Dharma Talks

Debra Seido Martin is Zen West's Guiding Teacher. She was transmitted in 2009 by Kyogen Carlson, late Abbott of Dharma Rain Zen Center. Seido is an organic farmer and psychotherapist devoted to the wild and giving space of practice and grace of the land. She carries forward her teacher’s directive to “ordain into your life.”

Oxherding Pictures 7 and 8: Forgetting the Ox and Transcending the Ox

If we sincerely walk the path, eventually the practice becomes who we are. We see when we are caught with the old mind—the poisons of...

Apr 24

Oxherding Picture 6: Riding the Ox Home

What does it mean to ride the ox, to lose the distance between you and practice, you and life? The boundaries become clear but there is...

Apr 16

Oxherding Picture 5: Training. Trusting. Patient.

In this very moment, how am I being asked to grow? To be wholehearted in Zen practice means to give up any expectation of reward. To be...

Apr 9

Oxherding Picture 4: The Ox is Right Here

Taming the mercurial ox means taking up a discipline that anchors rather than controls. Without a spiritual discipline, our life easily...

Apr 3

Oxherding Picture 3: Seeing the Ox

Openings take us by surprise: "Oh wait! What was that?" Seeing the world as alive, radiant and aware is not something to be engineered...

Mar 27

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