The Berkeley Zen Center Audio Archive

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Showing 3306 talks

Title	Speaker	Date
Impermanence Serial: BZ-03198 The talk examines impermanence as a basis for meeting personal and collective upheaval without clinging to preferred outcomes. Zazen cultivates the capacity to let experience unfold, providing steadiness for appropriate action;... *Suffering, Suzuki Roshi, Impermanence*	Ellen Webb	Apr 12 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
Why we celebrate Buddha’s birthday Serial: BZ-03273 The talk frames Buddha’s birthday as a celebration of awakening as both an individual responsibility and an interconnected practice. The birth story, the image of Indra’s net, and Dōgen’s “Practice Buddha” teaching ground a call... *Six Realms, Zazen, Suffering*	Ryushin Andrea Thach	Apr 05 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
Talk on the Genjo Koan Serial: BZ-03197 The talk reads Dōgen’s Genjō Kōan as teaching the actualization of reality through wholehearted engagement with each present activity. Practice requires sustained effort without grasping at enlightenment or judging experience as... *Enlightenment, Koan, Zazen*	Gary Artim	Mar 29 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
How We Grow in Practice Serial: BZ-03196 The talk presents communal Zen practice as a field for gradual transformation, not the elimination of difficulty: practice helps people recognize where they become fixed and meet those conditions as the path. Through the linked... *Compassion, Wisdom, Community*	Hondo Dave Rutschman	Mar 22 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
Zen and the Pursuit of Happiness Serial: BZ-03195 The talk argues that Zen practice requires recognizing interdependence and resisting the impulse to reduce people to fixed categories. Compassion, curiosity, and careful engagement—including practical action against harm—support... *Suffering, Happiness, Compassion*	Doshin Dan Gudgel	Mar 08 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
Penetrating Anger as a Dharma Get in Turbulent Times Serial: BZ-03194 The talk presents anger as a Dharma gate: practice neither suppresses nor indulges it, but uses mindfulness, ethical commitments, and close investigation to transform its energy into non-harming action. Drawing on Buddhist... *Hate, Emotions, Sangha*	Gerry Oliva	Mar 01 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
Impressions of Hozan Serial: BZ-03193 The talk presents Buddhist practice as the transformation of inner and outer entanglement through zazen, precept study, wisdom, and compassionate action. It portrays enlightened activity not as a special experience but as conduct... *Concentration, Practice Period, Book of Serenity*	Laurie Senauke	Feb 22 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
The Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance Serial: BZ-03048 The talk presents Dōgen’s Shishōbō—the bodhisattva’s four methods of guidance—as practices that integrate inward cultivation with action among living beings. Giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and identity action each enact... *Dogen, Four Methods of Guidance, Ceremony*	Linda Galijan	Feb 15 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
Call Me By My True Names Class 3 of 3 Serial: BZ-02991 The talk reads Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Please Call Me by My True Names” as an invitation to look deeply at change and to recognize oneself in both suffering and joy, victim and perpetrator. Holding these realities without denial can... *Compassion, Suffering, War*	Peter Overton	Feb 11 2025 Class 3 of 3 Berkeley Zen Center
Family Sangha Practice Serial: BZ-03192 The talk examines family as an initial sangha whose relational patterns persist in practice, and presents zazen, compassion, sympathetic joy, and right intention as ways to recognize and work with those patterns. Experiences of... *Sangha, Suffering, Compassion*	Carol Paul	Feb 08 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
Taking Refuge – Mutual Affinity with the Three Treasures Serial: BZ-03275 The talk presents taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha as a devotional practice and a source of grounding amid fear and uncertainty. Drawing on Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō fascicle “Kie Sanbō,” it emphasizes refuge as reciprocal... *Sangha, Suzuki Roshi, Soto Zen*	Zenshin Greg Fain	Feb 01 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
Call Me By My True Names Class 2 of 3 Serial: BZ-02990 The talk reads Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Please Call Me by My True Names” through emptiness and interbeing: beings are distinct yet arise through conditions, so recognizing their interdependence means meeting joy, suffering, and... *Emptiness, Heart Sutra, Compassion*	Peter Overton	Jan 27 2025 Class 2 of 3 Berkeley Zen Center
