A Tale of Drunken Enemies

Heather Iarusso speaks on “A Tale of Drunken Enemies”.

“I am a lover of stories and unfortunately, a binger of Netflix. Since I've spent seven of the past 13 years in a Zen monastery, I had a lot of binging to catch up on! I landed on the ‘Black Mirror’ series created by Charlie Brooker. I devoured all 23 episodes in a matter of days. Most of the stories were haunting, innovative, and prescient; however, there was one in particular titled ‘Men Against Fire,’ that has left an indelible impression because of its Dharmic lesson.”

Heather is a resident priest at City Center who arrived at Tassajara in 2008 and was ordained as a priest in 2015. She currently serves as Zen Center's Online Practice Center Director.

The Koan of "Self Help"

Tonight Michael McCord explores the Koan of "Self Help": Is Buddhism so stuck in acceptance that nothing ever changes?

We'll explore what it is to be with our inclination to push away some things, as well as what it is to not hold on to ways of escaping that which is arising. In this "middle way" of working with our attraction and aversion, how do we actively plan for positive change without living in a dissatisfied state, not accepting what is happening now?


Rev. Myo's Three Pillars of Soto Zen

The gate of Dharma is unsurpassably wide. All beings may enter. So what does it mean to have a family style? How can we think about what teachings are essential to the Soto Zen way that we have inherited from Suzuki Roshi? This talk can serve as a summary introduction to three keys of our living tradition.

Grappling with the Fearful Mind

“I'll take this opportunity to give a talk about koan #23 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate), a tale of the Sixth Ancestor and his encounter with his Dharma brother Huiming. I'll touch on mudita/empathetic joy and therefore the four brahmaviharas/divine abodes, but I hope to talk mainly about how to skillfully face fear, and how the encounter with what we fear can lead us to a deeper exploration of the sense of self.”

Read more

Foundations of Dharma - The Fourth Noble Truth: the Noble Eightfold Path

In this talk by Kodo Conlin will we will continue our Foundations of Dharma series with a talk on the topic of The Fourth Noble Truth: the Noble Eightfold Path. We will discuss four key conditions that support the development of the path.

This talk will serve as the fourth in an intermittent series on the foundational teachings of Buddhist Dharma, framed for Young Urban Zen. There's no requirement to have heard the earlier talks in the series, but if you would like to listen beforehand, they are available here:

  1. Joy & the First Noble Truth

  2. The Second Noble Truth

  3. Ven. Sāriputta & the Third Noble Truth

Discussion prompts:

List some (10) of your own words that capture the essence of “rightly directed”

Write about person who supported you toward orienting toward “rightly directed”

The Way and the Path - Anshi Zachary Smith

We will explore the relationship between the Noble Eightfold Path, as outlined in the Buddha’s teaching of the Four Noble Truths, and The Way (Tao), which was adopted from Taoism by Chinese Buddhists during the period of cross-fertilization that led to the Ch’an School.

Prompts:

In your experience what is it that supports this sense of connection and being present?

How does that sense of presence and connection affect your actions in the world?

Compassion: The Beginning of Vision

Michael McCord looks at the link between compassion and the ability to see; that when we not only buy into the fact that we are all connected but actively engage in the connectedness that is all around us, we better align our view of what is actually happening - and from there can more skillfully engage or not engage the unfolding events in our lives.

Joy & the First Noble Truth

This talk will serve as the beginning of an intermittent series on the foundational teachings of Buddhist Dharma, framed for Young Urban Zen.

With this first talk, we will bring up such questions as, "What is this 'suffering' and why does Buddhism emphasize it so often?" "How is joy, too, part of the path?" and "What practices sustain us?"

The Two Truths part Deux

As a sequel to last year’s talk on Emptiness and and the Two Truths we’ll go into more detail about the tangled relationship between the Relative and the Absolute as well as its impact on day-to-day life. In particular, we’ll examine the proposition, held in common by Buddhists and some ancient Greeks, that, because of this relationship, suffering is an integral part of the human experience and inextricably bound to that which makes us human.