Podcasts by Brooklyn Zen Center

Audio dharma talk by Yoko Ohashi (2022/03/26) from 2022-03-26T11:58:59

Bring your attention to your heart area. How does it feel, to give, this moment, to ourselves, completely to ourselves? Wherever you are, with your thoughts and feelings, painful or joyous… h...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2022/01/08) from 2022-03-05T23:26:33

For Dogen, that dropping away of body and mind that he considers awakening, is the dropping away of that center of experience.

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2022/01/29) from 2022-01-29T22:59:36

I have seen this happen, when some tinny little thing will happen in my relationship and the intensity of the response is so tremendous because it is connected to a whole stream of unforgiven, unna...

Audio Dharma Talk by Teah Strozer (2022/01/22) from 2022-01-22T23:19:22

How do we live in this world? From where do we respond? Are we in touch enough with the place of the heart so that we can speak to a roommate that is difficult for us from a place of openness, from...

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: rohatsu sesshin day 4 (2021/12/11) from 2021-12-12T04:20:07

How do we get back in contact with those possibilities for us to live in a playful, creative, connected, curious, courageous way?

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: rohatsu sesshin day 2 (2021/12/09) from 2021-12-10T04:10:13

Maybe we don’t want to even recognize that we are in pain. We are still refusing to recognize how much we are all in pain and how much the world is in pain. But when we can begin to hear the pain t...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: rohatsu sesshin day 1 (2021/12/08) from 2021-12-09T04:00:51

What is at stake? What is at stake for ourselves? What is at stake in my life? What is at stake when I resist? What is at stake when I insist on separation? What is at stake when I don’t know what ...

Audio dharma talk by Kritee Kanko (2021/11/13) from 2021-11-14T00:37:34

We are afraid to break open, afraid to cry. And that is exactly what my invitation is. Go hear stories, be in community. It’s not just about right and wrong and seing our responsibility. It’s about...

Audio dharma talk by Kritee Kanko (2021/11/13) from 2021-11-14T00:37:34

We are afraid to break open, afraid to cry. And that is exactly what my invitation is. Go hear stories, be in community. It’s not just about right and wrong and seing our responsibility. It’s about...

Audio dharma talk by Chimyo Atkinson (2021/10/23) from 2021-10-23T21:46:08

As our lives come into being, as we become, we learn about sickness, old age and death. It becomes life, loss, gain, or what we see as gain and loss. And what we do with it, in terms of how we crea...

Audio dharma talk by Sarah Dōjin Emerson (2021/10/16) from 2021-10-16T21:49:52

We can’t acknowledge impermanence in the world if we can’t acknowledge it in ourselves. And it’s frightening.        

Audio Dharma Talk by Teah Strozer: Sesshin Day 3 (2021/10/03) from 2021-10-03T17:32:34

Our path is tiptoeing, falling in —sometimes drowning in— our own created fire.

Audio Dharma Talk by Teah Strozer: Sesshin Day 3 (2021/10/03) from 2021-10-03T17:32:34

Our path is tiptoeing, falling in —sometimes drowning in— our own created fire.

Audio Dharma Talk by Teah Strozer: Sesshin Day 2 (2021/10/02) from 2021-10-02T17:30:06

We trip, we fall, and we look to see what did we just trip over. What was the cause of the mistake? We try to learn from what just happened. That is the most important thing. We are not about being...

Audio Dharma Talk by Teah Strozer: Sesshin Day 2 (2021/10/02) from 2021-10-02T17:30:06

We trip, we fall, and we look to see what did we just trip over. What was the cause of the mistake? We try to learn from what just happened. That is the most important thing. We are not about being...

Audio Dharma Talk by Teah Strozer: Sesshin Day 1 (2021/10/01) from 2021-10-01T17:26:21

Everyone is doing their best, even when we make terrible mistakes. I think that people who do things that are cruel and senseless, the conditioning that they had to endure in order to do those kind...

Audio Dharma Talk by Teah Strozer: Sesshin Day 1 (2021/10/01) from 2021-10-01T17:26:21

Everyone is doing their best, even when we make terrible mistakes. I think that people who do things that are cruel and senseless, the conditioning that they had to endure in order to do those kind...

Audio dharma by Konjin Gaelyn Roshi and Taiga Sensei (2021/09/28) from 2021-09-28T22:54:47

Reverends Konjin Gaelyn Godwin and Taiga Ito visited Ancestral Heart Zen Monastery  last September and gave a presentation on Soto Zen International’s mission and its alignment with the Unite...

Audio dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2021/09/25) from 2021-09-25T21:32:27

Stand up and be authentically what we are.

Audio dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2021/09/25) from 2021-09-25T21:32:27

Stand up and be authentically what we are.

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2021/09/18) from 2021-09-18T21:32:34

We show up for each other, we show up as a community. We have to understand at some level sangha in some ways does not work unless we understand that our showing up is not for ourselves – but...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2021/09/18) from 2021-09-18T21:32:34

We show up for each other, we show up as a community. We have to understand at some level sangha in some ways does not work unless we understand that our showing up is not for ourselves – but...

Audio dharma talk by Charlie Pokorny (2021/07/24) from 2021-07-24T21:43:19

Zazen is a way I would offer to open to relationality and to open to spaciousness in a full life.