Uncertainty and Change as a Field of Practice Serial: BZ-03191 The talk treats uncertainty, impermanence, and change as a field of practice: the Heart Sutra’s teaching of emptiness and interdependence undermines attachment to fixed outcomes, while practice addresses the suffering added... *Suffering, Heart Sutra, Karma*	Linda Galijan	Jan 25 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
Feel It to Heal It Serial: BZ-03190 The talk argues that Zazen and Buddhist ceremonies help practitioners remain present with grief and other difficult feelings, enabling healing. It connects the Soto Zen 49-day memorial cycle and devotional engagement with... *Zazen, Ceremony, Japan*	Zenshin Greg Fain	Jan 18 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
Call Me By My True Names Class 1 of 3 Serial: BZ-02989 The class examines Thích Nhất Hạnh’s poem “Please Call Me by My True Names” as an inquiry into interdependence, naming, and compassion. Its paired images—from mayfly and bird to victim and perpetrator—challenge fixed identities... *Suffering, Class, Emptiness*	Peter Overton	Jan 13 2025 Class 1 of 3 Berkeley Zen Center
Dipping a Toe into Nagarjuna’s “Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way” Serial: BZ-03189 The talk presents Nāgārjuna’s Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way as a study of emptiness: phenomena lack independent, fixed essence because they arise dependently, yet remain conventionally real. This view does not negate... *Emptiness, Study, Liberation*	Sue Oehser	Jan 11 2025 Berkeley Zen Center
Foolish Sentient Beings Serial: BZ-03187 The talk presents enlightenment as continuous practice-realization rather than a final attainment: zazen includes both the exposed and concealed aspects of experience, and foolishness, suffering, and delusion are not separate... *Enlightenment, Practice Period, Lotus Sutra*	Zenshin Greg Fain	Dec 07 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Falling in Fragility, Waking Up to Mutuality Serial: BZ-03186 The talk presents fragility as an opening to mutuality: awakening and continuous practice arise through reciprocal acts of falling, offering, receiving, and serving, rather than through isolated effort. Drawing on Shakyamuni’s... *Continuous Practice, Intimacy, Zazen*	Judy Fleischman	Dec 06 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Vows of Old Ancestor Eihei Dogen Serial: BZ-03185 The talk interprets Dōgen’s Eihe Kōso Hotsuganmon as a vow renewed moment by moment: to hear and trust the Dharma, work through karmic habits, and practice with all beings, none of whom are excluded from awakening. Zazen and... *Dogen, Doubt, Suzuki Roshi*	Linda Galijan	Dec 05 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Falling Serial: BZ-03184 The talk frames Zen practice as continual “falling” and returning: instability, distraction, and difficult reactions are not failures but occasions to notice experience and resume practice. During sesshin, steady effort (virya)... *Suzuki Roshi, Zazen, Virya*	Linda Galijan	Dec 04 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Think Not Thinking Serial: BZ-03183 The talk links Dōgen’s instruction “think of not thinking” with Yashan’s teaching of non-thinking: zazen is not the suppression of thoughts but a relaxed, present awareness that lets thoughts arise without grasping or judgment.... *Zazen, Suzuki Roshi, Sekito Kisen*	Zenshin Greg Fain	Dec 03 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
The Buddha’s Instructions for Sitting Meditation Serial: BZ-03182 The talk presents the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta’s four establishments of awareness—especially mindfulness of body and breath—as a direct path to awakening, practiced through non-clinging attention to experience in both meditation and... *Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Zazen, Suffering*	Linda Galijan	Dec 02 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Zen Therapy, Talk Therapy Serial: BZ-03181 The talk distinguishes psychotherapy’s analytical account of the self from Zen practice’s direct inquiry into experience, while treating both as potentially complementary means of clarifying suffering and perception. Zazen, self-... *Study, Ego, Priest*	Ross Blum	Nov 30 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Abbot’s Update Serial: BZ-03180 The talk addresses the effects of serious illness on teaching and administrative capacity, with an emphasis on relying on sangha, delegating responsibilities, and planning leadership succession through an elders council and board... *Sangha, Suzuki Roshi, Community*	Hozan Alan Senauke	Nov 23 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Choosing Love and Freedom Serial: BZ-02935 The talk argues that Buddhist freedom arises not from control over circumstances but from meeting suffering with empathy, sustaining relationships, and protecting life. It connects this ethic to Zenju Earthlyn Manuel’s call for... *Suffering, Liberation, Chanting*	Linda Galijan	Nov 17 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
