The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 9/24/26 – The Buddha realized that all beings are capable of awakening to their true nature. Dogen echoed this truth by saying that all beings are Buddha nature, emphasizing that this is our very nature, not something we can gain or lose. If we could “have” Buddha nature, then we could also “not have” it. This subtle shift in emphasis opens up an extraordinary way of understanding this truth about ourselves and all beings. We simply need to realize it for ourselves.

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 9/23/26 – The path of the bodhisattva is not always a convenient one, and probably not as we imagine it to be. We may struggle; it may feel prickly. So how do we stay on the path of unburdening ourselves and waking up? Transformation means getting very clear about what hinders us—about the inner conditions that keep us from being truly and completely available. It is through transforming ourselves in this way that we become free to offer ourselves freely to others.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 9/20/26 – What is the cause of suffering, at its root? The bodhisattva vow is to put an end to suffering and its causes—but how do we put that vow into action? First, we have to see clearly what is causing harm: to see into our delusions and the ways in which they give rise to suffering. And then we need to act. When we slow down and consider what causes harm—when we ask, for example, what the moral implications of something might be—we can trust the bodhisattva vow to orient us toward skillful action. In this way, the vow is not simply an aspiration; it becomes something we live. – From Master Dogen’s 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 227 – Priest Xixian’s “I am Watching”

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 9/13/26 – This formless Buddha Nature, how does it manifest? Is it large or small? Shugen Roshi quotes the great teacher Nagarjuna, “If you want to see buddha nature, first, let go of your pride,” first let go of the certainty with which we bestow value on things and on people. Let go of our sense of self that separates self and all others. When we let appearances determine how we respond and act, we risk living in a deluded state of our biases that is in conflict with our true buddha nature, our liberated nature, the absolute basis of reality.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZCNYC – 9/13/26

With Hojin Sensei officiating, four students formally receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts, taking up these living teachings, living vows in the company of the sangha with family and friends.

Alexis Waller: Myokan (“Wondrous Intuitive Wisdom”)

Joan Guiterrez: Yūsei (“Profound Quiet Mystical Vow”)

María José Gimenez: Shomei (“To Proclaim True Light, Genuine Clarity”)

Edmund Langdell: Yumon (“Gate of Healing”)