Audio dharma talk by Charlie Pokorny (2021/07/24) from 2021-07-24T21:43:19

Zazen is a way I would offer to open to relationality and to open to spaciousness in a full life.

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2021/07/17) from 2021-07-17T22:52:43

The combination of precepts and community practice allows us to take refuge in a new relational orientation to the world, to others, to the Earth. And it entails of course vulnerability, literally ...

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2021/07/17) from 2021-07-17T22:52:43

The combination of precepts and community practice allows us to take refuge in a new relational orientation to the world, to others, to the Earth. And it entails of course vulnerability, literally ...

Audio dharma talk by Chimyo Atkinson (2021/07/10) from 2021-07-10T11:25:05

You have to just stay on the path and keep walking it through all the conditions that will be in our lives. And it’s not a seeking of an end, of a prize, of some attaining. You just have to let tho...

Audio dharma talk by Chimyo Atkinson (2021/07/10) from 2021-07-10T11:25:05

You have to just stay on the path and keep walking it through all the conditions that will be in our lives. And it’s not a seeking of an end, of a prize, of some attaining. You just have to let tho...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2021/06/20) from 2021-06-20T23:05:17

A Bodhisattva knows that going into every situation is walking into a completely different world. And in that completely different world we have to have stillness of mind and presence to receive th...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2021/06/20) from 2021-06-20T23:05:17

A Bodhisattva knows that going into every situation is walking into a completely different world. And in that completely different world we have to have stillness of mind and presence to receive th...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2021/06/19) from 2021-06-19T12:15:59

Our being in the world –  and our karmic orientations in everything that is happening – is what makes the world around us what it is.

Reflections on Resistance and Pipeline 3 (2021/06/12) from 2021-06-12T14:55:02

Reflections on Resistance and Pipeline 3: a share by Yoko Ohashi and Koan Anne Brink

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin and Sally Chang (2021/06/05) from 2021-06-05T13:00:11

If all your doing is imitating the form again and again, you’re going to receive benefit. But if you don’t inhabit the form, and the form is not infused into your entire being; if you donR...

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin and Sally Chang (2021/06/05) from 2021-06-05T13:00:11

If all your doing is imitating the form again and again, you’re going to receive benefit. But if you don’t inhabit the form, and the form is not infused into your entire being; if you donR...

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2021/05/08) from 2021-05-08T15:22:19

We vow to uphold these precepts, to live by these precepts. Then we fall away, we fall into hell. But we come back. The vow is vast enough to include this experience. And when we can open up even i...

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2021/05/08) from 2021-05-08T15:22:19

We vow to uphold these precepts, to live by these precepts. Then we fall away, we fall into hell. But we come back. The vow is vast enough to include this experience. And when we can open up even i...

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2021/05/01) from 2021-05-01T11:36:57

The flowers, the plants, will communicate to us. But they need our care, our attention, in some way – if we are listening. Or a bowing mat, or a laundry basket. It’s everywhere. And when we a...

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2021/05/01) from 2021-05-01T11:36:57

The flowers, the plants, will communicate to us. But they need our care, our attention, in some way – if we are listening. Or a bowing mat, or a laundry basket. It’s everywhere. And when we a...

Audio dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2021/04/24) from 2021-04-24T18:43:59

This essence, this emptiness, this vast nothingness – somehow or another there is awareness there. And somehow or another when this awareness comes into form it functions as love. It walks in the w...

Audio dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2021/04/24) from 2021-04-24T18:43:59

This essence, this emptiness, this vast nothingness – somehow or another there is awareness there. And somehow or another when this awareness comes into form it functions as love. It walks in the w...

Audio dharma talk by Kritee Kanko (2021/04/10) from 2021-04-10T13:49:14

If we do not collectively find clarity and courage to act, there will be large scale catastrophe if not extinction. So the paradox is there is a sense of urgency, but we can not act if we are alway...

Audio dharma talk by Kritee Kanko (2021/04/10) from 2021-04-10T13:49:14

If we do not collectively find clarity and courage to act, there will be large scale catastrophe if not extinction. So the paradox is there is a sense of urgency, but we can not act if we are alway...

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2021/04/03) from 2021-04-03T18:20:08

What do we dismiss in ourselves? What do we exile and alienate or say it’s not important? And it could be anything. From “I don’t have a right to feel a sense of loss or grief because these other p...

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2021/04/03) from 2021-04-03T18:20:08

What do we dismiss in ourselves? What do we exile and alienate or say it’s not important? And it could be anything. From “I don’t have a right to feel a sense of loss or grief because these other p...

Audio dharma talk by Yoko Ohashi (2021/03/27) from 2021-03-27T12:55:47

The whole process must return to the source. Just like a baby taking to it’s mother. Just how natural that is that we all have a mother. How natural that is that we come from our ancestors. H...

