The Berkeley Zen Center Audio Archive

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Showing 3288 talks

Title	Speaker	Date
I Love ZAZEN Serial: BZ-03232 The talk presents zazen as a continuous practice of staying present with whatever arises, rather than a means to attain a future state. Through the image of the I Ching’s cauldron, Suzuki Roshi’s account of repetition, and Dōgen’... *Zazen, Suzuki Roshi, Practice Period*	Zenshin Greg Fain	Dec 02 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Cultivating Equanimity Serial: BZ-03387 -	Kristin Diggs	Sep 12 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
The Four Great Awarenesses Serial: BZ-03386 The talk reframes the Four Noble Truths as four great awarenesses: suffering as change and dissatisfaction; its causes in one’s responses and attempts to escape discomfort; the possibility of its cessation; and the Eightfold Path... *Suffering, Practice Period, Zazen*	Peter Overton	Sep 05 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Deepening Practice Serial: BZ-03385 -	Linda Galijan	Aug 29 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Wood and Lineage Serial: BZ-03384 The talk examines Soto Zen lineage as a historically entangled network rather than a self-contained transmission: trade, political patronage, and cross-cultural contact shape the institutions and objects through which the... *Japan, Soto Zen, Karma*	Dana Takagi	Aug 22 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Reflecting on Buddha Nature Serial: BZ-03060 The talk presents Buddha nature not as a separate, idealized inner quality but as the connective capacity to notice experience, recognize what is absent or needed, and respond appropriately. Zazen practice extends beyond the... *Buddha Nature, Family Practice, Zazen*	Marie Hopper	Aug 15 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Showing Up To Your Life Serial: BZ-03269 -	Sue Oehser	Aug 08 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Practicing Equanimity Serial: BZ-03268 The talk presents equanimity as a balanced responsiveness grounded in karma: actions of body, speech, and mind shape experience, while wishes alone cannot control outcomes. Rather than indifference or withdrawal, equanimity... *Equanimity, Suffering, Ceremony*	Linda Galijan	Aug 01 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Back to Basics Serial: BZ-03267 The talk presents Zen practice as a return to basics: rather than trying to control the mind or attain enlightenment, practitioners make room for present experience and verify Buddhist teachings through practice. Zazen also... *Enlightenment, Chanting, Zazen*	Laurie Senauke	Jul 25 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Plunge Into Sangha Serial: BZ-03266 -	Zenshin Greg Fain	Jul 18 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Simply Continue Serial: BZ-03265 The talk reads the closing lines of the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi as an instruction to practice continuously and unobtrusively, without striving or self-calculation. Tassajara’s fire-damaged zendo illustrates how forms... *Buddha Nature, Continuous Practice, Sandokai*	Gendo Lucy Xiao	Jul 11 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
What Is It? Serial: BZ-03264 -	Mushim Patricia Ikeda	Jun 27 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Connection is the First Noble Truth Serial: BZ-03263 -	Ryushin Andrea Thach	Jun 20 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
It’s Not What You Think (Day 5 Sesshin) Serial: BZ-03262 -	Linda Galijan	Jun 14 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Thinking, Not-thinking, Non-thinking (Day 4 Sesshin) Serial: BZ-03261 -	Linda Galijan	Jun 13 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
The Gift of Losing Things (Day 3 Sesshin) Serial: BZ-03260 -	Colleen Busch	Jun 12 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
The Form of Zazen as Actualization of True Reality (Day 2 Sesshin) Serial: BZ-03259 -	Linda Galijan	Jun 11 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Tending the Garden of Sesshin Practice (Day 1 sesshin) Serial: BZ-03258 -	Linda Galijan	Jun 10 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Love is All We Ever Talk About Serial: BZ-03257 -	Ellen Webb	Jun 06 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
The Koan of Everyday Life (Class 5 of 5) Serial: BZ-03006 The talk reads Dōgen’s Genjōkōan through the interdependence of time, being, and particular circumstances: practice and realization occur in the present, as each person responds to the myriad things. It also stresses that... *Dogen, Dharma Position, Koan*	Shinshu Roberts	Jun 04 2026 Class 5 of 5 Berkeley Zen Center
Buckets of Loss and the Joy Train Serial: BZ-03256 -	Colleen Busch	May 30 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
