Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast https://www.upaya.org The Upaya Dharma Podcast features Wednesday evening Dharma Talks and recordings from Upaya’s diverse array of programs. Our podcasts exemplify Upaya’s focus on socially engaged Buddhism, including prison work, end-of-life care, serving the homeless, training in socially engaged practices, peace & nonviolence, compassionate care training, and delivering healthcare in the Himalayas. Tue, 03 Nov 2026 05:49:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.upaya.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/cropped-upaya-favicon-2026-32x32.png Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast https://www.upaya.org 32 32 Joan Halifax | Zen Buddhist Teacher Upaya Abbot false Joan Halifax | Zen Buddhist Teacher Upaya Abbot dharmapodcast@gmail.com Copyright 2006-2018, Upaya Zen Center. All rights reserved. Copyright 2006-2018, Upaya Zen Center. All rights reserved. podcast Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast https://www.upaya.org/images/upaya-dharma-podcasts-1400x1400.jpg https://www.upaya.org TV-G bcbf1f19-8079-5135-90ac-0aea1b44afcf The Proliferation of Stories https://www.upaya.org/2026/11/dalton-proliferation-of-stories/ Mon, 02 Nov 2026 12:00:37 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111292 https://www.upaya.org/2026/11/dalton-proliferation-of-stories/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/11/dalton-proliferation-of-stories/feed/ 0 In this Wednesday night Dharma talk, Genryu Clayton Dalton explores papañca, the Pali term for the way the mind turns experience into ever-multiplying stories. Most of the time we don’t notice this happening. A narrative takes shape, and we accept it as simply the way things are. The Madhupindika Sutta, or Ball of Honey Sutra, points to this unchecked proliferation as the root of conflict.

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]]> full 42:35 The Measure of Our Humanity: FREEDOM https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kornfield-freedom-measure-of-our-humanity-freedom/ Sun, 01 Nov 2026 02:50:05 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111286 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kornfield-freedom-measure-of-our-humanity-freedom/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kornfield-freedom-measure-of-our-humanity-freedom/feed/ 0 In this session of The Measure of Our Humanity, meditation teacher and author Jack Kornfield explores freedom as something already ours rather than a reward for spiritual effort. Many of us treat practice as a self-improvement project, a dutiful effort to become better versions of ourselves. Yet beneath the shifting dramas of body, emotion, and thought lies a timeless awareness no circumstance can…

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]]> full 1:33:24 FPP 2026 Sesshin Day 6: When Boundlessness Makes a Seven-Pound Shirt https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-fpp-2026-sesshin-day-6-when-boundlessness-makes-a-seven-pound-shirt/ Sun, 01 Nov 2026 02:35:43 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111276 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-fpp-2026-sesshin-day-6-when-boundlessness-makes-a-seven-pound-shirt/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-fpp-2026-sesshin-day-6-when-boundlessness-makes-a-seven-pound-shirt/feed/ 0 On the sixth and final day of the Fall Practice Period sesshin, Sensei Kathie Fischer takes up a koan in which a monk asks Zhao Zhou a sweeping question about oneness, only to hear about a shirt he once made. Kathie hears in that reply the meeting of form and emptiness: the one returns to the many, and the many are always particular. “We don’t live in generalizations,” she says. “We live in the…

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]]> full 33:49 FPP 2026 Sesshin Day 5: Letting Practice Be Ordinary https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fpp-2026-sesshin-day-5-letting-practice-be-ordinary/ Sun, 01 Nov 2026 02:20:34 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111279 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fpp-2026-sesshin-day-5-letting-practice-be-ordinary/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fpp-2026-sesshin-day-5-letting-practice-be-ordinary/feed/ 0 On the fifth day of the Fall Practice Period sesshin, Sensei Shinzan turns to an exchange between Zhao Zhou and his teacher, Nanquan. Shinzan reads the story as a gentle test of how deeply insight has settled into the body. Realizing that every activity is practice is not the same as expressing that realization through action. Insight becomes real only when it comes through naturally…

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]]> full 45:09 Zhao Zhou’s Instructions for Finding Our True Home https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kear-zhao-zhous-instructions-for-finding-our-true-home/ Mon, 26 Oct 2026 11:00:50 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111141 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kear-zhao-zhous-instructions-for-finding-our-true-home/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kear-zhao-zhous-instructions-for-finding-our-true-home/feed/ 0 In this Wednesday night Dharma talk, given on the fourth day of Upaya’s Fall Practice Period Sesshin, Sensei Cynthia Ryotan Kear explores how Zhao Zhou understands “leaving home.” For the Tang dynasty master the departure from home was never only about robes, shaved heads, or monastery walls. The deeper renunciation is of the dwelling we build in our minds: our fixed ideas…

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]]> full 48:13 FPP 2026 Sesshin Day 3: Unburdened Attention https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-fpp-2026-sesshin-day-3-unburdened-attention/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 20:00:51 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111136 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-fpp-2026-sesshin-day-3-unburdened-attention/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-fpp-2026-sesshin-day-3-unburdened-attention/feed/ 0 In this Dharma talk, given on the third day of Upaya’s Fall Practice Period Sesshin, Sensei Sokaku Kathie Fischer offers gentle guidance on meeting thoughts in zazen. She invites us to sit like a grandmother, with a wide lap for every rambunctious or troubled grandchild: the squirmy, the grumpy, the crying. We can sit with each one, seeing and loving, without getting caught up in their stories.

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]]> full 28:50 FPP 2026 Sesshin Day 2: Going Straight On https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fpp2026-sesshin-day-2-going-straight-on/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 19:46:23 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111132 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fpp2026-sesshin-day-2-going-straight-on/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fpp2026-sesshin-day-2-going-straight-on/feed/ 0 In this Dharma talk, given on the second full day of Upaya’s Fall Practice Period Sesshin, Sensei Shinzan returns to Zhao Zhou, the Tang dynasty master whose teachings have shaped this season of practice. Through two of Zhao Zhou’s koans, he gently loosens our inclination to be critical of our own practice. In sesshin we may come face to face with our limitations and insecurities…

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]]> full 45:27 FPP 2026 Sesshin Day 1: Beyond Picking and Choosing https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kear-fpp2026-sesshin-day-1-beyond-picking-and-choosing/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 19:30:29 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111129 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kear-fpp2026-sesshin-day-1-beyond-picking-and-choosing/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kear-fpp2026-sesshin-day-1-beyond-picking-and-choosing/feed/ 0 In this Dharma talk, given on the first full day of Upaya’s Fall Practice Period Sesshin, Sensei Cynthia Ryotan Kear turns to a poem echoed throughout the koans of Tang dynasty master Zhao Zhou. Reading Robert Olson’s translation of the well-known Xinxin Ming, or Mind of Absolute Trust, Cynthia shows how readily our likes and dislikes split the wholeness of experience. She reminds us how sesshin…

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]]> full 45:17 FPP 2026: The Buddha Before You (Part 5) https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fpp-2026-buddha-before-you-5/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 16:45:36 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111123 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fpp-2026-buddha-before-you-5/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fpp-2026-buddha-before-you-5/feed/ 0 In this Zazenkai Dharma talk during Upaya’s Fall Practice Period, Sensei Shinzan explores confidence in practice through Zhaozhou’s first meeting with his teacher Nanquan. Asked whether he has seen the temple’s standing Buddha—whether he has awakened—the young Zhaozhou replies that he sees a reclining Buddha, Nanquan himself, resting before him. For Sensei Shinzan, this exchange points to an…

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]]> full 49:40 FPP 2026: The Space All Around Thoughts (Part 3) https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-fpp2026-space-all-around-thoughts-3/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 16:30:49 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111120 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-fpp2026-space-all-around-thoughts-3/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-fpp2026-space-all-around-thoughts-3/feed/ 0 In this Zazenkai day Dharma talk, Sensei Kathie Fisher turns to several of Zhao Zhou’s understated koans as part of Upaya’s Fall Practice Period. She explores what Zhao Zhou’s teacher meant by “ordinary mind”: not the busy, problem-solving mind we are so familiar with, but the simple awareness in which all experience rests. “This is not in opposition to thoughts,” she says. “It is the space all…

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]]> full 41:23 FPP 2026: Introduction to the Text: Zhao Zhou’s Legacy and Teachings (Part 2) https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-kear-fischer-fpp2026-introduction-text-zhao-zhous-legacy-teachings-2-x/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 16:15:52 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111117 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-kear-fischer-fpp2026-introduction-text-zhao-zhous-legacy-teachings-2-x/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-kear-fischer-fpp2026-introduction-text-zhao-zhous-legacy-teachings-2-x/feed/ 0 In this introduction to the text during Upaya’s Fall Practice Period, Senseis Kathy Fisher, Cynthia Ryotan Kear, and Shinzan Palma open the recorded sayings of Zhao Zhou, the Tang dynasty master whose brief, disarming exchanges lie at the heart of many classic koans. The teachers offer a way of studying unlike the one most of us learned: not cramming for understanding, but letting these old…

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]]> full 46:31 Fall Practice Period 2026: The Teachings of Zen Master Zhao Zhou: Opening Session https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fischer-overley-fpp2026-teachings-zen-master-zhao-zhou-opening-session/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 16:00:31 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=111113 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fischer-overley-fpp2026-teachings-zen-master-zhao-zhou-opening-session/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-fischer-overley-fpp2026-teachings-zen-master-zhao-zhou-opening-session/feed/ 0 In this opening session of the Fall Practice Period, Sensei Shinzan, Sensei Kathie Fisher, and Sensei Monshin invite participants to step out of ordinary life and into a shared rhythm of practice. For three weeks, participants in person and online are encouraged to “be a monastic,” setting aside familiar routines and the mind’s constant busyness. Sensei Kathie calls it “the strangest of vacations,”…

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]]> full 33:13 Zen History: Informing our Practice and Lives Today https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-zen-history-informing-our-practice-lives-today/ Mon, 19 Oct 2026 11:00:45 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110920 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-zen-history-informing-our-practice-lives-today/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/fischer-zen-history-informing-our-practice-lives-today/feed/ 0 In this Wednesday night Dharma talk during Upaya’s Fall Practice Period, Sensei Sokaku Kathie Fischer explores how Zhaozhou’s teachings invite the busy, generalizing mind to rest in the field of the senses. She notes that many koans pose a general question and receive a specific answer, and that this pattern points to practice itself. Thought deals in abstractions, while what we see, hear…

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]]> full 39:14 Ancestral Stories: A Dharma Gate of Intimacy with Our Lives https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kear-ancestral-stories-dharma-gate-intimacy-with-our-lives/ Mon, 12 Oct 2026 11:00:36 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110859 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kear-ancestral-stories-dharma-gate-intimacy-with-our-lives/#comments https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/kear-ancestral-stories-dharma-gate-intimacy-with-our-lives/feed/ 2 In this Wednesday night Dharma talk, Sensei Cynthia Ryotan Kear opens up the practice of koans as part of Upaya’s Fall Practice Period devoted to the Chinese master Zhao Zhou. She suggests that the longing that drew practitioners to Zen in ancient China is the same one we carry today: the wish to stop observing our lives from a distance and to live them more intimately. “Thinking about our life is…

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]]> full 46:10 Zhao Zhou’s Mu: The Threshold of Everyday Practice https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-zhao-zhous-mu-threshold-of-everyday-practice/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 11:00:08 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110779 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-zhao-zhous-mu-threshold-of-everyday-practice/#comments https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/palma-zhao-zhous-mu-threshold-of-everyday-practice/feed/ 1 In this Wednesday night Dharma talk, Sensei Shinzan explores the famous koan “Mu” from Zhao Zhou (Joshu in Japanese), leading up to Upaya’s fall practice period devoted to the Chinese master’s teachings. Shinzan sets the scene in Tang-dynasty China, where Chan practitioners turned away from dense scholasticism toward a direct, down-to-earth practice and introduces Zhao Zhou as a humble teacher who…

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]]> full 37:42 LOVE and DEATH 2026: Keeping Close (Part 5B) https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-keeping-close-5b/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 23:00:48 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110768 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-keeping-close-5b/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-keeping-close-5b/feed/ 0 This is the second half of the closing session for the Love and Death series: Roshi Joan Halifax reflects on what it means to practice beyond our transactional habits. She points to awakening in the details of everyday life and to presence as “being with, but not being hijacked by.” Drawing on her own recent brush with death, she names the realizations at the heart of love and death: there is no…

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]]> full 47:07 LOVE and DEATH 2026: Keeping Close (Part 5A) https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-keeping-close-5a/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 22:45:19 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110764 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-keeping-close-5a/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-keeping-close-5a/feed/ 0 This is the first half of the closing session for the Love and Death series: Roshi Joan Halifax reflects on what it means to practice beyond our transactional habits. She points to awakening in the details of everyday life and to presence as “being with, but not being hijacked by.” Drawing on her own recent brush with death, she names the realizations at the heart of love and death: there is no…

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]]> full 43:28 LOVE and DEATH 2026: The Law of Change and Becoming (Part 4) https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-love-death-2026-law-change-becoming-4/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 22:30:46 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110761 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-love-death-2026-law-change-becoming-4/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-love-death-2026-law-change-becoming-4/feed/ 0 In part four of the Love and Death series, Frank Ostaseski brings death into the room through photographs of people he accompanied at the Zen Hospice Project. Inviting participants to keep half their attention in the body, he asks them to notice what draws them in and what makes them pull away. Frank offers his insight on this practice: “I think what we’re seeing is our own hopes and fears.”…

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]]> full 59:56 LOVE and DEATH 2026: Guided by Grief (Part 3B) https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-sparks-love-death-2026-guided-by-grief-3b/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 22:10:08 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110751 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-sparks-love-death-2026-guided-by-grief-3b/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-sparks-love-death-2026-guided-by-grief-3b/feed/ 0 In this second half of part three of the Love and Death series, Frank Ostaseski continues with Guest teacher Sensei Koshin Flint Sparks, a poet and former psychologist, who reads from his work on his husband’s recent death, and participants write an imagined dialogue with someone they have lost. At its heart, this session invites us to bring attention to grief and make space for it…

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]]> full 48:16 LOVE and DEATH 2026: Guided by Grief (Part 3A) https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-love-death-2026-guided-by-grief-3a/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 22:00:40 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110748 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-love-death-2026-guided-by-grief-3a/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-love-death-2026-guided-by-grief-3a/feed/ 0 This is the first half of part three of the Love and Death series, Frank Ostaseski discusses grief as “the river running through our lives.” Recognizing that grief takes its own journey, sometimes meandering and sometimes pulling us under, he cautions against confusing the map with the territory, turning us toward grief itself rather than our frameworks for it. Frank describes grief as a path from…

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]]> full 1:07:42 LOVE and DEATH 2026: Fearless Love (Part 2B) https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-fearless-love-2b/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 21:50:52 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110745 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-fearless-love-2b/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-fearless-love-2b/feed/ 0 This is the second half of part two of the Love and Death series, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax explore the fearless nature of love, which meets loss without turning away. Frank presents the four Brahmaviharas (loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity) as the “four flavors of love”. He distinguishes them from their near enemies, which imitate them: attachment, pity…

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]]> full 58:54 LOVE and DEATH 2026: Fearless Love (Part 2A) https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-fearless-love-2a/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 21:40:49 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110741 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-fearless-love-2a/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-fearless-love-2a/feed/ 0 This is the first half of part two of the Love and Death series, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax explore the fearless nature of love, which meets loss without turning away. Frank presents the four Brahmaviharas (loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity) as the “four flavors of love”. He distinguishes them from their near enemies, which imitate them: attachment, pity…

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]]> full 1:15:42 LOVE and DEATH 2026: Opening the Great Gifts : Opening Session (Part 1) https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-opening-great-gifts-opening-session-1/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 21:17:56 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110736 https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-opening-great-gifts-opening-session-1/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/10/ostaseski-halifax-love-death-2026-opening-great-gifts-opening-session-1/feed/ 0 In this opening session of Love and Death, Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski return to the line that anchors this annual series: “Love and death are the great gifts that are given to us. Mostly, they are passed on unopened.” Roshi Joan grounds her introduction in zengi, or undivided activity, inviting participants to acknowledge the loves, losses, and illnesses they carry and revealing our…

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]]> full 1:10:04 Ordinary Mind is the Way https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/sparks-ordinary-mind-is-the-way/ Mon, 28 Sep 2026 11:00:14 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110609 https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/sparks-ordinary-mind-is-the-way/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/sparks-ordinary-mind-is-the-way/feed/ 0 In this Wednesday night Dharma talk, Sensei Koshin Flint Sparks explores a simple and radical teaching: our ordinary experience is itself the awakened way. By ordinary, he means not our passing thoughts but the unmanipulated mind that holds them. Many of us come to practice believing that awakening lies somewhere else, in a later time, a better state, or in exceptional people unlike ourselves.

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]]> full 39:20 The Measure of Our Humanity: BELONGING https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/ostaseski-measure-of-our-humanity-belonging/ Mon, 28 Sep 2026 01:00:27 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110606 https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/ostaseski-measure-of-our-humanity-belonging/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/ostaseski-measure-of-our-humanity-belonging/feed/ 0 In this session of the ongoing series, The Measure of Our Humanity, Frank Ostaseski along side Roshi Joan explores what it means to truly belong—not as something earned or arrived at, but as a truth we forget and remember. Frank begins with Sivananda’s teaching that the body is our first home and the ground of belonging, then turns to Tara Brach and John O’Donohue on how we grow estranged from our…

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]]> full 1:41:05 Being real https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/ostaseski-being-real/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 11:00:12 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110357 https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/ostaseski-being-real/#comments https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/ostaseski-being-real/feed/ 1 In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Frank Ostaseski traces what he learned sitting at the bedside of thousands of dying people: “to sit next to people and not mess with them. Not try and help them have some experience, or meet someone else’s agenda, including their own. Just sit with them.” That same quality of presence, he suggests, is what it means to ‘be real’ — an alignment with reality…

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]]> full 47:41 Grace in Prison https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/lau-grace-in-prison/ Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:00:15 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110156 https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/lau-grace-in-prison/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/lau-grace-in-prison/feed/ 0 In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Dainin describes bringing Roshi Joan’s G.R.A.C.E. compassion training into New Mexico’s prison system. Working previously with the correctional cadets, and now with men who are incarcerated, Dainin names how the system pushes both groups into opposition, each side dehumanizing the other by default. Looking for guidance on how to serve well in that…

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]]> full 40:10 The Measure of Our Humanity: POSSIBILITY https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/solnit-measure-of-our-humanity-possibility/ Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:26:13 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110152 https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/solnit-measure-of-our-humanity-possibility/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/solnit-measure-of-our-humanity-possibility/feed/ 0 This session of The Measure of Our Humanity series opens with Roshi Joan Halifax‘s welcome and a grounding meditation led by Dainin, before writer and activist Rebecca Solnit takes the floor. Rebecca nurtures in us the view of possibility, offering it as a path through the false comforts of both optimism and despair. Moving between a 10th-century Zen koan, the deep time of ancient trees…

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]]> full 1:38:45 The Open Gate https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/bristol-open-gate/ Mon, 07 Sep 2026 11:00:23 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=110039 https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/bristol-open-gate/#comments https://www.upaya.org/2026/09/bristol-open-gate/feed/ 2 In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Fushin turns to the first two folds of the Eightfold Path—right view and right intention—the wisdom from which the rest of the path grows. Right view, he suggests, is not a belief we acquire but seeing what is actually here, before we add our story about it. “The eye opens. The heart leans,” he says — one sees, one moves, and they are not two.

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]]> full 43:10 Varela 2026: Closing Q&A (Part 11) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-dunne-crockett-halifax-varela-2026-closing-q-a-11/ Tue, 01 Sep 2026 02:20:29 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109865 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-dunne-crockett-halifax-varela-2026-closing-q-a-11/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-dunne-crockett-halifax-varela-2026-closing-q-a-11/feed/ 0 In Part 11, the closing of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Roshi Joan Halifax, John Dunne, Molly Crockett, and Adam Frank address questions from the participants. To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.

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]]> full 52:38 Varela 2026: Panel Discussion – AI, Experience, and Ethics (Part 10) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/varela-2026-panel-discussion-ai-experience-ethics-10/ Tue, 01 Sep 2026 02:00:30 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109862 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/varela-2026-panel-discussion-ai-experience-ethics-10/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/varela-2026-panel-discussion-ai-experience-ethics-10/feed/ 0 In Part 10 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Roshi Joan Halifax, John Dunne, Molly Crockett, and Adam Frank gather as a panel to open questions on AI before circling back through the retreat’s full arc. The AI discussion ranges widely: LLM “personas” and sycophancy, the ethics of a technology built without consent (likened to asbestos — useful, but harmful in ways not yet fully known)…

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]]> full 55:29 Varela 2026: A Conversation with Michael Pollan (Part 9) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/halifax-pollan-varela-2026-a-conversation-with-michael-9/ Tue, 01 Sep 2026 01:45:40 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109859 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/halifax-pollan-varela-2026-a-conversation-with-michael-9/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/halifax-pollan-varela-2026-a-conversation-with-michael-9/feed/ 0 In Part 9 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Roshi Joan Halifax introduces a pre-recorded conversation with author Michael Pollan on the value and limits of mystical experience. Drawing on William James’s pragmatic test — treat mystical insight as a hypothesis, not proof — Pollan traces what these states teach us: chiefly, that self and consciousness can be disaggregated.

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]]> full 1:03:50 Varela 2026: Ethical Considerations in an Age of AI – Panel Discussion (Part 8) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/varela-2026-ethical-considerations-age-ai-panel-8/ Tue, 01 Sep 2026 01:30:20 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109856 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/varela-2026-ethical-considerations-age-ai-panel-8/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/varela-2026-ethical-considerations-age-ai-panel-8/feed/ 0 In Part 8 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Adam, Molly, John, and Roshi Joan open the floor to important questions of our time. Following Molly’s session on AI and Buddhist ethics, she is asked whether AI models that claim consciousness deserve moral consideration. Molly cautions against the language itself: “There’s no reason that it’s necessary to use words that we use to describe…

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]]> full 32:57 The Metta Sutta: What’s Love Got to Do with It? https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/sparks-metta-sutta-whats-love-got-to-do-with-it/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 11:00:14 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109802 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/sparks-metta-sutta-whats-love-got-to-do-with-it/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/sparks-metta-sutta-whats-love-got-to-do-with-it/feed/ 0 In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Koshin Flint Sparks explores the Metta Sutta as a practice that asks far more of us than simple sentiment. Quoting two lines of Louise Glück’s poem, Koshin highlights the sharp and sometimes frightening edge of love: “Why love what you will lose? — There’s nothing else to love.” We naturally appreciate the full and sincere love from others…

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]]> full 44:16 Varela 2026: In the Grove of Mortality (Part 7) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/crockett-varela-2026-grove-mortality-7/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 03:30:42 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109794 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/crockett-varela-2026-grove-mortality-7/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/crockett-varela-2026-grove-mortality-7/feed/ 0 In Part 7 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Molly Crockett turns to a question with real stakes in the race of AI development: Can Buddhist ethics be taught to a machine? Drawing on Francisco Varela’s concept of ethical know-how, she distinguishes “knowledge that” — facts and principles a system can represent — from “knowledge how,” the embodied wisdom that “requires embodied experience…

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]]> full 1:10:15 Varela 2026: Kensho, Joriki, and Ordinary Mind in Zen Practice (Part 6) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/halifax-varela-2026-kensho-joriki-ordinary-mind-zen-practice-6/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 03:15:48 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109791 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/halifax-varela-2026-kensho-joriki-ordinary-mind-zen-practice-6/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/halifax-varela-2026-kensho-joriki-ordinary-mind-zen-practice-6/feed/ 0 In Part 6 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Roshi Joan Halifax leads a guided sitting before turning to what she calls the four often-conflated categories of contemplative experience: mystical states, insight, awakening, and realization. Drawing on her own decades of exposure to entheogens and psychedelic research, she distinguishes intensity from accuracy — mystical experience is a…

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]]> full 1:39:50 Varela 2026: Re/cognizing the Mystical (Part 5) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/dunne-varela-2026-re-cognizing-the-mystical-5/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 02:00:18 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109770 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/dunne-varela-2026-re-cognizing-the-mystical-5/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/dunne-varela-2026-re-cognizing-the-mystical-5/feed/ 0 In Part 5 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, John Dunne returns for his second talk of the program, tracing “mystical experience” to its roots as a 19th-century, largely American invention — one with no real equivalent in Buddhist, Hindu, or indigenous traditions. He walks through the influential accounts of William James and W.T. Stace, whose model of a universal, unitive, inward…

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]]> full 1:04:21 Varela 2026: The Blind Spot – Part B (Part 4B) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-varela-2026-the-blind-spot-part-b-4b/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 01:40:07 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109763 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-varela-2026-the-blind-spot-part-b-4b/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-varela-2026-the-blind-spot-part-b-4b/feed/ 0 In Part 4B (the 2nd half of Part 4) of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, astrophysicist Adam Frank, PhD., turns to what comes after: a “new physics of life” built on autonomous agency and the Buddhist concept of śūnyatā — not emptiness as void, but the total absence of independent, self-existing things. As he puts it: “You don’t really have a boundary… this set of processes organizes…

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]]> full 33:01 Varela 2026: The Blind Spot – Part A (Part 4A) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-varela-2026-blind-spot-part-a-4a/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 01:30:35 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109744 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-varela-2026-blind-spot-part-a-4a/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-varela-2026-blind-spot-part-a-4a/feed/ 0 In Part 4A (the first half of Part 4) of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Molly Crockett opens with a guided meditation on the breath, exploring impermanence and boundarilessness to prepare the room for astrophysicist Adam Frank, PhD. Frank lays out “the blind spot” — his term for the philosophical assumptions smuggled into modern science: that only the fundamental and measurable are real…

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]]> full 1:07:19 Varela 2026: Panel Discussion – Time, Perception, and Not-Knowing (Part 3) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/varela-2026-panel-discussion-time-perception-and-not-knowing-3/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 01:30:38 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109741 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/varela-2026-panel-discussion-time-perception-and-not-knowing-3/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/varela-2026-panel-discussion-time-perception-and-not-knowing-3/feed/ 0 In Part 3 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, the faculty explores the nature of experience in this Day 1 panel session — reflexive awareness, the distortions of the “perception box,” and the intimacy of not-knowing. John Dunne frames the core teaching: “we already know what the nature of our experience is. We already have that capacity. We already have non-dual awareness… it’s…

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]]> full 39:07 Varela 2026: Reflexive Awareness and Encountering Reality (Part 2) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/dunne-varela-2026-reflexive-awareness-encountering-reality-2/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 01:15:58 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109738 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/dunne-varela-2026-reflexive-awareness-encountering-reality-2/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/dunne-varela-2026-reflexive-awareness-encountering-reality-2/feed/ 0 In Part 2 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, John Dunne, PhD, opens with a guided meditation on reflexive, non-dual awareness before turning to a central question of Buddhist epistemology: what is real? Testing the room with a white mug — is its color in the object, the brain, or somewhere else? — he distinguishes a transparent mode of perception, which sees through experience to act in…

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]]> full 1:39:43 Varela Contemplative Science Retreat 2026: Opening Session (Part 1) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-dunne-crockett-halifax-varela-contemplative-science-retreat-2026-opening-1/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 01:00:26 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109735 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-dunne-crockett-halifax-varela-contemplative-science-retreat-2026-opening-1/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-dunne-crockett-halifax-varela-contemplative-science-retreat-2026-opening-1/feed/ 0 In this opening session (Part 1) of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Roshi Joan Halifax welcomes practitioners on-site and online, tracing the retreat’s roots to her decades-long friendship with the late neuroscientist and Buddhist practitioner Francisco Varela and how their conversations from 1981 ultimately seeded what became the Mind and Life Institute. Roshi reminds the room that this…

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]]> full 52:14 Dogen Seminar 2026: Our Care-full Attention (Part 7 of 7) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/fischer-kathie-dogen-seminar-2026-our-care-full-attention-7-7/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 21:50:56 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109728 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/fischer-kathie-dogen-seminar-2026-our-care-full-attention-7-7/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/fischer-kathie-dogen-seminar-2026-our-care-full-attention-7-7/feed/ 0 In this final session of Upaya’s Dogen Seminar 2026, Sensei Sokaku Kathie Fischer takes up Dogen’s Mountains and Waters Sutra, tracing how sustained attention dissolves the boundary between self and world. Drawing on stories from her own practice life, she returns often to the way small, ordinary contact with things — a stone, a teacup, a mountain trail — can either be led by our concepts or…

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]]> full 1:03:16 Dogen Seminar 2026: Faculty Reflections (Part 6) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/tanahashi-godwin-sparks-fischer-norman-kathie-heine-halifax-dogen-seminar-2026-faculty-reflections-part-6/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 21:40:25 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109725 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/tanahashi-godwin-sparks-fischer-norman-kathie-heine-halifax-dogen-seminar-2026-faculty-reflections-part-6/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/tanahashi-godwin-sparks-fischer-norman-kathie-heine-halifax-dogen-seminar-2026-faculty-reflections-part-6/feed/ 0 In this session of Upaya’s Dogen Seminar 2026, Reverend Tenmyo Dojima introduces baika, the Soto Zen tradition of Buddhist hymn-singing, chanting a hymn drawn from one of Dogen’s own poems: “Even upon a high, steep cliff where the rough waves cannot reach, the true Dharma clings and takes firm root, just as oysters cling to the rock.” Roshi Joan introduces the faculty panel of the weekend’s…

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]]> full 1:06:50 Dogen Seminar 2026: The Four Methods of Guidance (Part 5) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/fischer-norman-dogen-seminar-2026-the-four-methods-of-guidance-5/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 21:30:09 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109722 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/fischer-norman-dogen-seminar-2026-the-four-methods-of-guidance-5/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/fischer-norman-dogen-seminar-2026-the-four-methods-of-guidance-5/feed/ 0 In this session of Upaya’s Dogen Seminar 2026, Roshi Norman Fischer takes up Dogen’s fascicle Bodhisattva Shishobo, the Four Methods of Guidance: generosity, kind speech, beneficial action, and identity action. He frames this text as a departure from Dogen’s earlier work — scholars believe it may reflect a late-life turn in Dogen away from esoteric philosophy and toward plain ethical conduct.

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]]> full 1:00:59 Dogen Seminar 2026: Contemporary Dogen (Part 4) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/tanahashi-dogen-seminar-2026-contemporary-dogen-4/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 21:20:12 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109719 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/tanahashi-dogen-seminar-2026-contemporary-dogen-4/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/tanahashi-dogen-seminar-2026-contemporary-dogen-4/feed/ 0 In this session of Upaya’s Dogen Seminar 2026, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi traces Dogen’s contemporary journey from a Zen ancestor barely mentioned by D.T. Suzuki — whose paradigm of sudden awakening had little room for Dogen’s teaching — to a figure now studied in more than two hundred English-language publications and translated into other languages across the world. He recounts his own thirty-three…

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]]> full 47:42 Dogen Seminar 2026: Dongshan and the Five Ranks (Part 3) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/godwin-dogen-seminar-2026-dongshan-five-ranks-3/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 21:10:49 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109716 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/godwin-dogen-seminar-2026-dongshan-five-ranks-3/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/godwin-dogen-seminar-2026-dongshan-five-ranks-3/feed/ 0 In this session of Upaya’s Dogen Seminar 2026, Roshi Konjin Gaelyn Godwin gives a close textual reading of Dogen’s fascicle Shunju, tracing a single koan — when a monk asks how to escape cold and heat, and Dongshan answers, “When it’s cold, the cold kills you. When it’s hot, the heat kills you” — through the Blue Cliff Record, multiple named commentators, and competing translations.

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]]> full 58:33 Dogen Seminar 2026: Cultural Legacy (Part 2) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/heine-dogen-seminar-2026-cultural-legacy-2/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 21:00:22 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109712 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/heine-dogen-seminar-2026-cultural-legacy-2/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/heine-dogen-seminar-2026-cultural-legacy-2/feed/ 0 In this session of Upaya’s Dogen Seminar 2026, Steven Heine, professor of religion and history and director of Asian Studies at Florida International University, traces Dogen’s life and teaching — from proverbs posted at Soto temple gates to manga retellings of his years in China. Returning to a question raised the night before, about Bodhidharma’s charge to “bear what is unbearable…

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]]> full 1:19:32 Dogen Seminar 2026: Inspiration for Everyday Life – Opening Session (Part 1) https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/tanahashi-godwin-norman-kathie-fischer-heine-halifax-dogen-seminar-2026-inspiration-everyday-life-opening-1/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 20:50:01 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109709 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/tanahashi-godwin-norman-kathie-fischer-heine-halifax-dogen-seminar-2026-inspiration-everyday-life-opening-1/#respond https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/tanahashi-godwin-norman-kathie-fischer-heine-halifax-dogen-seminar-2026-inspiration-everyday-life-opening-1/feed/ 0 In this opening session of Upaya’s 2026 Dogen Seminar, Roshi Joan Halifax welcomes a gathering of teachers assembled to explore the life and teaching of Eihei Dogen, the 13th-century Zen master and founder of the Soto school of Zen. Sensei Kaz Tanahashi, whose decades of translation work brought Dogen’s Shobogenzo into English, traces its long path from centuries of obscurity to worldwide…

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]]> full 58:12 Vimalakirti, the Avatamsaka Sutra and the Bodhisattva Path https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-vimalakirti-avatamsaka-sutra-bodhisattva-path/ Mon, 24 Aug 2026 11:00:50 +0000 https://www.upaya.org/?p=109545 https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-vimalakirti-avatamsaka-sutra-bodhisattva-path/#comments https://www.upaya.org/2026/08/frank-vimalakirti-avatamsaka-sutra-bodhisattva-path/feed/ 1 In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, physicist Adam Frank, PhD, admits he came to Buddhism hoping for the infinite cosmic power of his own enlightenment, and maybe more honestly, to face and resolve his own suffering. He stayed for something else entirely. Drawing on a year and a half spent with the Vimalakirti and Avatamsaka Sutras, he traces how these early Mahayana texts reimagined practice…

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