Advertise on podcast: Zen and Ecodharma Talks by Kritee Kanko

With scandals and power misuse being common in Zen, Tibetan and other sanghas, what could a healthy teacher-student relationship look like? Can a rock, a river, or a fellow retreatant be your teacher? And what does it take to put down our hats and trust the universe?  This talk, one of earlier teishos Sensei Kanko gave in her teaching career, falls roughly into two parts. In the first, she offers detailed practical instruction on breathing technique and koan practice in her lineage. In the second part, roughly 17 minutes in, she turns to the koan itself: the monk Guanxi arrives at Moshan's mountain and refuses to bow or remove his traveling hat, demanding that this woman teacher transform herself into a man. Sensei Kanko uses the story in this koan to address what Buddhist practitioners face when meeting a new teacher (such as a less experienced one, like she was at the time), a new sangha, or a new practice place, and to offer her own vision of a less hierarchical and warmer student-teacher relationship. She speaks candidly about the power embedded in a spiritual teacher's role, why that power must be held skillfully, and why she asks her students to be her mirror. The story in the koan also shows a student who challenges his teacher rudely and is still received — and the unskillful challenge becomes a learning point for both. In these times when many practitioners are shaken by scandals or doubting the spiritual traditions altogether, Sensei Kanko offers a path that holds firm to the gifts of tradition and rigorous meditation practice while fully acknowledging its limitations and the need for humility and openness to feedback. She closes with instructions for nature practice — posing a question to a river or a tree, and reading the patterns in the natural world — as a way of recognizing that teachers abound: trees, moose, rocks, creeks, clouds, lichen, sunlight, and each other. Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the third day of a Zen retreat (sesshin) in September 2019. Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to boundlessinmotion.org or kriteekanko.com

Why do we need silent meditation retreats in these times of polycrisis? Is it normal for painful memories or emotions — or resistance to spiritual practice — to arise at the very beginning of a retreat, and how should we work with that? What is the purpose of our "weird" Japanese chants? What did the early Western Buddhist teachers leave out when they brought Buddhist teachings from the East? And how should we relate to the unfair blows we receive in life? In this talk, Sensei Kanko addresses the common questions and challenges that arise for new practitioners in Zen tradition, but fills them with vibrant stories, new and old, from her own life. Drawing on the koan's strange exchange of blows between a traveling monk and the teacher Ukyu, she invites us to excavate the unfair blows we carry from our closest relationships, our ancestors, and our lands — and to consider whether we can meet them with something deeper than the urge to strike back. Along the way she offers concrete, trauma-informed instructions for working with exhaustion and pain on the cushion, from extending the out-breath into the lower belly to scanning the body for the sensations that are simply okay. A talk for both long-time practitioners and those new to this path, the result is an excellent collage of Kanko’s teaching, which uniquely integrates the rigorous Rinzai Zen lineage with a trauma-informed, gentle and loving approach that weaves reindigenizing and traditional Buddhist ideas into a polycrisis-informed, modern, engaged Buddhist path. Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the first full day of a Zen retreat (sesshin) in May 2026. Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to boundlessinmotion.org or kriteekanko.com

Why did the 17th century Zen practitioner Ryonen Genso burn her face to enter a Zen temple? What is this path worth? In this talk, Sensei Kanko challenges us to think what is possible when we move past healing alone and ask the most fundamental spiritual question: who am I? Naming the shadow of patriarchy in Buddhism but refusing to let Ryonen's story end there, she asks what burning question made this Japanese woman willing to scar herself. Using an infinity symbol, Kanko distinguishes the Western project of building a "healthy ego" from the non-dual path of dropping ego altogether — and points beyond both to Mu, the ground of being, asking what we are willing to let go of to touch that source. Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the second-to-last day of a Zen retreat in May 2026. Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com.

How can you become fully enlightened like a Buddha? If you were a Buffalo, how can you be enlightened from head to tail? Or is that a delusional goal? In this talk, Sensei Kanko (Dr. Kritee) explores the koan of a buffalo passing through the window ( or a in Chinese architecture). In the koan, Buffalo’s head, horns, and four legs all make it through the window, but the tail cannot. What is this stubborn little tail that nags at us after years, even decades, of practice, therapy, and healing? Which patterns of unlovability, shame or inadequacy do we keep circling around or trying to hide from others? Drawing on personal stories — her arrival in the U.S. a week before 9/11, her early depression, and a recent health scare with her mother — Sensei Kanko offers a trauma-informed reading of this koan. She suggests we replace the word "ego" with "trauma," and invites us to hold the tail with tenderness rather than trying to eliminate it. She also gestures toward a deeper, absolute dimension of the koan, where the distinction between tail and enlightenment begins to dissolve — pointing, as Dogen did, to how the very sense that "something is missing" can itself be a mark of Dharma filling body and mind. Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a recent half-day sit (Zazenkai) in April 2026. If this talk speaks to you, consider joining Sensei Kanko and Imtiaz Rangwala for the upcoming Zen sesshin at Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center from May 11–17, 2026, which includes a "Solo" day of practice in nature. Details and registration are available at www.boundlessinmotion.org. Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com.

