Claim OwnershipZen Community of Oregon Dharma Talks
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© 2025 Zen Community of Oregon
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New podcasts every Tues, Thurs and Sat. Here you can find talks from various teachers involved with the Zen Community of Oregon. We share talks from our retreats, as well as our different weekly offerings between Great Vow Zen Monastery and Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple.
Zen Community of Oregon's purpose is to express and make accessible the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha’s teachings, as transmitted through an authentic, historical lineage. To support and maintain Zen Buddhist practice in order to realize and actualize our Buddha nature in everyday life.
For more information, please visit zendust.org.
Zen Community of Oregon's purpose is to express and make accessible the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha’s teachings, as transmitted through an authentic, historical lineage. To support and maintain Zen Buddhist practice in order to realize and actualize our Buddha nature in everyday life.
For more information, please visit zendust.org.
720 Episodes
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In this talk, Jogen Sensei explores the paradox of longing—the pain and medicine of our deepest yearning. Drawing from Dōgen, the Faith in Mind poem, and ancient teachings, he illuminates how our wanting, striving, and efforts to understand can either bind us or open us to freedom. Through stories, humor, and grounded guidance, Jogen invites us to practice with wholeheartedness for its own sake—not as a transaction, but as intimacy with life itself. This talk moves through themes of determination, innocence, and the living rhythm of practice that carries us beyond “easy” or “hard.” This talk was given during the 2025 Ancient Way Sesshin at Great Vow.
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In the second week of the Ango practice period, Jomon Sensei reflects on verses from Affirming Faith in Mind—“The Great Way is without limit, beyond the easy and the hard.” Through multiple translations and the koan Ling Zhao’s Grass Tips, she explores how our preferences and narrow views create tension, while the Way itself remains relaxed, spacious, and clear. Drawing on vivid imagery of dewdrops, grass, and the natural world, Jomon encourages us to meet both difficulty and ease with open presence. This talk reminds us that in stillness and in motion, the teachings of the ancestors are shining everywhere—even in the most ordinary momentsThis talk was given at the Plum Blossom Zendo in Vancouver, WA on October 14th 2025.
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In this talk Jogen Sensei introduces Affirming Faith in Mind as a mirror for practice and a reminder that the Great Way is neither easy nor difficult. Moving through the themes of impermanence, longing, and the poignancy of being human, he invites practitioners to meet life directly on the ground of reality. Jogen speaks of sesshin as a sacred vessel for awakening, describing three ingredients of transcendent insight: the desire to go beyond, a vivid steady mind, and bowing to what is. With clarity and humor, he shows how sesshin reveals our suffering and our freedom—teaching us to yield completely to the immediacy of this fleeting life.This is talk two of the 2025 Ancient Way Sesshin.
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In this opening talk of 2025 Ancient Way Sesshin, Hogen Roshi introduces the Affirming Faith in Mind chant—an ancient poem pointing to non-dual awareness and the ease of the great way. He reminds us that our suffering begins when we believe our thoughts, and peace appears when we let them flow without grasping. Through humor, reflection, and simple body-based practices, Hogen shows how inclusivity, satisfaction, and faith in the “heart-mind” reveal a stability beyond our judgments and preferences. The talk weaves ancient teaching, modern psychology, and poetry into a living encouragement to trust this very moment.
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In this episode, Kisei Sensei explores Koan 25, Nyozin’s Pale Moon of Dawn, and Koan 33, Bodhidharma’s Flesh, examining how Zen teaching passes through time, poetry, and the body. She reflects on Chyono’s poem about the pale moon and the bucket, showing how our sense of self can be patched together and then fall away in practice. Drawing connections to Bodhidharma’s transmission to his students, she emphasizes how awakening is both a lived, embodied experience and a study of ancestral teachings. Listeners are invited to reflect on the moon, their own practice, and the questions of body, awakening, and interconnection that these koans present.This talk was given during Kisei's online Tuesday night program.
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In this talk, Jomon Sensei continues the autumn Ango practice period by exploring passages from the ancient Zen poem Affirming Faith in Mind. Through multiple translations and reflections, she examines how striving—whether for worldly success or inner enlightenment—entangles us in duality. She invites us to rest in simplicity and let the “way be invisible,” seeing that stillness and motion, comfort and discomfort, are inseparable expressions of oneness. With warmth and humor, she shows how retreat practice and daily life both reveal the same truth: reality is not perfect, permanent, or personal.This talk was given at the Vancouver Zen Group on October 21st 2025.
