Zen Community of Oregon Dharma Talks

In this episode, Jomon reflects on death, impermanence, and how mindfulness can deepen our appreciation of life. Drawing from experiences with wildland firefighters, Zen retreats, and the teachings of Frank Ostasewski, she explores how turning toward mortality and grief can cultivate presence, compassion, and wholehearted living. Listeners are guided through practices to recognize impermanence, connect more deeply with others, and fully inhabit the precious moments we often take for granted. ★ Support this podcast ★

Reflections on meeting life's endings with presence and clarity. Conversations about calming and stabilizing the mind amid illness and loss. Practical attention practices like micro-awareness and examining fleeting thoughts. Invitations to find a steady, compassionate stance in the smallest moments.

Responding to a question about fame, influence, and “sacrificing one’s life to a cause,” Jogen explores the Buddhist teaching of the Eight Worldly Concerns: pleasure and displeasure, loss and gain, praise and blame, fame and infamy. He examines the deep human desire to be known, respected, and powerful, and the spiritual dangers hidden within recognition and status. Drawing on stories from Zen tradition and his own experience, he reflects on how practice invites us to stop being buffeted by these worldly winds and to act from integrity rather than optics. What would it mean to contribute fully, perhaps even to change history, without needing to be known for it? ★ Support this podcast ★

In this talk, Kisei continues exploring the Faith in Mind poem, reflecting on the invitation to “cut off all useless thoughts” and return to the root of awareness itself. Drawing on the koan of Mu, the teachings of Mumon and Dahui, and her own experience of practice, she reframes “cutting off” as seeing through the thinking mind rather than fighting it. By investigating the nature of thought—its texture, duration, and source—practitioners begin to recognize the spacious awareness in which thoughts arise and dissolve. This talk points to the freedom of the unhindered mind and closes with a poem from Joy Harjo, reminding us that true clarity opens from the heart. ★ Support this podcast ★

Jogen explores the question of motivation for practice, reflecting on why spiritual practice matters in a disturbing and impermanent world and why it can still be difficult to sustain. He examines sources of motivation—from habit and benefit to suffering, wisdom, and mysterious calling—and introduces the traditional “Four Thoughts That Turn the Mind” as contemplations on suffering, impermanence, karma, and death. Through personal stories and practical reflection, this talk invites listeners to consider what truly motivates their practice and how deep contemplation can unbottle a more wholehearted commitment to the Dharma. ★ Support this podcast ★

Kisei reflects on the closing stanzas of the Affirming Faith in Mind poem, exploring what it means to trust the heart-mind beyond discrimination and thought. She considers seasons of practice, the tension between sidedness and non-duality, and the lived, particular shape of a practitioner’s path, weaving in stories of pilgrimage, faith in America, and the koan of calling out to one’s true nature. This talk invites listeners to recognize the mysterious source within, honor their unique karma and calling, and cultivate trust in the unfolding of their life and practice. ★ Support this podcast ★

In this dialogue, Jogen and Hogen reflect on practice, uncertainty, and how to find direction in life. Hogen shares what he would tell his 18-year-old self about confidence and liberation, while Jogen explores non-resistance, yielding to experience, and listening deeply to the body and mind. Together they discuss career choices, not knowing the future, and how Zen practice cultivates discernment, flexibility, and trust in the unfolding of a life. ★ Support this podcast ★

In this talk, Hogen reflects on turning problems into wisdom, exploring how fear, beliefs, and fixed stories can become inner prisons—and how practice opens a path to freedom. Drawing on teachings about equanimity, responsibility, and gratitude, he invites listeners to face fear directly, soften around difficulty, and transform life’s challenges into sources of insight, compassion, and appreciation for this one precious life. ★ Support this podcast ★

In this closing retreat talk, Jogen explores awareness, language, and love as portals into awakening, weaving poetry with Zen teaching to question what we mean by “the world.” Reflecting on impermanence, intimacy, and the bodhisattva path, he invites listeners to recognize the myriad worlds arising through their own body and mind—and to live so that life itself becomes an altar of love, responsibility, and presence. This is talk 5 of the 2026 Dharma Gates retreat. ★ Support this podcast ★

In this New Year Dharma talk, Kisei reflects on the Zen koan of stepping from the top of the hundred-foot pole, exploring what it means to move from insight into lived, embodied practice. Weaving together koans, tarot imagery, and reflections on aspiration, habit energy, and curiosity, she invites listeners to examine where they hold back from life and how playful, resourceful engagement can become a path of awakening. Through images of the Fool, the lotus in fire, and the bodhisattva archetypes, the talk encourages a wholehearted leap into intimacy with experience and a renewed connection to personal vow as the year begins. ★ Support this podcast ★