Claim OwnershipThe Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast
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The Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO) is a Western Zen Buddhist lineage established by the late John Daido Loori Roshi and dedicated to sharing the dharma as it has been passed down, generation to generation, since the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. Zen Mountain Monastery, the main house of the Mountains and Rivers Order, is one of the West’s most respected Zen Buddhist monasteries and training centers. Nestled in New York’s beautiful Catskill Mountains, the Monastery draws its strength from the ancient tradition of Buddhist monasticism. Since 1980, the Monastery has offered spiritual practitioners traditional and innovative ways to engage the dharma through a wide range of retreats and residential programs that unfold within the context of authentic, full-time Zen monastic training. The Zen Center of New York City: Fire Lotus Temple is the city branch of Zen Mountain Monastery. Supporting home practitioners in the metropolitan area, ZCNYC offers varied practice opportunities within the Eight Gates training matrix.
558 Episodes
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Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 2/15/26 - All along the bodhisattva path, we make vows to serve others. When the conditions of our lives grow difficult—when stress feels real and urgent—these vows become more vivid and deeply personal. Shugen Roshi shares stories and leads a renewal of our commitment to the well-being of all who seek refuge in the Sangha. On this long path, however often we fall short, we return to and rely upon our vows.
The post Do Not Disappoint Yourself first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 2/8/26 - Invoking Dogen’s fascicle on Continuous Practice, Shoan Sensei reminds us that we turn toward spiritual practice to take refuge. In doing so, we take our seat as Buddha, taking refuge in the Dharma and relying on the Sangha all around us. From this refuge arises a continuous, sustained, real practice, even when it is uncomfortable or difficult. Here, grace is found within our actual experience, and together we discover a true refuge in one another.
The post Circle of the Way Is Never Cut Off first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 2/8/26 - Coming together, falling apart, are these the same? Different? Practice can show us the freedom of mind responding according to circumstance. In this talk, Hojin Sensei reflects on the koan from the Hidden Lamp, Chiyono’s No Water, No Moon, and what it means to keep practicing the dharma, to keep caring for something— even when it seems fragile, broken. How sometimes falling apart, or experiencing a heart breaking situation might be just the turning point needed to open up completely. Where do we find the self?
The post Coming Together – Falling Apart first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 1/18/26 - In a series of talks on the Eightfold Path, Gokan Osho looks at effort, one of the core concentration factors of the path. Early on in our lives we mostly overreach, becoming competitive or extremely self-critical, and sometimes give up all together. We get ourselves in tangles before we can learn through practice to undo the expectations and measurements, to find the right amount of effort needed to continue on the path and develop the clarity and stability we need.
The post Practicing the Path: Right Effort first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 1/11/26 - Three core aspects of Zen practice are morality, calming the mind, and insight into the nature of reality. Without this third element, wisdom-insight, Zen isn’t truly a liberating practice. Shugen Roshi explains that insight differs from analytical or conceptual thinking; it’s a direct, lived experience. The path requires that these three aspects be cultivated together, so that a settled, unobstructed mind becomes capable of seeing more clearly and of realizing insight that is genuinely transformative. - From Master Wu-Men's Gateless Gate, Case 39: Yun-men Says You Missed It
The post Missing It, Seeing It first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 01/04/2026 - With a new year upon us we all have the chance to start fresh. This is always true because nothing is fixed, everything is subject to change, a truth of the dharma which we can verify for ourselves. We have accumulated experiences, memories, expectations, but those are not fixed either. In this perspective, the new year is auspicious because it is full of possibilities, revealing its potential as we take up life fully, with integrity, commitment and kindness. - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 39 - Jingqing's "Buddhadharma at the New Year"
The post An Auspicious Year first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 1/4/26 - In this talk Hojin draws on the teachings of Zen Master Bankei and the importance of allowing the still point to find us. All so very relevant. His teachings point to something very simple and very radical: before thought, before preference, before judgment—seeing happens, hearing happens, smelling, tasting, touching happens. And none of that needs a self to make it happen. How curious!
The post Stillness Within the Pulses of the Pattern first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - New Year's Eve 12/31/25 - Moral and ethical conduct in Zen practice involves the ongoing work of recognizing when we have fallen short of kindness, compassion, or honesty. The Renewal of Vows ceremony is an ancient Buddhist ritual that addresses the harm we cause. Through atonement, we acknowledge our transgressions—an essential act of turning karma and bringing benefit to the world, and of renewing our commitment to the vows we live by. Offered on the threshold of the new year, this talk brings Shugen Roshi's Dharma teaching directly into the realities of everyday life.
The post Fusatsu for the New Year first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 12/31/2025 - Here, in a Fusatsu ceremony—a renewal of vows and an atoning for our transgressions—the foundation is stillness. Zazen is the activity through which we continually return to that stillness. Hojin Sensei encourages us to listen deeply, so that morality is not imposed but received, and our true nature can be discovered. From this place, grace naturally infuses our everyday actions.
