Zencare Podcast
Listen to dharma talks from the teachers and guest teachers of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. Buddhist teachings are woven into topics such as contemplative care, engaged Buddhism, social change, meditation and stillness, dealing with addiction, being with suffering, and the arts and challenges of care for the self and others.
“When we do just one activity, we express our true nature.” – Suzuki Roshi In this recent dharma talk, Chodo Sensei looks at the scattering tendencies of the mind. He shares his own difficulties remaining in the present. His invitation, and ong...
“Our willingness to be compassionate and generous in our speech changes relationships both inside of our selves, in our sangha, and in our world.” What happens when we don’t hold ourselves and each other accountable? Koshin Sensei explores the me...
“If we know we are going to die, then we are right where we are supposed to be.” In this dharma talk from our recent Winter Sesshin, Chodo Sensei explores three of the Buddha’s first five remembrances – that we are of the nature to grow old, to...
“What does leaving our sense of loneliness and entering community have to teach you?” In this opening dharma talk from Commit to Sit Winter 2023, Koshin Sensei invites us to explore what causes us to suffer. He encourages us to confront and work wi...
“But most of all, continuing to sit without moving, not even shifting a foot or lifting our eyes, it builds the strength that we need, and that others need in us in the face of pain or crisis. Sit there with your heart breaking. But sit tall, see and he...
“The flame of the dharma you have lit, humbly and respectfully, I transmit to the next generation.” —Shundo Aoyama Rōshi In this opening dharma talk from our last Commit to Sit 90-day practice period (summer ’22), Koshin Sensei discusses a myr...
“Enlightenment is the ending in yourself of that hope for something other than life as it is” —Charlotte Joko Beck We can understand the craft of meditation as the joining of a physical posture with a mental posture. In this talk by guest dharma ...
“We have to release the clamp of our own jaw around our suffering. The uniqueness that we want to hold on to is usually not our actual uniqueness. We get into a habit of holding on to some gunky old stuff that I call ‘me’. We maintain this strange a...
“It’s important to be courteous; not just to sit in Zazen but to cultivate the body and mind in the dignity of the Buddha. To give ourselves dignity and respect. This is difficult. It’s easier to welcome others than to welcome yourself.” Rev. A...
“So what is this great light flashing through her mind? (It is) how you really see the blackness of a cup of coffee… how you really see the fractals of the broccoli or cauliflower… how you are present to how you move.” José Shinzan Palma, a...
“This moment may be the only moment in the circle. But any point will do. Any point is the Alpha and Omega—a special time or place is not needed. In other words, you’re all exactly where you need to be whether you like it or not.” In the midst ...
“One of the strongest characteristics of the role of shuso is its innate awkwardness. One is always both junior and senior. This is a given to the path to those on the shuso path. This fact is confronted deeply. The faces of the junior and senior are co...
“We are the like the apex of a pyramid – the levels of the pyramid ever widening toward its base represent past generations of our ancestors. Our present existence is the sum of all they did and we are the starting point for our descendants. All that ...
“What helps to enrich us and make us strong is not favorable circumstances, but failure, misfortune, or illness. What matters most is how we take misfortune. The saying ‘A branch of plum blossoms harmonizes fragrantly with snow’ teaches us how to de...
If you do, you can. If you don’t, you can’t. When you say you can’t do what can be done, It means you haven’t set out to do it. —Junkyo Oishi (1888-1968) Pulling from Zen Seeds, Shundo Aoyama Rōshi’s timeless book on life and practice, Ko...
“Prajnatara asked, ‘What amongst all things is the greatest?’ Bodhidharma said, ‘True nature, of all things, is the greatest.’” In this dharma talk, Sensei Koshin shares a koan describing the meeting between Prajnatara and Bodhidharma, whic...
Fear can lead us to do regretful, hateful, and even violent things. Lion’s Roar & NYZC’s new online course Medicine for Fear is inspired by Zen teacher Eihei Dogen’s essential instructions for awakening. The course, featuring Sensei Koshin and Sense...
“To devote ourselves to everything we encounter and throw our life force into doing just that is quite different from simply exhausting our energies playing with toys.” —Kōshō Uchiyama Rōshi In celebration of the Shakyamuni Buddha’s birthday...
“How are you cultivating that space of no separation in each moment?” Koshin Paley Ellison delivers a talk on the importance of commitment in relationship, whether it be commitment in how you show up for others in your community or the steadiness y...
What are the ingredients that go into your decisions today? Sensei Chodo delivers a vulnerable dharma talk on a koan in which you find yourself trapped in an impossible situation and asks: “How can you get out?” Though koan practice is unusual in t...
“Big mind, then, is not a matter of meditation on some vast floating spatial dimension. It is the practice of entirely devoting your life to each and everything that you encounter, no matter what it might be.” As the New York Zen Center continues in i...
For more than a decade, NYZC’s Foundations in Contemplative Care has transformed the lives of individuals from across the country and around the world by supporting the integration of spiritual practice and caregiving. In this info session (recorded on ...
“How can you embody being settled into the Way?” In this dharma talk, Koshin Paley Ellison cites our Zen ancestor, Dōgen Zenji, who, in his various guides explains that those who hold positions within sanghas are monks “settled in the Way”. Ko...
“It is not valid to equate a fact, as real as it may seem to be, with the truth. It is just self deception. We deceive ourselves by believing a fact that exists in our mind is an absolute truth” —Kōshō Uchiyama In this dharma talk, Koshin Paley...
“What I would encourage you to do is to reflect on: how you how you’ve deceived yourself this past year, how you’ve made excuses, and how can you take responsibility.” On the eve of the new year, Koshin Paley Ellison and Chodo Robert Campbell ...
“If you just surrender your life to the dharma, then you no longer have to worry what the future will bring. You will bring forth the future out of your surrender. Just drink tea and the dharma will come to you. You don’t have to chase it. It is chasi...
“I’ve been practicing for twenty years and it’s so wonderful that I’m still not sure what practice is.” Sensei Shinzan Palma joins the NYZC sangha to deliver a dharma talk on the varying dimensions of practice. He shares his own journey in under...
“Maintaining the sangha and showing up to serve the Buddhadharma is something beyond us, beyond ‘me’.” Sensei Koshin delivers a dharma talk on perseverance and dedication to practice. He shares the story of Parsha, the 10th ancestor of Shakyamu...
“When we give to others, we give without expectation or reward. We give without attachment to the gift or the recipient.” —Shakyamuni Buddha Chodo Robert Campbell delivers a dharma talk on Dāna, the Pali word for generosity, or as Chodo refers t...
“Can you find the steadiness of your practice even when you don’t want to? Can you show up even when you’re not feeling well in your body-mind?” During the last practice period and in the midst of a full day Zazenkai, Koshin Paley Ellison deliv...