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
Sep 27, 2025 • 45min
Not Separate From Yourself
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
Sep 26, 2025 • 31min
Fusatsu: Make Fresh
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)
15 snips
Sep 25, 2025 • 49min
The Secret Ingredient
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.
Sep 24, 2025 • 41min
To Study The Self, To Forget The Self
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)
Sep 21, 2025 • 47min
Intimate Understanding
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)
Sep 14, 2025 • 41min
Practicing The Path: Right Action & Right Livelihood
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.
Sep 7, 2025 • 47min
When All Dharmas Are Buddhadharma
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)
Aug 31, 2025 • 50min
Fall 2025 Ango Opening Talk – “The Way of Everyday Life: Genjokoan” – Shugen Roshi
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."
Aug 30, 2025 • 37min
What Limits Your Freedom?
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
Aug 24, 2025 • 49min
Turning Words: A Wood Buddha
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
