Podcasts by Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

Dave Cuomo - Swooning Buddhas! (Vimalakirti Sutra -ch 2) from 2022-02-19T00:12:39

“If we started with the goal of becoming happy and wise enough to attract better people into our lives and making a better world together, now they’re telling us the real liberation is to not ne...

Jordan Mylet - An Unmitigated Good (What Am I Doing Here??) from 2022-02-11T22:33:30

"The funny thing about zazen is, it can’t be fooled. The funny thing about Zen is I can’t crush it or not crush it. So all I really want to do is be honest and convey something true for a second...

Dave Cuomo - Aching Joy (Yogacara - The Afflictions) from 2022-02-05T00:45:52

“When we’re talking about joy, I mean the kind of joy that you might feel at a funeral, a crying aching joy that encompasses everything. It's like, no, this whole thing is beautiful and I'm glad...

Emily Eslami - Brightness from 2022-01-29T00:00:41

"To that voice who's saying, ‘Are we good enough?’ This is saying we exist. And that's enough" - Emily Eslami

Emily shares with us Dogen's bright and clear trea...

Sara Campbell - Playtime from 2022-01-21T20:47:44

“The most important thing you can be doing is just to be doing it, and that's doing it right. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to be there.” - Sara Campbell

Sara share...

Dave Cuomo - A New Normal (Yogacara - Beneficial Factors) from 2022-01-14T21:49:01

“Slowly, over time, you might get used to not feeling crappy about yourself. You might get used to not hating everyone you disagree with. And then when some of that old negativity does come back...

Dave Cuomo - What’s Happening? (You! (The Time Being)) from 2022-01-07T20:51:16

“You are what's happening, what's happening is you. What else could you be? Even when what's happening is that you're doubting what's happening, that's still what's happening.” - Dave Cuomo

Erik Andersen - Beautiful and Savage from 2022-01-01T00:42:24

"What are we liberating ourselves from? It's about being able to do the things that you want to do and not getting hung up about smaller things

This is emotional liberation, emot...

Dave Cuomo - ”Are We Entertained?” (Vimalakirti Sutra pt 1) from 2021-12-17T22:46:35

“Every religion at some point asks the question, ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ And there is rarely a satisfying answer. But this sutra is going to try to answer that by showing us h...

Dave Cuomo - A Low Rumble (Happy Rohatsu!) from 2021-12-11T02:57

"Last night, this mountain monk unintentionally stepped on a dried turd and it jumped up and covered heaven and earth. This mountain monk unintentionally stepped on it again, and it introduced i...

Emily Eslami - May The Real Buddha Please Stand Up (Linji‘s ”Kill the Buddha”) from 2021-12-04T02:45:32

“To live in the realm of Buddha nature means to die as a small being, moment after moment. When we lose our balance we die, but at the same time we also develop ourselves, we grow. Whatever we s...

Dave Cuomo - How Much Do You Want to Know? (Yogacara - Five Omnipresent Factors) from 2021-11-27T02:35:43

“This is the answer key to zazen, the answer key to Buddhism. It’s actually the answer key to enlightenment too. It might not seem like it, it might seem pretty boring. But, when they don't tell...

Sara Campbell - World‘s Created, World‘s Destroyed from 2021-11-19T22:10:34

"I love the idea of worlds creating and worlds destroying. Each moment being new makes the good times sweeter. And being aware of how much you love something when it's happening makes harder tim...

Dave Cuomo - Space from 2021-11-13T03:32:17

"When I stopped being scared of other people, a funny thing happened. I realized I like people.

You were like these static things that knew right from wrong and could judge me, a...

Gyokei Yokoyama - The Simplest Thing from 2021-10-29T23:12:21

“The freedom we talk about is that wherever we are, we are in some kind of structure.  Some are more restrictive, some are more free...

What I picked up through this monastic lif...

Dave Cuomo - Grump & Gruff (Bodhidharma‘s Outline of Practice) from 2021-10-23T01:01:34

"If I say my boss over there is underpaying me because they're a jerk and that's not my fault, then I'm not really being with that situation. If I see myself as much a part of this situation as ...

Brad Warner - Colors of the Mind from 2021-10-16T02:55:25

"No matter what you do or think, or how deluded you are, the truth of the universe is still exactly as it is. So whether you notice it or not doesn't change anything. If you're having a crappy d...

Leslie Mundy - Near Happenstance (What Am I Doing Here??) from 2021-10-08T19:47:03

“It's not about the chanting. It's not about what we're saying. It's about the community. It's about listening to each other.” - Leslie Mundy

In a very sweet an...

Dave Cuomo - Dave Cuomo - Leggo My Ego (Yogacara - Manas (Self Consciousness)) from 2021-10-01T19:02:11

“We didn’t evolve to see reality, we evolved to survive. If we had evolved to see reality we would probably just appear as timeless bits of quantum foam. But that wouldn’t be very helpful for tr...

Sara Campbell - A Different Way of Being Hopeless (Genjo Koan) from 2021-09-21T19:15:28

“It’s been hard to accept that my life didn't go exactly how I thought it should. That is a humbling thing to experience. And to know that your time is finite…

I still grieve som...

Emily Eslami - Holy S**t from 2021-09-14T22:13

“People of scant knowledge do not think that buddhas have dignified behavior in the toilet... This is not learning of the Buddha’s truth. Remember, purity and impurity is exemplified by blood dr...

Emily Eslami - Holy from 2021-09-14T22:13

“People of scant knowledge do not think that buddhas have dignified behavior in the toilet... This is not learning of the Buddha’s truth. Remember, purity and impurity is exemplified by blood dr...

Dave Cuomo - Trust Fall (The Singing of Dragons) from 2021-09-07T00:46:10

“Not knowing what the crap we’re doing is the delight of being human.” - Dave Cuomo

Dave brings us a Zen pep talk for hard times with a reading of Dogen’s Ryugen or, The Moaning ...

Brad Warner - This is the Nuthouse (Big Self/Little Self) from 2021-08-31T02:10:24

"I spent my whole life growing up thinking I was so unique and individual. And then I do this Buddhist practice for awhile, and come to the very astonishing realization that I'm not unique at al...

Dave Cuomo - DIY(T) (Teachers in Zen) from 2021-08-24T01:40:27

"If anyone says that I was ever enlightened, they're lying. If anyone says that I teach anyone, they're lying." - Gautama Buddha 

Dave does his best to shed a little clarity on t...

