Each week leading Buddhist teachers share life experiences and insights to help guide your meditation practice as well as your life off the cushion.
This show is going on hiatus. I have taken a new job out west and I just won't have the time to keep it up. This has been a life-changing experience and I am so grateful to all of you.
The spiritual practice of sharing the dharma is not a form of entertainment. This is something we do to find out what life is. At the foundation of the practice is dana or generosity.
When you’re living the precepts, when you’re living according to your values, then meditation becomes much easier because the precepts are the foundation for what it means to do the work of meditation.
So many people are chasing after happiness like it is something that can be attained. But happiness comes and goes. How can you be with "what is" in this moment?
This practice invites us to be vulnerable, open, and intimate. This is incredibly challenging and requires courage, but it also is the only way to look deeply into who we are.
Living in the dharma allows us to be vulnerable and to connect with the rest of the universe. Practice dismantles the habits of trying to build up the delusions around us.
When we are being choice-full, we are able to live into our values, we can live into the things we care about.
How can we not be deluded? By investigating the great matter of life and death, we see what our thinking creates. By using the Four Great Vows as a guide we see more clearly how to help.
We have a sense of harm because we realize that the wholeness has been torn. The practice is to return to the wholeness that is inherent in us and in life.
Practice is doing something with intention. You enter into a moment deliberately. You choose into it. There is a willingness to be here. It is an attitude of mind.
There is a process of growing into our roles as students and as teachers. There is a discipline but also a willingness to play and even provoke as we find a way to live within the tradition and to make it a home of our own.
Each of us has a job to do and it depends on what is happening right in front of us. There is a role we play that asks for something specific. What is your job?
The challenges of the pandemic can provide the opportunity for us to see deeply into the many ways that we can connect with others.
Kozan shares his own journey as a priest and activist and how we can use the practice to provide a foundation for our work as people committed to healing our communities.
What is a great woman? The practice of Zen is about looking inward and seeing who you really are and what this life is about.
Everything is Included Here. Practice isn't about finding the perfect situation, it is about welcoming what is present and not making it wrong.
Your life is Zen. If you try to make your life Zen, then you are adding something. Don't make distinctions, don't make differences, and live your life in the present.
The essence of faith is not faith in some thing. It is not an object. It is the absence of doubt. When we are truly entrusting in the heart, there is no faith there just is no doubt. Faith is the eyes we are looking through, the ears we are hearing with. It is the doubtless, present awareness that allows what is arising to arise as intimate and worthy of engaging.
We are constantly trying to distract ourselves from our busy day or an uncomfortable reality. But if we don't make anything or distract ourselves, then our lives are not a problem.
Jiri (George) Hazlbauer, JDPSN, discusses what living in a Zen community can do for your practice. Your zen family will change you for the better, even if you can't see it in the moment. If you have the chance, please try living in community.
Ellen Birx, Roshi, is fully immersed and fully committed to both Zen Buddhism and Christianity. She doesn't collapse either into the other but allows the two paths the full integrity of their truth all the while following them into the ineffable.
This is a rebroadcast of an episode recorded with Zen Master Dae Bong in March of 2019.
Rev. Kokyo Henkel began practicing Zen in 1990 at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He was ordained as a priest in 1994 by Tenshin Anderson Roshi and received Dharma Transmission from him in 2010. Kokyo has also been practicing with the Tibetan Dzogchen teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche since 2003. Kokyo served as a teacher at the Santa Cruz Zen Center from 2010 to 2020. You can find out more by visiting Kokyo's website Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
How do we balance our practice between the Zen principle of "no-gaining" and the deep and strong aspiration within Mahayana Buddhism to realize awakening for the benefit of all beings?
When you make the experience of a completely quiet mind, you gain an understanding of what we talk about when we say you can be free. Usually we are just dragged around by our opinions, by our likes and dislikes, but if this stops this then you get an expression of freedom and that is also a different happiness.
