Mountain Rain Zen Dharma Podcast

The senses and our experiences are aflame. Shinmon Michael Newton asks that we pay attention to the small changes in temperature felt both inside and outside of our bodies.  _____________________________________________________________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].

Our inter-being with water is intricate and variable. Myoshin Kate McCandless invites us into the expanded enchantment of our water bodies.  _____________________________________________________________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].

It is not possible to do the job perfectly, so is it possible to let the job do you? Shinmon Michael Newton offers an exploration of the earth element - where in your body do you feel solidity, and where is there something else? _____________________________________________________________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].

Liz Toohey-Wiese shares insight into how it’s possible that the medicine and the sickness mutually heal.  _____________________________________________________________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].

Myosen River asks: What does it mean to be a grownup? _____________________________________________________________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 explores the writing of Charlotte Joko Beck and asks: what were you expected to be when you were growing up? What do you require of yourself as an adult? _____________________________________________________________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].

Myoshin Kate McCandless offers a talk on the Buddha as wounded healer. How might we be with an unexpected visitor?  _____________________________________________________________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].

Telling the story of a very old ginko tree and an old couple, Mysohin Kate McCandless wonders in what ways we bond with place. Can we adopt an expansive view of what it means to belong to the one Earth we all depend upon? _____________________________________________________________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].

Shinmon Michael Newton suggests Summer’s growth is a good time for connecting to the heart of trees, and to know the dharma of plants.  _____________________________________________________________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].

Offering the last talk in the series, Myoshin Kate McCandless explores the significance of Jizo the bodhisattva of great vow. _____________________________________________________________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].

If Maitreya Buddha is the buddha of the future, Shinmon Michael Newton suggests we may all be that. _____________________________________________________________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].

On the Pilgrims’ Path we might meet the Medicine Buddha. Myoshin Kate McCandless explores ways in which healing occurs. _____________________________________________________________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].

Shinmon Michael Newton asks: do you recognize  the qualities of Manjushri in your daily 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 website.For questions and comments, contact [email protected].

Myoshin Kate McCandless asks: who have you met along the pilgrimage of your life that has been a teacher to you?  Who has helped you in just the right way and what did you learn? _____________________________________________________________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].

A Way-seeking mind talk is a traditional Dharma address where a practitioner shares their personal journey, reflecting on the life experiences and questions that led them to their spiritual 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 back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.For questions and comments, contact [email protected].

Beyond existence and non-existence, Shinmon Michael Newton shares how Vairocana brings the light of wisdom- impartially, omnipresent, impossible to block, and eternal. _____________________________________________________________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 deep exploration of Kannon Bodhisattva, Myoshin Kate McCandless offers insights into the bodhisattva’s various manifestations and names. "Listen to the deeds of Avalokiteshvara, who aptly responds in every quarter.With vast pledge as deep as oceans, throughout kalpas beyond reckoning,served many thousands of millions of buddhas, bringing forth this great pure vow." _____________________________________________________________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].

Myoshin Kate McCandless focuses on Kannon Bodhisattva whose name means the one who perceives the sounds or cries of the world. _____________________________________________________________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].

Shinmon Michael Newton focuses on Amitaba Buddha and how we might recognize zazen as an illumination of emptiness and fully realized awakening. _____________________________________________________________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].

Shinmon Michael Newton continues exploring the variety of beings found on the pilgrim’s path, focusing on the most widely known of all -  Buddha. _____________________________________________________________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].

Good news!! The Buddha is the cause and the result of awakening! Through practice our lives do transform. _____________________________________________________________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].

Everything is always vanishing so what is the use of pretence?  _____________________________________________________________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].

A series on the beings depicted in images along the Shikoku pilgrimage path, exploring how they can inspire and support our practice. Myoshin Kate McCandless begins with Fudo Myo-o, Unmoving Bright Wisdom King, fierce protector of the dharma. _____________________________________________________________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].

Myoshin Kate McCandless brings us to the recent journey in Japan, through  anecdotes and images. You can watch the slideshow HERE."Through 10,000 joys and sorrows the journey goes on - through this lifetime and beyond someone else will follow in your footsteps." _____________________________________________________________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].

Shinmon Michael Newton begins his talk with an exploration of what the word pilgrimage means, then takes the listener on a meandering path of depth and discovery.  _____________________________________________________________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].

Myoshin Kate McCandless offers a sense of how the recent five week pilgrimage in Japan was like an intensive zen retreat. _____________________________________________________________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].

Enryu Anusha Fernando gives a talk on the Meghiya Sutta and its focus on the importance of friendship. We don’t live in a neutral experience and our practice is to pay attention to the offerings of community, of sangha. _____________________________________________________________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].

