The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 12/30/25 – Harmonizing inner and outer life is the essence of our practice, says Shugen Roshi in this koan talk from Rohatsu sesshin. Those habits of mind which obstruct our harmonious equanimity, keeping us from feeling whole and at-ease, are the very grist of practice. When we settle the mind, even in the midst of discord, we become clearer and more able to trust in our true nature. – From the Book of Serenity – Case 68 – Jiashan “Swinging the Sword”

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 12/28/25 – During the year-end Rohatsu sesshin, Shoan Sensei offered this koan talk on the nature of mind as it’s experienced and expressed in Zen Buddhist practice. The koan offered from the Gateless Gate points to “turning the light around”, beholding the nature of what we call reality, and learning through experience how we can rely on this to navigate our lives. – From Master Wu-men’s Gateless Gate, Case 29 – Hui-neng’s “Not the Wind; Not the Flag”

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 12/21/25 – In celebration of Hojin Sensei’s formal installation as abbot of Zen Center of New York City and Fire Lotus Temple, Shugen Roshi takes up Master Wu-Men’s Gateless Gate Case 22—Mahākāśyapa’s Flagpole—unfolding its historical resonance to illuminate the journey of women in Buddhism and their enduring place in the living tradition of Buddhist practice.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 12/14/25 – In this season of giving, we naturally think of celebration, connection, and gratitude for the family, friends, and community that sustains us. Dana Paramita invites us to open our awareness and our hearts to those around us who may be struggling, alone, or lacking what we ourselves enjoy. So… these days we might ask ourselves: What does a Bodhisattva do at this time of year? Shugen Roshi recalls a fundamental teaching of the Buddha, reiterated by Master Dogen in the Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance: Giving, Kind Speech, Beneficial Action, and Identity Action.

ZMM – 12/07/25 – Shugen Roshi officiates the Novice Monastic Ordination ceremony for Rebecca Shindo Kisch; a joyful occasion – both a home-leaving and a homecoming – that Master Dogen described as “a day for turning cartwheels.” Shindo is currently the Monastery’s Gardener, and helps coordinate the National Buddhist Prison Sangha. She became a formal student (Tangaryo) in 2020, received the Bodhisattva Precepts (Jukai), and her dharma name Shindo, in 2022 and became a Postulant in 2023. Today she receives the robe of a monastic and provisionally takes on the five monastic vows. Those vows being simplicity, service, selflessness, stability, and “to live the Buddha’s Way.” In this new context she will continue her discernment and exploration and training for the role of a full monastic before choosing to ask for full ordination.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 11/30/25 – This talk on a koan from an early Chan teacher is taken up by Shugen Roshi to look at the ubiquity of our dualistic habits of mind. Koans work with language to help us see our minds more clearly, to see where we cloud ourselves with judgements and bias and distract ourselves with endless arguments. Just forget the two sides and see into the true reality right before our eyes. – From the Book of Serenity – Case 27 – Fayan Points to a Blind

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – 11/23/25 – How do we know what is ultimately true? In this koan from the Mumonkan, Shoan Sensei delves into the ordinariness of profound truth that is everywhere, its depth and benefits within reach. And yet there is still practice and investigation that must be engaged to feel into the distinction. – From Master Wu-men’s Gateless Gate, Case 19 – Nan-sh’uan: “Ordinary Mind Is the Tao”

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 11/22/25 – This final section of Shugen Roshi’s Genjokoan commentary looks at the dynamic tension between conceptual learning and the experience of insight. Insight brings clarity, but it is practice which allows the space to open, so that wisdom and compassion arise together. When we experience what reaches everywhere, the tyrannical repetition of samsara begins to slip away. – Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks – Part 12 (final)

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 11/21/25 – How do we know what is ultimately true? In this koan from the Mumonkan, Shoan Sensei delves into the ordinariness of profound truth that is everywhere; its depth and benefits within reach. And yet there is still practice and investigation that must be engaged to feel into the distinction. – From Master Wu-men’s Gateless Gate, Case 19 – Nan-sh’uan: “Ordinary Mind Is the Tao”