Arne Schaefer, JDPSN, began practicing in the Tibetan Kagyu Tradition — Diamond Way — in 1990. But in 1992, he sat a two-day retreat with Zen Master Seung Sahn in Berlin and has practiced with the Kwan Um School ever since. In April 2010, Arne received Inka, or permission to teach, from Zen Master Wu Bong. And today he serves as the guiding teacher of the Zen Centers in Dresden, Bad Bramstedt and in Hamburg. Together with his wife, Arne created Lotus Consult, a coaching and consulting business that integrates Buddhist insight with psychological frameworks to help small to medium-sized companies. In 2010, Arne also started mindsweets, a small confectioner specializing in organic sweets. You can find out more by visiting the website for the Kwan Um Centers in Dresden, Bad Bramstedt and Hamburg. If you're interested in learning about mindsweets Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen
Karin Ryuku Kempe, Roshi reminds us there is a danger in the koan path where we can skate through without addressing the basics of becoming a grown-up adult capable of practicing with the precepts with other human beings in an ethical way.
Karin Ryuku Kempe, Roshi began practicing Zen in 1971 at the Rochester Zen Center with Philip Kapleau Roshi and later with Toni Packer. In 1997, Karin received jukai from Shishin Wick Roshi, dharma heir of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, at the Great Mountain Zen Center. She completed her koan training in 2005 with Danan Henry Roshi at the Zen Center of Denver, and served as an assistant teacher until receiving dharma transmission in 2010. Karin also completed her training with Shishin Roshi and received inka from him in January 2019. Today she serves as one of the guiding teachers of the Zen Center of Denver. For over 20 years, Karin worked as a family physician while raising her family. She is also an accomplished artist. Karin Ryuku Kempe, Roshi began practicing Zen in 1971 at the Rochester Zen Center with Philip Kapleau Roshi and later with Toni Packer. In 1997, Karin received jukai from Shishin Wick Roshi, dharma heir of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, at the Great Mountain Zen Center. She completed her koan training in 2005 with Danan Henry Roshi at the Zen Center of Denver, and served as an assistant teacher until receiving dharma transmission in 2010. Karin also completed her training with Shishin Roshi and received inka from him in January 2019. Today she serves as one of the guiding teachers of the Zen Center of Denver. For over 20 years, Karin worked as a family physician while raising her family. She is also an accomplished artist. You can find out more by visiting the website for the Zen Center of Denver at https://zencenterofdenver.org/ Her artist website is https://karinkempeart.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
Kotatsu John Bailes began his practicing Zen in 1972 at the age of 19 at the San Francisco Zen Center. He was ordained a Zen Priest by Richard Baker Roshi in 1977, spending time at Tassajara, Green Gulch Farm and the San Francisco Zen Center until 1984 when he moved to the Boston area to study and work. In 2004, John returned to community dharma practice and received dharma transmission from Zoketsu Norman Fischer. John is the founding teacher of One Heart Zen in Somerville, MA and serves as the Buddhist chaplain at Wellesley College and the guiding teacher of Monmouth Zen Circle in Monmouth, NJ. You can find out more by visiting the website for One Heart Zen at http://oneheartzen.org/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
The power of the bodhisattva is found in the unleashing of the virtue of our lives. The virtue of our lives is the only authority that any of us have. Our practice is to live in a way that is present and compassionate and always working for the weal of all beings.
Rev. Shinshu Roberts is co-founder and teacher, with Rev. Daijaku Kinst, of Ocean Gate Zen Center in Capitola, CA. She is a Dharma heir of Sojun Weitsman Roshi, Abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center, in the Soto Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, founder of San Francisco Zen Center. She holds the appointment of International Dharma Teacher in the Japanese Soto Zen School. She is the author Being-Time: A Practitioner’s Guide to Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō Uji, (Wisdom Publications, 2018)/ Rev. Shinshu’s writing has also appeared in BuddhaDharma and Lion’s Roar. You can find out more by visiting the website for the Ocean Gate Zen Center at: https://www.oceangatezen.org/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
We live in a Buddha-field that has delusion, greed, and hate and we should strive to overcome this by entering the Bodhisattva path. We do this to enact more and more helpful energy to heal this Buddha-field.
Rev. Kinrei Bassis began his Buddhist training in an effort to relieve a sense of meaninglessness to life. He felt bound circumstances, emotions, and desires, but when introduced to the Four Noble Truths he saw a way out of suffering and a path to peace and happiness. He began training with Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett and ordained as a monk under her direction in 1979, training at Shasta Abbey. He received Dharma Transmission in 1982 and was named Master by Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett in 1987. He has been the Prior of the Berkeley Buddhist Priory since 1997. You can find out more by visiting the website for the Berkeley Buddhist Priory at https://berkeleybuddhistpriory.org/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
Can you see how the practice is impacting your life? Are you looking to see how you can use the practice to change it? This will give you a good indication of the nature of your practice.
