Brooklyn Zen Center

Recorded on September 26, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY This talk considers what is the relationship between how we investigate and inquire into ourselves, and how we show up with compassion in the world. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If these teachings have benefited your life, please consider supporting the program with a donation (suggested $2-7/episode, or whatever feels right for you!). You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.’ Thank you for your generosity!

Recorded on September 12, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY Welcoming the sangha back after the August break, Charlie Korin Pokorny, BZC Dharma Teacher, explores awakening through the teachings of 13th-century Sōtō Zen founder Dōgen. Themes include Buddha nature as a dynamic, impermanent process rather than a fixed essence; awakening as "doing" rather than seeing; intimate illumination as befriending one's experience; time as inseparable from existence; and Buddha nature expressed in every act of kindness as an ethic of care. Charlie Sensei also introduces BZC's fall practice period, "Liberating Response: Engaged Practice in Ourselves and in the World." Over 12 weeks, the program explores six topics (location, class, race, gender and sexuality, immigration and indigeneity, and earth justice), alternating between internal and external dimensions. Offerings include Saturday talks, Wednesday evening dharma shares, a one-day sit, three- and five-day sesshins, and a six-week online class on B.R. Ambedkar and Navayana Buddhism. The talk frames the four noble truths as emergent and living, with boundless relationality bringing boundless shared responsibility. The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If these teachings have benefited your life, please consider supporting the program with a donation (suggested $2-7/episode, or whatever feels right for you!). You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.’ Thank you for your generosity!

Recorded on July 25, 2026, at Boundless Mind Temple in Brooklyn, NY The BZC Podcast is offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If these teachings have benefited your life, please consider supporting the program with a donation (suggested $2-7/episode, or whatever feels right for you!). You can donate to Brooklyn Zen Center at brooklynzen.org under ‘Giving.’ Thank you for your generosity!

This darkness, this mystery of who we are, and how we are together, and how we are being influenced all the time, is to be honored and to be listened to, and is necessary for our wholeness.

In the way of the Buddha, karma is always in the background. It’s like the little key that unlocks all these teachings. When you kind of understand that, as I’m sure many of you do, when we understand that karma is such an important teaching, it unlocks all these teachings. This is the teaching of karma.