Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: In this talk, Roshi, along with two other members of the Being With Dying faculty, discuss the program and other topics related to end-of-life care. Each of the three share some of their own experiences within the medical and health care community. Pointing out deficiencies exhibited by the system in accommodating the needs of those seeking help as well as offering suggestions as to how the system might be improved. Roshi Joan suggests that fundamentally the work is about love: “loving our patients, loving our colleagues and caring for ourselves.” Roshi goes on to describe what she refers to as the “three fold transparency.” She concludes with a quote by Rilke: “Love and death are the great gifts that are given to us; mostly they are passed on unopened.”

BIO: Dr. Tony Back is Director of Palliative Care at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, an outpatient consultation service, and Professor of Medicine/Oncology at the University of Washington. His academic research focuses on improved patient-clinician communication. He is also head of a gastrointestinal oncology practice in the Seattle area, and an Affiliate Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Dr. Back received his bachelor’s from the Humanities Honors Program at Stanford University and his MD from Harvard Medical School.

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy. After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

Dr. Cynda Rushton is the Anne and George L. Bunting Professor of Clinical Ethics and Professor of Nursing and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University and the Berman Institute of Bioethics. She is also Program Director for the Harriet Lane Compassionate Care Program. A clinician, educator, researcher and advocate for compassionate health care with nearly 30 years of nursing experience, Dr. Rushton’s work focuses on clinical ethics, palliative and end-of-life care, particularly for children, as well as integrated organizational change and leadership. She has led numerous initiatives to cultivate contemplative practices that foster awareness, inquiry and resilience in complex health care settings and to address the detrimental effects of moral distress on clinicians, patients and families. She received her nursing degrees from the University of Kentucky and Medical University of South Carolina,and her doctorate in nursing from the Catholic University of America with a concentration in bioethics. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow.

This is Upaya’s monthly podcast series with our host  Joanna Harcourt-Smith  of  Future Primitive. Today’s guest is  Stephen Batchelor.

Stephen Batchelor is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. Stephen considers Buddhism to be a constantly evolving culture of awakening rather than a religious system based on immutable dogmas and beliefs. Through his writings, translations and teaching, Stephen engages in a critical exploration of Buddhism’s role in the modern world. He is the translator and author of various books and articles on Buddhism, including the bestselling “Buddhism Without Beliefs” (Riverhead 1997) and “Living with the Devil: A Meditation on Good and Evil” (Riverhead, 2004). His most recent publication is “Confession of a Buddhist Atheist” (Spiegel&Grau, 2010)

Stephen speaks with Joanna about “confession of a Buddhist atheist”; a Buddhist way of life; a middle road between religion and secularism; ethics & contemplation without metaphysical beliefs; the Dharma in a global culture; “Buddhism 2.0″; a plurality of discourses: the mythical and the historical; Keats and Zen.

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: In this historically fascinating, yet wonderfully humorous talk, Sean shares some of his favorite passages from his book One Bird, One Stone: 108 American Zen Stories.

Bio:Sean Murphy lives in Taos, New Mexico, with his wife Tania Casselle, a freelance journalist, travel author and fiction writer. His third novel for Bantam/Dell, The Time of New Weather, was released in Mass Market paperback in April 2008, and was named best novel in the 2009 National Federation of Press Women’s Awards, as well as in the NM Press Women’s awards.

Sean is an MFA graduate in writing from The Naropa Institute, the Buddhist-inspired university founded by Poet Allen Ginsberg and Tibetan Lama Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He’s had 20+ years of formal Zen training, first under the direction of Taizan Maezumi Roshi of the Zen Center of Los Angeles and then with John Daido Loori Roshi of Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York. He now studies with Gerry Shishin Wick Roshi of the Great Mountain Zen Center in Colorado.

Sean teaches creative writing, meditation, and literature for the University of New Mexico in Taos, as well as SMU-in-Taos campus at Ft. Burgwin and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: In this dharma talk Shinzan discusses the origins and purpose of work practice, or samu, in Zen. Samu literally means “work service;” service to the three jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. We bring the same mindfulness we practice on the cushion during zazen into our work activities. Especially important to those that are lay practitioners, samu is a way of finding Buddha-nature in our everyday lives.

Bio: Shinzan Jose Manuel Palma was born in Veracruz, Mexico. He has been practicing Zen since 1996. He met his former teacher, Korean Zen Master Samu Sunim in Mexico City and trained under his guidance for 8 years. He did a residential training for 4 years at the Zen Buddhist Temple in Toronto, Canada and was ordained as a novice priest by Samu Sunim in 2004. After leaving Canada, he was invited by Roshi Joan Halifax to come to Upaya in 2006. Shinzan asked Roshi to be her student and he was re-ordained as a Priest in 2007 by Roshi Joan Halifax. Since then, he has been at Upaya practicing with the community. He is now the Head Monk and Temple coordinator, giving guidance to the residents on Zen training. He became Dharma holder on March, 2010. He has a sincere and strong heart committed to the Dharma.

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

The 3 part Spring Sesshin Series : The Path of Paramitas is now published.

You can access the desired part of the series by clicking on its link below:

Spring Sesshin Series : The Path of Paramitas Series (Part 1)

Spring Sesshin Series : The Path of Paramitas Series (Part 2)

Spring Sesshin Series : The Path of Paramitas Series (Part 3, last part)

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: This series of three dharma talks given during the Spring Sesshin by Sensei Robert are focused on the last two paramitas: meditation and wisdom. This concludes a month of practice and study on all six of the paramitas.

Episode Description: Sensei Robert concludes the sesshin and month of teachings on the paramitas with this talk on a bodhisattva’s practice of wisdom, or prajna. A bodhisattva lives in a dependently co-arising reality as described by the Heart Sutra. According to Sensei, “a reality where nothing is permanent, nothing is fixed. Everything is interconnected, interdependent. A bodhisattva has to know how to be skillful. How to manifest their intention in this constantly changing world.” A bodhisattva’s wisdom is demonstrated in a clear understanding of their relationship to everything else, both spatially and temporally. Sensei discusses the wisdom contained in the simple question: “How are you doing?” He then goes on to say that we should think three times before we act. Before taking any action, we can ask ourselves: “Is it true? Is it beneficial? Is it the right time?” Part of the wisdom of a bodhisattva is that one will never truly know the answers to these questions. Still, one must step into each moment making our best effort, doing our best to be skillful. And then stepping into the next moment not knowing how things will turn out.

BIO : Sensei Do-On Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-On (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Spring Sesshin 2013 Series : All 3 Parts

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: This series of three dharma talks given during the Spring Sesshin by Sensei Robert are focused on the last two paramitas: meditation and wisdom. This concludes a month of practice and study on all six of the paramitas.

Episode Description: Sensei Robert continues discussing a Bodhisattva’s practice of meditation. Sensei opens by quoting Suzuki Roshi: “The entire universe is doing zazen in the same way that your body is doing zazen. When all parts of your body are practicing zazen, then that is how the whole universe practice zazen.” Sensei then discusses the role of compassion in practice and it’s apparent omission from the paramitas. He indicates that when we sit doing zazen independent, yet together with everything else that is a profound act of compassion. Sensei also spends part of the talk further discussing Dogen’s quote: “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self.” He concludes by discussing some of his own difficulties with zazen from his early days of practice.

