SparkZen

In this episode, Anlor Davin, a Zen practitioner with autism, discusses the many trials and tribulations she experienced as an undiagnosed autistic person and the fortuitous events that led her to practicing yoga and Zen. To learn more about Anlor and the meditation events she offers for people who are autistic and neurodivergent, please visit her website Autsit. Anlor recently published a memoir titled Being Seen. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Zen teacher and deep ecologist Deborah Eden Tull and I discuss the Dharma teachings in her new book Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown. “In this book, Deborah Eden Tull offers the strong medicine of darkness which helps us navigate the uncertainty of our times. The over-lighting of our planet in its urban and more populated areas rob people of access to their own hidden depths, so needed in these times of growing peril.”—Joanna Macy, author of Active HopeDeborah Eden Tull, founder of Mindful Living Revolution, is a Zen meditation and engaged Dharma teacher, author, spiritual activist, deep ecologist, and sustainability educator. Eden spent seven years training as a Buddhist monk and her teachings bridge personal and collective awakening. Her work has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, Tricycle, The Shift Network, and The Ecologist. Eden also teaches The Work That Reconnects created by Joanna Macy, and for UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center. Eden offers retreats, trainings, and online courses internationally. She is the author of Relational Mindfulness (Wisdom 2018) and The Natural Kitchen (Process 2011). Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Rev. Kōkyō Henkel and I discuss how he and his wife Rev. Shōhō Kuebast’s became “cloud and water” priests—traveling to Zen centers to offer the Dharma, meditating amid the mountains, camping in off-the-grid places in their Prius, and being in the boundlessness of now. I hope you enjoy our conversation.Rev. Kōkyō Henkel has long been interested in exploring how the classic teachings of Buddha-Dharma from ancient India, China, and Japan can still be very much alive and useful here and now, to bring peace and openness to the minds and hearts of this troubled world. Kōkyō has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1990 in residence at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, and No Abode Hermitage—all in the Sōtō Zen lineage of Shunryū Suzuki Rōshi—and a year at Bukkokuji Monastery in Japan (with Harada Tangen Rōshi). After living in these monastic communities for almost two decades, Kōkyō was then teacher at Santa Cruz Zen Center from 2010-2020, and has been studying and practicing with no fixed abode along with his wife, Rev. Shōhō Kuebast, since 2020.Kōkyō was ordained as a Zen priest in 1994 by Tenshin Reb Anderson Rōshi, receiving the Dharma name Kōkyō Yakai (Luminous Owl, Midnight Liberation 光梟夜解). He received Dharma Transmission from Tenshin Rōshi in 2010, becoming a 92nd generation lineage-holder authorized to guide others on the path. Kōkyō has also been practicing with the Tibetan Dzogchen (“Great Perfection”) Teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche since 2003, in California, Colorado, and Kathmandu. SparkZen is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support this endeavor, please consider becoming a subscriber. Thank you! Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

In this podcast, Pamela Weiss and I discuss her recently published memoir A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism. Pamela is the first lay practitioner to receive full Dharma transmission in the Suzuki Roshi Soto Zen lineage. She is also authorized as a teacher in the Theravada tradition. In this lively, intimate, and heartfelt conversation, we discuss how her Buddhist practice—as a monastic and a layperson—calmed her internal storm of suffering to reveal an abiding and spacious sky of awareness. We also delve into experiences of kensho, what it means to be a lay transmitted teacher, and the wisdom of the feminine. Pamela Weiss is also a guiding teacher at San Francisco Insight and a member of the Spirit Rock Teacher Council. She is a leadership coach, entrepreneur, and pioneer in bringing Buddhist principles and practices into the workplace. Pamela lives in San Francisco with her husband, Eugene, and little dog, Grover. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

