TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST
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Master Keizan, considered with Master Dogen one of the two "Founders" of Soto Zen in Japan, lived from 1264 to 1325. His essay “Zazen-Yōjinki” might be considered an expansion and further exploration of Dogen's explanation of Zazen, the 'Fukanzazengi'. The advice is often very practical, covering such topics as how to sit, breathe, what to wear, eat beforehand and what to do on those days when the mind just won't settle down, while other parts of the essay (such as today's portion) are wild, willy and mind wowing as only Zen writings can be! Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: March 2024 Monthly Zazenkai» https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?22479-March-1-2nd-2024-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Keizan-s-Zazen-Yojinki
Today's Talk will reflect on our "Dedication of Merit", which we recite each time, but maybe without looking closely Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Dedication of Merit» https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?22366-February-2-3rd-2024-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Dedication-of-Merit
This is the sixth (and last) in our monthly series based on the modernized translation of the Genjo Koan, from Jundo's book "The Zen Master's Dance" A Guide to Understanding Dōgen and Who You Are in the Universe. Today a message very appropriate for a good life in this New Year and every day ... Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - A Happy New Year Genjo!! https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?22285-January-5-6th-2024-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-A-Happy-New-Year-Genjo%21%21
Today, we find enlightenment in EVERY aspect of this world, even the hard parts we do not welcome. And we find enlightenment in how we live in this world, finding our own role Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI» https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?22074-Nov-3rd-4th-2023-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Europe-Daylight-Savings%21
We continue our series on Genjo Koan, 'Realizing the Truth Right Here,' and the way of Bodhidharma found there. Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Remember Bodhidharma Day! https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21992-Oct-6-7th-2023-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Remember-Bodhidharma-Day%21
This time, we will be looking at passages of Genjokoan based on the modernized translation from 'THE ZEN MASTER’S DANCE A Guide to Understanding Dōgen and Who You Are in the Universe' in light of our Jukai (Undertaking the Precepts) and Ango (Peaceful Abiding) Season ... Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Commencing JUKAI & ANGO! https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21821-Sept-1st-2nd-2023-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Commencing-JUKAI-ANGO!&p=329619#post329619
Practitioners sometimes think that enlightenment is the endpoint of practice rather than an ongoing series of daily actions that are each an opportunity to manifest either ignorant or enlightened behavior. They think that they must get to a perpetually blissful place called “enlightenment,” removed from the pain and complexity of this world, and all their problems will disappear but their wishes and desires will be fully satisfied. Actually, that has never been the way Zen masters considered enlightenment Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: Aug 4-5th 2023 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hr ZAZENKAI - Genjo Koan (II) - The Key to Dogen's Zen https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21724-Aug-4-5th-2023-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hr-ZAZENKAI-Genjo-Koan-(II)-The-Key-to-Dogen-s-Zen&p=327562#post327562
We Start of New Series on Genjo Koan, 'Realizing the Truth Right Here," the Key to Master Dogen's Zen. The text for the talk today, the first in a monthly series, is based on Jundo Cohen´s modernized translation of the Genjo Koan, from his book ¨THE ZEN MASTER’S DANCE¨ A Guide to Understanding Dōgen and Who You Are in the Universe Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: July 7-8th 2023 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hr ZAZENKAI - Genjo Koan (I) - The Key to Dogen's Zen https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21657-July-7-8th-2023-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hr-ZAZENKAI-Genjo-Koan-%28I%29-The-Key-to-Dogen-s-Zen
The following is an audio version of the essay with the same title by Treeleaf Sangha founder and guiding teacher, Roshi Jundo Cohen ¨One must sit Shikantaza with profound trust that sitting is whole, complete, nothing lacking, the sitting of the Buddhas and Ancestors sitting as this sitting right here and now, no other place to be, nothing more in need of doing, nothing more to attain, that Zazen embodies enlightenment itself.¨ The essay can be found HERE https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21616-Shikantaza-Ipso-Facto
