“Love sitting in Zazen, as if putting out a fire on top of your head” ~ Dogen Valerie Forstman gives the second talk during the April Intro to Meditation weekend.

Description: This is Question & Answer session 1 from the Introduction to Meditation Virtual Weekend. Valerie Forstman is the speaker and teacher for this session. And, here’s a link to

Listen to this talk by Valerie Forstman from the April 2021 Introduction to Meditation Weekend Retreat. A talk at a Zen retreat is traditionally called a teisho which means, Presentation

Valerie examines beginner’s mind and explores the question”what is Zen?” during our March 2021 one-day Introduction to Meditation retreat. Suzuki Roshi – a Japanese Zen master who brought Zen teaching

“Zen is awakening to the dynamic reality of the present moment…..Zen is finding love in all things at all times. ”   ~ Ruben Habito Valerie explores Zen practice from the

“… Zazen has been described as silently not influencing anything …” Koans can provide helpful perspectives for dealing with the uncertainty of current world events. In this talk, Valerie Forstman

Description: Senior Student Will Brennan gives a dharma talk, offering reflections on Dogen’s Fukanzazengi, Recommending Zazen to all people. Will has recently been appointed as a Sanbo Zen Assistant Teacher and

“Anyone who wants to gain enlightenment, do not enter.” Description: Valerie turns to Love, which knows nothing of rank and order. She looks at a koan from Keizan’s Transmission of Light

“Who would waste the spark from a flint stone?” – Dogen Description:  Anything could be that spark. Ryoun Roshi says “koans are a message from the oneness world.” They offer

Description:  This is the Question & Answer companion to Encounter of the Heart Retreat: Zen’s Origin Story, Part 3. Valerie Forstman is the speaker and teacher for this session. And,

Description:  Valerie explores Zen’s origin story about the flower, a smile and universal space, case six from the Gateless Gate. And, here’s a link to our YouTube video of this

To be able to hear the dharma is truly rare. To do so we must: Stop and see, sit still and let go. Description:  This is the Question & Answer

Empty, new and utterly fleeting, arriving now but already done. Description:  In this first Teisho from the Encounter of the Heart Retreat, January 2021, Valerie Forstman  reminds us that this

“… Does Nansen really kill the cat? …” Description:  Maria Reis Habito gives a teisho on Case 14 from the Gateless Gate, Nansen Kills the Cat. And, here’s a link

Description: Natalie Goldberg gives an inspiring talk about Zen in action. She describes some of her background experiences in both Zen and writing and how they interact and nourish each

Description: Dosho Port teaches with the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training and at the Nebraska Zen Center in Omaha, and he has been practicing Zen since 1977.

“We are always looking for the lack, like Eka (Huike) searching for his mind – this lack is so convincing and so untrue. It blinds us to who we really

Description: Newly appointed assistant Sanbo Zen teacher Will Brennan offers reflections on Dogen’s Fukanzazengi, (Recommending Zazen for all People) about how to practice, why practice, a beginner’s primer and much more.

Description: Natalie speaks about her new book Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku. The final section includes a short exchange with Sanbo Zen

“May each and everybody whether staying still or standing up have ten thousand blessings….Today I have advantage after advantage, now, please practice.” ~ Dogen Description: Valerie explores the dharma hall discourse

“When you sit, the whole world is sitting… We really don’t have to do anything, just show up”. Description: The invitation of Zen practice is to sit with the world,

Description:  Valerie and Henry explore Unmon’s Bright Light, Case 84 from the Blue Cliff Record in this final talk from our 2020 winter solstice retreat. Valerie opens with the Great

“… The knot of self has become untied …” Description:  Henry returns to the basics of practice in this third talk from the 2022 winter solstice retreat picking up on

“… the awakening of Shakyamuni Buddha and the simultaneous awakening of all existence, past, present and future …” Description: To explore the origin point of practice in this second talk

“… This moment – just as it is – is our reality. …” Description: Henry describes how meditation practice exclusively focused on awakening (kensho) can bypass the enormous gains practice