Rev. Zenshin Florence Caplow is a Soto Zen priest in the Suzuki Roshi and Everyday Zen lineages. She has been practicing Vipassana and Zen for 30 years, and is a dharma teacher, field botanist, essayist, and editor. She is also an ordained Unitarian Universalist (UU) minister who has served congregations in Washington, Colorado, and Illinois.  Rev. Zenshin and Reigetsu Susan Moon are co-editors of The Hidden Lamp, a collection of one hundred koans and stories of Buddhist women from the time of the Buddha to the present day.In this episode, Zenshin and I discuss how she became a Buddhist, how The Hidden Lamp came to be, how come Ryonen had to scar her face, and how Zen + UU can change the world. 🙏🏼 From the publisher’s webpage: “The Hidden Lamp is a collection of one hundred koans and stories of Buddhist women from the time of the Buddha to the present day. This revolutionary book brings together many teaching stories that were hidden for centuries, unknown until this volume. These stories are extraordinary expressions of freedom and fearlessness, relevant for men and women of any time or place. In these pages we meet nuns, laywomen practicing with their families, famous teachers honored by emperors, and old women selling tea on the side of the road.Each story is accompanied by a reflection by a contemporary woman teacher—personal responses that help bring the old stories alive for readers today—and concluded by a final meditation for the reader, a question from the editors meant to spark further rumination and inquiry. These are the voices of the women ancestors of every contemporary Buddhist.” Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

Judith Ragir is a Dharma teacher in the Zen lineage of Katagiri Roshi, with whom she studied for 17 years. Untangling Karma is a memoir of accepting and healing personal trauma, both on and off the meditation cushion. “In Buddhism, the personal and the systemic are interwoven. Ragir lets fall the stereotypical cool, calm Zen teacher’s demeanor to reveal her complicated, emotional self. She discusses what she has done to find greater inner peace as well as the personal impacts of transferring an Eastern philosophy onto her Western mind and applying a male-inspired monastic model to herself as an American woman, Jew, and mother. Untangling Karma is at once a love letter to Zen Buddhism and a critique of turn-of-the-century American Zen.”Judith Ragir co-founded Clouds in Water Zen Center in St. Paul, MN, where she currently serves as the Senior Dharma Teacher Emeritus. She’s had careers as a modern dancer and a doctor of Chinese medicine. She’s also an avid and accomplished quilter. Her writing has appeared in the anthologies: The Eightfold Path, Zen Teachings in Challenging Times; The Hidden Lamp; The Path of Compassion; Receiving the Marrow; and Seeds of Virtue, Seeds of Change.SparkZen is a labor of love fueled by a deep aspiration that all beings may know peace. To support this work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Peace. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

SparkZen is a labor of love fueled by a deep aspiration that all beings may know peace. To receive new posts and support this work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Peace. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

This podcast is the second half of my conversation with Zenju Earthlyn Manuel. We discuss several topics relating to her most recent book The Shamanic Bones of Zen, which I thoroughly recommend. We discuss how zazen (meditation) is a portal to the unseen, how freedom can be experienced amid oppression, and the importance of rituals and community. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, PhD (she/her), is an author, poet, ordained Zen Buddhist priest, teacher, artist, and drum medicine woman. Zenju practiced in the Nichiren/Soka Gakkai tradition for 15 years. She entered Zen in 2001 and began again as a beginner on the path. The essence of all her transmissions come together in her teachings in these books: Black Angel Cards: 36 Oracles and Messages for Divining Your Life; The Deepest Peace: Contemplations From A Season of Stillness; Sanctuary: A Meditation on Home, Homelessness, and Belonging; and The Way of Tenderness: Awakening Through Race, Sexuality, and Gender. Her most recent book The Shamanic Bones of Zen: Revealing the Ancestral and Mystical Heart of A Sacred Tradition.SparkZen is supported by Zen Angels like yourself. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber! Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

In this podcast, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel and I discuss several topics relating to her most recent book The Shamanic Bones of Zen, which I thoroughly recommend. We discuss how she came to Buddhism from her Christian upbringing, her experience as a Black woman in a predominantly white-bodied Zen tradition, birthing an oracle, and the shamanic roots of Zen and Christianity. Part two of the conversation will be published on June 19th.Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, PhD (she/her), is an author, poet, ordained Zen Buddhist priest, teacher, artist, and drum medicine woman. Zenju practiced in the Nichiren/Soka Gakkai tradition for 15 years. She entered Zen in 2001 and began again as a beginner on the path. The essence of all her transmissions come together in her teachings in these books: Black Angel Cards: 36 Oracles and Messages for Divining Your Life; The Deepest Peace: Contemplations From A Season of Stillness; Sanctuary: A Meditation on Home, Homelessness, and Belonging; and The Way of Tenderness: Awakening Through Race, Sexuality, and Gender. Her most recent book The Shamanic Bones of Zen: Revealing the Ancestral and Mystical Heart of A Sacred Tradition.SparkZen is supported by Zen Angels like yourself. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber! Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