The following is an audio recording of an essay by Treeleaf founder and guiding teacher, Jundo Cohen. Here's the "elephant in the room" of Shikantaza Zazen: What does it mean to "think-non-thinking?" In ordinary life, our daily minds resemble a mad circus, maybe a chaotic jungle. We react to the elephants passing through our awareness, jumping on, leaping from one to the next, pulling their tails, prodding them with a stick, often tangled in their trunks. Sometimes we chase them to catch them, sometimes we run away in fear, sometimes we get trampled underfoot. What is more, all our meddling seemingly summons ever more elephants of thought and emotion into the crowded room. The jumbled circus of "thought jumbos" and "emotion mastodons" never ends, and we taunt them and stir them up more. But in Zazen, the elephants are tamed. Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: The Elephant in the Zazen Room https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21585-The-Elephant-in-the-Zazen-Room
Today we'll scat with Dogen's jazz in Shobogenzo Nyorai Zenshin (The Buddha Whole Body). Some 700 or so years before modern jazz folks, Dōgen had the equivalent jazzy approach, taking “standard” Mahayana Buddhist teachings, fanciful but traditional Buddhist images, and “samples” of quotes from well-known stories related to his intended topics, tearing them apart, and tossing all back together again, remixing them, in order to discover and uncover new feelings, sounds, implications, visions, and Wisdom, all in what was often pretty wild imagery to start with! Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: June 2-3 2023 -OUR MONTHLY 4-hr ZAZENKAI- Nyorai Zenshin -A Mini-Lesson in Dogen Jazz https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21580-June-2-3-2023-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hr-ZAZENKAI-Nyorai-Zenshin-A-Mini-Lesson-in-Dogen-Jazz
The following is an audio recording of an article by Treeleaf founder and guiding teacher, Jundo Cohen. "So much of all life is like a neutral canvas to which we add our judgments and reactions, coloring it with our feelings. It is like an empty container or some bland ingredient, like Tofu for example, that can be decorated or flavored as our heart decides. The experience is bad if we make it bad but it is whole, complete, fulfilling and welcoming if our heart makes it so." Further reading and discussion for this are available on the Treeleaf forum: The "Inner Switch" of Zazen https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21558-The-Inner-Switch-of-Zazen&p=324707#post324707
In Today's Talk, will close our dance with the 信心銘, the Xinxinming, or Shinjinmei. Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: May 5th-6th, 2023 -OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21500-May-5th-6th-2023-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI
Our Zazenkai today is in celebration of the Buddha´s birthday, traditionally April 8th in Japan! We will look at the Buddha's birthday and the Shinjinmei Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: April 7-8, 2023 -OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21404-April-7-8-2023-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Celebrating-Buddha-s-Birthday
Today's Talk will be the third in a series reflecting on: THE SONG OF TRUST MIND (信心銘 Shinjinmei), A Key to Zazen Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: March 3rd-4th, 2023 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Shinjinmei (III) » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21251-March-3rd-4th-2023-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Shinjinmei-%28III%29
In Today's Talk, we continue our dance with the 信心銘, called the Xinxinming in Chinese and the Shinjinmei in Japanese, and by a variety of names in English Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: February 3rd-4th, 2023 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Shinjinmei (II) » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21142-February-3rd-4th-2023-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Shinjinmei-%28II%29
CELEBRATING THIS EVER NEW YEAR! Today's Talk will be the first in a series reflecting on: THE SONG OF TRUST MIND (信心銘 Shinjinmei), A Key to Zazen Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: Jan 6-7th, 2022 - OUR (NEW YEAR!) MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Shinjinmei (I) » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?21003-Jan-6-7th-2022-OUR-%28NEW-YEAR%21%29-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Shinjinmei-%28I%29
Our Dharma Talks this time will feature Rev. Kokuu and Rev. Jinkan, presenting their first Teachings upon and in celebration of their Dharma Transmission in our Lineage. Other Talks will feature our newest ordained priests, Koushi, Onkai and Nengei, as their "debut" offering of a Talk to our Sangha. Readings for Talks are based on passages from Menzan Zuiho Osho's Jijuyu Zanmai (自受用三昧 - "The Self-Receiving-Employing Samadhi") Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: TREELEAF SANGHA online 2-DAY ANGO-JUKAI-ROHATSU RETREAT -- 2022 » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?20880-TREELEAF-SANGHA-online-2-DAY-ANGO-JUKAI-ROHATSU-RETREAT-2022-MAIN-PAGE
Today's Talk will reflect on Master Keizan's "Middle Way, Beyond Hope to Attain" and "No Entering, No Emerging Samadhi" Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: Nov. 4-5th, 2022 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - DAYLIGHT SAVINGS in EUROPE» https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?20854-Nov-4-5th-2022-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-DAYLIGHT-SAVINGS-in-EUROPE
Today's Talk will reflect on Mirror Mind by Master Menzan from his Jijuyu-Zanmai Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: Oct. 7th-8th, 2022 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Menzan in the Mirror» https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?20802-Oct-7th-8th-2022-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Menzan-in-the-Mirror