Daikan Green continues our dharma seminar, offering comments on the finger snap. _____________________________________________________________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 exploring the Xin Xin Ming poem, and how a sense of equanimity supports our practice in these deeply troubled times.  _____________________________________________________________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].

The Xin Xin Ming, sometimes translated as Faith in Mind, is a poem attributed to the 3rd Zen Patriarch Seng-t’san. It stresses having a sense of equanimity when experiencing both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. Dai-i Flo Rublee shares an exploration of this text and how it can support our practice in these deeply troubled times.  _____________________________________________________________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].

Myosen River Shannon continues the dharma seminar on The Old Way, talks on texts from the Pali Canon, with a deep dive into the different kinds of minds we carry. What tools do we have for adjusting our behaviours when things are not going our way? _____________________________________________________________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].

Toshin Patrick Griffin offers a Way-seeking mind talk as an invitation to remember, with gratitude, the events that weave themselves into the thresholds of our life.A Way-seeking mind talk tells how the speaker came to Zen practice and how it has guided their 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 website.For questions and comments, contact [email protected].

Joko Claire Talbot explores what metta mean. Rather than evaluating or judging self and others against culturally ingrained standards, can we pay attention to self and others based on awareness of the human need to be safe, healthy, and happy? _____________________________________________________________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].

Myosen River Shannon asks in what way we can encourage each other in our practice. If spiritual friendship is an antidote to isolation and fragmentation, how do we achieve these wise 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 going back over ten years is free and accessible on our website.For questions and comments, contact [email protected].

Nin-en Susan Elbe explores the story of Angulimala, a serial murderer from the time of the Buddha. Even those with the darkest hearts share a common  humanity that just needs to be seen and accepted. _____________________________________________________________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].

Jikai Vicki Turay offers a talk in honour of World Water day and the first day of Spring. "Can we walk the fine line of the eight fold path between the urgency of present relative reality and the universal truth of impermanence?"  _____________________________________________________________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 gives the first dharma seminar on The Old Way, talks on texts from the Pali Canon. Can you see the importance of recognizing wholesome and unwholesome thoughts and their effect on others? _____________________________________________________________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].

Shinmon Michael Newton offers a talk about David Chadwick, a Soto Zen priest, author, archivist, and one of the earliest disciples of Shunryu Suzuki (February 9, 1945 - February 23, 2026).   “I don't know anything about consciousness. I just try to teach my students how to hear the birds sing.” _____________________________________________________________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].

Myoshin Kate McCandless acknowledges that our deeper wounds need to be given protection and healing care. The darts and arrows of a human life can be sharp and painful - the body and mind are supported by practicing the dharma.  _____________________________________________________________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].

Shinmon Michael Newton affirms that our practice is complete in each moment -- each moment of thought transcends all time. As Dogen would say: there is nothing to add or take away. _____________________________________________________________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].

Myoshin Kate McCandless encourages the perspective that even though we are very far away in time from Dogen, we are part of the movement and transmission of dharma. _____________________________________________________________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].

Myoshin Kate McCandless looks at how poets before and after Dogen have used blossoms in their writing. From a smile, to dynamic interrelationship, to a burning house - all is real, all is unreal. _____________________________________________________________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].

Shuso Heito Lee Lourdeaux explores how anger can transmute into compassion. "Understanding is love's other name." _____________________________________________________________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].

Shinmon Michael Newton reinforces that for us, reality is continuously expressing itself as this moment - and your life and practice is not separate from that expression. _____________________________________________________________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].

The continuous and subtle movement of our senses as they function naturally means that delusion is part of the human experience. Shinmon Michael Newton offers the last talk on the fascicle: Flowers in the Sky. _____________________________________________________________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].

Myoshin Kate McCandless continues the Genzo-e with an exploration of our capacity for agency.“Even those who attempt to create or measure do so in accordance to dharma blossoms.” (Dogen) _____________________________________________________________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].

Myoshin Kate McCandless celebrates the historic buddha’s final enlightenment by sharing images and teachings from Dogen’s Flowers in the Sky.  _____________________________________________________________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].

Shinmon Michael Newton affirms that beyond recitation and intellectual understanding of the sutras, our practice is full of heart. All is mutually interdependent and dynamic, and all activities are expressions of dharma blossoms. “If thinking and beyond thinking do not divide the mind you can steer the white ox cart endlessly.” (Zen master Hui-neng) _____________________________________________________________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].

Shinmon Michael Newton continues the Genzo-e by reflecting on Dogen’s “Buddhas and ancestors of old were as we - we in the future shall be buddhas and 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, contact [email protected].

Myoshin Kate McCandless emphasizes that co-awakening is the nature of our experience- it is only in relationship with the world around us that enlightenment happens.“When your mind is deluded, you are turned by the dharma blossoms. When your mind is enlightened, you turn the dharma blossoms” (Dogen) _____________________________________________________________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].