The Koan of Everyday Life (Class 4 of 4) Serial: BZ-03005 The talk concludes a study of Dōgen’s Genjō Kōan, presenting practice as the immediate enactment of nonduality by a limited, impermanent self: realization is not separate from everyday activity, and Buddha-nature does not... *Koan, Buddha Nature, Soto Zen*	Linda Galijan	May 28 2026 Class 4 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
Everything I Encounter is My Life Itself Serial: BZ-03057 -	Linda Galijan	May 23 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
The Koan of Everyday Life (Class 3 of 4) Serial: BZ-03004 The talk reads the second paragraph of Dōgen’s Genjō Kōan as a teaching on selfing and nondual realization: carrying the self toward phenomena is delusion, while allowing phenomena to come forth and “experience themselves” is... *Delusion, Koan, Enlightenment*	Linda Galijan	May 21 2026 Class 3 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
The Koan of Everyday Life (Class 2 of 4) Serial: BZ-03003 The talk reads the opening passages of Dōgen’s Genjō Kōan as three complementary ways of seeing: phenomena as distinct, as empty of fixed self and interdependent, and beyond the opposition between the many and the one. Practice... *Delusion, Hate, Heart Sutra*	Linda Galijan	May 14 2026 Class 2 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
Nothing is Hidden Serial: BZ-03253 The talk reads Dōgen’s Genjōkōan and Sandōkai as describing self-study, forgetting the self, and realization as simultaneous rather than sequential. Through the shuso’s entering ceremony and reflections on identity, belonging,... *Study, Koan, Sandokai*	Mary Duryee	May 09 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
The Koan of Everyday Life (Class 1 of 4) Serial: BZ-03002 The talk frames Dōgen’s Genjō Kōan as an inquiry into how practice-realization manifests in ordinary life, not only in zazen. Its central teaching holds particularity and interdependence together: each phenomenon occupies its own... *Koan, Dogen, Class*	Linda Galijan	May 07 2026 Class 1 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
Practice and Everyday Life Serial: BZ-03252 The talk presents Dōgen’s Genjō Kōan as the koan of everyday life: practice realizes the unity of absolute and relative reality through ordinary activity, relationships, and ethical conduct. The practice period therefore... *Practice Period, Koan, Zazen*	Linda Galijan	May 02 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Inside the Flower Garland Sutra (Book Talk) Serial: BZ-03251 -	Ben Connelly	Apr 30 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
What Does it Mean to Be a Zen Priest? Serial: BZ-03250 -	Linda Galijan	Apr 25 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Mindfulness in a Time of Muck Serial: BZ-03274 The talk argues that mindfulness and sangha practice can meet contemporary “muck”—including polarization, oppression, war, and inequality—by joining personal practice with compassionate, engaged action. It proposes community... *Community, Sangha, Generosity*	Rhonda Magee	Apr 18 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Miraculous Stories of the Buddha’s Birth Serial: BZ-03055 -	Linda Galijan	Apr 11 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Awakening to Full Aliveness Serial: BZ-03249 The talk presents an engaged, restorative interpretation of the Four Noble Truths: recognize harm, investigate its causes and conditions, support individual and collective agency, and follow the Eightfold Path toward wholeness.... *Eightfold Path, Suffering, Soto Zen*	Lien Shutt	Apr 04 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Fire, No Kings, and Being OK and Not-OK Serial: BZ-03247 The talk uses the burning of Tassajara’s zendo and the No Kings demonstrations to examine how Zen practice holds grief, fear, and injustice without denying their reality or becoming overwhelmed by them. It frames this as an... *Suffering, Practice Period, Sangha*	Linda Galijan	Mar 28 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Practicing the Precepts in Dangerous Times Serial: BZ-03245 The talk argues that, in violent and uncertain times, Buddhist precepts offer a basis for acting by vow rather than habitual karma. Through zazen, practitioners observe and release anger and ill will; the precepts are applied... *Karma, War, Precepts*	Karen Sundheim	Mar 14 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Practicing the Bodhisattva Precepts (Class 2 of 4) Serial: BZ-03008 The class examines the three bodily precepts—non-killing, non-stealing, and non-misusing sexuality—as practices of attention to how desire, aversion, and perceived lack shape harm. Through Bodhidharma’s One Mind Precepts and... *Precepts, Study, Class*	Karen Sundheim	Mar 12 2026 Class 2 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
Reflections on the Mountain Seat Serial: BZ-03244 -	Linda Galijan	Mar 07 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Practicing the Bodhisattva Precepts (Class 1 of 4) Serial: BZ-03007 The class frames the Bodhisattva precepts as living vows that redirect habitual karma rooted in greed, hate, and delusion, rather than as fixed prohibitions. It links their practical application to Mahayana skillful means,... *Precepts, Class, Jukai*	Karen Sundheim	Mar 05 2026 Class 1 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
