The Jizo-an Zen Community Podcast

Kyosei's talk explores mushotoku, the Zen practice of acting and sitting without seeking reward, progress, or a future spiritual attainment. Drawing on Huang Bo, Dogen, the Heart Sutra, and Taisen Deshimaru, it explains how zazen embodies Buddha nature in the present and how a non-gaining mind can extend into compassionate, attentive daily life.

Gessho's teaching explores Dogen's instruction to study and ultimately forget the self through examining the identities formed from roles, experiences, beliefs, and social conditioning. It considers how attachment to fixed identities creates division and suffering, and how recognizing their impermanence and emptiness can open space for growth, compassion, and more inclusive action.

This talk explores Buddha nature as the wholeness obscured by afflictions, self-centered stories, and habitual reactivity. Drawing on teachings about contingency, the Noble Path, and daily practice, it considers how awareness helps us recognize the causes of suffering, stop feeding old patterns, and remain present amid uncertainty.

What does it mean to live an awakened life, to live in an awakened way? How do we bring our practice and the Dharma teachings into our everyday lives? How do we realize or actualize our practice in the world? Fortunately for all of us, the Buddha and our many ancestors left us a great treasure trove in the many Dharma teachings, sutras, and commentaries that have been handed down for generations. Those teachings are like a guide-map for us, not simply instructing us on exactly what to do, but rather pointing the way toward our own discovery of living an awakened life.

This teaching explores right view as the foundation of the Noble Eightfold Path: seeing suffering, impermanence, causation, and personal responsibility clearly rather than seeking happiness through attachment and control. Drawing on Buddhist teachings, contemporary reflections, and personal stories, it presents right view as a fluid, embodied practice of meeting each moment honestly and responding with greater acceptance and skillfulness.

As we move through this life, we tend to exchange old stories for new ones, but always there is a backdrop of old fears like a shadow that haunts us. In order to fully mature, we need to see through these stories, to identify and come to grips with our maladapted behaviors and strategies. Zen practice helps us to surface our perceived shortcomings, and engage the process of transforming them. We commit to sharing our lives and relationships in more ethical and appropriate ways and behaviors.

In its 2,600-year history, from the time of the Buddha to the present day, Buddhism has grown from a tiny religious community in northern India into a movement that now spans the globe. It has shaped the development of civilizations in India and Southeast Asia and had a major influence on the civilizations of China, Tibet, Korea, and Japan; and today has become a major part of the multi-religious world of Europe and North America. It is a story of the Buddha himself, and the story of generations of people who have used the model of the Buddha's life to shape not only their own but the societies in which they live.

Studying sutras is one way to awaken this heart/ mind. this big mind as Shunryu Suzuki calls it. And the same goes for our ability to embrace moment to moment awareness.. This moment that is free of description and temptations. In my own practice, the floor has become the greatest anchor…as my eyes fluctuate between closed and partially open the moment I look at the floor, it lifts the haze of the imaginary space, hurling me back to reality. Likewise, when we study sutras as a spiritual practice, the principles of these prayers began to infiltrate our lives and inform us of a different way of being that we can engage. I must engage it. I cannot just think about it. But the thinking is an important beginning. There is no one-sided practice… that is just more wanting mind.

We have largely been conditioned to believe that we need to constantly push ourselves very hard and make strenuous efforts to attain, achieve, or become this or that. We often bring this same mentality to our spiritual practice, believing that we must make strenuous efforts to awaken and realize our true nature. Dogen Zenji described practice as the dharma gate of ease and joy. He emphasized diligent and wholehearted effort, just sitting, not trying to become or attain anything. In Zen, this is often referred to as wise effort or effortless effort. We will examine this dharma gate of ease and joy.

In Zen we are taught that we have everything within us to be awakened and enlightened. However, we, in our conditioned mind, create barriers that hold us back from tapping into our authentic self and to live how we are meant to. How many times do we miss what is right in front of us? How can we see what we need to see? Let us explore these questions and share our lived experiences on this path.

Our lives are constructed of stories. Some are handed down to us, others take form from the outcome of events in our lives. Stories are the stuff of our sense of self, and when habits develop around them, we are constrained, we suffer. To realize new possibilities is how we transform our lives and discover new meaning.