BIO : Sensei Do-On Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-On (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Spring Sesshin 2013 Series : All 3 Parts

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: This series of three dharma talks given during the Spring Sesshin by Sensei Robert are focused on the last two paramitas: meditation and wisdom. This concludes a month of practice and study on all six of the paramitas.

Episode Description: In this morning talk, Sensei Robert continues his discussion of meditation practice and enlightenment from the previous evening’s Dharma Talk. He explains how in Soto Zen there is not much emphasis placed on the notion of enlightenment from the perspective of kensho or an enlightenment experience. Rather Soto Zen considers as a fundamental truth that everything is enlightenment. It is with this understanding that we approach practice and mediation. That meditation offers us an opportunity to realize our true self, or non-self, and realize our perfection as Buddahs. Sensei then offers a detailed explanation of zazen. That we do not perform zazen separately from our lives. We sit zazen right in the middle of our lives. Cultivating our awareness of each moment. This awareness manifests itself on three different levels. On the most basic level is an awareness of our body and mind. At the next level we notice that things are arising in our mind: thoughts, feelings, images and stories. The third level of awareness is that one is awareness itself, not separate from anything, interdependent. In zazen we sit down without any gaining idea. We just sit with each moment. Moment to moment to moment.

BIO : Sensei Do-On Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-On (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Spring Sesshin 2013 Series : All 3 Parts

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: Sensei Robert continues the Spring Practice Period study of the Paramitas by discussing the perfection of meditation, or Dhyana Paramita. Relating that the purpose of meditation is simply “learning how to be a human being, in this body, right here, right now.” According to Dogen: “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe” We study our self in this moment, moment after moment. Sensei Robert explains that we don’t sit zazen to gain enlightenment. We sit without any notion of a gaining idea. Secondly, when we do zazen, we do not do it by ourselves. We do zazen right in the middle of our lives. We do zazen with everything around us, joining the trees, the rocks, the blossom on the peach tree and even the cars.

BIO : Sensei Do-On Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-On (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: In this talk, Sensei Robert discusses the importance of energy to a Bodhisattva. Not the amount or quantity of one’s mental and physical energy, but rather how one uses one’s energy skillfully. Uses their energy with wisdom and compassion to be of benefit to others. How becoming aligned with our deepest intention makes our action effortless.

BIO : Sensei Do-On Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-On (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: Sensei Robert continues the Spring Practice Period study of the Paramitas by discussing the practice of tolerance, or Kshanti Paramita. Sensei relates the famous story of Zen Master Hakuin’s “Is that so?” as a backdrop for this talk. Hakunin’s remarkable patience, acceptance and humility in the face of an slander should serve as a guide in our own practice. Sensei continues by describing the qualities that make for a capable leader in our modern world increasingly marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Leaders that will thrive in such an environment will be characterized by the conviction of their vow, wisdom, clear sight, agility and the ability to receive and respond creatively. Sensei Robert returns to the case of “Is that so?” by considering what is truth in any moment. That one should be questioning, and ready to receive the answer with an open flexible mind.

BIO : Sensei Do-On Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-On (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

The 6 part Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series is now published.

You can access the desired part of the series by clicking on its link below:

Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series (Part 1)

Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series (Part 2)

Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series (Part 3)

Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series (Part 4)

Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series (Part 5)

Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series (Part 6, last part)

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Buddhism recognizes attachment/desire as one of the three “poisons” or afflictions at the root of suffering. In modern Western culture, a consumer economy and the lure of constant, technology-mediated connection fuel our sense of lack and addictions to such things as shopping and the internet. Zen provides a path of liberation from attachment, aversion, and delusion through practice realization of the interdependent, impermanent nature of life, with no fixed, unchanging self at its core.

Recently, neuroscience has provided insights into the plasticity of reward circuitry and chemistry in the brain, as related to attraction and addiction. In this retreat, a philosopher, a neuroscientist, and a Roshi, all of whom are Zen teachers, will explore the relationship of these new scientific discoveries to Buddhist psychology, Zen practice and the challenges of living in a consumerist and technology-driven culture.

Episode Description: In this final session each of the five panelists offer a synopsis of their presentation as well as their overall thoughts regarding the retreat.

BIO: Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy. After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

Al Kaszniak received his Ph.D. in clinical and developmental psychology from the University of Illinois in 1976, and completed an internship in clinical neuropsychology at Rush Medical Center in Chicago. He is currently Director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium Education Core, and a professor in the departments of psychology, neurology, and psychiatry at The University of Arizona (UA. He formerly served as Head of the Psychology Department, and as Director of the UA Center for Consciousness Studies. Al also presently serves as Chief Academic Officer for the Mind and Life Institute, an organization that facilitates collaborative scientific research on contemplative practices and traditions. He is the co-author or editor of seven books, including the three-volume Toward a Science of Consciousness (MIT Press), and Emotions, Qualia, and Consciousness (World Scientific). His research, published in over 150 journal articles and scholarly book chapters, has been supported by grants from the U.S. National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Mental Health, and National Science Foundation, as well as several private foundations. His work has focused on the neuropsychology of Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related neurological disorders, consciousness, memory self-monitoring, emotion, and the psychophysiology of long-term and short-term meditation. Al has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, and has been an advisor to the National Institutes of Health and other governmental agencies. He is a Past-President of the Section on Clinical Geropsychology and fellow of the American Psychological Association and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. In addition to his academic and administrative roles, he is a lineage holder and teacher (Sensei) in the Soto tradition of Zen Buddhism.

David Loy, PhD, was the Besl Family Chair of Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH from 2006 to 2011. Before that he served as professor of philosophy at Bunkyo University in Chigasaki, Japan from 1991 through 2005. In 1971 he began practicing Zen with Robert Aitken Roshi in Hawaii and is an authorized teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen Buddhism, where he completed formal koan training under Zen Master Yamada Koun Roshi.

Lawrence Barsalou is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology at Emory University. He received a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1981. Since then, he has held faculty positions at Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago, returning to Emory in 1997. Barsalou’s research addresses the nature of human conceptual processing and its roles in perception, memory, language, and thought. The current theme of his research is that the conceptual system is grounded in the brain’s modal systems for perception, action, and internal states. Specific topics of current interest include the roles of conceptual processing in emotion, self, stress, abstract thought, and contemplative practices.

Do-On Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-On (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series : All 6 Parts

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Buddhism recognizes attachment/desire as one of the three “poisons” or afflictions at the root of suffering. In modern Western culture, a consumer economy and the lure of constant, technology-mediated connection fuel our sense of lack and addictions to such things as shopping and the internet. Zen provides a path of liberation from attachment, aversion, and delusion through practice realization of the interdependent, impermanent nature of life, with no fixed, unchanging self at its core.

Recently, neuroscience has provided insights into the plasticity of reward circuitry and chemistry in the brain, as related to attraction and addiction. In this retreat, a philosopher, a neuroscientist, and a Roshi, all of whom are Zen teachers, will explore the relationship of these new scientific discoveries to Buddhist psychology, Zen practice and the challenges of living in a consumerist and technology-driven culture.