Why might cuddling, hugging and belonging be important in our spiritual paths? In this talk, Sensei Kanko explores the tension between the koan's spiritual teaching on an “absolute” or “ultimate” plane, i.e., nothing in life is out of place, and what she sees as a deeper historical truth: that loneliness is out of place. We are mammals. Mammals experience safety, learning, and healing through touch, play, and physical closeness. Yet the epidemic of loneliness in modern life has severed us from ways to meet this basic evolutionary need. Drawing on stories from her own life and from a powerful experiment in one of her community "pods," Sensei Kanko makes the case that spiritual practice alone cannot substitute for what we need as mammals. While emphasizing the importance of developing ways to feel safe and to heal the wound of loneliness, she also explores the “absolute” spiritual truth: from the perspective of emptiness (called Shunyata or Mu in Asian languages), no wave in the ocean is out of place — not loneliness, not fear, not even death. The worst, she reminds us, is already baked into every human life. How do we relax into that impossible truth while also honoring our mammalian need to be held?  Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a half-day sit (Zazenkai) in late March 2026.  Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

Sensei Kanko ventured into Indian forests frequently visited by predators such as leopards, tigers, sloth bears, venomous snakes, and wild elephants. Why did she do this? What does fear held in trust look like? And why does she feel more hopeful and alive now than she has ever felt in her life?  In this talk, Sensei Kanko shares what motivated her to make this trip to India and reconnect with her ancient ancestral roots and ecosystems in India. She shared what happened during one part of her 2.5 month long journey. And she describes how does this journey relates to the first koan of the legendary Hekiganroku (Blue Cliff Record), in which Bodhidharma — the teacher who carried Buddhism from the Indian subcontinent to China — answered an emperor's questions about morality and goodness with "Emptiness, No Holiness" and "Not Knowing". Sensei doesn't give any direct answers but offers hints and examples of what it might mean to follow a path uniquely meant for you.  Sensei Kanko gave this talk upon her return from India in early 2026.  Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

How does spiritual communication with plants and microbes happen? Are nature kinning practices essential in a spiritual path? Should you treat plants and microbes as equal or more intelligent than you? In this talk, Sensei Kanko explores a rare koan that directly addresses our relationship with the natural world, in order to inspire and give a rationale for nature kinning practices. Drawing on the ancient Chinese teacher Chen's verse and contemporary herbalist Stephen Buhner's thought provoking teachings, she gives no direct answers but invites us to consider: How can woodcutters with the "spirit of the knife and axe" ever see mountain flowers reflected in water, glorious and red? What does it mean to truly perceive plants and trees? Do only outlaws and troublemakers see plants truly? Can we cultivate the stillness and humbleness needed to hear "the quiet ones, the polite ones" who have been here for 700 million years—long before humans arrived half a million years ago? The talk offers both scientific insights and spiritual wisdom on balancing the necessary rigor of indoor concentration practice with opening our hearts to the wildness that shaped our very senses.  Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the second day of a Fall 2025 Zen retreat. Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

.Why are both hardship and gentleness invaluable in the spiritual path? Why is it sometimes helpful to be slapped and pushed away by the circumstances and the world around us? And how can it be also pivotal to treat ourselves gently like our best buddy or kind deity like Gyanyin would treat us? In this tender and powerful talk given on the first day of the Fall 2025 Zen retreat, Sensei Kanko addresses these questions through a classical koan about standing still in the face of life slapping and battering us. Many people our community knows are going through profound changes—breakups, cancer diagnoses, workplace abuse, or maybe deep health crises. The larger world is collapsing around us. How do we not collapse with these challenges? Using the story of Jō Jōza who "stands still" after being seized, slapped, and pushed by his teacher Rinzai, Sensei Kanko reveals the profound gift of Rinzai Zen to the world: the capacity to find your rooted core in the middle of intense storms. But she adds what traditional Zen often misses—a trauma-informed understanding that we must "go soft before we go still." For those whose relationship with breath practices causes them anxiety, for those who have been pushing too hard, the instruction is revolutionary: speak to yourself with profound kindness first. Tell yourself how precious you are, how hard what you've been through has been, how your medicine is needed in this world. Only from this softness can we access the stillness that allows us to belong—to ourselves, to the human community, to our natural ecosystems, and to what Kanko calls invisible realms. This is not about mastering meditation techniques or experiencing enlightenment experiences. This is about cultivating a heart overflowing with love for yourself, so you can watch life's waves from the perspective of the deep still ocean within. Sensei Kanko gave this talk during the Fall 2025 Zen retreat (sesshin). Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