Corey Warner - The Sweet Spot (What Am I Doing Here??) from 2021-08-17T01:42:52

“I read ‘Hardcore Zen’ and it said, ‘Don't listen to me, you have to try this out for yourself.’ And I was in the Navy, so I was really sick of people telling me what to do. And I was really not...

Dave Cuomo - Pure Non Sense (Yogacara - The Six Senses) from 2021-08-10T00:56:12

"Ideally a talk about the six senses would just be practicing being together and experiencing our sensory experiences and asking, ‘what are those?’ So if at any point you space out and get lost ...

Brad Warner - Vibin' Together (Prajna - Intuitive Wisdom) from 2021-07-27T01:35:07

"There is this eternal wisdom which is unified, but it also has different facets. But you can recognize sometimes that it's working together, that everybody's ‘vibing together man,’ as we say wh...

Colin Young - Words are Hard! (What Am I Doing Here??) from 2021-07-20T00:33:03

"When I got here, I wanted Brad to tell me how to live my life, and he said to just sit, and offered some reading suggestions; Suzuki, Uchiyama, Kobun Chino, and Dogen. And then I wanted Suzuki ...

Emily Eslami - One Rule to Rule Them All (The Three Pure Precepts) from 2021-07-13T01:06:41

“The relation between the precepts and the words of avowal is like a person who is always thankful, and is always able to say, “I’m sorry.” It is the bright side of things and the shadowy side o...

Dave Cuomo - Empty Innocent Space (Yogacara - The Storehouse Consciousness) from 2021-07-05T18:46:19

“The storehouse consciousness is the root of everything. If the whole universe is just your experience, then this is what it's born from. It’s the fountain of everything. Also ...

Brad Warner - After Darkness (The Zen of Living and Dying) from 2021-06-29T00:38:29

“Looking at life as I was experiencing it in this moment, moment by moment, I realized that the future is always an abstraction. And I don't know anything about it. Death might be something grea...

Dave Cuomo - The Good Life (Renunciation) from 2021-06-22T01:38:28

"The world wants me to be happy. I think it needs me to be happy. Because it seems I can make people miserable when I'm not. Which is probably true for all of us..." - Dave Cuomo

Brad Warner - When All the Doors Are Closed from 2021-06-15T01:08:48

"Find to whom this cruel world appears and you will know why it appears so cruel... You are the maker of the world in which you live – you alone can change it, or unmake it." - Nisargadatta Maha...

Dave Cuomo - Buddha's Baggage (Yogacara pt 1) from 2021-06-08T01:10:41

“We don't know what the universe is made of at the root. All we know for certain is that the only thing we have to work with is our own experience.

Ultimately I can't blame anybo...

Emily Eslami - Triple Treasure, Triple Treat! (The Three Refuges) from 2021-06-01T00:29:59

“Everything reflects triple treasure. You reflect triple treasure, and questioning triple treasure reflects triple treasure. Not understanding what the heck I'm talking about is triple treasure....

Dave Cuomo - What Do You Want? (Love & Self Care) from 2021-05-24T23:46:57

“If there's a distinction in our minds between self care and doing good for other people, then we're missing the point of everything that we're doing on this planet. ” - Dave Cuomo

Brad Warner - Tell Me Your Thing (Buddha Nature) from 2021-05-18T00:40:46

“Putting a nice label like ‘Buddha Nature’ on it makes you feel a different way towards it. You don't feel like it's something you need to fight against. I don't know how you felt all your life,...

Emily Eslami - The Cheat Sheet of (un)Reality (10th Precept - No Disparaging the Buddha, Dharma, & Sangha) from 2021-05-10T19:04:52

”To not kill the Buddha when you meet them on the road is abusing the triple treasures. How not to abuse the triple treasures is to accept everything as Buddha, Dharma, & Sangha, and accept your...

Brad Warner - The King of Emptiness (Levels in Buddhism) from 2021-05-04T01:50:52

“Whether or not you establish the Bodhi Mind and Nirvana for yourself is unimportant. If anything, they say you shouldn't do that, you should endeavor to save everyone instead.” - Brad Warner Listen

Dave Cuomo - The Great Mistake (Ignorance - part deux!) from 2021-04-27T00:59:54

“To remember that ignorance is enlightenment is to not separate myself from what's right in front of me, to not think that I can be better than the people in front of me, to not think that I'm g...

Dave Cuomo - Ignorance is Bliss (pt 1 - The 12 Fold Chain) from 2021-04-20T02:06:10

"In classical Buddhism, the fundamental mistake is that getting what you think you want will make you happy. In Zen they seem to say the fundamental delusion is that you exist at all. 

Brad Warner - It's Alive! from 2021-04-12T19:50:08

"There are thousands of eyes in the moment before the body. There are thousands of eyes in the moment before the mind. There are thousands of eyes of death in death. There are thousands of eyes ...

Emily Eslami - Love Potion ((#)9th Precept - No Giving Way to Anger) from 2021-04-05T23:56:28

"When you get mad at yourself, that means you’re mad at another self. Maybe you turn your face and see yourself. Or you see yourself as other. This is very hard...
If you become angry, you d...

Brad Warner - An Innocent Mind (Choosing Free Will) from 2021-03-29T20:42:44

"Your life is predetermined. And to be free, you must first be aware that your life is predetermined, that it is conditioned, that all your responses are more or less the same as those of everyb...

Dave Cuomo - Fringe Benefit from 2021-03-22T22:53:26

"If you want to make peace with yourself and not hate zazen, it's going to help to like yourself, or at least just accept yourself the way you are. I promise, you're great and you're worth it. A...

Brad Warner - From Birth to Death from 2021-03-16T00:47:33

"There's a theory that 'knowledge will set you free.' But I don't know. I read all these damn books about it and I still don't know what the hell is going on. But to experience it directly in th...

Emily Eslami - My Missing Piece (8th Precept - No Coveting) from 2021-03-09T01:35:24

"When you go to the mountain, and see a flower blooming, pick it, break it, and make it yours - this is attachment. If you let it be there for everything and everyone - this is 'no attachment.'<...

Dave Cuomo - A Functional Fantasy Land from 2021-03-02T02:29:21

"To love the mountains is not to know about mountains, but to climb mountains and to live and die continuously with them.

The best way to realize the true beauty of Mount Fuji is...

Brad Warner - The Whole D@#^ Business of Reality from 2021-02-23T01:57:45

"The thinking mind can do incredible stuff. So it gets very full of itself and decides it can figure out a thought that will that will sum up the whole damn business of reality. 

Brad Warner & Stephen Batchelor - Buddhism, Reality, Zen, & God from 2021-02-16T02:07:03

“The world is incredibly weird and magnificent and wondrous. And I find that meditation practice, particularly a practice rooted in inquiry – you know, ‘what is this?’, opens me up not just inte...