Episode Description: In this, the second of two question and answer periods, the panel discusses written questions submitted by the retreat participants. Some of the questions include: “what do we know about brain development in children that spend a lot of time playing video games?” “What are the things that we can do about our own addictions, specifically related to technological devices?” A question regarding non-dualism: “If there is nothing to change, and no-one to change. Then why change and to what?” “To what extent might it be legitimate to think of enlightenment as a habit?” “How does long term meditation change the brain from neuroscience’s perspective?”

BIO: Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy. After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

Al Kaszniak received his Ph.D. in clinical and developmental psychology from the University of Illinois in 1976, and completed an internship in clinical neuropsychology at Rush Medical Center in Chicago. He is currently Director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium Education Core, and a professor in the departments of psychology, neurology, and psychiatry at The University of Arizona (UA. He formerly served as Head of the Psychology Department, and as Director of the UA Center for Consciousness Studies. Al also presently serves as Chief Academic Officer for the Mind and Life Institute, an organization that facilitates collaborative scientific research on contemplative practices and traditions. He is the co-author or editor of seven books, including the three-volume Toward a Science of Consciousness (MIT Press), and Emotions, Qualia, and Consciousness (World Scientific). His research, published in over 150 journal articles and scholarly book chapters, has been supported by grants from the U.S. National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Mental Health, and National Science Foundation, as well as several private foundations. His work has focused on the neuropsychology of Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related neurological disorders, consciousness, memory self-monitoring, emotion, and the psychophysiology of long-term and short-term meditation. Al has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, and has been an advisor to the National Institutes of Health and other governmental agencies. He is a Past-President of the Section on Clinical Geropsychology and fellow of the American Psychological Association and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. In addition to his academic and administrative roles, he is a lineage holder and teacher (Sensei) in the Soto tradition of Zen Buddhism.

David Loy, PhD, was the Besl Family Chair of Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH from 2006 to 2011. Before that he served as professor of philosophy at Bunkyo University in Chigasaki, Japan from 1991 through 2005. In 1971 he began practicing Zen with Robert Aitken Roshi in Hawaii and is an authorized teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen Buddhism, where he completed formal koan training under Zen Master Yamada Koun Roshi.

Lawrence Barsalou is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology at Emory University. He received a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1981. Since then, he has held faculty positions at Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago, returning to Emory in 1997. Barsalou’s research addresses the nature of human conceptual processing and its roles in perception, memory, language, and thought. The current theme of his research is that the conceptual system is grounded in the brain’s modal systems for perception, action, and internal states. Specific topics of current interest include the roles of conceptual processing in emotion, self, stress, abstract thought, and contemplative practices.

Do-On Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-On (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series : All 6 Parts

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Buddhism recognizes attachment/desire as one of the three “poisons” or afflictions at the root of suffering. In modern Western culture, a consumer economy and the lure of constant, technology-mediated connection fuel our sense of lack and addictions to such things as shopping and the internet. Zen provides a path of liberation from attachment, aversion, and delusion through practice realization of the interdependent, impermanent nature of life, with no fixed, unchanging self at its core.

Recently, neuroscience has provided insights into the plasticity of reward circuitry and chemistry in the brain, as related to attraction and addiction. In this retreat, a philosopher, a neuroscientist, and a Roshi, all of whom are Zen teachers, will explore the relationship of these new scientific discoveries to Buddhist psychology, Zen practice and the challenges of living in a consumerist and technology-driven culture.

Episode Description: This session is the first of two question and answer periods held by the panel. Questions include : “is there a measurement of ego depletion or is there a state measure of executive capacity?” “Are there good habits?” “What is the basis for us being nice to each other?” “What is the neuroscience underlying liking and wanting? And how do liking and wanting differ?” “How and why does the public declaration of a vow enhance it’s keeping?” “Would those that have impaired mirror neuron systems experience a greater sense of separation?”

BIO: Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy. After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

Al Kaszniak received his Ph.D. in clinical and developmental psychology from the University of Illinois in 1976, and completed an internship in clinical neuropsychology at Rush Medical Center in Chicago. He is currently Director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium Education Core, and a professor in the departments of psychology, neurology, and psychiatry at The University of Arizona (UA. He formerly served as Head of the Psychology Department, and as Director of the UA Center for Consciousness Studies. Al also presently serves as Chief Academic Officer for the Mind and Life Institute, an organization that facilitates collaborative scientific research on contemplative practices and traditions. He is the co-author or editor of seven books, including the three-volume Toward a Science of Consciousness (MIT Press), and Emotions, Qualia, and Consciousness (World Scientific). His research, published in over 150 journal articles and scholarly book chapters, has been supported by grants from the U.S. National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Mental Health, and National Science Foundation, as well as several private foundations. His work has focused on the neuropsychology of Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related neurological disorders, consciousness, memory self-monitoring, emotion, and the psychophysiology of long-term and short-term meditation. Al has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, and has been an advisor to the National Institutes of Health and other governmental agencies. He is a Past-President of the Section on Clinical Geropsychology and fellow of the American Psychological Association and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. In addition to his academic and administrative roles, he is a lineage holder and teacher (Sensei) in the Soto tradition of Zen Buddhism.

David Loy, PhD, was the Besl Family Chair of Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH from 2006 to 2011. Before that he served as professor of philosophy at Bunkyo University in Chigasaki, Japan from 1991 through 2005. In 1971 he began practicing Zen with Robert Aitken Roshi in Hawaii and is an authorized teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen Buddhism, where he completed formal koan training under Zen Master Yamada Koun Roshi.

Lawrence Barsalou is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology at Emory University. He received a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1981. Since then, he has held faculty positions at Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago, returning to Emory in 1997. Barsalou’s research addresses the nature of human conceptual processing and its roles in perception, memory, language, and thought. The current theme of his research is that the conceptual system is grounded in the brain’s modal systems for perception, action, and internal states. Specific topics of current interest include the roles of conceptual processing in emotion, self, stress, abstract thought, and contemplative practices.

Do-On Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-On (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series : All 6 Parts

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Buddhism recognizes attachment/desire as one of the three “poisons” or afflictions at the root of suffering. In modern Western culture, a consumer economy and the lure of constant, technology-mediated connection fuel our sense of lack and addictions to such things as shopping and the internet. Zen provides a path of liberation from attachment, aversion, and delusion through practice realization of the interdependent, impermanent nature of life, with no fixed, unchanging self at its core.

Recently, neuroscience has provided insights into the plasticity of reward circuitry and chemistry in the brain, as related to attraction and addiction. In this retreat, a philosopher, a neuroscientist, and a Roshi, all of whom are Zen teachers, will explore the relationship of these new scientific discoveries to Buddhist psychology, Zen practice and the challenges of living in a consumerist and technology-driven culture.