Audio dharma talk by Yoko Ohashi (2021/03/27) from 2021-03-27T12:55:47

The whole process must return to the source. Just like a baby taking to it’s mother. Just how natural that is that we all have a mother. How natural that is that we come from our ancestors. H...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2021/03/21) from 2021-03-21T19:11:48

How do we cultivate a present, an awake, and flexible mind? Because that’s the response. It’s not to come with some other persona to the world that is different, or opposite then the one we h...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2021/03/21) from 2021-03-21T19:11:48

How do we cultivate a present, an awake, and flexible mind? Because that’s the response. It’s not to come with some other persona to the world that is different, or opposite then the one we h...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2021/03/20) from 2021-03-20T16:17:30

Zen’s focus on posture is very helpful and very wise. Because it is getting to something we don’t know how to get to on our own. Until we sit down and take a shape we are not accustomed...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2021/03/20) from 2021-03-20T16:17:30

Zen’s focus on posture is very helpful and very wise. Because it is getting to something we don’t know how to get to on our own. Until we sit down and take a shape we are not accustomed...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2021/03/19) from 2021-03-19T21:14:56

Wisdom is nowhere other than in intimate relationship to what is happening.

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2021/03/19) from 2021-03-19T21:14:56

Wisdom is nowhere other than in intimate relationship to what is happening.

Audio dharma talk by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel (2021/03/17) from 2021-03-17T08:16:01

Are we going to embolden white supremacy or are we going to embolden healing and transformation?

Audio dharma talk by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel (2021/03/17) from 2021-03-17T08:16:01

Are we going to embolden white supremacy or are we going to embolden healing and transformation?

Audio dharma talk by Chimyo Atkinson (2021/03/13) from 2021-03-13T19:28:03

When we come together in these spaces [physical zendo], our spaces for zazen are going to look very different. Here’s the opportunity to drop all the assumptions and, with beginner’s mind, come tog...

Audio dharma talk by Chimyo Atkinson (2021/03/13) from 2021-03-13T19:28:03

When we come together in these spaces [physical zendo], our spaces for zazen are going to look very different. Here’s the opportunity to drop all the assumptions and, with beginner’s mind, come tog...

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2021/03/06) from 2021-03-06T19:26:29

 If we think of all of these as training — meditation, the precepts, the realization of our interconnectedness and enmeshment in sangha — that begs the question: what are we being train...

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2021/03/06) from 2021-03-06T19:26:29

 If we think of all of these as training — meditation, the precepts, the realization of our interconnectedness and enmeshment in sangha — that begs the question: what are we being train...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2021/02/27) from 2021-02-27T12:20:03

Everything moves like the breath. Everything in the world is like the breath. It exists for a moment and then it’s gone. It’s full of impermanence, we can’t find it. It’s sometimes subtle, sometime...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2021/02/27) from 2021-02-27T12:20:03

Everything moves like the breath. Everything in the world is like the breath. It exists for a moment and then it’s gone. It’s full of impermanence, we can’t find it. It’s sometimes subtle, sometime...

Audio dharma talk by Sarah Dōjin Emerson (2021/02/20) from 2021-02-20T21:46:36

Attuning to the body – more and more I feel for myself and I see it in my own experience and I hear it reflected from so many different places – when we attune to our body is an amazingly transgres...

Audio dharma talk by Sarah D?jin Emerson (2021/02/20) from 2021-02-20T21:46:36

Attuning to the body – more and more I feel for myself and I see it in my own experience and I hear it reflected from so many different places – when we attune to our body is an amazingly transgres...

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2021/02/13) from 2021-02-13T18:01:55

How do we work through our pain, through our numbness? How do we regain a sense of aliveness?

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2021/02/06) from 2021-02-06T12:58:30

Let’s all care for the grasping of our minds. Let’s listen for the silence of the Earth with our whole bodies. And let’s care for the relationships that are our lives.

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2021/02/06) from 2021-02-06T12:58:30

Let’s all care for the grasping of our minds. Let’s listen for the silence of the Earth with our whole bodies. And let’s care for the relationships that are our lives.

Audio Dharma Talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2021/01/30) from 2021-01-30T22:22:09

To be able to free other beings, what we do is we actually just free them in our minds.

Audio Dharma Talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2021/01/30) from 2021-01-30T22:22:09

To be able to free other beings, what we do is we actually just free them in our minds.

Audio dharma talk by Yoko Ohashi (2021/01/23) from 2021-01-23T10:49:09

Audio dharma talk by Yoko Ohashi (2021/01/23) from 2021-01-23T10:49:09

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2021/01/16) from 2021-01-16T13:45:54

My hope is that, as a community, we can support each other in the ongoing work of not turning away. That we can enter into a relationship with our own suffering, so that an appropriate response can...

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2021/01/16) from 2021-01-16T13:45:54

My hope is that, as a community, we can support each other in the ongoing work of not turning away. That we can enter into a relationship with our own suffering, so that an appropriate response can...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: rohatsu sesshin day 3 (2021/12/10) from 2021-01-11T04:13:26

We are all in a process of integration. What is the practice in relationship to everything that has happened? What are we in relationship to each other? What are the views that were in the sangha t...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2020/12/13): 2020 Rohatsu Sesshin Day 5 from 2020-12-13T12:34:53

The universe isn’t simply happening, the dharma wheel isn’t simply turning. The Buddha’s words turned the dharma wheel. The dharma wheel turns because it is both an eternal truth and turns, but als...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2020/12/13): 2020 Rohatsu Sesshin Day 5 from 2020-12-13T12:34:53

The universe isn’t simply happening, the dharma wheel isn’t simply turning. The Buddha’s words turned the dharma wheel. The dharma wheel turns because it is both an eternal truth and turns, but als...