Dave Cuomo - Karma Happens from 2021-02-09T03:17:08

"Sometimes I walk by a pile of poo and think "What jerk did that? I hate that guy. This is why we can't have nice things." And then I go around telling everyone about this jerk, and we all get u...

Emily Eslami - The Fundamental Human Disaster (7th precept - No Praising Self or Berating Others) from 2021-02-02T01:53:37

"There's a saying, do you want to be right or do you want to be married? I would extend that to, do you want to be right or do you want to be human? Do you want to be right or do you want to be ...

Dave Cuomo - Zen Begins! (History of Zen - Bodhidharma) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

He's the man, the myth, the legendary founder of Zen himself. Some claim he never existed, some claim his eyelids invented tea leaves while he was off inventing kung fu in his down time. Clearly he...

Dave Cuomo - A Brief History of Not Knowing from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

We know, Zen loves to talk about this "not knowing" stuff. And they sure seem to think they know a lot about it. But inspired by a koan that beautifully illustrates the idea, Dave got curious just ...

There is No Such Thing as a Jerk (So Please Don’t Be One) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

“On one layer Dogen is saying, the full teaching of the Buddha is don’t do wrong.But then if you read it another way, even the notion that you could do harm is a mistake…” - Brad WarnerBrad Warner ...

Brad Warner - A Small Stream (What are We Doing Here??) from 2021-01-26T01:57:46

“This idea runs through the whole Buddhist tradition that it’s rare to meet the Buddha Dharma. And it's rarer to stick with it and to understand it. So we're kind of the few, the proud, the Zen;...

Dave Cuomo - An Unknowable Hope (Inmo) from 2021-01-19T01:46:10

"If everything you know isn't working, what do you have left? What you don't know. When you stop and allow space for what you don't know to happen, something else can happen." - Dave Cuomo

Emily Eslami - Stuck in the Mud With You (6th Precept - No Speaking of Past Mistakes) from 2021-01-12T01:40:44

“…other people’s mistakes, the mistakes you can’t stop talking about, your mistakes, the mistakes you think are worse than everyone else’s, look around you, we’re all in the mud making those sam...

Brad Warner - It Gets Better from 2021-01-05T02:32:05

"The past and the future exist within you, as much now as ever. This is it. We are a manifestation of eternity. It’s all part of one process that is literally endless because it never began. And...

Dave Cuomo - Bursting Buckets of Buddha! from 2020-12-30T02:22:42

“With this and that I tried to keep the bucket together
Then the bottom fell out.
Where water does not collect,
The moon does not dwell”
- Mugai Nyodai...

Emily Eslami - Cloudy Days in the Great Brightness (5th Precept - No Intoxicants) from 2020-12-15T03:20:23

“It’s the emptiness we’re afraid of. Our life is not made up of magic, it’s made up of these empty moments, full moments, thats all we have; the pain we’re experiencing, the boredom, the fleetin...

Brad Warner - An I For an Eye from 2020-12-08T03:08:54

“There are worse ways and better ways to understand what reality is. I find that the Buddhist way of explaining it tallies better with my own experience than any other explanation I’ve come acro...

Brad Warner - TL;DR from 2020-12-01T02:17:11

“Waking life is more similar to a dream than you might think. When you find yourself in a dream you realize that you’re in a world mostly of your own creation. This world is like that but in a b...

Dave Cuomo - A Celebration of Silliness (History of Zen - Tozan & Rinzai!) from 2020-11-23T20:35:32

"Understanding the true specialness of everything is a rare and wonderful thing. Apparently it takes a lot of practice to realize "just this" for what it really is. Listen

Brad Warner - There is No Such Thing as a Jerk (So Please Don’t Be One) from 2020-11-17T02:25:49

“On one layer Dogen is saying, the full teaching of the Buddha is don’t do wrong.
But then if you read it another way, even the notion that you could do harm is a ...

Dave Cuomo - Sacred Unhinged from 2020-11-10T03:02:16

"In our ordinary world, we learn to play by the rules, to follow the recipe, to get it right, while in sacred space, cooking (and life) can be more than just following...

Emily Eslami - About the Lies I Haven't Told You (The Precepts pt 5 - No Lying) from 2020-11-03T02:58:42

“Language will always fail us… We believe we’re speaking the same language but we’re using different English to English dictionaries.

Listen

Erik Andersen - Angel of Doubt from 2020-10-27T01:51:03

It’s like a guardian angel of doubt. Where by the grace of god, I would have this spark, this wonderful beautiful doubt of, maybe im wrong. Maybe im not right about this after all…" - Erik Ander...

Brad Warner - A Wonderful Being (Zazen sits you!) from 2020-10-20T02:10:15

“Zazen isn't something I do. The zazen exists prior to me and I allow it to be me for a certain amount of time. Considering it that way can make the zazen easier. If it’s something im trying to ...

Emily Eslami - Black Vipers & Cold Rocks (Precepts pt 4 - Sex & Desire) from 2020-10-13T01:09:51

"I lack therefore I want.
I get what I want and I want more.
I get what I want and it didn’t make me happier, so I’m going to push it away.
This is why we ...

Brad Warner - The Great Cosmic Jam Session (The Ethics of Space, Time, & Being) from 2020-10-06T00:30:53

"When we are very, very quiet, sometimes we can perceive the entire symphony of life as a whole. ...even while we only experience only one note at a time, we can know ...

Dave Cuomo - Zen's Golden Dark Age (History of Zen) from 2020-09-28T22:49:44

"If you want to know why Zen survived, light the incense, do the sit, and listen. It's what the koans describe, what Dogen tried to explain. There's nothing that could go away, nothing to defend...

Wilcox Gwynne - No Trigger Warning Needed (What Was I Doing There??) from 2020-09-21T22:26:22

“I feel like the right books and the right person always came at the right time. There's been a seamless way of following the practice where I’m not sure which one is leading the other.” - Wilco...

Brad Warner - Enlightened Selfishness (Nothing but a Bundle of Light) from 2020-09-14T23:38:50

"Every time you try to hurt or gain advantage over somebody else, you're only hurting yourself. It's as instant as punching yourself in the face. The problem is that most people never figure tha...

Emily Eslami - Nothing to Lose (The Precept pt 3 - No Stealing) from 2020-09-07T18:55:55

"Please remember this “no stealing” precept. It is the ultimate recognition that you have nothing to lose. Even if you, your whole body, is stolen by somebody, your whole mind by somebody, you h...

