The Living Zen Podcast

From Meditation as Refuge, an online evening with the Insight Community of the Desert, August 2026. A talk on Case 20 of the Blue Cliff Record.

From the March 2025 7-Day Sesshin at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center

Yes!

How can it be understood?

Doing nothing can be surprisingly difficult.

The Practice of Active Acceptance.

Exploring the island.

Leaping Clear of the Many and the One.

Are we really who we think we are?

What is the Essential meaning?

Who is taking care of who?

The non-dual principle.

Another person can’t enlighten you.

Sitting all the way down

When identities are dissolved, who speaks?

Realization beyond words or no words.

The Sutra of Complete Awakening.

Going Beyond the Witness.

Simple, profound instructions for an upright life.

Iron Grindstone Lu shatters the bamboo ceiling.

How do we bring the ancient teachings to life?

Not-knowing, being intimate with the intrinsic principle

The art of just sitting goes beyond all method.

Applying skillful effort we find our true nature in every expression.

Zen Master Dogen’s skillful words point directly at the true reality of self.

How do we avoid being deceived, even by ourselves? A talk on Case 12 of the Gateless Gate.

The 6th Ancestor of zen points to our original nature and helps his pursuer realize it. Talk based on Case 23 of the Gateless Gate.

A talk on the first Ancestor of Zen's strong medicine for his student and eventual successor. Taken from Case 41 of the Gateless Gate.

From the October 2022 Long Beach Meditation “Mountain Refuge Retreat”

The Blue Cliff Record, Case 40, from Insight Community of the Desert’s Tuesday Meditation As Refuge class.

Case 1 of the Gateless Gate: “Ordinary Mind is the Way” from Insight Community of the Desert’s Tuesday Meditation As Refuge class.

Case 1 from the Book of Equanimity “The World Honored One Ascends the Platform” from the May 2025 sesshin at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center

From the September 2024 7-Day Sesshin at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center

Return to What is Most Vital

From the Summer 2023 Beginner’s Mind Sesshin at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center

From Beginner’s Mind Sesshin, January 2023

You have to break through to this.

Great faith, great doubt, and great determination are considered to be three essentials for Zen practice. If any of these essentials are absent, we may not accomplish our aim.