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
14 snips
Feb 18, 2026 • 30min
Metta Sutra As Instructions
A clear look at the Karaniya Metta Sutta as a practical guide to settle body and mind. Reflections on cultivating loving-kindness amid personal pain and habitual obstacles. Emphasis on posture, straightforward speech, and simple actions as genuine practice. Thoughts on humility, modest confidence, and wishing safety and ease for all beings.
30 snips
Feb 15, 2026 • 39min
Do Not Disappoint Yourself
A teacher reflects on vows to serve others and how commitment deepens when life gets hard. He discusses how disappointment and turmoil become material for practice and learning. Topics include types of karma, honest self-inquiry, zazen and mindfulness, and bringing vows into daily life to benefit every being.
21 snips
Feb 8, 2026 • 35min
Circle of the Way Is Never Cut Off
Danika Shohan Enkele, Sensei in the Mountains and Rivers Order who leads teachings on Dogen and continuous Zen practice. She explores turning toward practice as refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Short guided body-centered practice and reflections on staying with discomfort, community support, compassion practices, and how rupture and honesty can open room for transformation.
Feb 8, 2026 • 46min
Coming Together – Falling Apart
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?
Jan 31, 2026 • 42min
Meditation and Wisdom, Function and Essence
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.
7 snips
Jan 28, 2026 • 48min
Pursuing The Buddha Way – Bendowa
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.
17 snips
Jan 25, 2026 • 44min
What You Ought To Be
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.
Jan 18, 2026 • 35min
Practicing the Path: Right Effort
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.
19 snips
Jan 11, 2026 • 42min
Missing It, Seeing It
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
Jan 4, 2026 • 40min
An Auspicious Year
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"