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Jogen explores the Buddha’s teaching of right thought. Through vivid metaphors and down-to-earth humor, he invites us to notice what we hold onto that tethers us to unhappiness and how readiness to release can arise naturally, like ripe fruit. The talk moves from the monastic renunciate ideal to the subtler, everyday practice of relinquishment in relationships, habits, and self-images. Letting go, he says, is not moralistic or forced, but an alchemy of honesty, compassion, and faith in a deeper happiness.This talk was given on October 1st 2025 at Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple.
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In this episode, Kisei explores the unique Zen practice of mirror meditation at Tokeji, a thirteenth-century Japanese convent. Practitioners sit before a mirror, asking, “Where is a single feeling, a single thought in the mirror image at which I gaze?” Through historical stories, personal experiences, and reflections from teachers like Zenju Earthlyn Manuel and Ruth Ozeki, we witness how this practice reveals habitual judgments, fear, grief, and ultimately compassion and equanimity. By sitting with the reflection, we learn to see ourselves as nature itself, discovering clarity, openness, and our original heart-mind.
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In this talk, Jogen explores the Zen practice of embracing our darkness—not as something negative to overcome, but as the ungraspable, untamable side of human life. He reminds us that despite our efforts, relationships splinter, longings surface, and hurtful words escape; we never fully master life. Rather than rejecting sorrow, confusion, or anger, we can companion them, seeing them as expressions of our shared nature. Alongside cultivating brightness of mind, the path asks us to embrace the darkness too, recognizing it as belonging to the very heart of the world.This talk was given on September 24 2025 during the Heart of Wisdom Wednesday night program.
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In this talk, Jomon introduces the Japanese Buddhist holiday Ohigan, celebrated at the equinox as a time to honor the ancestors and reflect on the paramitas—the perfections of practice. From there, she explores karma not just as action and result, but as a living cycle of intentions, deeds, and the dispositions they leave behind. Drawing on Buddhist teachings, neuroscience, and personal stories, Jomon shows how our propensities shape the way we perceive the world, and how practicing generosity, patience, and wisdom can shift the very seeds we carry forward. She closes by asking: What kind of ancestor do you want to be, and how do you wish to meet this life?This talk was given during the Wednesday night program at Heart of Wisdom on September 3rd 2025.
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In this talk, Hogen Roshi shares insights from a recent workshop at the monastery integrating Zen practice with Byron Katie’s method of inquiry. He explores how questioning our fixed beliefs—about ourselves, others, and the world—opens freedom and flexibility, and how this investigation aligns with the heart of Zen’s great inquiry: What is true? Drawing on examples from daily life, the teachings of Dao Wei, and Thich Nhat Hanh’s reflections on impermanence, Hogen shows how seeing from many perspectives helps loosen identification and cultivate vow. Ultimately, he reminds us that because all things are impermanent, we have the creative potential to nurture love, equanimity, and our deepest aspiration in each moment.This talk was given during the Heart of Wisdom Sunday Evening program on September 7 2025.
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In this talk, Kisei shares Case 58 from The Hidden Lamp, drawn from the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, where the goddess playfully transforms Shariputra to reveal the truth of nonduality beyond male and female. She explores the Mahayana roots of the story, its revolutionary challenge to purity doctrines, and its affirmation that awakening is not bound by gender, role, or condition. Through Rinzai’s “four positions” and a guided koan exercise, Kisei invites us to embody both Shariputra and the goddess, to see where our own identities and resistances arise, and to discover the freedom of dropping all positions. The talk closes with Chōzen Roshi’s reflections on zazen as both microscope and telescope, returning us to spaciousness as the ground of all forms.
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In this talk, Jogen reflects on what it means to protect the innate brightness of the heart-mind. He describes this luminosity not as a metaphor for “choosing happiness,” but as a living reality that shines through when the shrouds of distraction, anxiety, resentment, and tribalized thinking are set aside. Drawing from personal stories, contemporary struggles, and the wisdom of Zen practice, Jogen explores how meditation, ethical behavior, and stepping outside the “flock” of busyness and opinion can safeguard this transcendent okayness. The invitation is to discover and continually uncover the bright mind that is already present, intimate, and sustaining.This talk was given on September 17th 2025 at Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple.