Hye Tong Sunim, JDPS, began practicing Zen Buddhism at Hwa Gye Sa temple in Seoul, South Korea in 1995. He ordained as a novice monk in the Jogye Order in 1996 at Haeinsa Temple. He received bhikkhu precepts (full ordination) in 2000 from the Kwan Um School of Zen and in 2005 from the Jogye Order. He has worked and practiced at Hwa Gye Sa, Seung Sahn International Zen Center Musangsa, Providence Zen Center in US and several other Korean Zen monasteries. Hye Tong Sunim received inka, or permission to teach, from Zen Master Dae Bong in 2012. He is currently Seon Won Jang Sunim (co-guiding teacher) and vice-abbot of Musangsa. You can find out more by visiting the website for Musangsa Temple at https://www.musangsa.org Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
This meditation practice, if you have faith, will lead to world peace.
Zen Master Jeong Ji, Anita Feng, began practicing Zen in 1976 and later moved into the Providence Zen Center to study with Zen Seung Sahn. She received inka, or permission to teach, from Zen Master Ji Bong, Robert Moore, in 2008, and was given transmission by him in 2015. Today Zen Master Jeong Ji is the guiding teacher of the Blue Heron Zen Community in Seattle, WA. She is also an accomplished ceramicist and author. You can find out more by visiting https://blueheronzen.org/ And Anita Feng’s artist page at http://www.anitafeng.com/wp/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
Zen Master Jeong Ji, Anita Feng, invites us to meet the moment with clarity, compassion, truth, and a fitting function.
Haju Sunim began studying with her teacher, Samu Sunim, in 1976 in Toronto. In 1982, she moved into the Ann Arbor Buddhist Temple and was ordained as a priest in 1989. Haju Sunim was given dharma transmission by Samu Sunim in 1999. In the 1990s, interested in involving entire families in an integrated Buddhist life, she helped launch the temple’s Peace Camp, an annual six-day retreat, which draws people from around the world. She continues to teach at the Ann Arbor Buddhist Temple, a residential community that has just expanded its facilities to accommodate students of the Way who are seeking a more immersive practice life. You can find out more by visiting https://www.zenbuddhisttemple.org If you would like to learn more about the residential possibilities in the newly expanded temple you can email AnnArborZenTemple@gmail.com Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher https://www.theseekerstable.com Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
Sallie Jiko Tisdale began practicing Zen in 1983 and received Lay Dharma transmission in 1997 from her teacher, Kyogen Carlson. She currently serves as Godo, or head of teaching, for Dharma Rain Zen Center in Portland, Oregon. She has written nine books, including Women of the Way: Discovering 2,500 Years of Buddhist Wisdom and most recently Advice for Future Corpses: a Practical Perspective on Death and Dying, which was a NY Times Book Critic's top 10 book of the year. Her essays have appeared in many magazines and journals, including Harper’s, The New Yorker, and Tricycle. Jiko also works part-time as a registered nurse in palliative care and is an end-of-life nursing educator. You can find out more by visiting the website for the Dharma Rain Zen Center at: https://dharma-rain.org/ And at: http://sallietisdale.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
Andrzej Stec, Ji Do Poep Sa Nim, met Zen Master Seung Sahn at a dharma talk at Gdansk Polytechnic University in 1981 where Andrzej was working on his Masters of Architecture. He began formal practice in 1983, became a monk, and trained in Korea for 13 years. He received inka, or permission to teach, from Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1998 and has been teaching in Europe, Asia and the United States ever since. Andrzej has led several 90-day retreats and served as abbot of the Kwan Um School of Poland and several Zen centers worldwide. He was the second guiding teacher at Su Bong Zen Monastery in Hong Kong from 2009 to 2016. Today, Andrzej lives in Korea and is the guiding teacher of the Kwan Um Seoul Zen Group and the Kwan Um Daejeon Zen Group. You can find out more by visiting the Kwan Um Seoul Zen Group at http://zenseoul.org/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