Brad Warner - Mind Makes Time from 2020-08-31T20:57:32

"I don't have to beat myself up over making a mistake. I just have to realize that the sense of thinking 'Oh my god, that thing I did...' is really just the desire to not do that anymore." - Bra...

Dave Cuomo - The Beautiful Boring of Blockhead (History of Zen - Shitou vs Mazu!) from 2020-08-24T19:11:18

“Get to know your own heart. It isn’t permanent or impermanent. It isn’t good or bad. It is clear and perfect.” - Shitou

Dave returns to pickup our storyline to find that almost ...

Emily Eslami - First Gift (The Precepts pt 2 - Not Killing) from 2020-08-18T00:45:47

“All the rules & commandments out there are trying to anticipate a situation. But right action, acting in the moment of an actual situation, can only happen in the moment of doing.” - Emily Esla...

Brad Warner - Begging the Eye from 2020-08-10T18:42:05

"Ungan said, “The state of begging the Eye is itself the Eye, is it not?” This is a sentence which blinks the Eye. It is the vivid shattering of the Eye. Ungan is saying that the Eye begs the Ey...

Dave Cuomo - Inconceivable! (The Vimalakirti Sutra - pt 2) from 2020-08-05T16:04:19

"The freedom, or liberation, she’s talking about is one that all of us inherently possess, and one that only we can grant to our selves. And it’s also a freedom that no one could ever take away ...

Dave Cuomo - Thank You For Being (The Vimalakirti Sutra - pt 1) from 2020-08-03T21:37:30

“There is no good or bad. its all just the universe learning through trial and error. So go out, do good or screw up. And whatever you do and whatever you’ve been through, thanks. We’re all better ...

Erik Andersen - The Poor Way from 2020-07-21T01:04:22

“This is poor man’s Buddhism - we don’’t have the resources to carry around bundles of scrolls with us, we don’t have the time to memorize sutras. Zen is about self sufficiency, autonomy, freedom. ...

Emily Eslami - On Shaky Ground (The Precepts pt 1 - Historical Background) from 2020-07-21T00:52:49

"True precepts are changeable and at the same time unchangeable. And the consequence of not following them is just being on shaky ground. According to Buddhism you could live your whole life on sha...

Emily Eslami - Old Bones, Dull Brains (Ceaseless Practice pt 2!) from 2020-07-14T01:24

Emily brings us Dogen at his most poignant and poetic as he gives us a rousing pep talk for practice, complete with inspiring stories and exhortations on giving up everything except for all of the ...

Brad Warner - Everything is New (The Big Birthday Cake of Realization) from 2020-07-07T02:16

Brad brings us one of his favorite and too often neglected Dogen pieces, "Buddhas Alone with Buddhas" in which Dogen gets downright lucid, warm, and (gasp!) easily intelligible about the great real...

Dave Cuomo - Stillness Screaming from 2020-06-22T20:18

Dave opens up his own inquiry into the precepts with a deep look at the sounds of silence that ultimately animate everything we do. Dragon's moan, persimmon's speak, and a snake loses its head in a...

Brad Warner - The Ethics of Emptiness from 2020-06-15T19:29

Brad tries to answer the question of why a non dual philosophical school like Zen is so obsessively focused on something as mundane as ethics and rules instead of sticking to the psychedelic philos...

Sara Campbell - The Fuzzy That Is Neither Warm Nor Cold (What Am Doing Here??) from 2020-06-08T18:36

In a glowing reminder of what exactly we're doing here and why we do it, Sara generously shares her personal practice story of turning her back on church and finding the sacred that lies just beyon...

Brad Warner - Secret Teachings from 2020-05-25T20:28

Brad reads to us Jijuyu Zanmai, Dogen’s famous treatise on the self and the universe, and then opens up about his own self and how Dogen has helped him make sense of the news, work with panic attac...

Dave Cuomo - Is This Working?? from 2020-05-18T19:58

Dave tries to answer the question of whether our zazen is actually working with an in depth look at Dongshan's Five Ranks and the last time Soto Zen accidentally created a gradated system for pract...

Cat Kilmer - What Am I Doing Here?? (Love & Reality) from 2020-05-11T20:24

In our ongoing series of sangha members sharing their personal practice stories, Cat Kilmer takes us on a quest of love and non duality through ashrams, yoga studios, and heartbreaks to find revela...

Emily Eslami - Ceaseless Practice from 2020-05-04T19:30

In another timely talk, Emily tackles Dogen's "Ceaseless Practice," where Dogen opens up in personal terms about his own struggles with the frustrations of an endless practice. How is giving up pra...

Brad Warner - The Most Obvious Thing from 2020-04-27T21:03

“[Enlightenment is] like a person with sh*t on his nose asking everyone else who farted.” - Kodo Sawaki

Reading from the great Kodo Sawaki’s commentary on the classic “Song of Awakening,” ...

Dave Cuomo - Having Once Paused (History of Zen - Ikkyu) from 2020-04-20T19:38

In a special History of Zen, Dave turns to the life and poetry of Ikkyu to try to answer the question of how Zen has historically responded to times of crisis. In Ikkyu’s case the answer was great ...

Brad Warner - A Theory of Everything from 2020-04-13T22:03

Recorded live at ACZC in the heady days of early March when we still sat together in a room, Brad Warner takes a free wheeling journey various philosophical outlooks on Panpsychism and the question...

Brad Warner - Follow the Circumstances from 2020-04-06T20:00

Brad discusses Daizui’s “Great Kalpa Fire” a classic koan about how to face the end of the world, and it’s classic answer - “we go along with.” Along the way we discuss various translations, get a ...

Emily Eslami - Equanimity from 2020-03-30T19:45

“Why crave happiness, why push away the sadness. Why not just let everything be?
We put so much energy into resisting the things we have no control over (which is actually everything), it’s a ...

Erik Andersen - Emptiness and Compassion (We're All In This Together) from 2020-03-23T23:34

Our favorite in house psychiatrist, Erik, gives a perfect combination of ancient Zen and modern expert advice for managing a time of stress & anxiety.

Jason Dodge - What Am I Doing Here? from 2020-03-17T21:03

Jason Dodge tells us the story of what he’s doing and why he’s here, while just maybe we learn something about those things for ourselves. In an especially warm and fuzzy installment, the sangha do...

Dave Cuomo - Blinding Darkness from 2020-03-11T02:27

Dave gives us an in depth look into the Buddhist creation myth. it's the question Buddha famously  refused to answer (except of course for when he changed his mind). It's a beginning in an ending a...

