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.”

Koan Summer: Bodhisattvas in the Bath

Today we are invited to enter the element of water, the sense of touch, and an image of rare togetherness. To get into a bath, we must be vulnerable, unadorned, unclothed. The usual ways of orchestrating the world drop away. In this state of relaxation, where is the boundary between self and other?

Jun 25

Diamond Sutra: Belonging as the Realization of Emptiness

Seido talks about the five themes the return over and over in the Prajna Paramita sutras including the vow to have one’s life serve life,...

May 5, 2023

Heart Sutra: Fundamental Belonging

Seido talks about recent events that express the Heart Sutra. She recounts a story about a spiritual opening Buddhist Environmentalist...

Apr 22, 2022