Episode Description: In this talk Dr. Loy addresses greed and addiction from a Buddhist perspective. He opens with a question: “Why are we as human beings so prone to addictive and compulsive behavior?” According to Dr. Loy, the answer fundamentally lies in dukkha, or suffering and anattã, or non-self. Since our notion of self is constructed and not grounded in anything real, it is inherently unstable resulting in a pervasive sense of lack. While nearly all people experience this sense of lack, they don’t understand where it comes from and incorrectly believe that the problem lies outside of themselves. Therefore they seek to stem this feeling that something is missing by turning to drugs, alcohol, food, video games, money, materialism, and so on. Dr. Loy notes that our economic system and the construct of money itself perpetuates this sense of lack and encourages greed. Since the problem lies within our delusional belief in a self, one must look to this understanding of self to break free from the sense of lack. The Buddha taught that this transformation can occur as a result of closely looking at one’s intentions. Intentional action creates karma, and according to Dr. Loy: “karma isn’t something that the self has… it’s what the sense of self is.” If our motivations are based in greed, ill-will or delusion, they tend to create additional separation, exacerbating the sense of lack. Dr. Loy concludes this talk by examining how this sense of lack has been expanded beyond the individual to entire societies and perhaps our species as a whole. Our greed has been institutionalized in our economic system. Our never ending thirst for more threatens to undermine the ecology of the planet. We must begin to examine not only our own motivations, but also our motivations as a species. Acting not out of The Three Poisons, but rather out of generosity, compassion and wisdom.

BIO: David Loy, PhD, was the Besl Family Chair of Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH from 2006 to 2011. Before that he served as professor of philosophy at Bunkyo University in Chigasaki, Japan from 1991 through 2005. In 1971 he began practicing Zen with Robert Aitken Roshi in Hawaii and is an authorized teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen Buddhism, where he completed formal koan training under Zen Master Yamada Koun Roshi.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series : All 6 Parts

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Buddhism recognizes attachment/desire as one of the three “poisons” or afflictions at the root of suffering. In modern Western culture, a consumer economy and the lure of constant, technology-mediated connection fuel our sense of lack and addictions to such things as shopping and the internet. Zen provides a path of liberation from attachment, aversion, and delusion through practice realization of the interdependent, impermanent nature of life, with no fixed, unchanging self at its core.

Recently, neuroscience has provided insights into the plasticity of reward circuitry and chemistry in the brain, as related to attraction and addiction. In this retreat, a philosopher, a neuroscientist, and a Roshi, all of whom are Zen teachers, will explore the relationship of these new scientific discoveries to Buddhist psychology, Zen practice and the challenges of living in a consumerist and technology-driven culture.

Episode Description: Dr. Larry Barsalou’s presentation, “Grounding and Emptying Desire,” offers insights into how people form behaviors and develop habits. He outlines some fundamental drivers of desire from neuroscience’s perspective; discussing the important role that cognitive “simulation” plays in conceptualization. Dr. Barsalou’s presentation concludes with a synopsis of three experiments that he and his colleagues recently performed. These experiments sought to evaluate the impact that mindfulness might have in curbing desire. The results indicate that mindful attention training may prove beneficial in mitigating craving and limiting unhealthy behaviors.

BIO: Lawrence Barsalou is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology at Emory University. He received a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1981. Since then, he has held faculty positions at Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago, returning to Emory in 1997. Barsalou’s research addresses the nature of human conceptual processing and its roles in perception, memory, language, and thought. The current theme of his research is that the conceptual system is grounded in the brain’s modal systems for perception, action, and internal states. Specific topics of current interest include the roles of conceptual processing in emotion, self, stress, abstract thought, and contemplative practices.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series : All 6 Parts

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Buddhism recognizes attachment/desire as one of the three “poisons” or afflictions at the root of suffering. In modern Western culture, a consumer economy and the lure of constant, technology-mediated connection fuel our sense of lack and addictions to such things as shopping and the internet. Zen provides a path of liberation from attachment, aversion, and delusion through practice realization of the interdependent, impermanent nature of life, with no fixed, unchanging self at its core.

Recently, neuroscience has provided insights into the plasticity of reward circuitry and chemistry in the brain, as related to attraction and addiction. In this retreat, a philosopher, a neuroscientist, and a Roshi, all of whom are Zen teachers, will explore the relationship of these new scientific discoveries to Buddhist psychology, Zen practice and the challenges of living in a consumerist and technology-driven culture.

Episode Description: In this, the opening session of Zen Brain on Greed and Generosity, Roshi Joan starts by offering an overview of the retreat and introduces the members of the panel. Dr. Kaszniak then offers his presentation titled “Addiction and craving: Neuroscientific and Contemplative Clinical Science Perspectives.”

BIO: Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy. After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

Al Kaszniak received his Ph.D. in clinical and developmental psychology from the University of Illinois in 1976, and completed an internship in clinical neuropsychology at Rush Medical Center in Chicago. He is currently Director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium Education Core, and a professor in the departments of psychology, neurology, and psychiatry at The University of Arizona (UA. He formerly served as Head of the Psychology Department, and as Director of the UA Center for Consciousness Studies. Al also presently serves as Chief Academic Officer for the Mind and Life Institute, an organization that facilitates collaborative scientific research on contemplative practices and traditions. He is the co-author or editor of seven books, including the three-volume Toward a Science of Consciousness (MIT Press), and Emotions, Qualia, and Consciousness (World Scientific). His research, published in over 150 journal articles and scholarly book chapters, has been supported by grants from the U.S. National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Mental Health, and National Science Foundation, as well as several private foundations. His work has focused on the neuropsychology of Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related neurological disorders, consciousness, memory self-monitoring, emotion, and the psychophysiology of long-term and short-term meditation. Al has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, and has been an advisor to the National Institutes of Health and other governmental agencies. He is a Past-President of the Section on Clinical Geropsychology and fellow of the American Psychological Association and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. In addition to his academic and administrative roles, he is a lineage holder and teacher (Sensei) in the Soto tradition of Zen Buddhism.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Zen Brain Greed and Generosity Series : All 6 Parts

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: In this talk Dr. Loy discusses the necessity for bringing the western and Buddhist traditions together in order to address the challenges currently faced throughout the world. The highest ideal of the western tradition being that of social transformation to make a more just society. While the highest ideal of the Buddhist tradition being insight into the true nature of self. Dr Loy goes on to discuss how the greed, ill-will and delusion have poisoned not just the individual, but society as a whole. In many regards the Three Poisons have been institutionalized in our consumer driven economy, militarization and media. Dr. Loy concludes by looking at institutional greed more closely in evaluating how the stock market works.

BIO: David Loy, PhD, was the Besl Family Chair of Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH from 2006 to 2011. Before that he served as professor of philosophy at Bunkyo University in Chigasaki, Japan from 1991 through 2005. In 1971 he began practicing Zen with Robert Aitken Roshi in Hawaii and is an authorized teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen Buddhism, where he completed formal koan training under Zen Master Yamada Koun Roshi.

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: Sensei Robert kicks off the Spring Practice Period by offering some of his early practice period experiences. He then briefly discusses that the pāramitās will be the focus of study over the next month. The remainder of this talk focuses on the Four Bodhisattva Vows. Sensei relates the story of Joshu’s Stone Bridge and how this metaphor can be used to convey the meaning of the Four Vows.