Is it possible that no one, including our loved human or non-human friends to beings in the warzones, dies at a wrong moment for a wrong reason? Also, how are “We the middle of forever”, with no birth and no death?  Important note: Engaged Buddhist or Ecodharma teachers, including Dr. Kritee, emphasize the importance of compassionate “Bodhisattva” actions for social and environmental change without attachment to results. This is so even for causes where our efforts are inclined to “fail” or when people or groups of people we support will die. We must act in support and healing of all life even if our efforts are not “successful”. So even though, at the “absolute” level, this talk suggests that it is not possible for anyone to die at a wrong moment for a wrong reason, our actions in support of alleviation of suffering in the moment are crucial for anyone on a spiritual path. Our actions, when rooted in wisdom and compassion, create conditions that lead to better outcomes—even if they are only marginally better outcomes as compared to without such actions. How to stay motivated to undertake compassionate actions is an important question. In addition, if it is not possible for anyone to die at a wrong moment for a wrong reason, how do we hold both human grief and trans-human acceptance? How do we honor the truths of devastating losses and injustices while accessing deep spiritual equanimity?  In this talk, addressed to experienced meditators in the middle of a long residential silent meditation retreat, Dr. Kritee focuses on these profound questions related to death and impermanence. Speaking from a place of authenticity and deeply flowing spontaneity, she explores the classic koan "Hyakujo and a Wild Duck" where a teacher pinches his student's nose to embody that nothing truly flies away. Drawing on personal stories of paralysis, grief around events of October 7th and ongoing violence in Palestine, and teachings from her own spiritual teachers, Sensei Kanko guides practitioners through the territory where everything feels like it's flying away—democracy, health, loved ones, peace of mind. She offers practical guidance on creating altars for grief, differentiating between guilt and shame, and working with the phrase "We are the middle of forever." The talk weaves together themes of impermanence, oceanic consciousness, trauma-informed practice, and the invisible realms that root for us even in our loneliest moments, inviting us to work with one breath at a time while trusting in a wholeness that exists even amidst heartbreak. Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the fourth day of the Fall 2025 Zen retreat (sesshin). Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

Can we transcend suffering by letting go of notions of good and bad? When does medicine become a sickness?  In this profound talk, Sensei Kritee Kanko explores one of Zen's most challenging teaching: everything on earth—including our most painful experiences—is medicine. Drawing from her 25 years of practice, she reveals how our desperate attempts to escape suffering through meditation and spiritual practice can paradoxically become another form of sickness. With refreshing honesty about her own past spiritual bypassing (neglecting her husband, mother, and even her own health in pursuit of “enlightenment”), Kanko examines the delicate balance between disciplined practice and harmful attachment to the "blue sky mind." She bridges ancient Zen wisdom with Joanna Macy's contemporary grief work, discussing how both the “absolute level” wisdom that "Fear or grief is Buddha" and living compassionately along with the messy process of being accountable are essential—and how focusing on only one aspect (wisdom vs compassion) creates harm. Using the metaphor of a consciousness microscope to examine the “components” of grief and fear in our bodies, this talk offers a nuanced path through these times of polycrisis that honors both transcendent realization and grounded community healing. Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a Zazenkai (half-day meditation retreat) in October 2025. Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

Should a slave meditate to wake up? How can we access a larger trauma-informed view in Zen? In this talk, Sensei Kanko discusses a very emotionally triggering koan with the greatest gentleness. How can we hold our bodies and emotions with gentleness to not fall into the shadows of Zen? How can we remain firm in our need to make changes in the society around us? And at the same time how to make sure we don't lose the golden idea of Zen that there is a possibility to wake up at any point, even in one of the worst circumstances as a sex worker forced into that profession? Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the 3rd day of a Zen retreat in October 2020. Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com.