Love & Emptiness w/ Emily Eslami from 2020-03-03T20:28

Let’s talk about love! We all know Zen can be reluctant to talk about mushy things like love and kindness, but Emily bravely tackles loving kindness head on in the latest installment of her series ...

Brad Warner - This is Not a Dharma Talk from 2020-02-26T01:57

Brad Warner gives us a talk about dharma talks - what they are, what they’re not, why this is not one, and why he is happy that no such thing ever happens at ACZC. Along the way we discuss rituals ...

Dave Cuomo - Good Friends (History of Zen - The Platform Sutra) from 2020-02-18T19:15

In our latest installment of History of Zen, Dave gets very excited about sharing one of his favorite books with us that also happens to be the original defining text of Zen as we know it. In this ...

Michele Roldan-Shaw - Street Buddhism (Jataka Tales) from 2020-02-13T02:29

Michele Roldan-Shaw spins classic Jataka Tales (folk tales of the Buddha's past lives) for us with all their ambiguities, tough love, and hard choices. We get to meet sea spirits, unruly crows, gui...

Brad Warner - Forget Breathing from 2020-02-04T20:08

Brad Warner shares poetic passages from the great kindly grand uncle of our lineage, Kobun Chino. A true Beginner’s Only podcast, as long time practitioners discuss the ins and outs of practice; wh...

Erik Andersen - Worry Time from 2020-01-29T03:56

Erik looks at anxiety in a wide ranging and well informed discussion of everything from the intricacies of classic Zen literature to contemporary psychology and all the vulnerable (and personal) tw...

Dave Cuomo - Catastrophe! (History of Zen - Shenhui & The An Lushan Rebellion from 2020-01-21T20:09

In the year 757 in the middle of a catastrophic civil war surrounded by ruins and disaster, a monk named Shenhui stands on a hastily built grass platform and invents Zen as we know it with fiery sp...

Dave Cuomo - Siren Songs and Bluejays from 2020-01-15T03:15

Dave reads us excerpts from Suzuki's talk "The Bluejay Will Come Right Into Your Heart" and adds some of his own commentary on embracing distraction, sound and listening as practice, and fighting t...

Emma Roy - Buddha's Anger from 2020-01-07T20:09

Emma Roy takes us on a journey through one of our favorite pieces of Zen writing, The Harmony of Difference and Equality. We get a poetic reading of the piece, helpful context of the why, when, and...

Dave Cuomo - Explaining the Joke (History of Zen - Shenxiu) from 2019-12-31T20:49

In the year 700, a humble mountain monk named Shenxiu was called to the Chinese capitol by the Empress Wu. Within just a few years he almost single handedly made Zen the foremost religious school i...

Brad Warner - Forget Gautama! from 2019-12-18T03:24

In a very special Rohatsu talk Brad reads from the Denkoroku about the time Buddha sat under a tree for too long and all the wonderful things he realized. According to our Denkoroku author Keizan J...

Dave Cuomo - The Great Cosmic Joke (Nishijima’s Four Views) from 2019-12-10T20:03

Dave Cuomo delves into Nishijima’s Four Views with SOAR!, the handy four letter acronym that explains all reality. It’s the “philosophy of action” that Nishijima humbly tells us is “the solution to...

Emily Eslami - Stupid Joy from 2019-12-03T20:03

Emily Eslami gives us a Zen take on sympathetic joy. With readings from Dogen, Sawaki, the Pali Canon and more she takes us through on honest and vulnerable look at the difficulty of taking selfles...

Jack Taylor - What Am I Doing Here?? from 2019-11-25T20:10

Jack Taylor regales us with his personal practice story as part of our ongoing series where sangha members try to answer the question of what they’re doing and why they’re here in the off chance th...

Emily Eslami - No Death from 2019-11-19T02:18

I wish I could tell you this was the talk where Emily unveils the secret Zen teachings on immortality, but alas, as you probably could have guessed, that's not what we do here (at least not publicl...

Brad Warner - Face to Face from 2019-10-29T01:27

Billed as a talk to promote his new book, this one quickly diverged into a frank discussion of how American Buddhism has been developing in the 30 plus years since Brad found this whole Zen thing -...

Miranda Javid - Faking It from 2019-10-21T19:25

Miranda Javid brings some light to the tricky and relatable issue of feeling like an imposter in the zendo. Is it possible to fake it in zazen? Can anything or anyone ultimately be inauthentic? And...

Brad Warner - Don’t View Big Fish from 2019-10-14T23:11

Recorded live in Eindhoven, Netherlands in 2014 on the tour that inspired Brad’s latest book “Letters to a Dead Friend About Zen.”

In the middle of a retreat, caught in front of an audienc...

Emma Roy - Zen and the Art of Marketing Zen from 2019-10-08T19:11

Emma Roy looks at the legacy of DT Suzuki and his outsized role in shaping the way we’ve come to understand Zen from its beginnings in the West up to the present day. As a Zen pioneer in the US aft...

Emily Eslami - Well, This is Uncomfortable (Death by Fire, Death By Ice) from 2019-10-01T00:49

Be honest, how much of your life is uncomfortable? If you're paying attention (and anything like us), the answer is probably a good chunk of it. So it might be a good idea to get to know that disco...

Brad Warner - The Busyness of Chickens from 2019-09-23T19:04

Brad Warner leads an impromptu q&a with some choice readings from the hero of no nonsense Zen, Kodo Sawaki. The sangha pitches in their deep questions such as, what is the Zen approach to suffering...

Dave Cuomo - Something from Nothing (History of Zen - The situation in Ancient China) from 2019-09-17T02:06

We have finally wrapped up our story of Buddhism in India and head over to where the real story of Zen begins - China. But first we have to get a little background on just who China was (old) and w...

Emma Roy - A Time Outside of Time from 2019-09-02T21:35

Emma Roy takes us on a full exploration of ritual from its decidedly non supernatural intentions to it’s full ecstatic and world defining effects. Specifically she takes us on a close reading of th...

Emily Eslami - The Great Mistake from 2019-08-27T01:39

Emily takes our mistakes head on with an in depth look at the concept of mistake itself, starting with Dogen's famous quote (up at the top). It's pithy, it's perfectly Zen ironic, and it opens up a...

Dave Cuomo - Give Up, Give In from 2019-08-19T19:23

Recorded live in Nashville, TN! Asked to introduce Zen and share his own personal journey Dave goes bare bones honest with a talk about giving up and giving in to disillusionment and the liberation...