BIO : Sensei Do-On Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-On (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

Recently Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join this growing and active community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: In this dharma talk Sensei Robert he asks “What is your path?” “How are the pāramitās manifested in the path of a bodhisattva?” “How do our paths differ from each others’, and change throughout our lives?” Sensei then describes his conceptualization of three fundamental paths: The path of transmission; the path of learning and development; and finally the path of unlearning and unknowing. Robert then shares the wonderful story of a recent experience that he had here in Santa Fe. An example of how one’s path can transition from being in a state of learning to that of unknowing. How one often finds the most remarkable things on the path of openness and not-knowing. Regardless of how one characterizes their path, ultimately they must look closely at what their intention is in any moment.

BIO : Sensei Do-On Robert Thomas is a Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Rev. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Robert’s dharma name, given to him when he was ordained as a priest in 2000, is Shi-Zan Do-On (Lion Mountain, Path of Kindness). He has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1993, and in 2008 he received “Dharma Transmission” from his teacher, Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Today, Robert leads Zen retreats and workshops, and gives public lectures throughout the year. The expression of his Buddhist practice in his teachings has been focused on helping people from all walks of life to realize the practical benefits of Zen practice and meditation (zazen), and extend the Zen mind, with its qualities of openness, clarity, and flexibility, into every moment of their life.

This is Upaya’s monthly podcast series with our host  Joanna Harcourt-Smith  of  Future Primitive. Today’s guest is  Richard Davidson.

Richard J. Davidson is the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior and the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience, and Founder and Chair of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig from 2011-2017 and as Chair of the Psychology section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 2011-2013. He is the author of the book (with Sharon Begley) “The Emotional Life of Your Brain.”

Richard speaks with Joanna about cultivating resilience to navigate the challenges of life with more equanimity, grace and compassion; the “kindness curriculum;” contemplative training: nourishing the seeds of compassion; a historic meeting of scientists and Tibetan contemplative practitioners; compassion practices and neuroplasticity.

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

The 5 part series Spring Renewal Weekend : Wholehearted Upaya is now published.

You can access the desired part of the series by clicking on its link below:

Spring Renewal Weekend : Wholehearted Upaya Series (Part 1)

Spring Renewal Weekend : Wholehearted Upaya Series (Part 2A)

Spring Renewal Weekend : Wholehearted Upaya Series (Part 2B)

Spring Renewal Weekend : Wholehearted Upaya Series (Part 3A)

Spring Renewal Weekend : Wholehearted Upaya Series (Part 3B, last part)

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Each Spring the world reinvents itself in accord with the ancient way. Trees flower, streams swell, days grow longer and warmer. As for us, encircled by sky and mountains, even burdened by our cares, we can come together to renew our zen practice which is simply wholehearted body and mind practice. This practice is rooted in the silence of zazen and extends to all corners of our life – family, work, and social engagement.

Our core text will be Eihei Dogen’s “Bendowa,” his “Teaching on the Wholehearted Way.” Here he emphasizes upright sitting that is available to everyone, the expression of our enlightened nature. Along with Dogen’s words, in the spirit of Spring we will rely on poems, songs, good food, and friendship to renew life itself.

Episode Description: Sensei Alan resumes his discussion of Dogen’s Bendōwa starting with question 5 which regards zazen not as a means to some realization but as an expression of ones already existing enlightenment. Alan then works through the remaining questions in a quite illuminating manner. He then takes questions from the audience, one of which leads to a quite lively debate regarding the use of mindfulness in corporate and military contexts. Finally the session concludes with Alan playing the guitar and singing Greg Fain’s beautiful Our Hero.

BIO : Hozan Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Spring Renewal Weekend : Wholehearted Upaya Series : All 5 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Each Spring the world reinvents itself in accord with the ancient way. Trees flower, streams swell, days grow longer and warmer. As for us, encircled by sky and mountains, even burdened by our cares, we can come together to renew our zen practice which is simply wholehearted body and mind practice. This practice is rooted in the silence of zazen and extends to all corners of our life – family, work, and social engagement.

Our core text will be Eihei Dogen’s “Bendowa,” his “Teaching on the Wholehearted Way.” Here he emphasizes upright sitting that is available to everyone, the expression of our enlightened nature. Along with Dogen’s words, in the spirit of Spring we will rely on poems, songs, good food, and friendship to renew life itself.

Episode Description: Sensei Alan opens this session by reading an email that he had just received earlier that day from one of his teachers, Shodo Harada Roshi. This letter entitled “Wake-up Call” speaks to the interdependance of our practice and places of practice. The group then discusses their own understanding and experience with Easter, the commercialization of Easter, Passover, and personal rebirth. Following this discussion, Sensei starts working through the question and answer section of Bendōwa covering questions one through three.

BIO : Hozan Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Spring Renewal Weekend : Wholehearted Upaya Series : All 5 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: In this third Dharma talk given by Sensei Alan, he continues within the framework of “an appropriate response” by discussing engaged Buddhism. Alan uses the case of Yumen’s Medicine and Sickness from the Blue Cliff Record to provide a foundation for his thoughts. “Medicine and disease subdue each other. The whole Earth is medicine. Where do you find yourself?”

BIO : Hozan Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Each Spring the world reinvents itself in accord with the ancient way. Trees flower, streams swell, days grow longer and warmer. As for us, encircled by sky and mountains, even burdened by our cares, we can come together to renew our zen practice which is simply wholehearted body and mind practice. This practice is rooted in the silence of zazen and extends to all corners of our life – family, work, and social engagement.

Our core text will be Eihei Dogen’s “Bendowa,” his “Teaching on the Wholehearted Way.” Here he emphasizes upright sitting that is available to everyone, the expression of our enlightened nature. Along with Dogen’s words, in the spirit of Spring we will rely on poems, songs, good food, and friendship to renew life itself.

Episode Description: This session of the Spring Renewal Weekend continues with a careful and insightful study of the opening sections of Dogen’s Bendōwa. At the conclusion of the session, Sensei accepts answers from the participants.

BIO : Hozan Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Spring Renewal Weekend : Wholehearted Upaya Series : All 5 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Each Spring the world reinvents itself in accord with the ancient way. Trees flower, streams swell, days grow longer and warmer. As for us, encircled by sky and mountains, even burdened by our cares, we can come together to renew our zen practice which is simply wholehearted body and mind practice. This practice is rooted in the silence of zazen and extends to all corners of our life – family, work, and social engagement.

Our core text will be Eihei Dogen’s “Bendowa,” his “Teaching on the Wholehearted Way.” Here he emphasizes upright sitting that is available to everyone, the expression of our enlightened nature. Along with Dogen’s words, in the spirit of Spring we will rely on poems, songs, good food, and friendship to renew life itself.

Episode Description: Sensei Alan opens this session with a wonderful rendition of Leadbelly’s “Relax Your Mind.” After noting that the fundamental message Dogen’s Bendōwa is “You can do this,” Alan then takes questions from the participants. He offers definitions of and explanations for a number of Buddhist words and terms that such as Tathagata, dharma, and samadhi. Additional questions regard the meaning of “undconditioned” in the opening paragraph of Bendōwa as well as a discussion regarding jhāna.