Our Zazenkai is in Special Celebration and Welcome of the Commencement of our 2022 ANGO & JUKAI Season! Today's talk will reflect on redemption, Icchantikas and 'Broken Ladles' Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: Sept. 2nd-3rd, 2022 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Commencing JUKAI & ANGO! » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?20710-Sept-2nd-3rd-2022-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Commencing-JUKAI-ANGO%21
Our talk today is on ''Sankon Zazen Setsu: Three Kinds of Zazen Practitioners' by Keizan Zenji. Which is better, Soto or Rinzai, Shikantaza or Koan Instrospection? Both! Neither! In fact, the medicine depends on the needs of the patient. Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: Aug 5-6, 2022 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf Zazenkai - Keizan's Sankon Zazen Setsu » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?20340-Aug-5-6-2022-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-Zazenkai-Keizan-s-Sankon-Zazen-Setsu
Today's talk is on a seemingly arcane bit of Buddhist Teachings, positioned well to aid us in living.Dharma Position is mentioned in the Lotus Sutra, "The Dharmas Dwell in their Dharma Position". It is an important teaching of Japanese Tendai Buddhism, from which Master Dogen first came, and seems to have been cherished by Dogen in his Zen teaching as well. Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: July 1-2nd, 2022 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Ho-i - 法位 - Dharma Position » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?20227-July-1-2nd-2022-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Ho-i-%E6%B3%95%E4%BD%8D-Dharma-Position
Today, a final visit with the Vimalakirti Sutra. We end our series of talks on the Vimalakirti Sutra with the following visit to Buddha, from (mostly) Chapter 12 Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: June 3rd-4th, 2022 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Farewell, Vimalakirti » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?20143-June-3rd-4th-2022-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Farewell-Vimalakirti
Today we will again walk through the Door of the Vimalakirti Sutra. Here, at Gate 9, we again find many very excellent responses by a bunch of very wise Bodhisattvas (after all, they are big time Bodhisattvas, so not amateurs! ) Does the lay person Vimalakirti truly "best" them at the end? Here are some good examples of what the Bodhisattvas said... Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: May 6-7th, 2022 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Dharma-Door of Non-duality » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?20062-May-6-7th-2022-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Dharma-Door-of-Non-duality
Today's Talk will reflect on a rather strange and bewildering portion of the Vimalakirti Sutra This time, we will look at a very strange, seemingly two-faced passage from Chapter 8 of the Vimalakirti Sutra ... but is that what it really means? Hmmmm ... Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: March 4-5, 2022 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Wisdom Amid Confusion » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?19846-March-4-5-2022-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Wisdom-Amid-Confusion
Today's Talk will reflect on Living Beings within Chapter 7 of the Vimalakirti Sutra. Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: February 4th-5th, 2022 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI» https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?19487-February-4th-5th-2022-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI
Today's Talk will reflect on more magical happenings from the Vimalakirti Sutra. Pull up a chair for a little reading of a magical tale, as Vimalakirti arranges the furniture ... Chapter 6: BEYOND COMPREHENSION Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: Our 2021-2022 NEW YEAR's EVE 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI- CELEBRATING A NEW THIS MOMENT! » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?19335-Our-2021-2022-NEW-YEAR-s-EVE-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-CELEBRATING-A-NEW-THIS-MOMENT%21
Today's Talk will reflect on more Wondrous Passages from the Vimalakirti Sutra. Vimalakirti continues his undefeated record, taking on all contenders ... in Round 4: the Bodhisattvas Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: November 5th-6th, 2021 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Vimalakirti Sutra Series » https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?19177-November-5th-6th-2021-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI
Today's Talk will reflect on Further Passages from the Vimalakirti Sutra, chapter III (the Arhats) ... We will see further examples of how this tale seeks to blend an idealized view of the Bodhisattva with life on earth, in this complicated world. Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum: {Oct. 1st-2nd, 2021 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Dedicated to Reiyu Payen} » /%7Bhttps%3A/www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?19097-Oct-1st-2nd-2021-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-Treeleaf-ZAZENKAI-Dedicated-to-Reiyu-Payen%7D