See As Is Serial: BZ-03179 The talk presents “see as is” as a sustained practice of meeting people and circumstances without imposing fixed stories or trying to control outcomes. In the account of a difficult relationship with a brother, open attention... *Money, Koan, Sangha*	Penelope Thompson	Nov 16 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Metta and Right Effort Serial: BZ-02934 The talk frames the four right efforts as a practical orientation for training the mind: abandon unwholesome states already present, prevent those not yet arisen, cultivate wholesome states, and sustain those already present.... *Effort, Suffering, Right Effort*	Linda Galijan	Nov 09 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Aspects Class 4 of 4 Ordinary Bodhisattvas Serial: BZ-02988 The talk presents equanimity (upekkhā) as an active, learnable steadiness that neither suppresses experience nor withdraws from others’ suffering. Through Zazen, bodily awareness, and the cultivation of the other Brahmavihāras,... *Equanimity, Class, Hindrances*	Linda Galijan	Nov 08 2024 Class 4 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
Ordinary Bodhisattva at the Election Serial: BZ-03178 The talk presents bodhisattva practice amid political crisis as the cultivation of a softened, attentive heart: practitioners examine their own reactions, meet suffering with curiosity and patience, and act from the precepts of... *Healing, Suffering, Equanimity*	Ryushin Andrea Thach	Nov 02 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Aspects Class 3 of 4 Ordinary Bodhisattvas Serial: BZ-02987 The talk presents mudita (sympathetic or appreciative joy) as a cultivable fruit of practice and a foundational Bodhisattva quality: openness to others’ joy counters envy and conceit, while remaining possible alongside grief and... *Suffering, Sangha, Happiness*	Zenshin Greg Fain	Nov 01 2024 Class 3 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
Aspects Class 2 of 4 Ordinary Bodhisattvas Serial: BZ-02986 The talk presents the four brahmavihāras as both expressions of awakened mind and practices that support its cultivation. Focusing on compassion (karuṇā), it distinguishes compassion from pity and compulsive fixing, recommends... *Compassion, Effort, Separation*	Linda Galijan	Oct 26 2024 Class 2 of 4 Berkeley Zen Center
Equanimity, Stories and Dharma Serial: BZ-03177 The talk presents equanimity as an ongoing practice of remaining present and responsive without clinging, aversion, or reliance on a fixed self. Through personal examples and Zen teachings, it emphasizes patience, flexibility,... *Equanimity, Compassion, Bodhidharma*	Gary Artim	Oct 19 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Cultivating Metta, Remembering Maylie Serial: BZ-03176 The talk presents metta as an enacted practice: cultivating love, compassion, joy, and equanimity through zazen, ethical action, and work for justice, without attachment to outcomes. Remembering Maylie Scott, it connects her... *Dharma Transmission, Repentance, Transmission*	Zenshin Greg Fain	Oct 12 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Practicing with Aging, Illness and Death Serial: BZ-03175 The talk examines how Buddhist practice meets aging, illness, and death through firsthand reflection on a brother’s dying. It emphasizes impermanence, ethical presence, compassion, and letting go—not as the denial of pain or... *Sangha, Politics, Suffering*	Rhonda Magee	Sep 28 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Your Continuous Practice Serial: BZ-03174 The talk interprets Dōgen’s Gyōji (“Continuous Practice”) as teaching that aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvāṇa are not sequential or separable: practice-realization is enacted in each present moment and throughout... *Continuous Practice, Dogen, Enlightenment*	Linda Galijan	Sep 21 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Free Fall into Buddha’s Hand Serial: BZ-03307 The talk argues that compassion and universal love arise through recognizing interdependence and are enacted through sustained practice, especially zazen and metta. Remaining present with fear and suffering builds the capacity to... *Zazen, Buddha Nature, Soto Zen*	Zenshin Greg Fain	Sep 14 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Practicing With Not Knowing Serial: BZ-03173 The talk presents “not knowing” as an active mode of Zen inquiry rather than ignorance or indifference: practitioners allow experience to arise without grasping at conclusions, while continuing zazen, ethical practice, and sangha... *Sangha, Zazen, Study*	Karen Sundheim	Sep 07 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Be