All Episodes
Ancient Dragon Zen Gate Dharma Talks — 314 episodes
The Open Way
Luzu Faces the Wall
The World and all its Objects are Alive
Be Easily Satisfied
It's a Good Day to Lose.
Open reality: Hope in the Midst of the Polycrisis
Zazen is ultimate trust and ultimate relaxation
Even at dawn, the truth isn't revealed": Wansong's impact on Soto Zen
Queer Ancestors: Zen Wisdom and Community
Dogen’s Extensive Record and American History
Shuso: Leadership as a caring practice
Thoroughly Ragged Practice
Shuso Talk 3: The Koan of Don't Know
Buddhist Practices of Compassion and Resonant Care
Shuso Talk #2: On Zazen
Equanimity and Transition
Practices That Flower Into Garlands of Beneficial Blessings
Merit, Bodhisattvas, and the Enmei Juku Kannon Gyo
Fundamentally Zazen is a Caring Practice
Practice Commitment: Closing The Gates
David Chadwick and Suzuki Roshi's Lineage
Zhaozhou Meets Two Hermits
Encouragement to Practice Completely
What Do You Call the World?
Rigidity and Self-Delusion in Practice
Considering the Activities of Zazen
Zhaozhou’s Wash Your Bowl
Appropriate Response
Tanto Talk
Unpacking the Heart Sutra
Rohatsu sesshin - Day 5 - Tenzo Turning the Wheel of Dharma
Rohatsu sesshin - Day 4 - Turning the Wheel of Dharma
Rohatsu sesshin - Day 3 - Turning the Wheel of Dharma
Rohatsu sesshin - Day 2 - Turning the Wheel of Dharma
Rohatsu sesshin - Day 1 - Turning the Wheel of Dharma
Dragon-bodhisattvas Practicing the Precepts
Bendowa - Embracing Dogen's Endeavor of the Way
Priest Ordination
Huayan and Zen Precepts
The Changing Role of the Precepts in Soto Zen Practice
Sejiki Ceremony Preview
Upagupta - Part II, Using The Ground To Get Up
Dragons report on the Branching Streams Gathering
The Spiral That Reconnects
Upagupta Part 1 - Are You Leaving Home Physically or Mentally?
Beginning the Bodhisattva Path and Generosity
Opening To Big Mind
Generosity That Goes Beyond
Nanquan Points At A Peony
Patience Paramita
Scholar Talk: Dependent Arising and Why Everything Matters
We Reflect On The Effort….All Beings Support Each Other
The 2nd Paramita,“Ethical Conduct”
Great teacher Issan’s skillful means
Not one not two: Sangha Strength
Ancestors convey how to answer a call
Practice Period: Continuing Effort Without Desire
Practicing with Joko Beck in the 1990s
Suffering and skillful means
Emperor Wu Meets Bodhidharma Face-to-Face
This is not a Tanto Talk
Great Ancestor Darlene Cohen takes on suffering
Blanche Hartman: Willing to be just this one
The Two Truths – The Practice Realization of Zazen
Blanche Hartman and the effort of daffodils
Joko Beck’s Compassion arising and melting reactivity
Practice Period 2025 – Joko Beck
Dongshan and the Five Positions
Deep Listening
Genjokoan
Zazen and the Hamster Wheel
Parinirvana Day
Dongshan’s Jewel Mirror Samadhi
Caring with the Breath
Moving with the Breath
Reflecting on 50 Years of Zazen
Breathing into the new year
Remembering Abbot Hozan Alan Senauke
Composure
Shakyamuni Sees the Morning Star
Awakening under a tree
Mending rips and tears
Dogen’s Painting of a Rice Cake
Returning to the ground of this moment
Compassion and boundless ambiguity
Consistent Practice
Wrap-up of Dogen’s Expressing the Dream Within the Dream Seminar
The Dharma of Welcoming
Delight in the difficulty of practice!
The bodhisattva precept ceremony (jukai) as community harvest
In Anticipation of Jukai
Reflections on the Five Remembrances
Shanavasa – A Teacher Disciple Dialogue
Engaged Buddhism
Bring Me the Rhinoceros
Gassho: Joining palms is dynamic bodhisattva activity
You Are Here
Releasing the compassion body, planting the treasure seed
Ordinary Mind Is the Way
Maylie Scott’s Prayer to Guide the Bodhisattva’s Response
The Equal Ground of Zazen
Responding to the Request of the Present Moment
Guiding Teacher Transition Ceremony – hogetsu
Guiding Teacher Transition Ceremony – Taigen
Now, What?
