The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast
Zen Mountain Monastery
The Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO) is a Western Zen Buddhist lineage established by the late John Daido Loori Roshi and dedicated to sharing the dharma as it has been passed down, generation to generation, since the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. Zen Mountain Monastery, the main house of the Mountains and Rivers Order, is one of the West’s most respected Zen Buddhist monasteries and training centers. Nestled in New York’s beautiful Catskill Mountains, the Monastery draws its strength from the ancient tradition of Buddhist monasticism. Since 1980, the Monastery has offered spiritual practitioners traditional and innovative ways to engage the dharma through a wide range of retreats and residential programs that unfold within the context of authentic, full-time Zen monastic training. The Zen Center of New York City: Fire Lotus Temple is the city branch of Zen Mountain Monastery. Supporting home practitioners in the metropolitan area, ZCNYC offers varied practice opportunities within the Eight Gates training matrix.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Apr 5, 2026 • 43min
Active Consciousness
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 4/5/26 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 37 - Guishan's "Active Consciousness" -
Mar 28, 2026 • 43min
Acupuncture Needle of Zazen
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/28/26 - The subtle healing energy of zazen is likened to an acupuncture needle by Hongzhi, and Shugen Roshi explores how this teaching functions in our own practice life. Within zazen, are we truly engaging what is right in front of us? The simple and direct nature of zazen brings us back again and again, and so we return and settle into the ease of being within our own minds. Hongzhi invites us to “know without touching…and rest there.” Things become closer, softer, bright and clear.
Mar 27, 2026 • 26min
Finding the Monastery in Samsara
Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei - ZMM - 3/27/26 - In this Renewal of Vows (Fusatsu) talk, Shoan Sensei offers the perspective that we are practicing within samsara, exactly where we are. Here we can come very close to the narrow habits and patterns that create suffering—something we cannot do in some imagined fantasy of a Buddha Land. Taking up the place where we find ourselves as the place of our own vows, we can discover ways to bring forward our infinite capacity to leave possessiveness and self-delusion behind, and, with the support of the precepts, learn to be truly free. It is here that transformation can happen.
Mar 26, 2026 • 26min
Entering the Wilderness
Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 3/26/26 - A very human practice is to go into unfamiliar places, maybe on a pilgrimage or a journey of some sort into the unknown. What might be the benefit of this type of practice, why did it come to exist? Gokan Osho explores the Buddha’s teachings on facing one’s own mind, free of attachments. When we relax, and get very close to our direct experience, there is the possibility of transformations which can’t be prepared for.
Mar 25, 2026 • 44min
Just Resting, While Freely Going Forth
Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - 3/25/26 - ZMM - Hogen Sensei asks the question: what is it to just rest? To let our busy preoccupation with our thoughts come to rest. Accepting all streams, everything becomes “one taste,” non-dual and not in opposition to anything. To truly settle down and allow the busyness to rest is to let the continuous flow be present just as it is, revealing the edges of what we call our “self” in the moment-to-moment flow of reality.
Mar 22, 2026 • 42min
Spring 2026 Ango Opening Talk – “The Turning Words of Hongzhi”
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".
Mar 22, 2026 • 39min
Ango Opening Talk at Fire Lotus Temple
Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 3/22/26 - Join Hojin Sensei for her Spring Ango opening remarks at the Temple. Auspicious Beginning of Spring! Homage to the buddha, dharma, sangha treasures! How auspicious! What does it mean to dwell peacefully—together—right here in the midst of things as they are? To take delight in development? Ango gives us a field to see this clearly.
Mar 15, 2026 • 40min
Aspects of Giving
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.
Mar 15, 2026 • 1h 3min
Come to Rest in Actuality
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.
28 snips
Mar 8, 2026 • 48min
So Many Hands and Eyes
A contemplative talk on how compassion and wisdom arise together and become a lived vow. Reflections on obstacles that block caring in daily life and practices that reveal compassionate action. Metaphors of nighttime reaching and zazen's stillness illustrate moving from idea to embodied response. Community service and ordinary kindness are presented as expressions of the bodhisattva spirit.