Brad Warner - The Real Masterpiece from 2019-08-13T00:13

Recording live in Helsinki back in October of '14, Brad opens with that spot on quote from our late friend Leonard Cohen, and goes on to explore the true meaning of winning, control, and the gnawin...

Emily Eslami - It's a Miracle! from 2019-08-06T01:07

In a wide ranging and super mundane talk Emily Eslami dives us into Dogen's Kajo - Everyday Life, where Dogen takes us there and back again to the limits of the ultimate miracles of life as found i...

Emma Roy - Self Caught Jail from 2019-07-30T01:08

Emma Roy brings us a piece by Kobun Chino about Dogen's Advice for Sitting. Our sangha has a bit of a Zen crush on Kobun lately and in this one we can see exactly why. It's a simple piece, mostly j...

Dave Cuomo - Who You Calling Perfect?? (History of Zen - Buddha Nature) from 2019-07-23T23:27

We finally bring our story in India to a close with one of the more perplexing and intriguing ideas to come out of early Buddhism - Buddha Nature. Somewhere in between grand God like notions and a ...

Emma Roy - A Thicker Brain? from 2019-07-15T17:35

Emma Roy returns with more cold hard science on the professed benefits of meditation and then drops the ever pertinent question, "yes, but is this the point?" With some of the science pointing out ...

Dave Cuomo - The Precepts: 16 Ways to Stop Being Rational from 2019-07-08T23:59

Somewhere in between a rule and a riddle lies the Zen vows. Dave traces their origin from poor Buddha who was just trying to keep the peace with his unruly monks by giving them a few rules (ok, mor...

Erik Andersen - Instant Zen from 2019-06-25T23:56

Following up on our history of the debate between gradual and sudden enlightenment, Erik follows our sudden victors forward in time to see what this sudden enlightenment really means for us in prac...

Dave Cuomo - Shantideva in the Streets, Nagarjuna in the Sheets (History of Zen) from 2019-06-18T01:27

It’s the Great Debate Between Sudden and Gradual Enlightenment! It's the never ending questions of "What should I do with this [problematic event/thought/feeling ]? Do we make it better, or do we l...

Emma Roy - When Good Zazen Goes Bad from 2019-06-10T22:44

There’s a lot of talk about how great zazen is, but is it always good for you? It's been mentioned here and there that at some point anyone who engages in this practice can expect it to get, let's ...

Jared Wynn - War & Peace from 2019-06-04T05:13

In a wide ranging discussion Jared shares his own missteps and anecdotes while looking for guidance everywhere from the Pali Canon to see how Buddha dealt with his conflicts (dark twist spoiler - h...

Dave Cuomo - Seeing the World From a Casket from 2019-05-31T19:28

Dave leads the sangha in a special memorial day discussion on Kodo Sawaki’s “Seeing the World from a Casket.” It’s an exploration of who we are when our defining struggles are no longer struggles a...

Emily Eslami - How to Ride an Ox from 2019-05-28T00:11

Emily Eslami on Kakuan Shien's Ten Bulls, or the Ox Herding pictures you may have heard them called. It's a path of no path, the great Zen rodeo, the straight road to enlightenment that turns out t...

Brad Warner - A Clean Slate from 2019-05-28T00:07

Dave Cuomo - Nagarjuna (History of Zen pt 8) from 2019-05-21T19:06

Nina Snow - On Food and Cooking from 2019-05-14T18:21

Miranda Javid - What Am I Doing Here?? from 2019-05-10T19:37

Brad Warner - Satipatthana Smackdown! from 2019-05-07T16:04

Emma Roy - The Good Sit from 2019-05-04T01:38

Emily Eslami - The Practice of Realization from 2019-04-30T00:31

Dave Cuomo - The Five Skandas from 2019-04-26T17:59

Erik Andersen - Zen Bacchanal from 2019-04-23T20:15

Brad Warner - The Heart Sutra from 2019-04-16T23:17

In a two part series, Brad tackles the shortest and most bedeviling text in Zen - The Heart Sutra. In part 1 he takes us through the text itself with historical background and an examination of the...

Emma Roy - What Did You Think This Was? from 2019-04-08T22:16

Emma takes a deep look at the necessity of goallessness in practice. Reading from a piece about gaining ideas from Suzuki’s “Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind,” she asks the biggest conundrum in Zen. If th...

Nina Snow - Weeping Zen from 2019-04-01T20:48

In a heartfelt and emotional discussion, Nina Snow explores Zen’s favorite topic to overlook - emotions. With readings from “The Hidden Lamp” and Charlotte Joko Beck, Nina explores the difference b...

Emily Eslami - The Passion of Dispassion from 2019-03-26T04:16

Emily Eslami on Craving. It's a talk about happiness, the limitations of happiness, passion, and the joy of dispassion. It's a talk about ironic contentment and what exactly were we looking for in...

Brad Warner - Revealing the Magic Trick (Q&A Night) from 2019-03-22T18:36

A Q&A night w/ Brad Warner. Opening with a mini lecture on vaudeville and the three stooges, Brad takes his topics from the sangha including classics such as:
- I feel more detached after doin...

Brad Warner - The Extraordinary Thing from 2019-03-19T18:18

At the request of our tenzo, Brad reads from Dogen’s Tenzo Kyokun (Instructions to the Cook) about joyful mind, nurturing mind, and magnanimous mind. He uses these as a launching pad to discuss wha...

Nina Snow - Happy from 2019-03-15T19:24

Nina tackles the ever tricky subject of happiness with a reading from “The Zen Teachings of Homeless Kodo” - “What is Happiness?” Is happiness the point? Can we transcend the duality of emotion? An...

Orlando K. - Rogue Idealism from 2019-03-11T21:56

Bringing back the “What Am I Doing Here??” series, our own Orlando K. regales us with the story of how he got here and what he’s doing to possibly help us answer the question of what any of us are ...

Brad Warner - Matter and the Immaterial from 2019-03-04T23:52

In a loose and wide ranging Q&A style discussion, Brad takes on some big questions and gets deep with the sangha. With topics ranging from how to deal with anger, to what the heck does “form is emp...

Emma Roy - Lay Practice from 2019-03-01T21:12

Emma Roy celebrates the lay community. While so much has been written about the wise monks and teachers who have defined Buddhism, Emma points out that this is not the vast majority of practitioner...

Emily Eslami - “The Practice of Impossible Things” from 2019-02-25T22:00

Emily takes on the impossible in her “Intro to Zen” talk. How exactly is anyone supposed to introduce this wild, inexpressible, unattainable practice we do day after day, moment by moment? Reading ...