Peeking Behind the Facade Seeking the Source
Taigen Leighton Final Dharma Talk (as guiding teacher)
Hongzhi and the Mysterious Pivot
Hongzhi and Meditation on Space (and Time)
Hongzhi and Settling within
Zen Ongoing Balancing
Return to the Source and the Backward Step
All Beings are my Ancestors
Guidepost for Silent Illumination
Graciously Share Yourself and the Genuine Field
Hongzhi’s mutual response, Gaza and student encampments
Romp and Play in Samadhi, part 2
Romp and Play in Samadhi
Guidepost to Silent Illumination
Hongzhi and Wansong Soto Lineage Contexts
The Ancestors and History of the Future
Hongzhi and the Baby Buddha
More on the Buddha Work
Hongzhi and the Buddha Work
The Ground Sages Cannot Transmit
Hongzhi’s Deep Source and Practice of True Reality
Preview of Hongzhi and our Practice Period
Women Wielding Liberative Power
Journey of Practice
Bodhidharma’s Outline of Practice
Precepts as Imposter Repentance
Awakening with Zen Forms
What is This Place? How Can We Live Here?
Parinirvana
Zazen
8137: An Exercise in Beginner’s Mind
Keizan Zenji: Understanding Continuity
Anxiety, Thought Loops, and Zazen
Practicing with Anger
Meditation is Boring
Zazen, Awakening and Interbeing
Generosity
Dr. Martin Luther King’s Message and Gaza
Dharmakaya Practice and Spiritual Bypass
Zen Caring and Healing
Peace and Metta service
The Taste of Karma: Zazen as formless repentance
Rohatsu Day 5 – Radiance as Creative Energy
Rohatsu Day 4 – Not Realizing the Radiance
Rohatsu Day 3 – Buddha Awakening
The Nature of Self Control when there is No Self
The Flower Ornament Background of our Soto Treasury of Radiance Samadhi
Gratefulness and Generosity
Thinking in Practice and the Sixth Ancestor
Appearing appears- attachment and fear
Returning to Our Senses
Memorials and Teachers
Truth and the Teacher
Sangha and Energy
Bumping into Yourself
Excerpts from Dogen’s Extensive Record
Journey of Meditation Through Pain
Way Seeking Mind and Tenzo Mind
Expressing Zazen in Everyday Life
Being a White Sox Fan as a Dharma Gate
Dogen’s Extensive Record- Radiance, Intimacy, and respecting Causality
Sangha and Spiritual friends
Song of the Grass Hut = Practice Space
Journey to Practice via Addiction and Homelessness
Chinese Capping Phrases to the Harmony of Difference and Sameness
Introduction to the Harmony of Difference and Sameness
Reflections on Dharma Transmission: Mahakasyapa and Ananda
Objectless Meditation and Serene Illumination
Eyesight During Zazen
Living in Buddha’s Body
Seeds: Reflections of a Zen Botanist
Sangha
Core Soto Zen
American Householder Zen
Shivering Scarecrow: Parenting, Karma, and Self-effacement
Hiroshima Day and Dogen’s Repentance Practice
Buddha Work and the Ancestors: Teachings of Hongzhi
Buddhahood Conceivable and Inconceivable
Zazen and Compassion
Visiting Tassajara
Going to Pieces without falling apart
Memorial Service for Katsuryu David Hill
Right Livelihood for our time
The Zazen of Non-attachment
Gates and Buildings
The Corrosive Fantasy of Control
Interdependence Day and the Current State of Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
Stories that Restore
Case 16 Gateless Gate: When the Bell Sounds
Taking Refuge and the Precepts
Celebrating the Avatamsaka Sutra
Yunmen’s Every Day Is a Good Day
Keeping the dharma fresh: Encouragement from Suzuki-roshi
In the Shade of a Beautiful Flower
The Three Refuges and Refugees
Sangha renewal with Practice Period and sesshin
Sesshin day 3: Bodhisattvas’ Four Integrative Dharmas
Sesshin day 2: The Buddha Work
Sesshin day 1: Bodhisattva Inconceivable practice
Fragrant Teaching and Incarnated Beings
Buddha Fields, Zazen, and Quantum Entanglement
The Practice of Birds /Gary Snyder’s Birthday
Inconceivably Awakening
Zen Koans about Vimalakirti’s Silence
The Family of Tathagatas and a bodhisattva song
The Dharma Door of Nonduality
Earth Day and the Family of Buddhas
Vimakakirti’s Goddess friend and Gender Non-discrimination
The Goddess of Freedom in the Vimalakirti Sutra
The Consolation of the Invalid: Vimalakirti’s sickbed
Inconceivable Liberation
Vimalakirti’s skillful Liberative Techniques
Vimalakirti Intro: Buddha Fields and Awakening Practice in the world
Bodhidharma and Practicing Form and Emptiness
Turning Words
Ordinary Emptiness
Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects and Great Turning
Aspiring to Awakening
Adept Practitioners in the World: Vimalakirti, Tosui, Ryokan
Zen as Body Practice
Dogen’s Eight Awakenings of Great People
Green Gulch Zen Intensive
The Poetry of Silence
Resting in the Sea of Impermanence
How do we keep Zen Practice Alive?
