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
Nov 7, 2025 • 22min
Fusatsu: Pure Heart Pure Mind
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?
Nov 2, 2025 • 42min
Air is Life, Water is Life
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
Oct 26, 2025 • 1h 10min
Dharma Encounter: Sustaining What is True
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.)
Oct 25, 2025 • 40min
Beyond Our View
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
Oct 24, 2025 • 36min
Fusatsu: Encountering Our Own Completeness
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)
Oct 22, 2025 • 33min
Come Closer
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"
Oct 19, 2025 • 45min
Gaining Enlightenment
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)
Oct 12, 2025 • 46min
Tending the Lamp
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.
Oct 5, 2025 • 43min
Firewood Does Not Become Ash
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
Sep 28, 2025 • 1h 22min
Genjokoan Dharma Encounter
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)