Prelude to the Mountain Seat Serial: BZ-03243 -	Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi	Feb 28 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
The Buddha’s Final Reflections on Life and Practice Serial: BZ-03242 The talk reads the Pali Mahāparinibbāna Sutta as the Buddha’s effort to prepare the sangha for his death: practitioners must rely on themselves and the Dharma, cultivate the 37 factors of awakening, and persist in practice amid... *Nirvana, Happiness, Suffering*	Linda Galijan	Feb 21 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
The Heart in the Heart Sutra Serial: BZ-03241 The talk reads the Heart Sutra as a living practice rather than a philosophical artifact: its wisdom is enacted through faith, renunciation, chanting, and embodied practice, not exhausted by conceptual understanding. Through... *Heart Sutra, Suffering, Wisdom*	Mark Copithorne	Feb 14 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Caring for Zazen Serial: BZ-03240 The talk reframes the question “How is your zazen?” as “How am I taking care of zazen?”: attending to bodily arrival, sensory and informational inputs, and a non-grasping relationship to thought supports beginner’s mind as a... *Zazen, Suzuki Roshi, Buddha Nature*	Eli Brown-Stevenson	Feb 07 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Appropriate Response (Class 4 of 4) Serial: BZ-02950 Class on Appropriate Response: Speech as a Field of Intimate Practice The class treats difficult conversation as a field of intimate practice: first assess whether speaking is useful, then approach it with curiosity, clarity, groundedness, and attention to power and harm. Active listening,... *Listening, Class*	Linda Galijan	Feb 05 2026 Class 4 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
practicing with illness and the eight qualities of a great person Serial: BZ-02949 The talk presents sudden illness as a practice of loss, letting go, and adapting to an altered life. Through Dōgen’s eight qualities of a great person, it emphasizes few desires, knowing what is enough, quietude, compassion,... *Compassion, Zazen, Wisdom*	Carol Paul	Jan 31 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Appropriate Response (Class 3 of 4) Serial: BZ-03001 Class on Appropriate Response: Speech as a Field of Intimate Practice The class connects the five skandhas with the “feelings” and “identity” conversations in Difficult Conversations, emphasizing how bodily sensation, interpretation, and conditioned mental formations shape difficult exchanges. It... *Five Skandhas, Emotions, Consciousness*	Linda Galijan	Jan 30 2026 Class 3 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
Buddha Sutras Are All the Worlds in the 10 Directions Serial: BZ-03052 Dōgen’s “Buddha Sutras” presents sutras not as written texts alone but as the whole field of experience: teachers, practice, realization, and all worlds in the ten directions. Aspiration, continuous practice, and enlightenment... *Dogen, Enlightenment, Lotus Sutra*	Linda Galijan	Jan 24 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Appropriate Response (Class 2 o f4) Serial: BZ-03000 Class on Appropriate Response: Speech as a Field of Intimate Practice The class applies the Heart Sutra’s teaching on emptiness to difficult conversations: because the causes and conditions shaping a conflict are not fixed, responses can change and reduce suffering. Drawing on a communication... *Suffering, Doubt, Class*	Linda Galijan	Jan 23 2026 Class 2 Berkeley Zen Center
I’m Nobody, Who Are You? Serial: BZ-03239 The talk interprets Kakuan’s ten Oxherding Pictures as a spiral of practice rather than a linear path to completion: practitioners repeatedly encounter searching, insight, discipline, emptiness, and compassionate return to... *Enlightenment, Wisdom, Compassion*	Penelope Thompson	Jan 17 2026 Berkeley Zen Center
Appropriate Response (Class 1 of 4) Serial: BZ-02999 Class on Appropriate Response: Speech as a Field of Intimate Practice The class frames appropriate response as lifelong Zen practice, treating speech—including digital communication—as ethical action within the Eightfold Path. It examines the Buddha’s criteria for right speech and their limits,... *Right Speech, Class, Community*	Linda Galijan	Jan 16 2026 Class 1 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
Not Wind, Not Flag Serial: BZ-03238 The talk interprets the “Not Wind, Not Flag” koan as an invitation to notice how conceptual mind shapes responses to events, without fixing on either external circumstances or one’s interpretation of them. It connects this... *Koan, Practice Period, Zazen*	Gendo Lucy Xiao	Jan 10 2026 Berkeley Zen Center

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