“How open am I? Who and what do I not welcome in?” – Koshin   Providing safe harbor and true welcome to all others is deeply courageous. The Statue of Liberty symbolizes the bodhisattva vow to exclude nothing and no one from our care and compassion. “How many of us are that open?”     […]

“When the mind calms down, we can treat ourselves and others more authentically.” – Chodo Campbell    Morality and right ethical conduct is not about appearing a certain way or trying to look good. Doing what is right is about owning your own shit, vowing with every misstep to act more skillfully, and continuing to […]

“Living fully is not an idea. Tenderness and compassion are always the barometer of how practice is going.” – Koshin Paley Ellison   Uncertainty about elections. Dozens of active wars around the globe. “Where do you focus?” Koshin Sensei asks. What practice guides your life?      In this recent dharma talk, Koshin Sensei names […]

“If we are going to maintain our practice carefully, we have to pay careful attention to what we think is not welcome.” – Koshin Paley Ellison   Our lives are complicated. Full of love and light; anger and judgment. Can we resist deciding too quickly what should and should not be welcomed in?    In […]

“How are you indulging your bulls@$t? How are you indulging your mistaken understandings?” – Koshin Paley Ellison    The awakening Way is not an idea. How can we free ourselves from the ideas of practice in order to practice?    In this recent dharma talk, Koshin Sensei continues to engage with Dogen Zenji’s “Deportment of […]

“It is not enough that your carcass is here. Are you really alive to who you are, who you’re with, and what is around you in this moment?”  – Koshin Paley Ellison    Can you bring more liveliness into your life? Whether walking down the street or sitting zazen, Koshin Sensei invites us to practice […]

“We need enthusiasm for practice to meet this opportunity, to show up to our life, right now.” – Koshin   Can you bring increased vigor and enthusiasm to your relationships, to your life? The pāramitā of virya is active and connecting. It does not have to appear or sound a certain way, but being vigorous […]

“Compassion only really happens in community.” – Koshin   How does the nobility of our imperfection become a place of deep connection?    In this dharma talk from the opening night of the Contemplative Care Retreat, Koshin Sensei introduces us to the Six Paramitas, often called the ‘six perfections,’ of dana, sila, ksanti, virya, dhyana, […]

“Moments in extremis point us to what is important, what is real.” – Koshin   How do you come to know who you really are and what you truly care about? Opportunities to learn are constant.    In this recent dharma talk, Koshin Sensei speaks to us from within the waning moments of an unpleasant […]

“If the duality of good and bad is broken through, then there is real good.” – Harada Roshi   Aphids, flies, worms, tigers, all living beings move away from discomfort. “Most of us spend most of our time sealing ourselves off from real connection,” Koshin Sensei observes. What Shakyamuni Buddha understood is that the miracle […]

“Devotion is expressed through your dedicated practice.” – Harada Roshi     Many of us hold back. Why not completely throw yourself in? Wholehearted commitment is about showing up to every moment of your life. This is the practice and, for Chodo Sensei, what devotion looks like.       In this recent dharma talk, Chodo […]

“We are always at war with what is. We are creating suffering for others and in this way we are creating suffering for ourselves.” – Harada Roshi     We are constantly dividing the world, each other, and ourselves in half. We expend so much energy and effort picking sides and pointing fingers. “The beauty […]

“This life, all is well. Can we really say this? Is it alright to say that life is good?” —Harada Roshi    In this dharma talk from summer sesshin, Koshin Sensei reflects on his first sesshin sitting between two participants – one steady and grounded the other fidgety and agitated. They each represent a different […]

“The heart believes in tomorrow’s cherry blossoms. The storm comes at night and blows them away.”     Everything is subject to change. We all experience loss. Can this inevitability spark in us an urgency to practice diligently and to live our lives fully?          In this recent dharma talk from Summer Sesshin, […]

“Everything is encouraging you to awaken to your life.”   In the midst of our lives, we need to experience moments of respite. Twice a year, the New York Zen Center holds a silent retreat, or sesshin. The word sesshin means “to touch the heart-mind” and for thousands of years practitioners of the awakening way […]

“Don’t just stand there, one foot in and one foot out. Throw yourself in.”   The great matter of life and death is an ever present reality. Whether we are ready to face this reality or not, there is no guarantee we will see tomorrow or even take a next breath. How can this truth […]

“Inattention is harmful. Attention is a refuge.”   Have you noticed how often we can lose contact with what’s around us? Even with the ones we love the most? Koshin Sensei invites us to consider this separation – to actually notice it and be embarrassed by the distances we create – and change our behavior. […]

“There is so much energy around being sure… Thinking ‘I know,’ we become so narrow.”   Do you ever think ‘I am right’ and ‘you are wrong’? “I, you, all of us, can get caught up in deeply entrenched ideas of truth.” Koshin Sensei invites us to pay attention to our minds, to these thoughts […]

“How does what you say and do really benefit living beings?”     We live in a world filled with beauty and terror. Whether we are experiencing euphoric glee, wrenching pain, or something in between, can our feelings lead to actions that benefit living beings? And not just some beings from the specific groups we […]

“Our commitment to distractions and our commitment to not committing actually takes a lot of effort.”     The newest telescopes can see stars being born hundreds of millions of lightyears away. Innumerable stars, like the sun in our solar system, are scattered across the farthest reaches of the cosmos. It boggles the mind, challenging […]

“Those without virtue are to be pitied.”          As Dogen Zenji reminds us, giving, kind speech, beneficial actions, and cooperation are the “Four Attractions of the Bodhisattva”. How often throughout your day do you lift these virtues up, even praise them? What would it look like in your life to embody the […]

“It is not enough to have good intensions. It really matters what you do. It really matters what you say.”       Our human ancestors have been caring for one another for at least 75,000 years. We survive, carry on, thrive, and even flourish when we show compassion.  It is not about what we […]

“This practice has kept me alive.”     When what has been lost brings the return of something new, when the debilitations of illness remind us of the deep dignities of being alive, these are the healing stories of care and compassion.         During the final evening of the Closing Retreat for […]

“…those whose lose mindfulness, lose.”       From Shakyamuni Buddha, down through generations of ancestors, including Dogen Zenji, and into the present moment have come a series of teachings on the eight awarenesses of awakened beings. One is called Maintaining Right Mindfulness or Not Neglecting Mindfulness. Practicing this in the midst of our tumbling […]

“This practice is actually about liberation, not about being comfortable, feeling good, or getting a reward.”   What are you afraid of? Can we remain focused and grounded when what we fear is right in front of us?   In this recent Zazenkai dharma talk, Koshin Sensei challenges us to look our fears in the […]