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei – ZMM – 10/20/25 – The moment when each person decides to step into the unknown, to an authentic life where our karma does not determine our choices, is a turning point. Hogen Sensei picks up the opening line from Genjokoan, ”When all dharmas are Buddhadharma…” as that moment when everything has the great potential to change.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 11/19/25 – Our personal experience is what guides and corrects our steps on a dharma path, and this section of Genjokoan provides this reminder again of the deep conviction that arises only from experience, the verification that truly liberates, within our everyday lives. – Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks – Part 11

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi and Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 11/16/25 – After introducing Shoan Sensei, and after Shoan offers her Vows to the sangha, Shugen Roshi begins his discourse with the story of one of our great women ancestors, Moshan Liaoran Daiosho. It is a story pointing to the intimacy of the path itself, and to the question of how we understand “transformation.” Told on the morning after Shoan Sensei received dharma transmission, the story becomes a beautiful acknowledgment of lineage—how each of us steps forward, intimately entering the life of the Way—and the responsibility of each of us to be a student first and foremost. After sharing his words, Shugen Roshi warmly invites Shoan Sensei to finish the talk.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 11/9/25 – Shugen Roshi officiates the November 2025 Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery. Today, five students formally receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts, taking up these living teachings, living vows in the company of the sangha with family and friends: Rami Dokyo Eskelin (The Way of Reverence), Sushravya Jigo Raghunath (Compassionate Strength), Josh Tokumon Dittmar (Sincere Inquiry), Robert Kyobu Pile (Dance the Unborn), Joshua Musho Weiner (To Illuminate the Dream).

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 11/6/25 – The beautiful activity of Fusatsu, taking the time to recognize/acknowledge harm, atone (become one-with), and thereby shore up our footing on the Path. It’s a way to bring to the fore the Buddha’s earliest teaching: the pure precepts; To not create evil, to practice good, and to purify the mind (practice good for others.) In those terms, how do we do that? Shoan Osho talks about an aspect of the 4 immeasurables: vowing to “know the root of our suffering.” How is that for each of us?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 11/2/25 – Genjokoan presents Dōgen’s perspective that practice and realization are not two separate stages but one seamless activity. This unified, non-dual nature is what every thing in the world moves within, like a bird in the air or a fish in the water. How do we practice being within our human element, the mind of concepts and ideas, a sense of self and others, of separation and difference, as not separate from anything at all? – Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks – Part 10

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 10/26/25 – Shugen Roshi explores how we and all beings strive to live in harmony with our environment, with our universe. With the capacity to choose, we also have a basic ethical sense of right and wrong arising within, from our true, non-dual nature. Skillful and unskillful actions are made by us continuously, and we do sense the difference. So how do we meet ourselves, and meet others, when it matters most? Roshi meets the sangha in a tender and lively exchange. (Dharma Encounter at the conclusion of the October 2025 Harvest Sesshin.)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 10/25/25 – When we realize that we may not fully understand something, there is room to learn more. But if we think “I’ve got this,” we stop listening and there is very little room to learn anything. In order to access this profound dharma in a way that is transformative, we have to recognize when it’s time to listen more deeply. Shugen Roshi continues exploring these profound teachings on practice and enlightenment contained in Genjokoan. – Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks – Part 8

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 10/24/25 – From Master Dogen’s Genjokoan, our environment is not separate from our basic nature, and all creatures move within their element. When we feel separate or create schisms, we are going to suffer until we can bring ourselves to practice in accord with reality as it is. In this talk given during a Renewal of Vows ceremony, Shugen Roshi teaches that when we have a sense of completeness with what is, what is real, there is joy and ease. And then we are free to be unhindered in bringing good into our world. (Dharma Talk during the Harvest Sesshin Fusatsu Ceremony. And from the Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks – Part 9)

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei – ZMM – 10/22/25 – Our biggest challenges often take form in how we create or perpetuate suffering, and these are likely to be in stark contrast to the peace and groundedness experienced in zazen. In zazen we experience our true nature up close, but it often doesn’t seem to be in alignment with our restless and uneasy mind. How do we close the distance, take responsibility for the rift that seems impassable, and continue to move closer? – From the Master Dogen’s True Dharma Eye – Case 10 – Qingyuan’s “Come Closer”

