Audio dharma talks from the Brooklyn Zen Center. Our programs are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website at brooklynzen.org.
Recorded on June 7, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple, Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
A Dharma Conversation about sacred activism and environmental justice as a Bodhisattva practice with Rev. Chelsea MacMillan and Matthew Menzies Chelsea MacMillan is an interspiritual minister, the Senior Organizer at GreenFaith, and founder of Brooklyn Center for Sacred Activism. Between 2019-2021, she led direct actions and facilitated regenerative culture with Extinction Rebellion. You can find her writing in Order of the Sacred Earth by Matthew Fox, and at revchelseamac.substack.com. Matthew—born in Harlem in ‘93, by way of Belize, Central America—is an indigenous Yucatac Mayan Activist-Organizer. Through his spiritual animist roots, formal training in Soto Zen Buddhism, past experiences working on our local farm market food distribution systems and the NYC Compost Project, to most recently focusing non-violent civil disobedience campaigns with Extinction Rebellion NYC, Matthew finds his life purpose, on lenapehoking: to live for the benefit of all beings, and preserve the Earth's animals, soils, and waters for the future generations to come.
Recorded on April 27, 2025 at Millerton Zendo, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on May 10, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple, NY. Guest Speaker, Willie Mukei Smith gave a powerful talk on based on the Bearing Witness to Racism Retreats in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, asking what kind of people of "the way" are we going to be? We are honored to share a recording of his talk on our podcast Willie Mukei Smith is a Senior Student and Novice Zen Priest at The Village Zendo. He leads The People of Color Group at The Village Zendo and is a Member of the Buddhist Council NYC. Mukei is a Board Member of Zen Peacemakers International and leads Bearing Witness to Racism Retreats in Alabama. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on May 3, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The ground that we're on, all the time, is one that has wounds in it. There are bodies in it, there are stories in it, there are injuries in it, wherever we're moving. The ground of our sangha has wounds in it. We're going along, we think we're fine, and then we trip, and there's a gash in the ground. Our country, this country, the ground of this country has wounds in it. Big holes, gaping gashes in it. (…) What if we become all about this? What if we become all about healing of these wounds in our sangha. What if that becomes the lighthouse? What if that becomes the compass? The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
"Fields are greener in their description than they are in their actual greenness." - Fernando Pessoa "Yes, we want to clarify the stories that are keeping us separate and maybe causing harm for ourselves and others. That doesn't mean that we don't need stories that support community that keep us in touch with ancestors that help us make meaning of the world. I think Pessoa is talking about the power of our descriptive faculty, our imagination to make meaning of greenfield that we experience. So I want to lift up both of those aspects of stories." "I started thinking about what is the power of community at this moment, when there are so many forces that are driving us to isolation and being siloed. I enter into a situation with my own description of "the field" in a community like this where we share an intention, and I can have that description of the field bounce up and open up to your descriptions of the field. Simultaneously in those moments, I am shown how I create my own world and I can feel like the suffering of my own grasping onto my idea of the field. There's also a relief and wonder in the realization that I'm involved intimately involved in the creation and expression of worlds. And then collectively, I can imagine there's a field of possibility that gets plugged into the context of a community like this. That feels really necessary and powerful at this moment." Texts referred to: Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet. Genjokoan text from Dogen Zenji Recorded at Millerton Zendo in Millerton NY on April 6, 2025. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on March 16, 2025 at Millerton Zendo, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
The intersection of mindfulness and the Bodhisattva practice of patience, as a physical, somatic practice. Recorded at Millerton Zendo in Millerton NY on March 2, 2025. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on April 19, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple, Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on April 26, 2025 during the Three Day Sesshin at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on April 5, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on March 29, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on March 22, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple, Brooklyn, NY. "What is the ground of my life? What am I really here for? What is the ground of our life together with all beings? How do I care for this ground?" The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on March 8, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on March 1, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple, NY. "If we say there's a right, there must be a wrong? But if we say harmonious perspective, we can embody the middle path and we don't have to make others wrong. We have to figure out how we can be harmonious with other people that we interact with. It's a radically different approach. It's non-american, and if it's non-american, it means it's subversive. And if it's subversive, it means it could be transformative. And if it's transformative, it could be revolutionary." "Who are you? Are you who the society says you must be, or are you a miracle?" "I think Buddhism is at a crossroads. We can no longer sit on the sides and be observers of the pain of others. We must go into the marketplace with our truth: Causes plus conditions equals outcomes, impermanence, and shatter the illusions that have created destruction and hatred for