at the fits and starts to maintaining a regular practice and how falling off the wagon can be just the push you need to get back on. He discusses his time around monasteries in the Northwest, how to deal with panic attacks in the zendo, and the unexpected fruits of a college PE requirement. 

Emily Eslami - No Death

"Right now is the only moment that exists. 

And now it's gone 

(and now it's gone, and now it's gone, and now it's gone…)”

 - Emily Eslami

We wish we could tell you this was the talk where Emily unveils the secret Zen teachings on immortality, but alas, as you probably could have guessed, that's not what we do here (at least not publicly...). But just as helpfully (if not more), Emily instead gives us a thoughtful and thorough exploration of Zen teachings on death. Starting with Buddha's (quite graphic) recommended meditations on the ultimate fate of our bodies, she draws on her own fears around the idea to help us all confront what exactly it is we're so afraid of. From there she explores the more confusing Zen notions of "No Death" as chanted in the heart sutra and talked about by Dogen. I know we love our emptiness around here, but how can we talk about no death when we know death as the one great inevitability? And can understanding this "no death" help us to manage our fear and maybe live a more fulfilled life in the here and now by realizing the death and rebirth happening within every moment?  (Spoiler alert: yes!). Along the way we get an introduction to Dogen's trippy notions of time and the sangha opens up and shares their own stories of love and loss.

Dave Cuomo - Zen Begins! (History of Zen - Bodhidharma)

“The whole problem with Zen is that there’s no money or power to be had in the truth. There is nothing to be gained from telling people they’re perfect just as they are.” - Dave Cuomo

He's the man, the myth, the legendary founder of Zen himself. Some claim he never existed, some claim his eyelids invented tea leaves while he was off inventing kung fu in his down time. Clearly he is a legend that cannot be ignored, and Dave gives us the full scoop as we finally get to the story of Zen itself and its beginnings in ancient China. Dave claims this might be the greatest story ever told, and while we know he's prone to hyperbole, this one really does have it all with magic, wars, disasters, and crazy and often hilarious characters all trying to pass the great football of truth down through all the twists and turns of history. In this installment, we first get a full telling of the legend of Bodhidharma with all of its weird myths, deep koans, high drama and solid jokes that still land 1500 years later. Then we look toward the "true" history using the latest scholarship, and what can reasonably be believed from the earliest sources about why a monk by that name did come to China and what his legacy is up to the present day. And finally, we look at what it was he actually taught in his own words (or close enough) and why the unvarnished truth is always going to be a hard sell, even while it's something we've all always known deep down.

Miranda Javid - Faking It

“Sometimes while sitting you might just get bored enough with worrying about whether or not you’re faking it that you finally just decide to do zazen.”

Miranda Javid brings some light to the tricky and relatable issue of feeling like an imposter in the zendo. Is it possible to fake it in zazen? Can anything or anyone ultimately be inauthentic? And what do we do when we feel that way anyway? Miranda looks into imposter syndrome as a modern phenomenon, and what our old friends Sunryu Suzuki and old Master Linji might have to say about how to being yourself when that self forgets exactly where it’s supposed to fit in. Along the way the sangha discusses what authenticity might really mean, whether goalless practice is a blank check to get it wrong, how to work with a teacher in a world of no ranks, and how to avoid giggling inappropriately while discussing “secretions” in a talk called “faking it…”