Recent Posts

Online Practice: How to Ride the Sky Zendo
Ten In-flight Suggestions from Zen West/ Empty Field The way of riding the clouds comes freely from the mountains. ~ Dogen Zenji One: Take Great Care with Your Home Temple Observe the same rituals at home as you would in the Earth Zendo – always bow to your cushion,...

Openings Large and Small
Seido talks about the transition from winter's "studying the self" through precepts to the spring mystery of "forgetting the self" opening up to new shoots that arise from empty ground. The talk includes an account of a opening experience that eco activist and...

Compassion for No-Self
In this talk, Seido speaks to the paradox of the profound acceptance required for deepening practice at the same time as one investigates the truth of anatta, or "no self," sometimes rendered not-self or beyond self addressed in the Mahayana Heart Sutra....

Nehan: Teachings from the Buddha’s Deathbed
This talk was given after the traditional Nehan ceremony commemorating the historical Buddha's death and the teachings he gave his students recorded in the Parinirvana Sutra. Seido reflects on the admonition in Zen to clarify one's life if the face of death while...

A Thursday Night Meander
Seido touches on a number of current happenings in the zendo and how they relate to precept practice including the recent installation of the new Shuso, Komyo, Jukan's Hossen ceremony last week, alongside this week's study of the precept on not killing, but instead,...

Precepts As Path
Seido talks about the way the bodhisattva precepts are firmly rooted in The Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths include recognition of the human experience of suffering called dukkha , its cause as thirst, its end called nirvana, and the path to its end described...

Rohatsu: Three Talks
Below are three talks given by Seido at the time of our joint 2022 Rohatsu retreat with Sangha Jewel Zen Center in Corvallis. Rohatsu commemorates the Buddha's enlightenment under the bodhi tree. Unfortunately, talks during Rohatsu were not recorded except the last....

Tenzo Kyokun: Mushin on How to Cook Your Life
Guest teacher, Abby Mushin Terris, from Sangha Jewel Zen Center unfolds a number of salient passages from Dogen's Tenzo Kyokun including putting low things in low places and high things in high places as well as watching the pot so a mouse doesn't accidentally fall...

Tenzo Kyokun: Kishin – Joyous Mind
Seido talks about the secret ingredient in the soup of practice of joy. While Dogen talks about finding joy in the service of others for the cook, this talk explores other ways we can practice joy and what karmic conditioning gets in the way....

Tenzo Kyokun: Roshin – Motherly Mind
Seido talks about Dogen's advice to his cook to raise up "Roshin," the mind of a loving parent that brings a affectionate care and attention to their child. Roshin is the mind that knows what is needed, which sometimes means self sacrifice and sometimes holding back...