Meido Moore Roshi is the abbot of Korinji monastery near Madison, Wisconsin and guiding teacher of the Korinji Rinzai Zen Community. Meido Roshi began Zen training in 1988 and practiced under three Rinzai Zen teachers Tenzan Toyoda Rokoji, Dogen Hosokawa Roshi and So'zan Miller Roshi all of whom are in the lineage of Zen master Omori Sogen Roshi. He received inka, or permission to teach, in 2008 and travels widely teaching and leading retreats. Meido Roshi is the author of two books: The Rinzai Zen Way: A Guide to Practice and the soon-to-be released Hidden Zen: Practices for Sudden Awakening and Embodied Realization, both published with Shambala. Before his ordination Meido Roshi traveled internationally for many years as a professional martial art teacher. You can find out more by visiting the website for the Korinji Rinzai Zen Community (with branches in the USA and Europe) at: https://www.korinji.org/ Meido Roshi also moderates a very active Facebook group for Rinzai Zen. https://www.facebook.com/groups/183043823782 He has published two books: Hidden Zen: Practices for Sudden Awakening and Embodied Realization https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781611808469 The Rinzai Zen Way: A Guide to Practice https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781611805178 Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
This episode is a rebroadcast of an interview I did with Myong Hae Sunim, JDPS, in the summer of 2019. Tragically, Myong Hae passed away this weekend. In honor of her memory and her commitment to guiding people on the Way, it felt appropriate to share this interview again. Myong Hae Sunim, JDPS, was originally planning on becoming Catholic nun when a friend invited her to hear a visiting Chinese Zen Master, Su Bong Sunim. Lithuania had recently become independent from Communism and was opening up to the world. She had never seen a Chinese person before and initially went just to meet him. But she was so moved by his message she immediately signed up to sit a three-day retreat. Myong Hae Sunim quickly realized that the Buddhist path fit her better than the Catholic one and she began sitting retreats in Poland before finally moving to Hwa Gye Sat Temple in South Korea in 1996 to begin her monastic training. The following year, after ordaining as a nun, she moved to Hong Kong to serve at Su Bong Zen Monastery, where she has been ever since and now serves as the second guiding teacher. You can find out more by visiting the website for Su Bong Monastery in Hong Kong at https://subong.org.hk/en Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
Dr. Catherine Anraku Hondorp Sensei is a Soto Zen Buddhist Priest and an authorized Zen teacher in the White Plum lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Anraku Sensei is co-founder, with her spouse Ryūmon Hilda Baldoquín Sensei, of Two Streams Zen, a dedicated practice space for People of Color, in Westhampton, Massachusetts, United States. Anraku Sensei’s passion for social justice arose from growing up White in a northeastern U.S. urban Black community. Born to a Dutch Reformed Church minister father, and an Early Childhood educator mother in a multiracial family during the times of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, racial inequities were painfully apparent. Anraku Sensei began her Zen studies with John Daido Loori Roshi at Zen Mountain Monastery in 1987. In 1996 she began studying with Enkyo O’Hara Roshi. Anraku Sensei received dharma transmission from Enkyo Roshi in 2009. Anraku Sensei is co-founder, with her spouse Ryūmon Hilda Baldoquín Sensei, of Two Streams Zen, a dedicated practice space for People of Color, in Westhampton, Massachusetts, United States. You can find out more by visiting the website for Two Streams Zen. https://twostreamszen.org/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is hosted by Ian White Maher. https://www.theseekerstable.com/ Sit, Breathe, Bow is sponsored by the Online Sangha of the International Kwan Um School of Zen https://kwanumzenonline.org
Haemin Sunim was born in South Korea, but after high school he moved to the U.S. to study film at U.C. Berkeley. Dissatisfied with the reality of film making he switched to religious studies and went on to complete a masters at Harvard, a doctorate at Princeton, and taught Asian religions at Hampshire College in Massachusetts for 7 years. At 25, Haemin decided to become a monk and did his formal monastic training from Haein monastery in South Korea. His first book Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down has been translated into over 35 different languages and sold over four million copies. His second book, Love for Imperfect Things was the number one bestseller of the year in South Korea in 2016 and became available in multiple languages in 2019. Haemin Sunim is the founding teacher of the School of Broken Hearts in Seoul, South Korea. And you can also follow him on Twitter with a million other people who seek out his daily reflections. You can find out more by visiting his website at https://www.haeminsunim.com/ He is very active on Twitter and offers a lot of teaching there. https://twitter.com/haeminsunim His books are available on his website or by following these links: Love for Imperfect Things https://amzn.to/3eGBYEt The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down https://amzn.to/30ygHb2
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