In this podcast, Professor Heine and I discuss the mystical elements of Chan and Zen, including the Soto Zen Angels that have visited him during difficult times to encourage him to continue studying Eihei Dogen’s life and translating his teachings. We also discuss several of Dogen’s teachings, such as “casting off body-mind” and his fascicle “Thusness” and its connection to Hui-neng’s “Your Mind Moves” koan. Toward the end of the podcast Professor Heine refers to a poem by the Chinese poet and artist Su Shi. You can read Professor Heine’s translation of this poem “Getting Up at Night in a Boat” on SparkZen. ENJOY!SparkZen is supported by Soto Zen Angels like yourself. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber!Professor Steven Heine is a leading scholar in the field of Zen Buddhist history and thought, particularly the life and teachings of Dogen. He has authored and edited nearly three dozen books, including Dogen and the Koan Tradition, Did Dogen Go to China?, Dogen: Textual and Historical Studies, and Readings of Dogen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. Professor Heine has also taught and published extensively on Japanese and East Asian religion and society in worldwide perspectives. He is the Director of Florida International University’s Asian Studies Program. His most recent book is Dogen: Japan’s Original Zen Teacher. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

Janis Cooke Newman is the author of a memoir (about adopting her son from a Russian orphanage) and two award-winning historical novels. She has also been a well-published travel writer for the past two decades. Ever since she published her first book in 2001, she’s been committed to helping other writers get their work out into the world. In 2009, she started the highly successful writing classes program at the San Francisco Writers Grotto, and curated them for 5 years. In 2012, she founded Lit Camp, a juried writers conference now held every year at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. In 2020, she launched an online community for writers called Creative Caffeine Daily. She’s also an experienced writing coach, offering coaching packages, mentoring and editing for writers through her business Highbeam Editorial. She’s also developed a series of workshops and retreats that combine mindfulness and writing, which she teaches at both Esalen and the San Francisco Zen Center, where she practices sitting alone with others. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

Norman Fischer is a Zen priest, poet, and author whose writings, teachings, and commitment to interfaith dialogue have supported and inspired Buddhist, Jewish, and other spiritual practitioners for decades. In this podcast, we discuss a new collection of his essays titled When You Greet Me I Bow. It spans the entirety of Norman’s career and is the first collection of his writings on Buddhist philosophy and practice. Broken into four sections—the joy and catastrophe of relationship; thinking, writing, and emptiness; cultural encounters; and social engagement—this book allows us to see the fascinating development of the mind and interests of a gifted writer and profoundly committed practitioner. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Norman Fischer has been publishing poetry since 1979. He holds an MFA from the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a masters from the Graduate Theological Union at the University of California at Berkeley. Norman has been a Zen Buddhist priest for nearly 30 years, serving as abbot for the San Francisco Zen Center from 1995-2000. Founder and teacher of the Everyday Zen Foundation, he is one of the most highly respected Zen teachers in America, regularly leading Zen Buddhist retreats and events.Norman has published seventeen books of poetry and six books on Zen. His poetry has been anthologized in The Wisdom Anthology of North American Poetry, Basta Azzez enough, and many literary magazines including Jacket, Talisman, Facture, Tin Fish, Periodics, Mag City, Your Stuff, Bezoar, Rocky Ledge, Hills, Raddle Moon, Nocturnes(Re)view, Bombay Gin, Gallery Works, Antenym, and Crayon, among others. He was a primary contributor to Benedict’s Dharma: Buddhists Reflect on the Rule of Saint Benedict, edited by Patrick Henry (Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, 2001).SparkZen is a labor of love fueled by a deep aspiration that all beings may know peace. To receive new posts and support this work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Peace.Thank you for listening to this SparkZen podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

Dosho Port Roshi began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife Tetsugan Zummach with the Vine of Obstacles: Online support for Zen Training. He received Soto Zen transmission from Dainin Katagiri Roshi, and inka shomei, public seal of approval, from James Myoun Ford Roshi in the Harada-Yasutani koan lineage. Dosho is the author of Keep Me in Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri and most recently, Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans. Dosho writes about the Buddhadharma on Wild Fox Zen and his patreon site. In this podcast, Dosho and I discuss his teaching of “one track Zen:” his weaving together the Rinzai tradition of koan introspection with the Soto school’s focus on “just sitting.” Dosho emphasizes the importance of both traditions for householder and monastic practice. This “one-track Zen” harkens back to 18th century Soto Zen reformer Menzan Zuiho (1683-1789) who helped revitalize the tradition by focusing on Dogen’s teachings on meditation and monasticism. SparkZen is a labor of love fueled by a deep aspiration that all beings may know peace. To receive new posts and support this work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Peace. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