generations." The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on February 22, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on February 23, 2025 at Millerton Zendo, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on February 15, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on February 8, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. "The whole point of Buddhist practice is so we can help people. That's the whole point. We clean up our mess a little bit, open up our heart, and then we can extend our hand out into the world that is utterly insane. And we can go into the world without needing to dominate because we understand that we're not separate and that everyone is suffering. This is the wellspring of joy". The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on February 1, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on January 25, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on January 4, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on January 18, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. "The meaning of life is not something I can get, think, attain, gain, own or grasp. And until I'm totally here, in this moment, there is something really deep and important that I'm not really appreciating about being alive." The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on January 11, 2025 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on December 1, 2024 at Millerton Zendo in Millerton, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on November 23, 2024 at Ancestral Heart Temple in Millerton, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on December 7, 2024 during Rohatsu Sesshin at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on December 6, 2024 during Rohatsu Sesshin at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on November 23, 2024 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on November 17, 2024 at Millerton Zendo. Our practice is to turn around and welcome what hurts, and when we do that, that's healing—wholeness and healing. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on November 16, 2024 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded on November 6, 2024 at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY. A reading to launch two new poetry books by BZC friends and acclaimed poets: Granny Cloud by Farnoosh Fathi and Through a Window by Zoketsu Norman Fischer. BZC Administrative Director Ryan Lee Wong reads from a new short story and the three discuss Zen, poetics, and Eihei Dogen's “grandmotherly” or “parental” mind. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY on November 9, 2024. We're going to heal through a community that is grounded in our non-separateness, in our tender vulnerable, non-separateness. A community that values human life, period. A community that can grieve. A community that accepts that sometimes we're brokenhearted. A community that sees that the violence in our culture is not evenly distributed and that some of us are more vulnerable than others. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY on November 2, 2024. In our tradition, we lift up an understanding of impermanence and a close relationship with that, so that we also have a sense that we will be ancestors, that already there are descendants, seeds of them in our actions, in our decisions, in our efforts, and as a way to care for all of the living now, and all of those to come.
Recorded at Millerton Zendo in Millerton NY on September 22, 2024. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to BZC at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded at Millerton Zendo in Millerton NY on September 8, 2024. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to BZC at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY on October 26, 2024. "When buddhist modes of being becomes fused into the foundation, home becomes a refuge for healing." The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to BZC at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY on October 19, 2024. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. Visit brooklynzen.org for more information. Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY on October 12, 2024. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. Visit brooklynzen.org for more information. Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY on October 5, 2024. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to BZC at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY on July 27th, 2024. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to BZC at brooklynzen.org under 'Giving.' Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY on June 15th, 2024. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to BZC here. Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY on July 6th, 2024. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. Visit brooklynzen.org for more information. Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded as part of BZC's Fall Practice Period at Boundless Mind Temple The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to BZC here. Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded as part of BZC's Fall Practice Period at Boundless Mind Temple The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to BZC here. Thank you for your generosity!
Recorded as part of BZC's Fall Practice Period at Boundless Mind Temple The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to BZC here. Thank you for your generosity!
"What is saying a word, when our foundation is sitting? What do we say - can you hear it?" The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. You can donate to BZC here. Thank you for your generosity!
“The faith comes afterwards. It's not like we have to muster a full body of faith until we go into practice. The practice and the faith happen together.”
"Practice, what's that? This is not practice, this is their lives, this is not just their way of living, this is the life that wells up within, the life that's forming and moving in the world. Your practice is your life. This is you living." This talk was offered as part of SZBA's Celebrating the Voices of Women in Buddhism series.
The Teaching of Thus: the Avatamsaka Sutra as a Root of Zen Practice
The Teaching of Thus: the Avatamsaka Sutra as a Root of Zen Practice
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