The post Fusatsu: Renewal of Stillness first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 12/30/25 - Harmonizing inner and outer life is the essence of our practice, says Shugen Roshi in this koan talk from Rohatsu sesshin. Those habits of mind which obstruct our harmonious equanimity, keeping us from feeling whole and at-ease, are the very grist of practice. When we settle the mind, even in the midst of discord, we become clearer and more able to trust in our true nature. - From the Book of Serenity - Case 68 - Jiashan "Swinging the Sword"
The post Apparently Effortless first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 12/28/25 - During the year-end Rohatsu sesshin, Shoan Sensei offered this koan talk on the nature of mind as it’s experienced and expressed in Zen Buddhist practice. The koan offered from the Gateless Gate points to "turning the light around", beholding the nature of what we call reality, and learning through experience how we can rely on this to navigate our lives. - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 29 - Hui-neng's "Not the Wind; Not the Flag"
The post The Wind Or The Flag first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 12/21/25 - In celebration of Hojin Sensei's formal installation as abbot of Zen Center of New York City and Fire Lotus Temple, Shugen Roshi takes up Master Wu-Men's Gateless Gate Case 22—Mahākāśyapa’s Flagpole—unfolding its historical resonance to illuminate the journey of women in Buddhism and their enduring place in the living tradition of Buddhist practice.
The post Ascending The Mountain Seat first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 12/14/25 - In this season of giving, we naturally think of celebration, connection, and gratitude for the family, friends, and community that sustains us. Dana Paramita invites us to open our awareness and our hearts to those around us who may be struggling, alone, or lacking what we ourselves enjoy. So... these days we might ask ourselves: What does a Bodhisattva do at this time of year? Shugen Roshi recalls a fundamental teaching of the Buddha, reiterated by Master Dogen in the Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance: Giving, Kind Speech, Beneficial Action, and Identity Action.
The post Dana Paramita, Bodhisattva Practice first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 12/14/25 - “In spring the sun in the green willow strands— See its timeless form.” - In this talk Hojin Sensei takes us on the journey of the third stage on the Path of Enlightenment—Seeing the OX. This is where we actually catch a first direct glimpse of our vast, boundless, ungraspable true nature. Why is the OX not ever showing its head? - There's a short video of Hojin painting this ox herding image prior to her talk which we'll post on our website soon. For now, enjoy the talk.
The post Path of Enlightenment: Stage 3 – Seeing the Ox first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 12/07/25 - Celebrating Buddha’s Enlightenment, enjoy this talk of Hojin Sensei’s in looking at Buddha’s most important teaching —the story of his own journey to enlightenment. It is worth repeating as an essential guide for our own spiritual journey. In order to do this well we have to learn how to lean in. Rumi writes: You are the source of milk. Don’t milk others! We have a channel into the ocean, Beg for that love expansion. Meditate on this” If we are willing, ability is given.
The post Bodhi Day: The Source of Milk at the Shake Shack first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
ZMM - 12/07/25 - Shugen Roshi officiates the Novice Monastic Ordination ceremony for Rebecca Shindo Kisch; a joyful occasion - both a home-leaving and a homecoming - that Master Dogen described as "a day for turning cartwheels." Shindo is currently the Monastery's Gardener, and helps coordinate the National Buddhist Prison Sangha. She became a formal student (Tangaryo) in 2020, received the Bodhisattva Precepts (Jukai), and her dharma name Shindo, in 2022 and became a Postulant in 2023. Today she receives the robe of a monastic and provisionally takes on the five monastic vows. Those vows being simplicity, service, selflessness, stability, and "to live the Buddha's Way." In this new context she will continue her discernment and exploration and training for the role of a full monastic before choosing to ask for full ordination.
The post Novice Ordination for Shindo Kisch first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/30/25 - This talk on a koan from an early Chan teacher is taken up by Shugen Roshi to look at the ubiquity of our dualistic habits of mind. Koans work with language to help us see our minds more clearly, to see where we cloud ourselves with judgements and bias and distract ourselves with endless arguments. Just forget the two sides and see into the true reality right before our eyes. - From the Book of Serenity - Case 27 - Fayan Points to a Blind
The post Forget Government, Forget Anarchy first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 11/30/25 - Into this season of gatherings with family, friends, communities, Hojin Sensei illuminates ways we might practice relationships on this noble path in taking up this koan and Dogen’s guiding practices on embracing the ways as a Bodhisattva. This practice of choosing the larger heart. - From The Hidden Lamp: Stories of Awakened Women - Case 99 - Let’s Become Enlightened Together.
The post Let’s Become Enlightened Together first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - 11/23/25 - How do we know what is ultimately true? In this koan from the Mumonkan, Shoan Sensei delves into the ordinariness of profound truth that is everywhere, its depth and benefits within reach. And yet there is still practice and investigation that must be engaged to feel into the distinction. - From Master Wu-men's Gateless Gate, Case 19 - Nan-sh'uan: "Ordinary Mind Is the Tao"
The post Ordinary Mind is the Way first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/22/25 - This final section of Shugen Roshi’s Genjokoan commentary looks at the dynamic tension between conceptual learning and the experience of insight. Insight brings clarity, but it is practice which allows the space to open, so that wisdom and compassion arise together. When we experience what reaches everywhere, the tyrannical repetition of samsara begins to slip away. - Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks - Part 12 (final)
The post The Wind That Reaches Everywhere first appeared on Zen Mountain Monastery.
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