BIO : Hozan Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Spring Renewal Weekend : Wholehearted Upaya Series : All 5 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Each Spring the world reinvents itself in accord with the ancient way. Trees flower, streams swell, days grow longer and warmer. As for us, encircled by sky and mountains, even burdened by our cares, we can come together to renew our zen practice which is simply wholehearted body and mind practice. This practice is rooted in the silence of zazen and extends to all corners of our life – family, work, and social engagement.

Our core text will be Eihei Dogen’s “Bendowa,” his “Teaching on the Wholehearted Way.” Here he emphasizes upright sitting that is available to everyone, the expression of our enlightened nature. Along with Dogen’s words, in the spirit of Spring we will rely on poems, songs, good food, and friendship to renew life itself.

Episode Description: In this opening session Sensei Alan introduces the Spring Renewal Weekend retreat. He begins by discussing the meaning of Spring as a time of rebirth from an environmental perspective, a religious perspective as well personal. He frames the structure of the weekend and indicates that Dogen’s Bendōwa, On the Endeavor of the Way, will be used as the core teaching for the weekend. The fundamental questions each person should ask themselves through out the weekend are: “What is Spring for you?” “How can one be fully alive, fully flowering, fully functioning?” Sensei concludes by offering a brief overview of Dogen’s life and then discusses the opening paragraphs of Bendōwa.

BIO : Hozan Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Spring Renewal Weekend : Wholehearted Upaya Series : All 5 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: In this dharma talk Sensei Senauke picks up where he left off two weeks ago when he spoke about appropriate action. In this talk he explores when Yes and No might each be skillful means and how they exhibit interdependency.

BIO : Hozan Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: In this sweeping and spirited Dharma talk, Roshi Joe Bobrow first invites us to enjoy the imminence of the here and now and reminds us that there is nothing to attain and nothing left unattained. He then outlines an integrative view of the Zen path; of practice, enlightenment and embodiment. In the process of communicating this vision– taken from 40 years of practice, teaching, and work as a psychotherapist — Roshi Bobrow poses some major challenges to traditional assumptions about the path. He argues that including input from Western Psychology can help us to create a more user-friendly, human, and contemporary Zen story. In particular, he advocates understanding the role of unconscious intentions and motivations in our ‘impacts’ on the world. “This is a way,” he says, “to reduce the harm, and to increase the benevolence and joy for ourselves and for others.”

Teacher BIO: Joseph Bobrow is a Zen master and the founder of Deep Streams Zen Institute in San Francisco, authorized to teach by the late Robert Aitken, Roshi of Diamond Sangha. Deep Streams has a three part mission: Zen Buddhist practice, including authentic koan study, continuing education for mental health practitioners on Buddhism, spirituality and psychotherapy, and service to the community through the Coming Home Project, a series of holistic, community and peace-building programs for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families and care providers. Joseph is also a clinical psychologist, relational psychoanalyst, and author, whose new book, Zen and Psychotherapy: Partners in Liberation, explores the fertile interplay of Buddhism and psychotherapy in relieving suffering and helping us realize and embody our true nature. He teaches throughout the United States and abroad.

BIO : Hozan Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

We are launching a new podcast series (Upaya Conversations), that’s a collaboration with different outstanding teachers, scholars, visionaries, thought leaders, or organizations in Buddhism and other fields of human development. Joanna Harcourt-Smith of Future Primitive will be hosting this monthly series of conversations with Upaya’s collaborators.

We begin this series with scholars from Neuroscience/Neuropsychology … The first guest is  Evan Thompson.

Evan is a philosopher who works in the fields of cognitive science, Phenomenology, and cross-cultural philosophy, especially Asian philosophy and contemporary Buddhist philosophy in dialogue with Western philosophy and science. He is the author of “Waking, Dreaming, Being: New Light on the Self and Consciousness from Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy” (Columbia University Press, forthcoming) and of Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind (Harvard University Press, 2007). He is also the co-author of The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (MIT Press, 1991; new expanded edition, 2014).

Evan speaks with Joanna about his forthcoming book “Waking, Dreaming, Being…”: how consciousness and the sense of self shift in different waking states, lucid dreaming…through the twin perspectives of neuroscience of consciousness and meditative experience and philosophy; lucid dreaming in a contemplative context; being a philosopher in a post-modern world; autopoiesis: life creates its own ends; love & the web of life: this deeper, organic embeddedness; embodied mind, gender and aging; sitting & movement: complementary contemplative practices; science and meditation: the primacy of mind as direct experience.

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

The 7 part 2013 series Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying is now published.

You can access the desired part of the series by clicking on its link below:

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series (2013) : Part 1

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series (2013) : Part 2A

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series (2013) : Part 2B

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series (2013) : Part 3

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series (2013) : Part 4A

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series (2013) : Part 4B

Retreat on Contemplative Practice and Rituals in Service to the Dying Series (2013) : Part 5, last part

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax are pioneers in the End-of-Life care field. This unique program is an intensive plunge into core contemplative practices, and is especially suited to clinicians, professional caregivers, hospice workers, and those who tend the dying. Participants will learn practices that can be taught to dying people as well as ritual processes for those who are dying and their families. This retreat will be experiential, the teachers talks and directions will be included in the podcasts but not the participant responses.

Episode Description: On this final day of the retreat, Roshi and Frank express their thanks, and John offers another poem. The teachers then speak about peri-death and rituals and practices that can offer support at that time. The ritual that concludes this retreat has not been podcast.

Teacher BIOs: In 1987, Frank Ostaseski helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others.

Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary workshop leader. His public programs throughout the United States and Europe have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2013) : All 7 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax are pioneers in the End-of-Life care field. This unique program is an intensive plunge into core contemplative practices, and is especially suited to clinicians, professional caregivers, hospice workers, and those who tend the dying. Participants will learn practices that can be taught to dying people as well as ritual processes for those who are dying and their families. This retreat will be experiential, the teachers talks and directions will be included in the podcasts but not the participant responses.

Episode Description: In the continuation of the afternoon session. Roshi talks about her time as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Library of Congress. During this time, she inquired deeply into the question, “what is compassion.” Roshi then introduces and unpacks a few models to describe key aspects of compassion that developed out of this research. She shares the ABIDE model and the GRACE model, which are helpful tools being used to train compassion more effectively. These models also allow us to work more skillfully in difficult situations, particularly in the process of caregiving.

Teacher BIOs: In 1987, Frank Ostaseski helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others.

Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary workshop leader. His public programs throughout the United States and Europe have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2013) : All 7 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax are pioneers in the End-of-Life care field. This unique program is an intensive plunge into core contemplative practices, and is especially suited to clinicians, professional caregivers, hospice workers, and those who tend the dying. Participants will learn practices that can be taught to dying people as well as ritual processes for those who are dying and their families. This retreat will be experiential, the teachers talks and directions will be included in the podcasts but not the participant responses.

Episode Description: In this session, Roshi first invites a member of the audience, John Willison, to share some of the moving poetry he has written, inspired through his experience living with metastatic cancer. Following this, Roshi leads a short guided meditation. She then offers the 3 tenets of life and practice developed by her teacher, Bernie Glassman.