The Island of the Self
Sangha – Caring for the Family Business
Courage and Practice
Letting Go
Hongzhi and the Amazing Beings
A Requiem for Pete: Death, Grief, and Peace of Mind
Peace, in Zazen and the World
Arriving at Practice
Non-Duality and Grandmotherly Mind
The Sense World of People, Dogs, and Mountains
Imagination, Interdependence, and Liberation: Practicing with Vasubandhu’s Three Natures
Commitment to Collective Never-Ending Vows
New Year’s Resolutions and Bodhisattva Vows
Emptiness Is Being Together- Nagarjuna’s Middle Way
Skillful Means and Compassion
Parenting and the Buddha Way
Untangling Karma – Zen Stories of Healing Trauma
Finding our Way- A Stone Drenched with Rain
Temple Opening and a Blade of Grass
Manifest Not Becoming buddha
Knowledge as a Liberative Practice
Teamwork
The Practice of Patience and Healing
Opening the Forms of Dragon Habitat
Zen Forms
The Emptiness of Forms
Bodhisattva Values in Our Current Situation-Please Vote
Mourning Practice
The Huayan Four-fold Dharmadhatu and its Practice
Buddhism and the Climate Crisis
Intent
The Radical Interconnectedness of Reality in Huayan
Dongshan and the Bird’s Path
World as Self – Self as World
500 Fox Lives; Ghosts and Karma in My Year Residing at a Buddhist Temple
The Diamond Sutra and Signlessness
Decisions about Giving Attention in Our Daily Life
Dongshan and the Monk from the Mountaintop
Two Monks Roll Up the Blinds
9/11 “Terrorism” and Positive Buddhist Visions of Cooperation
Right Livelihood and the Precepts
Dancing in the Dark Fields: Practicing with Chronic Illness and Pain
Practicing Vitality and Energy- part 2
Bowing as Wisdom
Perfection and Improvements
Explorations of Yunmen’s Jewel
The Paramita of Courage
The Practice of Enthusiasm and Sustaining Energy
Everyday Tea and Rice as Awakening
Hiroshima, Nuclear Concerns, and the Practice of Energy
Dana Paramita: Realizing the Diamond Shift
The Practice of Zen Forms
Bodhisattva Precepts as Identity Action
The Poetry of Mary Oliver
Requesting the Diamond Teaching
Confessions
Radical Hope
Four Noble Truths
Independence Day and the Supreme Court
Enlightened Activity, Nourishing Life, and Food
Not Taking what is not Given
About The Book of Form and Emptiness
Who’s Driving the Bus
Old Age, Sickness, Death and Tosotsu’s Three Barriers
Non-Attainment and the Wide Sky
All Matter and Time Includes Life
Devotion
Buffalo and Uvalde
This Wayseeking Mind’s Path
The Intimacy of Transmission
Questioning Balance
Excerpts from Dogen’s Extensive Record
Zen Analogues to Forms of Prayer
Tales of the Bodhisattva Way: a Nun, a Robe, and a President
Report on the Branching Streams Conference
Balance of Control and Letting Go
Dogen’s Landscape Poetry
Greed and the three poisons (Covid and sesshin)
Supporting Peace during Wartime
Our Family Style of Open Hands and Eyes
Where is the Zendo
Sangha Post-Pandemic
Attending to Internal Stories During Zazen
Buddha’s Birthday Ceremony and Grandmotherly Heart