Dharma Talks

We humans have a special gift: the capacity to envision ourselves into the future and live there in our imagination. We do this in practice too, imagining some future enlightened state that we attain through our efforts. The trick is not to be deceived by that visioning. We must be ready to let go of our attachment to plans at a moment's notice as the myriad things come forward to meet us. Be ready to improvise, to take up a technique and let go of it at the same time. Arrive

The fifth season invites us to be disillusioned in the most beautiful way. We realize there is nothing special, and yet everything is sacred. To use the bicycle image, here’s where the bicycle is put down; we know how to use it and can ride it again. We’ve come full circle, with no attachment to any insight. As we sit in zazen, we explore the edges of emptiness. How many things are burned up in a lifetime of practice?

Seido talks about the existential question driving the Genjo Koan and the lines that respond to the inquiry as to what is a life worth...

Seido talks about the early Buddhist teachings that described stages on the path of practice and how the bodhisattva vow that relies upon...