Teacher BIOs: In 1987, Frank Ostaseski helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others.

Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary workshop leader. His public programs throughout the United States and Europe have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2013) : All 7 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax are pioneers in the End-of-Life care field. This unique program is an intensive plunge into core contemplative practices, and is especially suited to clinicians, professional caregivers, hospice workers, and those who tend the dying. Participants will learn practices that can be taught to dying people as well as ritual processes for those who are dying and their families. This retreat will be experiential, the teachers talks and directions will be included in the podcasts but not the participant responses.

Episode Description: Roshi begins the session with the poem, “Designed to Fly,” by Ellen Waterston. Frank then introduces an approach to practice that involves a “fearless transparency,” in which we embrace the obscurations of mind. He then names the major obstacles to this type of transparency; the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion. He also labels these as the process of demand, defend and distract (or pull, push, and distract.) Frank then explores how to identify and work with these afflictive states. Throughout this exploration, Roshi and Frank inquire into how the three poisons might specifically impact the process of caregiving. Frank then leads a guided meditation in which we investigate our relationship to greed, hatred, and delusion in our practice. After introducing a group discussion activity in which we relate what we discovered through this practice, Frank ends the session with a guided lovingkindness meditation.

Teacher BIOs: In 1987, Frank Ostaseski helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others.

Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary workshop leader. His public programs throughout the United States and Europe have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2013) : All 7 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

UPDATE : Roshi’s Mar 5th hangout has been canceled.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax are pioneers in the End-of-Life care field. This unique program is an intensive plunge into core contemplative practices, and is especially suited to clinicians, professional caregivers, hospice workers, and those who tend the dying. Participants will learn practices that can be taught to dying people as well as ritual processes for those who are dying and their families. This retreat will be experiential, the teachers talks and directions will be included in the podcasts but not the participant responses.

Episode Description: This podcast is the continuation of 2A. Exploration of reflection and forgiveness is continued. This is followed with an exercise on self-forgiveness and a poem by Arthur Miller. The last 24 mins of the podcast is Friday nights session which explored meaningful rituals in the weeks or days preceding death. Confession, letter writing, forgiveness, gift giving and story telling were all mentioned.

Teacher BIOs: In 1987, Frank Ostaseski helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others.

Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary workshop leader. His public programs throughout the United States and Europe have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2013) : All 7 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

UPDATE : Roshi’s Mar 5th hangout has been canceled.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax are pioneers in the End-of-Life care field. This unique program is an intensive plunge into core contemplative practices, and is especially suited to clinicians, professional caregivers, hospice workers, and those who tend the dying. Participants will learn practices that can be taught to dying people as well as ritual processes for those who are dying and their families. This retreat will be experiential, the teachers talks and directions will be included in the podcasts but not the participant responses.

Episode Description: The first day of the retreat includes a number of experiential activities and then retreatants reflections. The instruction for each activity are podcast so that listeners can try these activities for themselves. (The reflections which are very personal are not included.) The morning session starts with instructions for processing the guided meditation. The next activity is an inquiry process. The first question is: “Tell me a way that you avoid your suffering.” The next question is: “Tell me a way you experience being open.” After exploring these questions, Roshi offers a poem. The afternoon session starts with a story and a guided meditation. Frank then speaks about contemplative practices that might serve the dying and caregivers reflection and forgiveness. This session is continued in Part 2B.

Teacher BIOs: In 1987, Frank Ostaseski helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others.

Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary workshop leader. His public programs throughout the United States and Europe have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2013) : All 7 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

UPDATE : Roshi’s Mar 5th hangout has been canceled.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Description: Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax are pioneers in the End-of-Life care field. This unique program is an intensive plunge into core contemplative practices, and is especially suited to clinicians, professional caregivers, hospice workers, and those who tend the dying. Participants will learn practices that can be taught to dying people as well as ritual processes for those who are dying and their families. This retreat will be experiential, the teachers talks and directions will be included in the podcasts but not the participant responses.

Episode Description: This opening session begins with a series of questions to explore the participant’s personal and professional experiences with death. It becomes clear that all have been touched by death. After a period of introduction, participants break up into triads and explore how their lives have been touched by death. The podcast picks up with Roshi’s exploration of “why we meditate.” and then a guided meditation.

Teacher BIOs: In 1987, Frank Ostaseski helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others.

Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary workshop leader. His public programs throughout the United States and Europe have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Contemplative Practice and Rituals Retreat (2013) : All 7 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

UPDATE : Roshi’s Mar 5th hangout has been canceled.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: In a wise and loving talk, Frank Osteseski, talks about experiencing its true nature. Some of the key ideas presented are: Awareness of who you are in the moment. Non-interference is the key. Relax the habit to direct and encourage the habit to simply be aware with presence. Resistance is contra-indicated in meditation practice. We resist hoping to get rid of it but resisting causes it to persist. Relax and be present to whatever occurs. Including reduces resistance.

Teacher BIO: In 1987, Frank Ostaseski helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others.

Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary workshop leader. His public programs throughout the United States and Europe have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

Wisdom 2.0

Roshi Joan’s talk on Radical Compassion at Wisdom 2.0

Direct Link : http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2635433/events/1887199/videos/12406412

Also this gives access to all the other wonderful talks at this amazing event!

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

UPDATE : Roshi’s Mar 5th hangout has been canceled.

Engaged Buddhism

Episode Description: In this provocative talk Maia invites us to look at our practice. She explores three layers: our internal world, our family and friends world and the world of the planet we live on. How do we live out our Zen practice in these worlds, she queries. The last 12 minutes of this Dharma talk consists of the sound track of the documentary, “Being Peace in a time of War.” You will experience the interviews and music from the 2003 action in San Francisco and 2005 march in Washington DC, both of which took place in light of the War in Iraq.

Teacher Biography: Maia Duerr directs Upaya’s Buddhist Chaplaincy Program. She serves on Upaya’s Engaged Buddhism faculty. She is an anthropologist, writer, and editor.

In 2012, Maia received lay ordination from Roshi Joan Halifax as a lay Buddhist chaplain. She is also a student in the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi, and has lived and practiced at the San Francisco Zen Center where she received jukai from Victoria Shosan Austin in 2008.

From 2004-2008, Maia worked at the Buddhist Peace Fellowship where she served as executive director and editor of Turning Wheel magazine.

From 2002-2004, Maia was the research director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she led a study on the use of meditation and other contemplative practices in secular settings. She is the author of a number of articles on this topic, including “The Contemplative Organization,” published in the February 2004 issue of the Journal of Organizational Change Management.

Maia’s writing can be found on her blogs The Liberated Life Project, and The Jizo Chronicles.

Heart of Truth Series : Part 1A

Heart of Truth Series : Part 1B

Heart of Truth Series : Part 2

Heart of Truth Series : Part 3, last part

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

UPDATE : Roshi’s Mar 5th hangout has been canceled.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Descripton: We live in a world that is besieged with violence and war. Our children, our earth, our lives are touched daily by this culture of violence. What can a contemplative perspective offer in these difficult times? This program explores in an immediate way how we actualize peace, non-violence, and principled compassion into our everyday lives and into the life of the world.