Brad Warner - Secretions of the Mind (Q&A) from 2019-02-22T20:32

Brad prompts a Q&A night w/ a reading from “Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom” by Kosho Uchiyama, including Brad’s favorite quote about the nature of thought. Not surprisingly the conversation becom...

Dave Cuomo - Wait, what exactly is Mahayana Buddhism? (History of Zen pt 5) from 2019-02-18T19:49

Dave continues his series on the history of Zen with pt 5 - Mahayana Buddhism. He wades into the murky history to try to find the historical roots of the Mahayana, and what if anything, set it and ...

Brad Warner - Playing with the Soul & Taking The Big Dump from 2019-02-11T19:58

In a special selection from the vault, a talk by Brad Warner from Lammi, Finland where he reads and discusses his classic article "Enlightenment and Cat Poop," about letting go and taking the Big D...

Nina Snow - Greed & Generosity from 2019-02-07T20:18

Nina Snow leads the sangha in a roundtable discussion on the nature of greed, exploring it’s roots in fear and attachment, and the generosity inherent in letting go.

Emma Roy - The Big Bummers of Buddhism from 2019-02-04T19:44

Emma Roy discusses “The Three Characteristics,” the three hallmarks of Buddhism that everyone wishes were not true - suffering, impermanence, and no self. Why do these have to be true and why do we...

Emma Roy - Not Being Special from 2019-02-01T20:14

Emma reads “On (Not) Being Special” by Ken McCleod to ask the questions of whether any of us are special, whether zazen does anything special, whether we are all destined for enlightenment, and ult...

Emily Eslami - Not to be Achieved by Wanting (Unnecessary Roughness) from 2019-01-28T16:37

Emily wraps up her series on the three marks of existence with Buddhism's favorite least favorite topic - The Truth of Suffering. She leads the sangha in an acknowledgement of all the large and sma...

Brad Warner - Q&A January 21st from 2019-01-25T21:00

The answer to your questions are all here! Brad takes questions from the internet and audience including classics such as:
“What are the Four Noble Truths, Eightfold path, and the Precepts?” Listen

Brad Warner - The Wisdom That Knows at a Glance from 2019-01-23T20:05

Brad & the sangha tackle some deep Dogen w/ “The Eternal Mirror,” Dogen’s chapter on prajna and intuitive wisdom. The sangha discusses why intuition is so hard to listen to when it’s so close at ha...

Dave Cuomo - A Better Way (History of Zen - pt 4) from 2019-01-21T19:18

Dave Cuomo continues his series on the history of Zen with pt 4 - Ashoka! It's one of the most extraordinary and unexpected stories in world history as a bloodthirsty warlord emperor sees a simple ...

Craig French - Community from 2019-01-14T23:57

To inspire the sangha in our new center, Craig French gives a reading from Crooked Cucumber, the story of Sunryu Suzuki and San Francisco Zen Center. Craig and the sangha get cute as they discuss c...

Brad Warner - Ghosts & Spirits from 2019-01-08T01:09

Brad Warner reads from Kobun Chino’s “Life and Death” and sparks a lively discussion about the end of science and whether we even really understand what’s happening in our lives right now, let alon...

Brad Warner - A Naked & Sincere Mind (Remembering Nishijima) from 2018-12-17T19:10

Brad gets back to his roots and fondly remembers his teacher, Gudo Wafu Nishijima. With a reading from a brief biography by fellow student Gustav Ericsson, Brad talks about what made the man the pr...

Dave Cuomo - Ananda and the Dharma of Not Getting It (History of Zen pt 3) from 2018-12-14T20:25

Dave Cuomo continues his History of Zen series w/ pt 3 - Ananda. He’s the great unreliable narrator of all Buddhist scripture. Dave tells the story of this sweet and simple character and looks into...

Nina Snow - Love and Kindness from 2018-12-10T22:50

Nina and the sangha wade into the messy grey areas of being nice. Reading from “The Thousand Eyes and Hands of Compassion” in Brad’s latest book, they explores the nuanced ways compassion is as muc...

Emma Roy - Dogen and the Eternal Age of Collapse from 2018-11-29T13:08

Emma discusses the life of Dogen with readings from Hee-Jin Kim’s “Dogen - Mystical Realist.” She explores parallels between Dogen’s time and ours including the the recurring feeling that we’re liv...

Dave Cuomo - Hopeless from 2018-11-26T17:59

Dave tries to shock the sangha with a talk on the delusion of hope and the liberation of being hopeless, letting go of our ideals in favor of being open to what is. It’s a talk about goallessness a...

Brad Warner - Why Did Bodhidharma Come From The West? from 2018-11-23T20:29

“You have to have a sense of the great gravity of life and death or Zen is not something you’re going to want put your energy into.”

A Q&A w/ Brad Warner, answering classic questions such...

Erik Andersen - Seeing True Nature from 2018-11-19T20:11

Erik continues his inquiry into beliefs and how they can hinder us. He looks at what was meant by the classic Zen promise of "seeing true nature," beliefs as attachment, and how this is all worked ...

Dave Cuomo - History of Zen pt 2 from 2018-11-16T19:25

Dave continues his series tracing the philosophical and social history of Zen. In part 2 we come to Buddha himself, what was the social context he was teaching in, who were his teachers and what di...

Brad Warner - The Problem Might Be Society from 2018-11-05T19:45

rad opens Dogen’s Eihei Koroku at random to see if the spirits have any special message for us, and settles on a reading of “A Demonstration of Six Magical Powers” (dude whoa), where Dogen gets a l...

Brad Warner - Limitless Potential (Zenki pt 3) from 2018-11-01T17:13

Brad concludes his retreat series on Dogen’s Zenki with a reading of his own translation “Limitless Potential.” He discusses ethics, the full moon atonement ceremony, and some of his early dating m...

Brad Warner - All Functions (Zenki pt 2) from 2018-10-31T17:29

Part 2 of Brad’s talks from the Mt Baldy retreat on Dogen’s Zenki. He reads Nishijima’s translation, as well as portions of Okumura’s “The Mountains and Rivers Sutra," the sangha discusses the diff...

Brad Warner - The Total Activity of Life and Death (Zenki pt 1) from 2018-10-30T18:46

Part 1 of 3 talks given by Brad on Dogen's "Zenki" at our Mt Baldy Retreat. In part 1 Brad introduces the piece and reads his favorite translation, the sangha discusses the enlightenment of woodpec...

Brad Warner - How to Harness Your Practice from 2018-10-26T16:35

questions - how do we harness our practice in difficult circumstances? What does Buddhism say about love? Wasn’t Cha Cha the best? There’s also some great geeking out about the poetry inherent in C...