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In this Jizō Sesshin talk, Jomon explores the poem Peaceful Life by Dainin Katagiri Roshi, opening it as a doorway into the mystery of vow. She reflects on how we often arrive at practice seeking peace, only to find ourselves meeting distraction, longing, or grief—and how vow becomes the ground on which true peace is found. Drawing on teachings from Chozen Roshi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and stories of resilience from Dōgen to living exemplars like Jimmy Carter, Jomon shows how vow functions not as a goal to accomplish, but as an orientation of the heart that fuels compassion, love, and continuity. Through this lens, we are invited to consider what our lives are about, and how even in uncertainty we can return to this breath, this moment, and discover peaceful life in vow.This talk was given during the 2025 Jizo Sesshin at Great Vow Zen Monastery.
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In this talk, Hogen weaves community life, way-seeking mind reflections, and Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Art of Living into a deep exploration of impermanence. He reminds us that nothing is stuck—everything is always transforming, whether in our lives, our relationships, or the world itself. By learning to meet each moment freshly, we discover freedom, appreciation, and the possibility of transformation rooted in our vows and intentions. Drawing on the Five Remembrances and the mystery of the present, Hogen points to impermanence not as loss, but as the very ground of practice and awakening.
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In this talk, Kisei explores Case 15 from The Hidden Lamp, where a woman realizes awakening through the simple phrase “let it be.” She reflects on how this koan functions much like the classic Mu koan—serving as a sword to cut through discursive mind and habitual identification. With stories, metaphors, and practice instructions, Kisei shows how “let it be” invites us to meet fear, thought, and circumstance without grasping, and to discover the vast awareness in which everything arises. She also emphasizes the role of faith—not blind belief, but trust born of direct experience—in sustaining our practice and opening us to the fruit of realization.This talk was given during Kisei's online meeting on Monday evenings.
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In this talk, Banshō weaves together spiritual poems from across traditions—Christian, Sufi, Taoist, and Zen—to show how poetry can be a living expression of dharma. Beginning with reflections on the rarity of “radical presence,” he invites us to experience poetry as more than words: as truth, practice, heart, and shared human experience. Through poems like Joyce Rupp’s The Perfect Cup, David Whyte’s Everything is Waiting for You, Rumi’s The Guest House, and Dōgen’s timeless verses, he illustrates how beauty, impermanence, and the fullness of human emotions all belong to practice. The talk closes with selections from the Tao Te Ching, pointing to the great mystery—emptiness, interconnection, and the way of reality—revealed in the ordinary and the fleeting.This talk was given on September 21st 2025 during the GVZM Sunday Program.
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In this talk, Jogen reflects on a student’s feedback that Zen teachings sometimes seem to overlook compassion for oneself. From that spark, he explores how dharma practice can be both deeply compassionate and at times uncomfortable, emphasizing that releasing fixation and illusion often feels like suffering before it frees us. He distinguishes self-compassion from mere “bright-siding” or positive thinking, pointing instead to the steady cultivation of kindness, honesty, and acceptance through practice. Ultimately, he shows how true compassion arises when we release our fixed agendas—revealing love, service, and the deep transparency of self that allows us to live more fully.This talk was given by Jogen on Wednesday Aug 20th 2025 at Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple.
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Drawing on Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Art of Living, this talk explores the teaching of aimlessness—the practice of arriving fully in the present rather than chasing completion in the future. Hogen reflects on how our restless striving to become more or fix what feels lacking separates us from the miracle of being alive right now. Through stories of loss, illness, mosquito-filled meditation, and everyday challenges, he shows how mindfulness and attention open the way to freedom, even in difficulty. The practice of aimlessness reveals that we are already enough, and that meeting each moment with confidence, kindness, and awareness is the true purpose of our lives.This talk was given during the Sunday night program at Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple on August 24th, 2025.
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In this closing talk from sesshin, Kisei invokes Dōgen’s Mountains and Rivers Sutra and guides us into the practice of “mountain mind,” the spacious, steady awareness that has been the abode of sages from timeless past to timeless present. Through meditation instructions and vivid imagery, she shows how we can rest in awareness beyond self-identification, seeing our body, thoughts, and life from the perspective of mountain’s stillness. From this ground, she explores how uniqueness and interdependence naturally shine through, how sangha mirrors Buddha-nature, and how bodhisattvas like Jizō express the fearless, compassionate qualities of mountain mind. Ultimately, we are invited to live from this stability in every moment—walking, washing, speaking, and meeting our lives with freedom and presence.This talk was given during the 2025 Grasses and Trees Sesshin at Great Vow.
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