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 10/19/25 – We may aspire to enlightenment, or we may simply have faith in this path that seems to be leading us in a good direction. Enlightenment can seem a far away concept from the daily struggles of being human, but that sense of distance comes from seeking something outside of ourselves. The bright, luminous mind of enlightenment, Roshi reminds us, is always so much closer than we can imagine. (Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks – Part 7)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 10/12/25 – Passing this lamp that the Buddha lit, it falls to the next generation to tend that lamp for the next generation, and for generations to come. Building something new, whether a temple or a community as Daido Roshi and others from the Monastery’s early years have done, over time it’s the vow itself that comes alive. On this 45th Anniversary of ZMM, Shugen Roshi celebrates all those who helped to put down good roots here. When each of us arrive at the place of practice, the vows of our ancestors unfold.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 10/05/25 – The opportunity our lives offer is simply to live—not in the past, nor the future, but now—and this requires a measure of both faith and appreciation for all that is present, right now. Rather than living in memory and recollection, or in our hopes and fears, Dogen’s Genjokoan emphasizes that the dharma state of any phenomenon is just this, right now. – Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks – Part 6

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei – ZMM – 9/28/25 – Manifesting absolute reality—awakened reality—in everyday life is Genjokoan. In this lively Dharma Encounter with Hogen Sensei, the awakened reality of everyday life is explored as our fundamental practice. Sensei says “true realization manifests as compassionate action in the world; that’s the bottom line,” and asks that we each consider how we enter this ordinary, everyday actualization of compassion. (Dharma Encounter at the September 2025 Mountains and Rivers Sesshin)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 9/27/25 – Zazen is a powerful practice for entering an intimate relationship with ourselves. Without adding anything extra, we have available at all times our true mind, our buddha nature, perfect and complete. But how to work with it skillfully? How to let go of all the suffering we carry, and re-create, moment by moment? Drawing from Dogen’s Genjokoan, Shugen Roshi takes up the opportunity this radical intimacy offers. – Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks – Part 5

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZMM – 9/26/25 – Taking responsibility allows us to make fresh and new karma, to heal what needs to be healed. The vows of atonement or repentance are at the center of this ceremony of Fusatsu. Hojin Sensei explores what the words of our vows in this context mean, and how our intentions can turn the tides of harmful karma — born of greed, anger and ignorance — and allow us to heal. (Dharma Talk during the Mountains and Rivers Sesshin Fusatsu Ceremony)

Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho – ZMM – 9/25/25 – Being receptive to our minds and trusting in the path are essential ingredients for a zazen practice that is vibrant and alive. In a way, this is what distinguishes rote practice from real practice — receptivity, devotion, and wakefulness. Are we asking ourselves, “What is it?” Or are we filling in the blanks with our delusive inability to stay with not-knowing? Truly engaging in the practice — not merely thinking about it — is the living edge we all encounter, and it is this edge that Shoan Osho explores in this sesshin talk.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 9/24/25 – Being devoted to the study of the self which Dogen outlines in Genjokoan is quite different than being self-centered. Rather, it means to take up wholeheartedly the practice of living into our true nature. Making this path real—bringing our understanding out of the realm of concept and abstraction—becomes the entryway to the joy and ease of practice-realization. In recognizing our deluded, karmic self, we are freed to realize the true self, our true nature. That’s where Dogen is pointing. (Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks Part 4)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 9/21/25 – Awareness is an essential aspect of being alive, and quite essential for doing good actions to bring healing to our troubled world. In Genjokoan, however, Dogen says a buddha doesn’t need to be aware of being a buddha. What does this mean? Is it a lack of awareness, or something else? Our entire world of experience centers around self-awareness, and a sense of “something” there, even when being truly selfless. This exploration by Shugen Roshi shows how this seeming duality can be a gate to our freedom, by closing the distance between us and them, this and that, self and other. (Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks Part 3)

