The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/25/26 - Referring to Zhaozhou’s koan, “Does a Dog Have Buddha Nature?”, and Dogen’s teachings in Busshō, this Dharma Encounter explores how both “yes” and “no” can be doorways to understanding our true nature. Rather than treating these responses as opposing answers, Shugen Roshi encourages us to move beyond conceptual thinking and the habits of grasping and aversion. If Buddha Nature is the fundamental nature of all beings, how do we understand our doubts, imperfections, and reactive patterns? Can we recognize Buddha Nature in our very body that ages, suffers, and dies, rather than seeing it as something separate from our everyday experience? Shugen Roshi invites the sangha to reflect on these questions and come forward to share their own experiences, insights, and questions in the spirit of Dharma Encounter.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/24/26 - Delving into the well-known koan of “Zhaozou’s Dog,” Shugen Roshi explores the importance of seeing one’s self-nature clearly, without the baggage and habits of our defensiveness. This early step in koan training helps us train our minds in letting go of the illusions of “self” and “others” directly and intimately. With this foundation in practice, we can go further in exploring how self-nature and buddha nature function in our lives. (From the Book of Serenity, Case 18 - Zhaozhou's Dog.)

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 10/23/26 - How do our vows become visible through renewing them in the shared ceremony of Fusatsu? Hogen Sensei encourages us to use the words of the ceremony and the invocation of the Buddhas and ancestors to fully enter and engage them. We can practice seeing where we are still under the spell of our delusions—the root of our suffering—and turn this practice of atonement as an offering for awakening to all beings.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 10/21/26 - Master Hongzhi offered practice instructions for zazen which place us directly in contact with our awakened nature. “The field of boundless emptiness which exists from the very beginning,” are words which can inspire as well as encourage. As Gokan Osho says, we can see that there is work to be done, there is something to see clearly, and with these instructions we can enter into and study our lives deeply.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 10/18/26 - While concepts and ideas help us to learn about and understand our world, they also have a way of limiting our ability to experience things as they really are. Don’t keep yourself in a state of numbness or emotional distance from whatever is arising, but study and practice with a full and capable heart. (From the Gateless Gate, Case 27 - Neither Mind Nor Buddha.)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/11/26 - Shugen Roshi officiates the Fall Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery. Today, two students formally receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts, taking up these living teachings, living vows in the company of the sangha with family and friends: George Ando ("peaceful earth") Milne and Tre Shokai ("divine ocean") Miller.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/04/26 - Taking up a segment from Dogen’s fascicle on Buddha Nature, Shugen Roshi illuminates how we lead ourselves into misunderstanding our fundamental nature because we grasp so readily at things—at language, at meaning, and what it says about “me”—before we actually experience our fundamental nature. “Not this” is a negation, but it can really mean: “Not this, but This” —our fundamental buddha nature—which cannot be grasped at, owned, or taken away. Not ever.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - 10/4/26 - In this Fusatsu talk, Hojin Sensei explores atonement as a way to acknowledge harmful karma, renew our vows, and begin again. The Buddha called healthy shame and fear of wrongdoing “bright guardians, a noble treasure of the world.” How can we take responsibility for our actions without becoming trapped in shame, guilt, or self-justification? Through this ancestral ceremony, we practice stillness, connect with our heart-mind, and find the clarity to release and heal what we no longer need to carry. Can we meet ourselves and one another with the courage and compassion to begin again?

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 9/27/26 - Drawing on Dogen’s teaching that all beings are Buddha nature, Hogen Sensei asks how we bring this truth to life through practice. What inner resources do we draw on in difficult times, and where do they come from? In facing illness, navigating relationships, and making moral choices, how do we bring forth wisdom and compassion amid uncertainty? How do we meet whatever life brings as an expression of our true nature?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/26/26 - Drawing on Dogen’s Bussho, Shugen Roshi explores the seemingly contradictory teachings that all beings are, have, or have no Buddha nature. If Buddha nature isn’t something we can possess or acquire, what are we realizing through practice? These teachings invite us to loosen our grip on fixed ideas and discover for ourselves what they point to. Through a story of simple hospitality becoming a lifelong friendship, we see how ordinary acts of kindness and generosity give this practice life. Can we trust the path and meet our difficulties as opportunities to practice?

