The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 3/22/26 – Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of the MRO Spring Ango 2026 training period, “The Turning Words of Hongzhi”.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 3/15/26 – As the first of the Paramitas, or perfections, generosity is a virtue that leads to releasing the suffering we all experience, which was the primary focus of the Buddha’s teaching. Shugen Roshi reminds us that when we practice the dharma with the mind of generosity, we can hold everything that arises, and let diminish the disconnection between ourselves and all others.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei and Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZCNYC – 3/15/26 – Buddha and Mara are figurative ways of portraying a fundamental seeming opposition within our human nature: Buddha stands for a capacity for awareness, openness, and freedom; with Mara representing a capacity for confusion, closure, and restriction. In this collaborative Dharma Talk Shoan and Hojin explore the four traditional teachings of the ways Mara appears. – This talk followed the Meeting Mara : the Art of Fearless Presence Retreat.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 3/8/26 – When we are complete within ourselves, nothing is left aside as unimportant. All of it is important. We can look to the great bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, as one who does not make any distinctions whatsoever. All things have their skillful use, can be turned toward benefit, even those most difficult things, those most challenging moments. What we do moment to moment is what makes the path of practice and realization possible. How do we manifest compassion? By looking to what we do, moment to moment, as a very real living vow. – From Master Dogen’s 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 105 – “The Hands and Eyes of Great Compassion”

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZCNYC – 3/8/26 – From The Hidden Lamp, Case #1: The Old Woman of Mt. Wutai – What is this desire to have a defined path in life and might the pointing in this koan give some friction to ask the larger question of what is moving us? Hojin takes up this teaching to address the mind that leans forward — imagining fulfillment later, somewhere else.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 3/1/26 – What did Vimalakirti say when Manjushri asked him to speak? In our own lives, how do we find freedom amid the dualities we encounter—sick or well, right or wrong, left or right? And what does the nonduality of form and emptiness reveal? When nothing stands opposed, where is the other side? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the nonduality of wisdom and compassion, and the selfless quality that makes each inseparable from the other. – From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 84: Vimalakirti’s Gate of Nonduality.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZCNYC – 3/1/26 – Listen to this invitation from a small convent in medieval Japan—Tōkeiji—where generations of nuns practiced zazen before a mirror, contemplating this question: “Where is a single feeling, a single thought, in the mirror image at which I gaze?” Awareness does not stand apart from experience. What might this mean in a world that so often feels divided? – From The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women: #34 — The Zen Mirror of Tōkeiji.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 2/22/26 – Known by many different names throughout the Buddhist world—Avalokitesvara, Kwan Yin, Kannon—they are the hearer of the cries of the world. This being embodies that compelling ability to relieve all suffering and lead beings to complete, perfect enlightenment. Unburdened, we are thereby able to free others and ourselves from suffering. Learning to not create these states in the first place, is the hard work of practice. Perfection is a given, but we still need to realize it ourselves. The third talk on metta, lovingkindness, given by Shugen Roshi during the February sesshin.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 2/21/26 – Our unified being—seeing body and mind as one reality—is profoundly affected by outside circumstances. Zazen practice turns us inward, to meet ourselves and what is arising in this mind-body. Shugen Roshi brings The Metta Sutta alive as the Buddha’s instructions on how to practice this dynamic flow of both inward and outward with loving-kindness. It speaks to the heart of spiritual work and the transformation possible, when a practitioner can bring these qualities outward to meet the world. – The text of the Karaniya Metta Sutta is here on the ZMM Liturgy page: zmm.org/liturgy/

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho – ZMM – 2/19/26 – Coming into the experience of our emotions and thoughts, we can find the way our minds shape our experience from one moment to the next. If we’re not grounded in this embodied experience, and willing to feel our feelings, we may tend to push them away or numb ourselves. This informal talk given during February sesshin invites us to gently and directly feel what we are experiencing, body and mind, and begin to free ourselves from the endless proliferation and ruminating, and rather lead us toward spaciousness and freedom.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 2/18/26 – This early sutra of the Buddha describes the practice of metta, offered as a beneficial aid to settle the mind and body and ease fear and vexation. Even within the wild restlessness of our minds, the troubles of our hearts and ways in which we struggle, taking these instructions to heart and understanding it’s intent can help us settle into the refuge of a zazen. – The text of the Karaniya Metta Sutta is here on the ZMM Liturgy page: zmm.org/liturgy/