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho – ZMM – 9/14/25 – The Eightfold Path offers us a way to bring the Dharma teachings directly into the practice of our lives. In this talk, Gokan Osho continues exploring these core teachings, turning to how we understand ourselves and how we engage through body, speech, and mind. With attention to moral and ethical conduct, he examines our relationship to cause and effect, and the potential impact — both beneficial and harmful — we can have on everything around us.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 9/7/25 – Becoming aware of our sense of self is central to understanding the True Self—the self of no-self. And with practice, we come to realize that the ten thousand things are none other than what we call “self.” In this talk, Shugen Roshi introduces Genjokoan, a fascicle of Dogen, which brings us face to face with the everyday reality of our lives. Our most important question then becomes: How do we live freely within this great truth, when all dharmas are Buddhadharma and nothing is left outside? (Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks Part 1)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 8/31/25 – Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of the MRO 90-day Fall Ango 2025 training period, “The Way of Everyday Life: Genjokoan.”

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 8/30/25 – While many people search outside for the causes of feeling constrained and limited, the radical step toward transformation is to turn the light around. Coming close enough to see clearly our own constraining, deluded thinking—to see the truth in our own delusions— takes great courage and honesty. Before we can heal the world, we need to get clear about our own thinking and go beyond what appears to us as the limits of our freedom. This empowerment is always ultimately in our own hands. – From the Transmission of the Light, 32nd Zen Ancestor: Daoxin

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 8/24/25 – What is it to pass through something? Or to not pass through? In koan practice this image is utilized over and over again, and here a buddha made of wood cannot pass through a fire. To pass through or not presents a dilemma, the duality of good or bad, easy or difficult. How does the dharma help us to reach true freedom of mind? Shugen Roshi reminds us that suffering is always in the mind, and the end of suffering is the miraculous activity of our life itself. – Part 3 of 3. From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 96: Chao Chou’s Three Turning Words

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 8/23/25 – The discriminating function of our minds has many benefits, and at the same time we need to reveal how it can become weaponized against ourselves. The furnace of a gold buddha might be seen as the more difficult entanglements of our lives, and yet within these circumstances we are empowered to completely transform the mind that resists and defends. Liberation takes determination and commitment to release our own obstructions. – Part 2 of 3. From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 96: Chao Chou’s Three Turning Words

Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho – ZMM – 8/22/25 – As we practice over time, we mature in our practice and if we’re lucky we can also experience and appreciate that ripening in each other. Sharing the words of realized women and men from six centuries ago, Shoan Osho brings home our common commitment, shared questions and aspiration within ourselves and our dharma ancestors. Engaging our minds is the simple and direct way to deepen our understanding of our commonality, as well as our own unique ways of walking the Path.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 8/20/25 – In the language of koans, we are invited to step right into the embodied experience of the koan, which in this case is a Buddha made of mud which cannot pass through water. Can you immerse your mind in the muck and entanglement of a mud buddha? Is this mind trustworthy? To reveal our minds to ourselves, we can take up the method of focusing our own “miraculous awareness” within zazen, to bring forward the freedom and generosity to which we aspire. – Part 1 of 3. From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 96: Chao Chou’s Three Turning Words

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 8/17/25 – Shugen Roshi reminds us that mind is the basis of all conflicted action, and so it is to mind that we direct our aspirations and intentions to bring goodness and ease into the world. Using mind to intentionally bring a joyful, generous state of being forward, as Shantideva’s verses encourage, can shift even the most divisive moments we encounter in our world of activity. Our willingness to practice this edge makes all the difference.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 8/10/25 – Living within the present world, surrounded by many acts of cruelty and hatred, each of us is called to recognize, liberate, and transform samsara as we are able to. The path to creating peace requires that we live within this reality, meeting our own strong emotions like frustration and despair and making use of the dharma to bring renewed energy and aspiration to the path. We can each ask: “What does my sphere of influence include?” What does this mind of practice encompass as a “Buddha Field,” and how within that reality can each of us serve?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 8/3/25 – How do we meet our conscious mind, skillfully? Mind training offers us ways to see our self-centered thinking habits, meeting our minds directly, and using this quality to learn about ourselves and to experience humility. In this way, our capacity for compassion can increase and we can hold the world in an unconditional way. – From the Book of Serenity – Case 14 – “Attendant Huo Passes Tea”