Yourself Serial: BZ-02929 The talk interprets “just be yourself” as allowing experience—including thoughts, discomfort, and resistance—without trying to suppress or improve it. Through Zazen and ordinary activity, practice involves meeting each moment as... *Suzuki Roshi, Effort, Zazen*	Ellen Webb	Aug 24 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Bodhisattva Communication in Mutual Liberation Serial: BZ-03172 The talk frames bodhisattva communication as “going along together”: awakening and liberation arise relationally, through embodied attention, listening, and genuine understanding rather than individual attainment. The Bodhisattva... *Bodhisattva, Liberation, Sangha*	Judy Fleischman	Aug 17 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Synchronicity, Serendipity and Suchness Serial: BZ-03171 The talk argues that synchronicity and serendipity can disclose interdependence when experience is received without imposing conceptual narratives. Through Dōgen’s Bendōwa and Genjōkōan, it connects suchness with jijuyū-zanmai,... *Enlightenment, Dogen, Zazen*	Gerry Oliva	Aug 10 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
The Edge of Things Serial: BZ-02927 The talk presents “standing on one’s own two feet” as a practice of locating oneself socially, historically, and physically, then meeting others and difficult conditions with openness. Drawing on the Four Noble Truths and the... *Eightfold Path, Ceremony, Community*	Hozan Alan Senauke	Aug 03 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
The First Brahmavihara Serial: BZ-03170 The talk presents metta (loving-kindness), the first of the four Brahmavihāras, as a cultivable practice expressed through action rather than dependent on feeling. It connects self-kindness, acceptance, and zazen with extending... *Happiness, Lovingkindness, Suffering*	Carol Paul	Jul 20 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
World Beyond Conditions Serial: BZ-03169 The talk presents the conditioned “dusty world” and the world beyond conditions as interwoven, with Zen practice training practitioners to meet crisis without suppressing feeling or demanding a particular response. It connects... *Big Mind, Consciousness, Buddha Nature*	Laurie Senauke	Jul 13 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Trees and Politics Serial: BZ-03168 The talk links care for trees with political engagement as forms of continuous practice: both require attention, patience, and action without certainty of results or a “gaining idea.” It considers how Zen practice and the... *Politics, Practice Period, Zazen*	Sue Oehser	Jul 06 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Objects and Altars Serial: BZ-03167 The talk argues that Zen practice dissolves the object–subject division through respectful attention to ordinary things, while holding together nonduality and difference. Zazen, ritual forms, and care for material objects serve... *Suzuki Roshi, Zazen, Delusion*	Ross Blum	Jun 29 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
On Spiritual Friendship Serial: BZ-03166 The talk presents kalyāṇamitta (spiritual friendship) as central to the holy life: friends support practice through trust, confidentiality, endurance, compassionate presence, and playful challenge. Examples from Buddhist, Zen,... *Sangha, Suzuki Roshi, War*	Susan Moon	Jun 22 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Happiness, Breath, and Posture Serial: BZ-03295 The talk presents zazen as wholehearted activity in the present, where breath, posture, and attention make room for pain and emotion without turning them into additional suffering. Happiness based on circumstances is impermanent... *Zazen, Happiness, Posture*	Susan Marvin	Jun 15 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Letting Go Serial: BZ-02926 The talk frames letting go as repeatedly releasing attachment through attention to the exhale, posture, and immediate activity, rather than trying to force thoughts or fear away. Zazen and sesshin cultivate patience by staying... *Patience, Zazen, Suzuki Roshi*	Karen Sundheim	Jun 14 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Ordinary Mind, Outer Space and Samadhi Serial: BZ-03294 The talk interprets Case 19 of the Mumonkan—“Ordinary Mind Is the Way”—as a teaching against pursuing enlightenment or other desired outcomes as separate from present practice. Ordinary mind does not mean an absence of thoughts... *Koan, Ordinary Mind, Enlightenment*	Karen DeCotis	Jun 13 2024 Berkeley Zen Center
Why Practice? Serial: BZ-02925 The talk presents zazen as repeated engagement with the present conditions of life: practitioners refrain from following every preference, gradually loosen self-clinging, and encounter Buddhist teachings through embodied... *Koan, Zazen, Practice Period*	Ellen Webb	Jun 08 2024 Berkeley Zen Center

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