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 9 and 10: Returning to the Source and Entering the Marketplace

It may be a difficult place to practice, but the marketplace—ordinary life—is where the need for our human energy and spiritual life is...

Apr 30

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 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

Oxherding Pictures 1 & 2: Searching and Finding Traces

The first two pictures invite us to leave the familiar and enter the unknown. Like the little boy, we seem to be empty handed . Yet with...

Mar 20

Oxherding Pictures: Overview

The Oxherding Pictures tell a quintessentially Zen story of how we awaken to our own Buddha nature. They speak of seeking, struggle,...

Mar 12