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 2/15/26 – All along the bodhisattva path, we make vows to serve others. When the conditions of our lives grow difficult—when stress feels real and urgent—these vows become more vivid and deeply personal. Shugen Roshi shares stories and leads a renewal of our commitment to the well-being of all who seek refuge in the Sangha. On this long path, however often we fall short, we return to and rely upon our vows.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 2/8/26 – Invoking Dogen’s fascicle on Continuous Practice, Shoan Sensei reminds us that we turn toward spiritual practice to take refuge. In doing so, we take our seat as Buddha, taking refuge in the Dharma and relying on the Sangha all around us. From this refuge arises a continuous, sustained, real practice, even when it is uncomfortable or difficult. Here, grace is found within our actual experience, and together we discover a true refuge in one another.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZCNYC – 2/8/26 – Coming together, falling apart, are these the same? Different? Practice can show us the freedom of mind responding according to circumstance. In this talk, Hojin Sensei reflects on the koan from the Hidden Lamp, Chiyono’s No Water, No Moon, and what it means to keep practicing the dharma, to keep caring for something— even when it seems fragile, broken. How sometimes falling apart, or experiencing a heart breaking situation might be just the turning point needed to open up completely. Where do we find the self?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 1/31/26 – The wellspring of wisdom in Zen is meditation. Yet wisdom alone is not enough; the path of liberation must also fully embody compassion. Compassion is not separate from awakening but an essential and indivisible expression of it, permeating every aspect of practice and life. In this Sesshin talk, Shugen Roshi encourages us to draw compassion close within our zazen, leaving nothing outside our practice.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 1/28/26 – Freeing ourselves through seated meditation, zazen, is the foundational practice at the heart of Zen Buddhism. In this exploratory talk, Shugen Roshi encourages us to be clear about what we’re doing, and how to do it, as well as why we are aiming to free ourselves and others from the suffering of this world.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 1/25/26 – The bodhisattva path is not known as such to everyone who walks it, and this was especially true for Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who dedicated all his efforts to bringing about a renewed commitment to liberty and justice in our troubled country. His life was a bodhisattva life. Our own efforts to change the streams of harmful conditioning, bias and habitual formations require our own clarity and commitment, and so these lessons must be applied to all that we do. This talk was given on occasion of the Sangha Harmony Advisory Committee (SHAC) member retreat at ZMM.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho – ZMM – 1/18/26 – In a series of talks on the Eightfold Path, Gokan Osho looks at effort, one of the core concentration factors of the path. Early on in our lives we mostly overreach, becoming competitive or extremely self-critical, and sometimes give up all together. We get ourselves in tangles before we can learn through practice to undo the expectations and measurements, to find the right amount of effort needed to continue on the path and develop the clarity and stability we need.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 1/11/26 – Three core aspects of Zen practice are morality, calming the mind, and insight into the nature of reality. Without this third element, wisdom-insight, Zen isn’t truly a liberating practice. Shugen Roshi explains that insight differs from analytical or conceptual thinking; it’s a direct, lived experience. The path requires that these three aspects be cultivated together, so that a settled, unobstructed mind becomes capable of seeing more clearly and of realizing insight that is genuinely transformative. – From Master Wu-Men’s Gateless Gate, Case 39: Yun-men Says You Missed It

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 01/04/2026 – With a new year upon us we all have the chance to start fresh. This is always true because nothing is fixed, everything is subject to change, a truth of the dharma which we can verify for ourselves. We have accumulated experiences, memories, expectations, but those are not fixed either. In this perspective, the new year is auspicious because it is full of possibilities, revealing its potential as we take up life fully, with integrity, commitment and kindness. – From Master Dogen’s 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 39 – Jingqing’s “Buddhadharma at the New Year”

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – New Year’s Eve 12/31/25 – Moral and ethical conduct in Zen practice involves the ongoing work of recognizing when we have fallen short of kindness, compassion, or honesty. The Renewal of Vows ceremony is an ancient Buddhist ritual that addresses the harm we cause. Through atonement, we acknowledge our transgressions—an essential act of turning karma and bringing benefit to the world, and of renewing our commitment to the vows we live by. Offered on the threshold of the new year, this talk brings Shugen Roshi’s Dharma teaching directly into the realities of everyday life.