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/12/12): 2020 Rohatsu Sesshin Day 4 from 2020-12-12T12:33:20

It’s wonderful how life works – there is an insistent disruption to any superficial harmony we make. We think we got it all just about right. And then something suddenly appears.

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/12/12): 2020 Rohatsu Sesshin Day 4 from 2020-12-12T12:33:20

It’s wonderful how life works – there is an insistent disruption to any superficial harmony we make. We think we got it all just about right. And then something suddenly appears.

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2020/12/11): 2020 Rohatsu Sesshin Day 3 from 2020-12-11T12:31:33

Openness requires the heart and the mind. Openness requires the mind to not be grasping. Openness requires the heart to be present, to feel, to make space for.

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2020/12/11): 2020 Rohatsu Sesshin Day 3 from 2020-12-11T12:31:33

Openness requires the heart and the mind. Openness requires the mind to not be grasping. Openness requires the heart to be present, to feel, to make space for.

Audio dharma by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/12/10): 2020 Rohatsu Sesshin Day 2 from 2020-12-10T12:29:31

Often we feel the need to create our own shell, with our muscles, with our bodies, with our actions. But when awe are offered a container safe enough – a protective container – we can begin to rele...

Audio dharma by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/12/10): 2020 Rohatsu Sesshin Day 2 from 2020-12-10T12:29:31

Often we feel the need to create our own shell, with our muscles, with our bodies, with our actions. But when awe are offered a container safe enough – a protective container – we can begin to rele...

Audi dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2020/12/09)2020: Rohatsu Sesshin Day 1 from 2020-12-09T12:24:58

We are sitting at the center of the ten directions of this Earth, we are sitting at the center of the dharma wheel, we are sitting at the center of the spinning cycle of samsara. We are sitting at ...

Audi dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (2020/12/09)2020: Rohatsu Sesshin Day 1 from 2020-12-09T12:24:58

We are sitting at the center of the ten directions of this Earth, we are sitting at the center of the dharma wheel, we are sitting at the center of the spinning cycle of samsara. We are sitting at ...

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2020/12/05) from 2020-12-05T22:33:34

Stillness manifests as care. […] I am talking about stillness with my karmic mind, with my conditioning. So, my conditioning rises up and there’s a choice to be propelled by it or to stop and see it.

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2020/12/05) from 2020-12-05T22:33:34

Stillness manifests as care. […] I am talking about stillness with my karmic mind, with my conditioning. So, my conditioning rises up and there’s a choice to be propelled by it or to stop and see it.

Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/11/21) from 2020-11-21T18:39:03

This darkness, this mystery of who we are, and how we are together, and how we are being influenced all the time, is to be honored and to be listened to, and is necessary for our wholeness.

Dharma talk by Gaelyn Godwin and Taiga Ito (2020/11/07) from 2020-11-07T16:50:46

In the way of the Buddha, karma is always in the background. It’s like the little key that unlocks all these teachings. When you kind of understand that, as I’m sure many of you do, whe...

Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/10/31) from 2020-10-31T11:09:35

[We can think of] these arising traumas, these beings as I like to think of them, as survival strategies of our ancestors. So fear, anxiety, anger, rage, or joy – these are blood memories. An...

Dharma talk by Chimyo Atkinson (2020/10/24) from 2020-10-24T10:00:40

Practice is taking that step time and time again and slamming again and again into the reality that the world is not built for me, around me, by me alone. That my story is just that – a story...

Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Sesshin Day 3 (2020/10/18) from 2020-10-18T11:54:46

We are in a time where being able to take refuge in each other, being of service to each other, being a community that can rely on each other – this is something that we put forward, and that...

Dharma talk by Teah Strozer: Sesshin Day 2 (2020/10/17) from 2020-10-17T11:53:23

If you look deeply at where the body ends, you can’t find an end to it.  That is how much we are not separated from anything.  So this idea of separation is an illusion, it’s a inaccura...

Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Sesshin Day 1 (2020/10/16) from 2020-10-16T11:50:44

The freedom will be in the allowance of the arising, not in the arrangement of the arising.

Dharma talk by Ian Case (2020/10/10) from 2020-10-10T11:19:06

In whatever way Buddhas are directing their attention, their abiding and dwelling happens there.

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2020/10/03) from 2020-10-03T14:54:09

Sometimes that Buddha ancestral connection is represented between a teacher and a student – which Dogen talks a lot about – but it can be represented by our relationship to the Buddhas and ancestor...

Dharma talk by DaRa Williams (2020/09/20) from 2020-09-20T10:31:59

This practice, this way of understanding, this way of knowing, is crafted in such a way that we have access to freedom in each and every moment of our waking hours. The freedom that I am speaking t...

Audio dharma by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2020/09/19) from 2020-09-19T20:56:37

It starts to become really clear that […] responding to the difficulties of our lives often requires the energy of others. That being with others, our daily routine that we take for granted, is oft...

Dharma by Kosen Greg Snyder: Sesshin Day 3 (2020/08/16) from 2020-08-16T10:20:37

In the knowing that needs no words, the entire reality of the thinking mind is called into question.

Dharma by Laura O’Loughlin: Sesshin Day 2 (2020/08/15) from 2020-08-15T10:18:47

The ceremony of zazen is a ceremony of non-separation. It’s our intention to sit down and be with everything. This is how we start working with those many moments of painful separation, of harm ena...

Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Sesshin Day 1 (2020/08/14) from 2020-08-14T10:03:46

We all, just like Siddhartha Gautama did, run back to the palace for a bit. We learn about the suffering of the world, we feel it, we run back to the palace. We come out again, we feel it, we run b...

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/07/25) from 2020-07-25T21:35:35

We are being confronted with the amplification of centuries of historic pain that just seems to want to be acknowledged, demanding our attention, demanding we reckon with it.    

Dharma talk by Ian case (2020/07/18) from 2020-07-18T20:23:07

All I can do is cultivate conditions that are conducive for a vow to emerge. […] Vow is not something I generate out of my own power. It’s something that happens in community and relationship with ...

Audio dharma by Kosen Greg Snyder (2020/07/11) from 2020-07-11T10:06:34

I have been thinking about waking up in the morning and going to sleep at night. It’s my first vow of the day to liberate all beings and it’s my last thought at the end of the day to vow to liberat...

Audio dharma by Yoko Ohashi (2020-06-27) from 2020-06-27T15:26:37

We are a very small circle of water. We are not complete. The truth or liberation comes from all the truth manifesting, just like the plum trees – southern branch and northern branch. As they are. ...

Audio dharma by Ian Case (2020/06/20) from 2020-06-20T13:53:48

So when we sit in zazen, our karmic patterns come up. And we have an opportunity to see them and to not act on them, to let them fall away. So in that sense we acknowledge them, we see them and in ...

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/06/06) from 2020-06-06T22:02:54

How can we become a community that fosters awakening to these systems of harm, in our bodies and between us? I want to understand how we can go beyond a fragile superficial harmony in our community...

Dharma talk by Yoko Ohashi (2020/05/23) from 2020-05-23T16:51:14

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2020/05/16) from 2020-05-16T23:19:26

I would like to mention a practice I learned from Dr. T. (a professor at Union Theological Seminary), that he termed the “hospitality of receiving.” […] In this practice, it is po...

Audio dharma talk by Shokuchi Deirdre Carrigan (2020/05/09) from 2020-05-09T13:24:55

There’s always been suffering in the world – nothing new. But these days, I think, we are given the gift to notice it more. We also have the gift of noting that pretty much everybody in the world i...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2020/05/02) from 2020-05-02T16:54:37

I would suggest a mind that is awake, and that settles, and that finds love, joy, and ease in precariousness, so that we can be with each other, and love each other, and support each other. In very...

Audio dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2020/04/25) from 2020-04-25T10:40:44

I have hope because I think the virus has actually caught our attention. I have hope because it has stopped us in our tracks. I have hope that maybe this time we will rethink our relationship to th...

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (2020/04/11) from 2020-04-11T10:15:42

This teaching [of impermanence] thrusts us into realization. Most of us may think of impermanence as something that is solid for a while and then it decays and goes away. We think of impermanence a...

Audio dharma talk by Ian Case (2020/04/04) from 2020-04-04T16:22:29

For me, over the past three weeks, the request and the challenge has been how to touch that quality [of stillness, that is our true nature], for ourselves and for others, now that we are all apart.

Audio dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2020/04/01) from 2020-04-01T17:24:15

How to live in a world in a situation that is difficult and remain steady and grounded in the deepest way that we can, which is silence and stillness?

Dharma talk by Shokuchi Deirdre Carrigan (2020/03/28) from 2020-03-28T15:39:17

My deep gratitude for the many people taking care of those who are suffering. Boundless gratitude. And for all the people who are courageously keeping the basic functioning of our city going. Of co...

Dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2020/03/21)–updated from 2020-03-22T13:31:23

Resisting reality is a mistake. Because reality will win. No matter what that reality is. It’s safer and better to face whatever is happening with as clear a mind as you can possibly muster. And it...

Dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2020/03/21) from 2020-03-21T15:19:04

Resisting reality is a mistake. Because reality will win. No matter what that reality is. It’s safer and better to face whatever is happening with as clear a mind as you can possibly muster. And it...

Dharma talk by Teah Strozer (2020/03/07) from 2020-03-07T14:42:42

It’s really good if you can live without time. Don’t think there is a tomorrow that is going to be better. That you are going to fix something tomorrow, that it will be nice tomorrow. T...

Audio dharma by Ian Case (2020/02/29) from 2020-02-29T12:31:43

For me the most powerful things the vows do are because of their impossible nature — they are humbling. They have a kind of leveling effect. In the face of this impossible vow, I’m one ...

Audio dharma talk by Chimyo Atkinson (2020/02/22) from 2020-02-22T16:49:46

One day you may be serving food. One day you may be ringing a bell. It’s all the same. It’s all about doing that practice together with intention and with, dare we say, love. And it’s about getting...

Audio dharma talk by Chimyo Atkinson (2020/02/19) from 2020-02-20T00:25

Along with dukkha and the dust of our delusion, there is love and kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. And this is where our Zen practice really begins.

Audio dharma talk by Yoko Ohashi (2020/02/15) from 2020-02-15T17:11:16

We are doing this work of undoing, which is not easy. It’s really having this courage to go into places that you actually don’t want to see. A lot of times we don’t want to see how we oppress other...

Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (01/18/2020) from 2020-01-18T18:30:26

There is a teaching in Buddhism called Buddha nature, which is such a loving and encouraging teaching, which says – my words – that love is a potentiality and a realizable force. Even i...

Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Rohatsu Day 5 (12/15/2019) from 2019-12-15T13:40:25

[The Dharma] is always between us. It is always the conversation that is happening even when we’re silent.  It is going on between us; that is where the Dharma always lives. Even when we̵...

Dharma talk by Ian Case: Rohatsu Day 4 (12/14/2019) from 2019-12-14T13:10:47

On the forth day of Rohatsu there’s an effort, an energy that is coursing through the zendo. But it is no longer our energy or our effort. We are all sharing it. So I think that is something we can...

Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Rohatsu Day 3 (12/13/2019) from 2019-12-13T13:15:25

That’s where we live in zazen. We are grounding ourselves fully in the mud. We are not trying to clean it up. If we try to clean it up, we will kill life. We will kill the possibility of meet...

Dharma talk by Ian Case: Rohatsu Day 2 (12/12/2019) from 2019-12-12T19:25:43

It could be confusing when we hear that instruction: the middle way between gentleness and discipline.  As if we’re trying to find some quality that’s halfway between discipline and gen...

Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Rohatsu Day 1 (12/11/2019) from 2019-12-11T14:07:25

What would it be [like] this week to be completely devoted to the infinities that are sitting with us everywhere. To the mothers of our being that are sitting with us everywhere as dishes, as peopl...

Audio BZC audio dharma episode by Ian Case (2019/11/23) from 2019-11-23T12:10:07

In the sensation of the low-grade heartbreak there is gratitude, appreciation, grief and sadness. How can I cultivate the space in my life for a low-grade heartache, that I think is necessary to en...

Ecodharma: a new Buddhist path?–Dharma talk by David Loy (11/10/2019) from 2019-11-11T00:38:52

The buddha didn’t talk about evil, but he did about talk what are sometimes called the three roots of evil …. greed, ill-will, delusion. And again historically those have been understoo...

Dharma talk by Ian Case (10/26/2019) from 2019-10-26T23:53:33

My experience in the undoing patriarchy group very much affirms that for me – that we come together to create a space where we can talk about how we harm, how we are harmed, share stories of ...

Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (10/13/2019) from 2019-10-13T11:06:15

The only thing that we can do is to keep the precepts and the bodhisattva vows and the refuges as measures of the heart. They can’t be measures of the intellect. They’re impossible for ...

Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (10/12/2019) from 2019-10-13T00:55:47

There is nothing for a bodhisattva that is not worthy of our devotion. But not everything is worthy of our refuge. And understanding the difference between devotion and refuge is central to our lib...

Audio dharma talk by Yoko Ohashi (2019/10/05) from 2019-10-05T16:31:19

I think that this gender work is very important for us, it’s a real big doorway, and very deep.

Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (10/02/2019) from 2019-10-02T17:11:49

Especially in practice, we talk about “being present,” as if it’s this kind of lovely pool of water that we can swim in, and relax and enjoy. But often it’s like a confronta...

Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder (09/07/2019) from 2019-09-07T20:12:46

What is it to be vulnerable enough to express those different needs [of sangha members] and what is it to be vulnerable enough to be there for their expression? To slow down enough. We can’t ...

Audio dharma by Tenshin Reb Anderson (2019/06/23) from 2019-06-23T10:25:31

Buddha activity is accepting that this conversation may never end, the conversation with evil. It isn’t just accepting it. It’s accepting working with it, it’s accepting responding to it appropriat...

Audio dharma by Tenshin Reb Anderson (2019/06/22) from 2019-06-22T10:22:44

Letting go – real letting go – is letting go that doesn’t abandon the pain. It’s being there completely with it and, through that complete compassion with it, pain is released, without ...

New audio dharma by Tenshin Reb Anderson (2019/06/21) from 2019-06-21T10:20:16

We are being called to compassion. Everybody is calling us to compassion. All the phenomena within our own mind are calling for compassion.  

Audio dharma talk by Tenshin Reb Anderson (2019/06/20) from 2019-06-20T10:14:12

Buddha activity is a pivotal activity. The pivotal activity of Buddhas can be called zazen. […] It’s the way Buddha or Great Awakening is pivoting with all living beings.

Dharma talk by Tenshin Reb Anderson (06/19/2019) from 2019-06-19T19:17:03

When you sit you could remember the story that the Buddha ascended the seat. Because when you are sitting, you are also ascending a seat, or “the” seat. Could your activity, when you ascend the sea...

Dharma talk with Yoko Ohashi (04/20/2019) from 2019-04-20T08:59:26

When we come close together and listen to each other’s karma and to our own karma, and it’s difficult – what do we do? […] How do we know how much is mine and how much is yo...

Dharma talk with Laura O’Loughlin (04/06/2019) from 2019-04-06T14:44:32

One of the ways that I find it easier to navigate this world is to think that this stuff is not just mine. Our bodies and our histories are coming through us. They are not just mine, starting with ...

Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin (03/23/2019) from 2019-03-23T00:00

On Wednesday night we had our full moon ceremony. It’s a way for us to feel ourselves as energetic bodies, connecting to something beyond our individuality. In this full moon ceremony we renounce o...

