Shinmon Michael Newton presents the first in a series of seminars based on the lively Q&A book What Is Zen: Plain Talk for a Beginner's Mind by Norman Fischer and Susan Moon. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free a...

Myoshin Kate McCandless describes how the eight-fold path and the eight awakenings support us in knowing how much is enough, even as we are steeped in a culture of hyper-materialism. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is fr...

Nin-en Susan Elbe offers the final talk in our ten week dharma seminar on Kosho Uchiyama Roshi's book: Opening the Hand of Thought. We each live in the world as an individual self operating within the realm of desires, aversions, categorization and separation. In this chapter, Uchiyama Roshi explores how practicing goal-less zazen can bring us to meet our "true" self, which fully realizes interconnection with all beings. _____________________________________________________________These ...

Shinmon Michael Newton shares teachings about mantra and suggests the Heart Sutra is chanted the better to drink it in, helping gather body and mind in times of distress, loss, and confusion. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ...

Mysohin Kate McCandless discusses how to practice with hindrances. When we free ourselves from fear, that gift extends out through the world in ways that we may never know. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and acc...

Myoshin Kate McCandless asks if we can enter mountain time and invites us to explore the notion that we might all be wind-bells in the dharma wind, manifesting the particular song of our lives. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten ...

Myoshin Kate McCandless describes the senses as dharma gates, through which we interact with our environment. The Heart Sutra suggests that this body - this life - is the medium, the gift we are given to help us fully awaken to the true nature of our being. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/d...

Shinmon Michael Newton gives an insightful overview of dependent origination - how everything affects everything. You and I are all part of a great dance, and are woven in to the process of causal relationships. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings go...

Shinmon Michael Newton begins to examine in what way the Heart Sutra provokes, evokes, and points a finger at the boundless nature of our lives. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.For q...

Shinmon Michael Newton affirms the culture of mutual support and interdependence which makes sesshin a safe place for practicing being open to our non-separateness. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and acces...

Myoshin Kate McCandless opens the ninth annual MRZC Summer sesshin by introducing the theme for the week: The Heart Sutra - Great Wisdom Beyond Wisdom. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our ...

Shinmon Michael Newton helps unpack the final chapter of Kosho Uchiyama Roshi's book, Opening the Hand of Thought, in which there are seven clear instructions on how to orient our lives to practice. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going bac...

In this ZED talk (Zen Engaged Dharma), Myokai Nik Bladey investigates artificial intelligence and dharma practice, asking us how we find union within the particularity of each moment of our lives, and challenging us to consider who is guiding our hands on the steering wheel. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work a...

Joko Claire Talbot explores how, given human beings live in the flow of impermanence and suffer the burden of thought, in what way does zen help us learn to enjoy every sandwich and every bike ride?! _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back ove...

Myoshin Kate McCandless shares experiences from her recent pilgrimage to Ireland, and asks how we might reconcile human contradictions at the personal, national and global levels. How do we resolve the human koan in which we are all implicated? _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full...

Is zazen selfish? What is the self? Are we belligerent squashes or are we all in this together? Myosen River Shannon explores these and other questions in her talk on Opening the Hand of Thought chapter 5. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going ba...

Daikan John Green shares a few thoughts about what could be considered a true teaching, and what might be conveyed or created by something else in the past. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on...

Guest monk, Rev. Gyokei Yokohama, ponders what stays the same, what gets lost in translation, and what influences are shared back and forth between the way people practice in North America and the way people practice in Japan. _____________________________________________________________These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of ...

Jakushin Todd Slobogean tames the relentless meandering of his neuro-diverse mind to bring us thoughts on the Kalama Sutra and the Island Sutra (the Attadiipaa Sutta - The Buddha’s Last Teaching). These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.For ques...

Hotei Denis Fafard explores how being a boddhisatva is fundamentally an audacious act of imagination. These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.For questions and comments, contact [email protected].

Continuing the dharma seminar on Kosho Uchiyama's writing, Kakuko Kaye Simard describes intensive practice, shikantaza, and how sesshin is an opportunity to sink firmly and nobly into our bones. These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.For questi...

Jikai Vicki Turay shares insights and anecdotes from her path and practice to lay entrustment. These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.For questions and comments, contact [email protected].

Dai-i Flo Rublee continues our dharma seminar on Uchiyama Roshi's wonderful book. Chapter three is an exploration of how to wake-up to zazen and see our thoughts, desires, and delusions as the scenery of life. These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our web...

On the second day of our weekend retreat, Zoketsu Norman Fischer tells stories from the Denkoroku, which presents transmission stories of the lineage of Soto Zen ancestors. These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.For questions and comments, cont...

In the first of two dharma talks from our weekend retreat, Zoketsu Norman Fischer muses on how sitting zazen can help cultivate the great perfect mirror of awareness.Send us feedback or suggestions by text These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work at mountainrainzen.org/donate. A full archive of recorded teachings going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.For q...