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“In this moment, what does it mean to care?” What do the precepts ask of us in a time of injustice, division, and outrage? In this recent talk, given the day after millions took to the streets in protest across the US, Chodo Sensei reflects on anger, activism, and the thin line between harm and care. Drawing on Suzuki Roshi's teaching that we don't observe precepts to attain enlightenment but to actualize Buddha's spirit, Chodo explores how the precepts are not commandments that remove us from the world and this very moment, but rather invitations to meet both with intimacy. He reminds us that our practice isn't about perfection. It's about noticing when we're about to cross that line from care to harm in our minds, our words, our actions. It's about letting one question interrupt us, shape our lives: In this moment, what does it mean to care?

“Faith is not blind belief, but confidence born of seeing what's actually possible—the willingness to plant a seed without yet seeing the fruit.” In this recent talk given on a snowy Sunday morning, Koshin Sensei explores the Buddha's teaching on three forms of generosity: giving out of faith, material generosity, and the gift of fearlessness (abhaya dana). Drawing on Suzuki Roshi's gardening metaphor, Koshin asks: Are you just planting a seed and walking away, or are you tending to it day after day? Do you evaluate your practice after one visit, one year, even ten years or do you give yourself fully to the ongoing work of showing up? Koshin also reflects on his own journey: after ten years of steady practice, he realized he was still deeply self-involved, lazy in zazen, and “one of those people you wouldn't want over for dinner”; lecturing everyone about veganism and Buddhism until a friend finally told him, “you're being an a*****e.” Real friendship, real generosity, means being willing to say it like it is out of love, not just making people feel good. At the heart of this talk is a question about faith. Not blind belief, but the willingness to plant a seed without knowing what will grow. Can you give yourself fully to this moment, whatever it brings? Can you offer steadiness in times of your own panic? And most importantly: Are you taking care of the garden every day, whether that be your practice, your relationships, your mind, your sangha, your heart and the hearts of others?

“Do an audit of how you spend your money. Does it match what you say you really care about?” In this powerful recent talk, Koshin Sensei tackles a topic many spiritual communities avoid: money. Often, topics like finances and business can be deemed “not spiritual”, but does it have to be so? Drawing on Suzuki Roshi and the Buddha's teachings on generosity (dana), Koshin explores how money is simply another form of impermanence. When it circulates, there's vitality. When it freezes, whether through fear, scarcity thinking, or the belief that “I don't have enough”, there's suffering. Reflecting on 19 years of building the New York Zen Center, starting with $200 a month in payroll and a smelly room behind a hospital, Koshin invites us to examine our relationship with giving. Do you give freely, or with a closed fist? Does your bank statement match what you say you care about? This isn't about guilt or shoulds–it's about recognizing that the tight fist is exhausting, while freely giving is not. Whether you have $1 or $100,000, the practice is the same: widening the circle in your own mind, including generosity in your life, and understanding that what you give today allows someone to practice decades from now.

“Our practice doesn't ask us how to end wars, it asks us where the wars begin. In this body. In this flash of rage. In this certainty that I am right and you are wrong.” Amid news of global conflicts and war, Chodo Sensei offers a profound reflection on the second Buddhist precept: do not steal. But what does stealing mean when the world is organized around taking; lives, safety, homes, childhood, trust, and ultimately, humanity itself? Drawing on Suzuki Roshi's teaching about entering the Buddha Hall with clean feet and the classic Zen story of the samurai and the master, Chodo explores how war begins long before bombs fall. It begins when we steal each other's humanity through language that turns people into targets, grief into statistics, and suffering into abstraction. It begins in the mind that divides the world into “us and them.” With students sheltering from bombs in multiple countries, this isn't abstract philosophy, it's an urgent question: How do we sit with the sorrow of the world without collapsing into it? How do we notice our own anger without weaponizing it? How do we refuse to let suffering become something “out there” that we're not part of?

“When you encounter obstacles, do not see them as hindrances separate from practice.” In this talk from the beginning of the year (and in preparation for the Year of the Fire Horse), Koshin Sensei reflects on what it really means to make effort. Not as self-improvement, but as a vow to be fully here. Drawing on Dōgen’s teachings on continuous practice, he offers simple, direct questions we can live inside: How are you using your time? How are you caring for your body, (the personal and the collective)? Do your investments of time, finances, energy, etc. support what you say you value? And can you meet obstacles not as interruptions, but as the very field of practice? This talk is both grounding and bracing: a reminder that practice and realization are not separate, that there’s no “arrival,” and the most honest measure of our practice might be how the people around us experience it. With humor and warmth, Koshin invites us to return, again and again, to uprightness in this moment, and to a life shaped less by habit energy and more by vow.