Episode Description: Roshi begins by telling a story about her potentially sacrilegious act of offering communion. Then, She and Father John take questions from the audience. Discussions ensue about different levels of violence; ‘black swan’ moments in the history of nonviolent movements; how to work with fatigue in peacemaking; and how to get involved.

Teacher BIOs : Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

John Dear is an American Catholic priest, pacifist, and author. He graduated magna cum laude from Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina in 1981 and has received two master’s degrees in theology from the Jesuit School of Theology. Over the years, he has been arrested over 75 times in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience against war, injustice and nuclear weapons. He has given thousands of lectures on peace, disarmament and nonviolence in churches, schools and universities across the United States, and around the world. He writes a weekly column for the National Catholic Reporter. He is also featured in several other books and in a wide variety of U.S. publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. He is featured in the DVD documentary film, The Narrow Path, and the subject of John Dear On Peace, by Patti Normile (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009). John Dear has received several Peace awards, including the 2010 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award, from the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa; and the Courage of Conscience Award, from the Peace Abbey in Boston, Massachusetts. John Dear has been also nominated several times for the Nobel Peace prize, most notably, in January, 2008, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Heart of Truth Series : All 4 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

UPDATE : Roshi’s Mar 5th hangout has been canceled.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Descripton: We live in a world that is besieged with violence and war. Our children, our earth, our lives are touched daily by this culture of violence. What can a contemplative perspective offer in these difficult times? This program explores in an immediate way how we actualize peace, non-violence, and principled compassion into our everyday lives and into the life of the world.

Episode Description: Roshi Joan begins the afternoon session with a short guided meditation to help us develop compassion and equanimity, or in her words, a “soft front” and a “strong back.” She then shares stories from her own lifelong journey of peacemaking. Later, she summarizes 6 qualities of mind and action that characterize the “awakened warrior,” and implores us to think about how we can become a worldwide community of bodhisattvas.

Teacher BIOs : Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

John Dear is an American Catholic priest, pacifist, and author. He graduated magna cum laude from Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina in 1981 and has received two master’s degrees in theology from the Jesuit School of Theology. Over the years, he has been arrested over 75 times in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience against war, injustice and nuclear weapons. He has given thousands of lectures on peace, disarmament and nonviolence in churches, schools and universities across the United States, and around the world. He writes a weekly column for the National Catholic Reporter. He is also featured in several other books and in a wide variety of U.S. publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. He is featured in the DVD documentary film, The Narrow Path, and the subject of John Dear On Peace, by Patti Normile (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009). John Dear has received several Peace awards, including the 2010 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award, from the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa; and the Courage of Conscience Award, from the Peace Abbey in Boston, Massachusetts. John Dear has been also nominated several times for the Nobel Peace prize, most notably, in January, 2008, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Heart of Truth Series : All 4 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

UPDATE : Roshi’s Mar 5th hangout has been canceled.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Descripton: We live in a world that is besieged with violence and war. Our children, our earth, our lives are touched daily by this culture of violence. What can a contemplative perspective offer in these difficult times? This program explores in an immediate way how we actualize peace, non-violence, and principled compassion into our everyday lives and into the life of the world.

Note: This episode is a composite of sessions from February 16 & 17, 2013

Episode Description: This podcast continues John Dear’s exploration of practicing non-violence inside the world. He explains the resources he draws on for his work: the Beatitudes, Scripture, Grief, Joy, Solitude and Mentors. He follows with an inspirational discourse for people who aspire to be activists for peace.

Teacher BIOs : Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

John Dear is an American Catholic priest, pacifist, and author. He graduated magna cum laude from Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina in 1981 and has received two master’s degrees in theology from the Jesuit School of Theology. Over the years, he has been arrested over 75 times in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience against war, injustice and nuclear weapons. He has given thousands of lectures on peace, disarmament and nonviolence in churches, schools and universities across the United States, and around the world. He writes a weekly column for the National Catholic Reporter. He is also featured in several other books and in a wide variety of U.S. publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. He is featured in the DVD documentary film, The Narrow Path, and the subject of John Dear On Peace, by Patti Normile (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009). John Dear has received several Peace awards, including the 2010 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award, from the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa; and the Courage of Conscience Award, from the Peace Abbey in Boston, Massachusetts. John Dear has been also nominated several times for the Nobel Peace prize, most notably, in January, 2008, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Heart of Truth Series : All 4 Parts

Roshi Joan and Upaya Zen Center launched a new Google+ Community on Engaged Buddhism. Please visit & join the community.

UPDATE : Roshi’s Mar 5th hangout has been canceled.

Engaged Buddhism

Series Descripton: We live in a world that is besieged with violence and war. Our children, our earth, our lives are touched daily by this culture of violence. What can a contemplative perspective offer in these difficult times? This program explores in an immediate way how we actualize peace, non-violence, and principled compassion into our everyday lives and into the life of the world.

Note: This episode is a composite of sessions from February 15 & 16, 2013

Episode Description: This podcast is a composite of the the talks given by John Dear. In the opening session of this program, Roshi Joan invites her distinguished colleague, Reverend John Dear, to introduce his approach to peacemaking through sharing some of the incredible experiences he has gone through during a lifetime of working for non-violence. We then continue with his second talk in which he relates Three questions he finds helpful for his own reflection are: Where are we on the journey for peace; How has our life been a journey out of the culture of violence; How do we practice truth and peace and non-violence. And begins to examine practicing non-violence inside the world. He suggests three angles for this practice: being non-violent to ourselves; being non-violent to every person we meet for the rest of our lives; and being part of the global movement of non-violence that is our hope to transform the world.

Teacher BIOs : Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

John Dear is an American Catholic priest, pacifist, and author. He graduated magna cum laude from Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina in 1981 and has received two master’s degrees in theology from the Jesuit School of Theology. Over the years, he has been arrested over 75 times in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience against war, injustice and nuclear weapons. He has given thousands of lectures on peace, disarmament and nonviolence in churches, schools and universities across the United States, and around the world. He writes a weekly column for the National Catholic Reporter. He is also featured in several other books and in a wide variety of U.S. publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. He is featured in the DVD documentary film, The Narrow Path, and the subject of John Dear On Peace, by Patti Normile (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009). John Dear has received several Peace awards, including the 2010 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award, from the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa; and the Courage of Conscience Award, from the Peace Abbey in Boston, Massachusetts. John Dear has been also nominated several times for the Nobel Peace prize, most notably, in January, 2008, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:
Heart of Truth Series : All 4 Parts

After Buddhism Series (Part 1)

After Buddhism Series (Part 2A)

After Buddhism Series (Part 2B)

After Buddhism Series (Part 3)

After Buddhism Series (Part 4)

After Buddhism Series (Part 5A)

After Buddhism Series (Part 5B)

After Buddhism Series (Part 6)

After Buddhism Series (Part 7)

After Buddhism Series (Part 8A)

After Buddhism Series (Part 8B)

After Buddism Series (Part 9, last part)