An edited transcript of a Dharma talk given at Shasta Abbey in 2018. You are perfect, just as you are, but you could use a little improvement.1 This is a rather well-known, and to me stunning, quote from Shunryu Suzuki … Continue reading →
Adapted from a sangha-led Dharma discussion, February 25, 2024. It’s been about a year since I took the Precepts in May 2023. Yes, I had an idea about what I was doing. No, I had no idea about what “taking … Continue reading →
First published in the April-June 2024 Berkeley Buddhist Priory Newsletter. The basic teaching in Buddhism is very simple and straightforward. The essence of the Buddha’s Dharma is in the Buddha’s very first teaching after his great enlightenment — the Four … Continue reading →
A lightly edited transcript of a talk given online at the Priory in 2020. These are challenging times we’re living in, and we might all find ourselves sitting with strong, persistent, recurrent feelings: fear and anxiety; despair, perhaps … Continue reading →
In a recent article, written to mark the centenary of American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin’s birth, Kenan Malik states that Baldwin: “…had to confront not just the fact of being black in an oppressively racist world, … Continue reading →
A transcript of a Dharma talk given during a meditation period at Throssel’s Segaki retreat in October 2024. In the chapter of Shōbōgenzō, “Shōji”, or “Birth and Death”, Dōgen says the following: This birth-and-death is the life of … Continue reading →
An edited transcript of teaching given during the lay trainees’ sesshin in August 2024. I’d like to look at what Dōgen means when he says, in Rules for Meditation: “The kōan appears naturally in daily life”.1 This is a clue … Continue reading →
In this article, first published online in the Dew on the Grass blog, Anna describes how her childhood experience of pain caused a disconnect between body and mind, as a method of survival, and how Buddhist practice, over time, was … Continue reading →
An edited transcript of a Dharma talk given to the Priory congregation in January 2023. What I wanted to start with for this talk was the line from the Sandōkai that gets brought up many times, the one where it … Continue reading →
I’ve been a lay practitioner at the Columbia, South Carolina Zen Priory for eight months now. Recently, Reverend Master Rokuzan invited the sangha to write an article for the OBC Journal. I have benefitted greatly from the Journal’s articles … Continue reading →