Working with Collective Self and Collective Karma in Sangha (part 2), by Greg Snyder (03/17/2019) from 2019-03-17T22:02:11

Working with Collective Self and Collective Karma in Sangha (part 1), by Greg Snyder (03/16/2019) from 2019-03-16T21:56:41

Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.

Difficult Conversations on Race, by Yoko Ohashi (02/23/2019) from 2019-02-23T00:00

We are recognizing here with this Hotsuganmon [sutra by Eihei Dogen] that we don't exist by ourselves  We thought that the self existed right here, but actually it feels like that life is connected...

Reclaiming the Feminine in Our Practice (02/02/2019) from 2019-02-02T11:11:18

Talk offered by teachers Laura O’Loughlin and Sebene Salassie during a two-day retreat at Brooklyn Zen Center. The retreat, Reclaiming the Feminine in Our Practice, included silent and relational p...

Dharma talk with Greg Snyder (01/26/2019) from 2019-01-26T00:00

We are a conversation. Each one of us is a conversation - a conversation between all kinds of ways of conditioning, trying to talk its way into wise ways of being in the world. [...] Healing happen...

Martin Luther King day: Cultivating Bodhisattva Effort Until Death, by Greg Snyder (01/19/2019) from 2019-01-19T18:54:40

I encourage that with each other, with the world, with our social and political systems, with everything that Dr. King pointed to, that we ask the question: “What is being just here?” Both here, in...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: The Will to Change (12/16/2019) from 2018-12-16T21:59:39

2018 Rohatsu Sesshin – Day 5 Take care of yourself when you go back outside [at the end of sesshin] because you are more raw then you think you are. And here you are around a bunch of raw people so...

Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: Equanimity (12/15/2018) from 2018-12-15T21:52:50

2018 Rohatsu Sesshin – Day 4 Equanimity is that feeling of what patience feels like, what understudying feels like. It’s very energetic actually. Sometimes people misunderstand equanimity, they thi...

Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Being of Service (12/14/2018) from 2018-12-14T21:48:44

2018 Rohatsu Sesshin – Day 3 Someone hands us a broom and we take it. We don’t go through all the reasons why we don’t want the broom right then and then. Because, really, who cares wether I want t...

Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: Hindrances (12/13/2018) from 2018-12-13T19:53:34

2018 Rohatsu Sesshin – Day 2 You can all be visited by your demons in the middle of the night, in a period of zazen. They will come and find you. They are doing their part in helping you to w...

Dharma talk with Greg Snyder: The Sangha is the Successor (12/12/2018) from 2018-12-12T17:15:41

2018 Rohatsu Sesshin – Day 1 In the history of Buddhism, the location of working with karma is not only one’s self, but the Sangha. The Sangha is always a part of it. There were many pe...

Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin, (11/17/2018) from 2018-11-17T17:06:13

In Ancient Buddhist cosmology we say that the whole world is created, maintained and sustained by our collective karma. So, we literally are constantly living in a karmic stream of influences. Ever...

Dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder(2018/11/03) from 2018-11-03T10:39:10

When we come together and sit, then we are supporting each other. And this is a interesting practice, to think that the person sitting next to me is practicing dying. And that when someone is stuck...

Audio dharma by Kosen Greg Snyder (2018/10/07): Sesshin Day 3 from 2018-10-07T19:51:35

We deeply desire to be in accord with the natural functioning of life, with dependent co-arising, with the way things interact and support each other, without these false senses of separation. That...

Audio dharma by Kosen Greg Snyder (2018/10/06): Sesshin Day 2 from 2018-10-06T20:01:58

Sometimes you sit down – or I sit down – because there is fear. But that is still a fearless choice to face your fear, to understand your fear. Bodhisattva can have fear, but does not l...

Audio dharma by Kosen Greg Snyder (2018/10/05): Sesshin Day 1 from 2018-10-05T20:03:49

The Bodhisattva vow of living for the liberation of all beings, even before my own, to raise up in the heart the liberation of all beings — this is the most powerful interrupter and lover of ...

Audio dharma by Kosen Greg Snyder (2018/09/29) from 2018-09-29T17:45:58

When we talk about karma, it’s a way of talking about causality or cause and effects, specifically in human life, in human moral life. It’s the effect we cause on the world through our ...

Dharma talk by Shokuchi Deirdre Carrigan (09/22/2018) from 2018-09-22T17:03

I like this form of “practice period.” I used to wonder: why do we have to stop? This is great, let’s just keep going. But this period of integration afterwards is actually really impor...

Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin on karma (09/15/2018) from 2018-09-15T17:54:59

It’s important to think about how harmful the word karma can be used. It comes out of a very different time and a very different cosmology than the one we live in right now. It has been misundersto...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Sandokai–part 5 (2018/08/11) from 2018-08-11T12:24:58

The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: Sandokai–part 5 (2018/08/11) from 2018-08-11T12:21:42

The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Sandokai–part 4 (2018/08/10) from 2018-08-10T12:19:27

The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: Sandokai–part 3 (2018/08/09) from 2018-08-09T12:15:48

The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Sandokai–part 2 (2018/08/08) from 2018-08-08T12:10:40

The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.

Audio dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: Sandokai–part 1 (2018/08/07) from 2018-08-07T11:48:07

The BZC audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support BZC, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.