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZMM – 7/27/25 – The wisdom of our bodies can be invoked precisely because it is always present, within, as our inherent Buddha nature. How then does the bearing of the body at ease enable us to meet the cries of the world? What is it to be a noble being? And how, through practice, can we verify this for ourselves? Join Hojin Sensei for this Dharma talk at the end of Interdependence Sesshin.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho – ZMM – 7/26/25 – Invoking is more than simply using words. It is bringing forth all of our life energy and intention in a way that is transformative. Liturgy can be an entryway to this whole-body practice, expanding and opening our consciousness. When free of storytelling about the “self,” we are not at all separated from that “vastness of mind” that pervades the whole universe. In this way we open our whole selves to giving—and receiving—a vast love for all the world.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZMM – 7/25/25 – What we do, how we use our minds and our time, can transform our lives. When we can quiet the constant referencing of a “self,” our internal preoccupations and obsessions, we begin to find the still point and rest there. In this Sesshin talk, Hojin Sensei invokes the stillness of a mountain range, and the stilling of turbid water as it settles, and the whole of reality that this can reveal.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho – ZMM – 7/24/25 – The wisdom aspects of the Eightfold Path include Right Intention, or Right Thought. What is it to take full responsibility for our lives by practicing our intentions, our thoughts? How do we access the joy and ease through the Path? We practice zazen as instructed, and we also have to study and understand the truth of cause and effect, action and result, to understand the power of Right Intention and it’s impact on our lives.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho – ZMM – 7/13/25 – Many people describe a deep sense of “being home” when they arrive at a practice center. But how can we make the Noble Path our true home—wherever we are, whatever our circumstances? In this talk in his series on the Noble Eightfold Path, Gokan Osho reflects on the practice of Right Intention.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Osho – ZMM – 7/6/25 – The teachings of dependent origination tell us that all that arises does so with all of reality: “because of this, that, and because of that, this.” In studying what we call “the self,” Shoan Osho reminds us that we are not a fixed, unchanging element among all the other aspects of life. Rather, we are the manifestation of causes and conditions, interdependent with all of reality, full of innate wisdom and compassion. This is the benefit of our practice; it is our true interdependence.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 6/29/25 – Shugen Roshi asks, “If all things are empty with no inherent existence, then how do things come into being?” In other words, how are we creating our world, moment by moment? How do we do this consciously, intentionally, bringing our vows to life? Every occurrence is handed to us fresh, and in practice we can learn to bring our best selves forward, without grasping or clinging to anything extra. – From the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye – Case 18 – “Nanquan and the Land Deity.”

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – Saturday 6/28/25 – How do we make the dharma our own? In Zen training, we have to fully let go of the expectations and ideas of what it will look like once we realize ourselves. And importantly, we need to let go of our self-criticism and other kinds of self-centered preoccupation. As we continue to build confidence in our abilities and the practice itself, we learn to abide well anywhere we go, in all aspects of our lives. – From the Koans of the Way of Reality – Yunju’s “Abiding in the Mountains”

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – Wednesday 6/25/25 – Shugen Roshi explores a passage from the Prajnaparamita Sutra and its emphasis on the “unconditioned” nature of things. When this is realized within our zazen, the unconditioned state has the potential to liberate our minds. If we can meet our minds and what arises without adding extra, without grasping and rejecting, we can begin to sense the deep wisdom we seek in the dharma.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 6/22/25 – Getting caught up in the many distractions that we encounter daily contributes to our confusion, our sense of overwhelm. How do we cultivate practice in such a way that we can turn it back, to inquire, and not be overwhelmed? With honesty and persistence, practice can help reveal the true nature of the self and of all things. Using Dharma words from Eihei Dogen, Shugen Roshi encourages us to turn the light around, calm our busy minds, and see things as they truly are. – From Master Dogen’s 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 16 Changsha’s “Returning to Mountains, Rivers, and the Great Earth”

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 6/15/25 – We acquire language as we become more conscious of what surrounds us—people and things and concepts—and the language we learn to use is inextricable from our conscious sense of ourselves. In this sense we are co-creating our reality moment by moment as we use language. In Dharma study, one of the Eight Gates of Zen, we learn to work with some skill in appreciating the necessity of language as well as the constructed and thereby provisional nature of language. Our capacity to use words toward realization is not limited by words themselves.