What is the relationship between the big “eternal” spiritual mind and our small lonely or calculative mind? How to live our daily lives in these times of polycrisis and systemic oppression? This talk by Sensei Kanko (Dr. Kritee) flows like a compassionate boat running down a wild river and embodies a deep spontaneity. Here, she guides listeners through Zuigan's paradoxical koan—calling his own self "Master!" and then answering "Yes sir!"—to explore who these two selves “Master” and “Attendent/student” are within us: Perhaps the observer vs. the observed or the experiencing mind vs. the experience, or the small critical or lonely self vs. the vast blue sky mind. With humor and vulnerability (including her early fear that enlightenment would steal her partner away), she challenges masculine Zen's "get enlightenment at all costs" approach. She instead advocates for embodying a "curious, kind and patient host" to all clouds that visit our consciousness—even very painful clouds like fear of death or feeling unlovable. Weaving together insights from Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, Tibetan demon-feeding spiritual practices, and Hindu wisdom traditions, Kanko also emphasizes the need for a crucial discernment: distinguishing personal struggles we can address through spiritual practice from systemic oppression. While traditional Buddhism might say "go back to your breath and hara" for every problem, Kanko insists we recognize when issues stem from societal trauma (e.g., millennial’s inability to afford housing or womxn’s inability to get education in patriarchal systems). She also teaches how we can integrate three pillars of Zen practice in our lives: faith, determination, and great curiosity. Sensei Kanko gave this talk during the last day of May 2019 Zen retreat (sesshin). Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

How is an enlightened compassion the essence of our “impossible" suffering? In this profound talk, Dr. Kritee explores case 21 of the Mumonkan, where a student asks Zen Master Yunmen "What is the essence of Buddhism?" and the master answers: "Kanshiketsu"—toilet stick. Through personal stories about extremely hard (impossible) life situations and sitting with a friend facing breast cancer, Sensei Kanko illustrates how the most challenging suffering can get transmuted on our spiritual path. She offers tools for working with life's inevitabilities of old age, sickness, and death—from recognizing the universality of our experience, to finding support in community, to accessing the vast inner space offered by meditation. She goes deeper and asks us to draw from Zen Buddhist, Indigenous, and Tibetan traditions which teach that our deepest spiritual potential lies in facing our greatest suffering to access the great compassion within. Using the touching example of 96-year-old Joanna Macy dying peacefully with playfulness, this talk invites us to discover how the things we desperately want to eliminate might be gateways to the sweetness we are literally made of. Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a half day meditation in July 2025.  Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

How do we cultivate deeper trust in life when everything seems to be falling apart? What does it mean to "proceed on from the top of a hundred-foot pole" - to let go just when we think we've learned to control some aspects of life.   In this powerful talk on the last day of silent May 2025 Zen retreat, Sensei Kanko explores the profound teaching of trusting the universe and releasing our grip on comfort and control. Drawing on inspiring examples - from Dipa Ma who could sit for seven days without moving to a contemporary practitioner's complete surrender to Kali - she illuminates how limitless trust in life is the essence of enlightenment. Making a crucial distinction between trusting the divine/natural order and accepting injustice and toxicity created by humans, Kanko offers practical wisdom for maintaining both trust and healthy boundaries. Through personal stories and the metaphor of learning to "kin" with nature, she shows how deepening our trust allows us to act with compassion even as we navigate these times of polycrisis. Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the final day of the May 2025 Zen retreat (sesshin). Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

Using the example of the Babemba tribe’s harm resolution ceremony, Sensei Kritee explores “What if a wise response to our current times is to expand our vision and perception beyond the limits of a single human lifetime?” Babemba tribe has unlimited belief in the fundamental goodness of all human beings. Where does such deep belief come from? They don’t start lashing out in fear and anger at people who cause harm. They actually remind people of their goodness when individuals end up causing harm. How does such a “beloved community” get created?  The intense times of polycrisis that we are living in are constantly making us contract our awareness and focus only on immediate survival. But what if, instead of listening to these messages from autocratic capitalist systems causing harm to our planet and vulnerable beings, the trust in life would come from expanding our awareness wider and deeper across time and space? What if we are not limited to the short timelines of a single human lifetime and not limited to a human-centric worldview? What if we are limitless in our trust that there are dimensions and beings far beyond what we can see and observe with our human eyes? When we embrace this wider perspective of the universe, we can develop a deep trust in life and have our small human life be a part of the larger process without doing what we can do in this lifetime.  In this talk, Sensei Kanko explores different approaches to living life that are rooted in Indigenous worldviews and practices that connect humans with the natural world and with “Mu” (Shunyata). These worldviews and practices help us trust the fundamental goodness of all human beings. Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a May 2025 Zen retreat (Sesshin). Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com