Ruth Ozeki is a filmmaker, novelist, and Zen Buddhist priest, whose novels have been described as “witty, intelligent and passionate” by The Independent, and as possessing “shrewd and playful humor, luscious sexiness and kinetic pizzazz” by the Chicago Tribune. Ozeki is the author of several award-winning novels: My Year of Meats (1998), All Over Creation (2003), and A Tale for the Time Being (2013), which was a New York Times bestseller and shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize. In this podcast, we discuss her most recent novel The Book of Form and Emptiness (2021) and how her writing and life have been influenced by Zen Buddhism. At the heart of the book is the poignant story of Benny Oh, an adolescent boy who begins to hear voices after the tragic death of his father, and his mother Annabelle, who struggles to stay afloat amid an ocean of grief. This novel is a brilliant, heartfelt story that addresses many challenges facing modern society, including consumerism, climate change, mental illness, hoarding, and homelessness. Ozeki was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, by an American father and a Japanese mother. She studied English and Asian Studies at Smith College and traveled extensively in Asia. She received a Japanese Ministry of Education Fellowship to do graduate work in classical Japanese literature at Nara University. She currently teaches creative writing at Smith College, where she is the Grace Jarcho Ross 1933 Professor of Humanities in the Department of English Language and Literature. She serves on the advisory editorial board of the Asian American Literary Review and on the Creative Advisory Council of Hedgebrook. She practices Zen Buddhism with Zoketsu Norman Fischer, and is the editor of the Everyday Zen website. She was ordained as a Soto Zen priest in June 2010.SparkZen is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

In July 2020, I offered a Dharma talk at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center titled Smashing Pumpkins. In it I recount an incident that occurred when I was a senior at Mount Vernon (NY) High School. My friend Donáh O. heard the talk via a link on my FB page and reached out to me. We had not been in communication since graduating in (gasp!) 1985. It’s been wonderful reconnecting and renewing our friendship. Last year, Donáh invited me to be on her podcast “Move Through and With Heart.” Below is Donáh’s introduction to our podcast conversation. Jul 23rd, 2021 In this episode, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to a Zen Buddhist priest about how our thoughts are the cause of so much suffering. We discuss social justice, the Buddhist Four Noble Truths, and how the mind causes troubling thoughts. This is a great talk on how we can see the world from a different perspective. Rev. Shoren shares her spiritual journey from being raised a Roman Catholic to being a Roaming Catholic to ordaining as a Zen priest on October 2014.SparkZen is a labor of love fueled by a deep aspiration that all beings may know peace. To receive new posts and support this work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Peace.Due to my leading a half-day meditation retreat today, I was not able to finish my Sunday Spark essay. I hope you enjoyed listening to my and Donáh’s conversation. May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all beings know peace.Thank you for reading SparkZen. This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

Marcia Lieberman is a long-term Buddhist practitioner who has been affiliated with San Francisco Zen Center since 1989, having resided at all three practice centers. In this podcast, we discuss her third photographic book Clean Slate—Images from Dogen’s Garden with commentaries by Dogen scholars. Clean Slate is published by ORO Editions at Goff Books and can be purchased here. Her previously published books include When Divas Confess, and Being Still. Follow Marcia on Instagram here.As an artist, Marcia’s affinity for beauty and form in ceremony has been a guiding part of her practice. She taught in the photography departments at UC Berkeley and California College of the Arts. In 2016 she completed graduate studies in Buddhist scholarship at the Institute for Buddhist Studies, UCB Graduate Theological Seminary. Marcia was the Head Student at Green Gulch Farm for the Spring 2017 Practice Period. Marcia volunteers as the librarian and beekeeper for SFZC’s City Center in Hayes Valley. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

The Three Jewels of Buddhism are: Buddha, Dharma & Sangha.Ryushin Paul Haller, the Urban Temple Dharma Teacher at San Francisco Zen Center, discusses what it means to take refuge, which is the theme of the upcoming practice period he’s co-leading with Senior Dharma Teacher Kiku Christina Lehnherr. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe