Resolve to Begin (Training in Compassion - 1/)

Shinmon Michael Newton gives the first talk in our new Dharma Seminar on Zoketsu Norman Fischer’s Training in Compassion, where we will explore the practice of Lojong.

The first slogan, “Train in the preliminaries,” strengthens our resolve to practice and invites us to reflect deeply, whether we are an experienced practitioner or just beginning.

Everyday Zen (9/9): Service

Shinmon Michael Newton gives the last talk in our Dharma Seminar on Charlotte Joko Beck's Everyday Zen - Love and Work, offering further insight into a formidable zen teacher. 

What would it be like to live a life of no exchange?

Everyday Zen (8/9): Boundaries

Using Joko Beck's Everyday Zen as a springboard, Myoshin Kate McCandless asks us to consider what kind of boundaries we are attached to, and which of the worldly winds blows us off our path.

Everyday Zen (7/9): Choices

Nin-en Susan Elbe picks up the thread of Charlotte Joko Beck’s Everyday Zen by offering a talk on Chapter 8. 

How do the paramitas help us make difficult choices?

Everyday Zen (6/9): Suffering

Dai-i Flo Rublee offers the last instalment in our dharma seminar - Chapter 5 from Charlotte Joko Beck’s Everyday Zen - with the suggestion that we don't have to be engaged in endless struggle with forces external to ourselves.

"No old age and death. No end to old age and death. No suffering. No end to suffering." (the Heart Sutra)

Everyday Zen (5/9): Ideals

Jikai Vicki Turay continues our dharma seminar on Charlotte Joko Beck’s  Everyday Zen asking the question: Do our ideals serve us or confuse us? Are they guiding principles or subtle forms of attachement?

Everyday Zen (4/9): Relationships

"Every moment of our life is relationship. There is nothing except relationship." (Charlotte Joko Beck)

Shinmon Michael Newton continues our dharma seminar, exploring how we can perceive and navigate relationships with mindfulness and presence. 

Everyday Zen (3/9): Feelings

Daikan John Green continues our dharma seminar on Charlotte Joko Beck’s Everyday Zen, in which Joko describes how sitting can be like opening a Pandora’s box — which looks still and pretty on the outside, but can release a swarm of intense feelings. How do we experience these feelings as they arise, without being caught by ‘emotion-thought’?