Dave Cuomo - Intro To Zen from 2018-10-22T17:41

If you’ve ever been curious what exactly we do here and why, this is your chance to find out! We cover all the basics from extended Zazen instructions to what exactly we do here in Zen and why. Wha...

Emma Roy - How to Be a Decent Person from 2018-10-19T19:17

Emma explores the questions of how to be a decent person. It’s a beautiful talk and a very well constructed question, which the sangha does their best to help answer. A highly recommended episode!

Nina Snow - The Neurotic Emotional Veil from 2018-10-15T19:05

Nina leads us in a a reading from Charlotte Joko Beck - Experiencing and Experiencing. It's a conversation about how we objectify our world by seeking out experiences instead of resting in the act ...

Brad Warner - Two Truths from 2018-10-12T16:26

Brad talks us through the often maligned teaching of the two truths. It’s about the absolute and the relative, trying to see the forest and the trees. It’s about zazen and the underlying sub strata...

Brad Warner - Don’t Argue With an Ox from 2018-10-08T18:22

Brad gives a reading from his favorite Zen author, Shohaku Okumura, The Mountains and Waters Sutra. It’s a talk about mountains studying mountains, how the universe is using us to study itself, and...

Jared Wynn - Not This, Not This, and Not This from 2018-10-05T18:23

Jared Wynn talks about attachment, with readings from Zen Mind Beginners Mind and Pema Choedron. The sangha discusses getting caught, whether we’re allowed to still be attached to our partners, sle...

Erik Andersen - Beliefs from 2018-10-01T18:28

In a freewheeling talk, Erik talks about beliefs. Do we need them? No, well sometimes, but not like we think we do. What happens when you let go of even the most fundamental beliefs? What happens w...

Emma Roy - Rituals and Playing With Fire from 2018-09-27T19:03

"Be careful what you say out loud, and make it good."

Emma and the sangha discuss rituals - what are they really and why do we do them? Is it superstition, is it magic, a way to mark a mom...

Brad Warner - What is Zen & What is Japanese Culture? from 2018-09-24T18:10

In an impromptu talk, Brad explores an often asked question, “how do you separate japanese culture from what is Zen?” It’s a discussion of the paradox of Western Buddhism - if we just mimic foreign...

Brad Warner - Let it All Go from 2018-09-20T18:32

A Q&A w/ Brad Warner where he answers the big questions, such as; do meditation apps work? What are the four truths of Nishijima? Can we meditate away anxiety? What are we letting go of, how do we ...

Emily Eslami - Nothing is Sacred, Nothing is Mundane from 2018-09-17T15:12

“Everything is sacred, I believe nothing. Nothing is sacred, I believe in everything” - Tom Robbins

It’s hard to say what this podcast is about since the topic of Emily’s talk was explicit...

Dave Cuomo - History of Zen pt 1 from 2018-09-13T18:32

Dave attempts to trace the history of Zen from its Indian roots up to our present day Zen center. Part 1 is an exploration of pre-Buddhist Brahmanism, and the sangha discusses what to do when you'r...

Nina Snow - Love and Attachment from 2018-09-11T12:55

We often don't talk about love in Zen, sticking to more monkly sounding terms like "compassion" or "loving kindness" but Nina is not one to shy away from the big topics. She opens her new series th...

Craig French - The Vine That Connects Everything from 2018-09-07T01:10

Craig discusses the universal self; what that means, how to act when there is no ultimate purpose, and how to engage in conflict and be with yourself and others in the big universal self.

Brad Warner - The Person Can Never Live Up from 2018-09-03T19:10

Brad gives a eulogy of sorts to Against the Stream recounting his history on the periphery of the group and discussing the pitfalls of success.

Emma Roy - Reality Is It's Own Reward from 2018-08-30T16:30

What's so great about the present moment? Emma and the sangha discuss the myth of spiritual progress, why seeking satisfaction is an inherently unsatisfying endeavor, and what the fruits of a goall...

Emily Eslami - Buddhism and the City from 2018-08-27T18:14

Brad Warner - Clean Your Room from 2018-08-24T15:48

Erik Andersen - Happiness from 2018-08-21T06:20

Drawing on research from positive psychology and a reading from Huangbo, Erik Andersen talks happiness; what it is, how to get it, and why it's really not the point so don't worry about it.

Dave Cuomo - Fundamental Self Worth from 2018-08-16T01:09

Nina Snow - Small Batch Artisan Mindfulness from 2018-08-13T06:51

Craig French - Guide to a Happy, Healthy Lay Practice from 2018-08-09T12:03

Brad Warner - You're Already There! from 2018-08-06T06:14

Colleen Schneider - Being Time from 2018-08-02T04:41

Emily Eslami - Am I Doing This Right? from 2018-07-30T08:15

Emily and the sangha discuss the intricacies of an objectless, goalless meditation

Emma Roy - What is there to master? from 2018-07-24T05:43

Hardcore Zen Show ep 3 - Welcome to the Human Experience from 2018-07-16T02:34

A Zen look at suicide and depression, featuring Gesshin Greenwood and Erik Anderson.

If you or someone you know are suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts, please visit https://ww...

Jataka Tales w/ Michele Roldan-Shaw from 2018-06-19T00:54

You can find Michele's books at https://www.micheleroldanshaw.com

Dave Cuomo - Be Your (Not) Self from 2018-06-12T07:01

The sangha discusses Zen and the existential needs of America.

Hardcore Zen Show Episode 2 from 2018-06-05T06:54

The theme this episode is "Women in Buddhism," featuring Jitsujo Gauthier and Gesshin Greenwood discussing her new book, "Bow First, Ask Questions Later."

Please donate to keep this show a...

Gesshin Greenwood - Bow First, Ask Questions Later from 2018-05-14T21:26

Gesshin Greenwood talks about life as a nun in Japan with a reading from her new book, Bow First, Ask Questions Later. Recorded live at ACZC.

Brad Warner - Extraordinary Piece of Meat from 2018-05-08T16:04

Brad Warner discusses Thomas Metzinger's book "The Ego Tunnel" and how zazen differs from "standard" modes of meditation - just as Buddha suggested it should.
Recorded live at ACZC

Curtis Fabens - Clarity, Purpose, & Joy from 2018-05-03T05:15

Hardcore Zen Show Ep 1 - Audio Podcast from 2018-04-24T21:04

On this episode Brad Warner discusses Bodhidharma meeting the Emperor Wu with Dave Cuomo, plus interviews with author Noah Cicero, and Karmedian Amanda Loveland.