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZMM - 9/25/26 - In this Fusatsu talk, Hojin Sensei explores renewing our bodhisattva vows and practicing loving-kindness through the Three Pure Precepts. What does it mean to live by vow rather than be driven by our habitual karma? When we’re hurt or in conflict, can we see ourselves and others as more than our worst actions? Through humility, curiosity, and practice within the Sangha, we can acknowledge harm and learn to respond differently. Atonement offers a way to move through guilt and shame, renewing our commitment to compassion and service.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/24/26 - The Buddha realized that all beings are capable of awakening to their true nature. Dogen echoed this truth by saying that all beings are Buddha nature, emphasizing that this is our very nature, not something we can gain or lose. If we could “have” Buddha nature, then we could also “not have” it. This subtle shift in emphasis opens up an extraordinary way of understanding this truth about ourselves and all beings. We simply need to realize it for ourselves.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 9/23/26 - The path of the bodhisattva is not always a convenient one, and probably not as we imagine it to be. We may struggle; it may feel prickly. So how do we stay on the path of unburdening ourselves and waking up? Transformation means getting very clear about what hinders us—about the inner conditions that keep us from being truly and completely available. It is through transforming ourselves in this way that we become free to offer ourselves freely to others.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/20/26 - What is the cause of suffering, at its root? The bodhisattva vow is to put an end to suffering and its causes—but how do we put that vow into action? First, we have to see clearly what is causing harm: to see into our delusions and the ways in which they give rise to suffering. And then we need to act. When we slow down and consider what causes harm—when we ask, for example, what the moral implications of something might be—we can trust the bodhisattva vow to orient us toward skillful action. In this way, the vow is not simply an aspiration; it becomes something we live. - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 227 - Priest Xixian's "I am Watching"

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/13/26 - This formless Buddha Nature, how does it manifest? Is it large or small? Shugen Roshi quotes the great teacher Nagarjuna, “If you want to see buddha nature, first, let go of your pride,” first let go of the certainty with which we bestow value on things and on people. Let go of our sense of self that separates self and all others. When we let appearances determine how we respond and act, we risk living in a deluded state of our biases that is in conflict with our true buddha nature, our liberated nature, the absolute basis of reality.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 9/13/26
With Hojin Sensei officiating, four students formally receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts, taking up these living teachings, living vows in the company of the sangha with family and friends.
Alexis Waller: Myokan ("Wondrous Intuitive Wisdom")
Joan Guiterrez: Yūsei ("Profound Quiet Mystical Vow")
María José Gimenez: Shomei ("To Proclaim True Light, Genuine Clarity")
Edmund Langdell: Yumon ("Gate of Healing")

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/6/26 - Stories are one of the primary ways that we create and re-create suffering in our own minds, and this folk tale of Ch'ien and her soul in a Zen koan lends itself well to the study of mind and reality. With practice comes a fresh awareness of the narrative, and we can see it changing even as we tell it again. When the habit energies in the story begin to shift, we take steps toward our liberation. (From Master Wu-Men's Gateless Gate, Case 35: Ch'ien's Soul is Separated.)

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 9/6/26 - Taking up Emily Dickinson’s practice—“I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine”—Hojin Sensei stares into the words should and shouldn’t. “We should observe carefully,” implores Dōgen in Busshō, his fascicle on Buddha Nature. Dōgen explains that the act of observing is itself part of the moment: “You do not stand outside of reality to look at it.” What are the “shoulds and shouldn’ts” in a life of Dharma practice?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 8/30/26 - Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of the MRO 90-day Fall Ango 2026 training period: "Buddha Nature."

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 8/30/26 - Join Hojin Sensei offering opening remarks to the practitioners at Fire Lotus Temple in Brooklyn to begin the Fall Ango Practice Period:

"Now the hundreds of grasses are actually gathering for the Fall.
Plucked from the entire earth, there would be ten million stalks.
One flower with five petals opens in the sky and the mud.
Without doubt it will naturally bear fruit."
—Dogen’s words opening an Ango practice period.