Dharma talk by Shokuchi Deirdre Carrigan (06/23/2018) from 2018-06-23T20:11:54

Where is balance? I know from my years of yoga: you can’t hold balance.  Balance is found each moment. And the very moment that you feel like you’re falling over, is the moment of balan...

Listening to the Cries of the World (part 4) by Tenshin Reb Anderson (06/17/2018) from 2018-06-17T20:19:49

When we observe sentient beings with eyes of compassion and that observation becomes whole hearted, each sentient being becomes a door to the Dharma. And when that door opens and we realize what we...

Listening to the Cries of the World (part 3) by Tenshin Reb Anderson (06/16/2018) from 2018-06-16T20:18:02

In the observation of each and every living being with eyes of compassion, the door to the true Dharma opens. Observing each and every living being with eyes of compassion is the situation, is the ...

Listening to the Cries of the World (part 2) by Tenshin Reb Anderson (06/15/2018) from 2018-06-15T20:15:52

No matter what comes, we welcome it. This is the way of Buddha. Whatever comes, welcome it. No matter how it looks, welcome it. And in fact, in reality, whatever comes you do welcome it. That’...

Listening to the Cries of the World (part 1) by Tenshin Reb Anderson (06/14/2018) from 2018-06-14T20:12:23

Each of us has the job of being the person that the universe makes us and doing that completely involves listening to the cries of the world. I can’t be fully me without listening to everybody else...

Dharma talk by Laura O’Loughlin: Cultivating the Great Compassion of Zen (05/19/2018) from 2018-05-19T22:33:47

Dharma talk offered by Laura O’Loughin during the one-day sit at Brooklyn Zen Center on May 19, 2018. Compassion, as we practice it in Buddhism, is the most radical act a human being can do –...

Audio dharma by Spring Washam (2018/03/28) from 2018-03-28T10:50:05

In order to get free in this human life we have to meet these parts that are really broken at times. They are not broken out of hatred. They are broken out of a lack of love.

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Gregory Snyder (2018/03/17) from 2018-03-17T10:10:14

The bodhisattva’s job is to care for the pain of the world, not to take care of the problems of the world…. Who in the world can take care of all of this? None of us can take care of al...

Audio dharma talk by Kosen Greg Snyder: Sesshin Day 1 (2018/03/16) from 2018-03-16T18:00:03

Let the mind be what it is. Let it be sacred and mundane at the same time. Let it be profoundly boring and sleepy and bright, glowing and brilliant. And when it’s one or the other let it be t...

Audio dharma by Laura O’Loughlin (2018/02/24) from 2018-02-24T19:22:53

We are training ourselves – in our bodies, in our minds, through the practice, through the teachings – to make it more likely that in a moment of suffering, in a moment of threat, that ...

Rohatsu Sesshin Day 7, by Teah Strozer (12/10/2017) from 2017-12-10T16:22:07

Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma t...

Rohatsu Sesshin: Day 6, by Greg Snyder (12/09/2017) from 2017-12-09T16:29:26

Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.

Rohatsu Sesshin Day 5, by Pamela Weiss (12/08/2017) from 2017-12-08T12:57:02

Rohatsu Sesshin: Day 4, by Laura O’Loughlin (12/07/2017) from 2017-12-07T16:49:34

Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.

Rohatsu Sesshin Day 3, by Teah Strozer (12/06/2017) from 2017-12-06T16:19:37

Soshin Teah Strozer is Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher. Teah is a Zen Buddhist priest, dharma teacher, and lineage-holder in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received dharma t...

Sitting with Burning Difference, by Greg Snyder (11/04/2017) from 2017-11-04T15:27:51

Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the “Giving” section of our website.

Dharma talk by Teah Strozer: Lay Practice Liberation Through The Urban Nest (10/21/2017) from 2017-10-21T15:23:49

When I looked out at most of the people who are practicing, they are not priests, you guys are lay people.  And I know a number of lay people who are wonderful in their practice, deep in their prac...

Dharma talk by Teah Strozer: Keep a Cool Head (2017/10/20) from 2017-10-20T18:25:44

This dharma talk was offered by Brooklyn Zen Center’s root teacher Teah Strozer during a three-day sesshin in 2017. We have this war inside, because we think of ourselves as an object. Good a...

Creating a Beautiful Past, by Kaira Jewel Lingo (10/01/2017) from 2017-10-01T16:36:23

Kaira Jewel Lingo teaches meditation and mindfulness, with a focus on activists, people of color, artists, educators, families, and youth. She began practicing mindfulness in 1997 and she is an ord...

Mindful Social Change, by Kaira Jewel Lingo (09/30/2017) from 2017-09-30T16:35:29

Kaira Jewel Lingo teaches meditation and mindfulness, with a focus on activists, people of color, artists, educators, families, and youth. She began practicing mindfulness in 1997 and she is an ord...

Dharma talk by Rebecca Li (2017/09/23) from 2017-09-09T10:46:49

The Bodhisattva path is a counterintuitive approach. It’s a method to help us let go of this obsession over ourselves. This is very different from our usual mode of operation, if you think about it...

Settled Activity in an Unsettling World, by Laura O’Loughlin (06/24/2017) from 2017-06-24T00:00

Our audio dharma talks are offered free of charge and made possible by the donations we receive. If you would like to support Brooklyn Zen Center, please visit the Listen