Five years ago, our founder Seijaku Roshi died. As time passes the number of people who actually knew Roshi steadily decreases. But his presence is still here with us and will always be with us. Last year the Jizo-an Zen Community celebrated its 40-year anniversary. There have been a number of changes since Roshi's passing, primarily to make the Dharma available to more people. Roshi had a vision of planting the dharma here in South Jersey. Creating a place where community members, students and monks, could come together to train and realize themselves. Please join the monks as we pay tribute to our founder and his vision.

Paradox is both a powerful word and an important aspect of Zen practice. We often don't feel very comfortable with paradox. We prefer to have our life neatly arranged and packaged. But, Zen points to a very different way of being. The reality is that we live much of our entire life in the midst of paradox. Thich Nhat Hanh taught that life is both terrifying and beautiful all at once. Zen teaches us to embrace this great paradox in our everyday life, and to be fully present for all of it.

Traditionally sangha referred to the community of ordained monks and nuns, but today the term sangha, includes all Buddhist practitioners, lay and ordained. The Buddha taught that each of us is responsible for our own journey of awakening "Be an island unto yourself." But at the same time, the Buddha left us a precious legacy, the teachings (dharma) and the community (sangha). We are never alone if we embrace the three refuges. The existence of Sangha is what makes Buddhism a living, applied spiritual tradition rather than a mere philosophy. We support and are supported by each other.

The "mysterious principle" Master Linji Yixuan (the founder of Rinzai Zen) is centered on direct, spontaneous awareness. He taught us to stop seeking enlightenment outside of ourselves in scriptures, Buddha figures, or even the concept of Nirvana and to recognize our own true unconditioned nature. There is nothing to gain, no path to follow, and nothing special to achieve. True liberation is simply having enough confidence in yourself to stop looking for it and live in awareness as an ordinary person.

Everything we encounter — our bodies, relationships, thoughts, and circumstances, is in constant flux. Yet much of our suffering arises from resisting this truth or attempting to secure what cannot be held. Accepting impermanence opens the door to a more intimate, compassionate, and vivid way of being. Rather than leading to detachment or despair, this intimacy with change allows us to meet each moment with freshness and care—because it will not come again in the same way.

The Heart Sutra, possibly the best known text of Mahayana Buddhism, is said to be the pure distillation of wisdom (prajna). Perhaps because of both its profundity and brevity, the Heart Sutra is the most familiar of all the original teachings of the Buddha. An English translation can easily be printed on one side of a piece of paper. Also the Sino-Japanese version of the Sutra lends itself well to chanting. The Heart Sutra seeks to cut our dualistic thinking at the root.

The Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path begins with Right View or Understanding and Right Intention. Understanding our nature and this Way of Being in the world is essential. But we must go beyond just understanding. We must skillfully apply the practice and live it in our daily life. Our life is our practice - no separation. This is Realization or Actualization. To experience liberation is to bring the teachings to life and make them real, for ourselves and for all beings. To live authentically in the world is to actualize the Dharma in our everyday life. Nothing special, living Zen.

Throughout our lives we experience a wide range of emotions, moods, mind states, and many different physical sensations. Some experiences are pleasant and enjoyable, some are confusing and painful. When considering our own life experiences, or contemplating the world around us, it can be challenging to stay balanced, to be hopeful. We can easily become lost, overwhelmed and depressed. Still, even within the storm, there are ways to build a sanctuary within our inner lives so we can meet life's turbulence with more steadiness and compassion. In Buddhism we find this sanctuary within the Three Treasures. Also, creating sanctuary within requires the practice of stillness and silence. Ultimately, sanctuary is within.

When we embrace a practice like Zen, we realize how difficult it can be to stay on a path that is so radically different from how we have been conditioned to show up. Deep inside, we know that we are not truly being our authentic selves and we consciously decide to search for something that can lead us to be who we naturally are. This practice is not for our personal development or growth. However, that is something that naturally happens. This practice offers the opportunity to show up in the world the way we are truly meant to, and when we do this, we are transformed and liberated.