“Many people can study lots of things, but are you living that way?” On the 12th day of our Commit to Sit, during a winter blizzard, Koshin Sensei explores a profound question: What's the difference between talking about spiritual practice and actually living it? Drawing on teachings from Suzuki Roshi and the 13th-century Zen master Dogen, Koshin examines how we often get caught in our thoughts; arguing with teachers in our minds, feeding our sense of entitlement, constantly debating whether we're “doing it right.” But what would it be like to simply be ourselves, our ordinary selves, without all that noise? At the heart of this talk is the concept of “transmission” from teacher to student, not as something claimed or awarded, but as something shown through how we live. Koshin asks us to consider: Do we practice only when it's convenient? Do we use spirituality as an identity or a lifestyle brand rather than a lived commitment? And perhaps most importantly: How do we practice when we're alone, when no one is watching? Koshin also reflects on his own struggles with “why not me?” and shares Dogen's wisdom about safeguarding genuine practice in a world that makes it easy to dilute or neglect.

“Each in breath is bringing life into the body, and each out breath is a death. We never know if there'll be another inhale.” On the third day of our recent Winter Sesshin (silent retreat), Chodo Sensei offers a profound teaching on the practice of bowing and the art of surrendering the constructed self. Through the story of Gray Wolf and Zen Master Raven, he explores why true bowing leaves no self left to be humiliated; it is awakening expressing itself. Chodo Sensei shares his own journey with body dysmorphia, addiction recovery, and the physical limitations that now prevent him from doing full prostrations. With characteristic honesty and humor, he reminds us that sesshin is “not a spa weekend”, it's rigorous practice that asks us to surrender to the forms, the discomfort, and our resistance itself. Drawing on Naomi Shihab Nye's poem “Kindness,” he invites us to consider: What stories are we holding onto? Can we surrender to this practice as it is, releasing our expectations of “huge awakenings” and bright lights, and instead bow to reality as it unfolds, moment by moment, breath by breath?

“The best way to observe precepts is just to be you yourself and then the precepts are always with you.” What does it mean to “be yourself” in Zen, not as self-improvement, but as a direct, embodied intimacy with life as it is? We were honored to recently host Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, at our zendo in New York for this moving dharma talk on the newly released collection of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi’s teachings, Becoming Yourself, that Jiryu and the late Sojun Mel Weitsman were co-editors on. Beginning with the simple form of upright posture, he offers vivid images; zazen as a chrysalis in which we can “melt,” thoughts like a bagel wrapper that’s useful until we keep holding it, and practice as “sharing the feeling” of right here, right now. In the latter half of the talk, Jiryu also explores Suzuki Roshi’s radical view of precepts: not moralism or rule-following, but the natural expression of a life that remembers its place in the cosmos and a self that includes everything, past, present, and future. We hope you enjoy this dharma talk and that you'll join us for our upcoming Commit to Sit, in which Becoming Yourself will be our guiding text! MUSICHeart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji – Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto. ‍ NYZC PUBLICATIONSUntangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-bookWholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1tAwake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL‍ ‍ CONNECT WITH US—Instagram —Facebook —Donate

“Settling down is a protest against a society that values speed.” We share this opening talk from our last Commit to Sit in honor of our upcoming 90-day program starting this January. In it, Koshin sensei invites us into studying Shakyamuni Buddha's final teaching on becoming a great person, explored through Dogen Zenji's commentary and Uchiyama Roshi's wisdom. Through powerful stories of the Buddha stopping Angulimala mid-chase, Ryokan wishing he could give away the moonlight, a student rubbing fire sticks until they see flame, Koshin explores the eight qualities of an awakened life: having few desires, knowing one has enough, appreciating serenity, making diligent effort, and more. Koshin shares what it means to live with both hands, to let everything drop, and to become the good adult who can nourish deep roots so that when the winds come, there's no reason to fear. MUSICHeart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji – Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto. ‍ NYZC PUBLICATIONSUntangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-bookWholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1tAwake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL‍ ‍ CONNECT WITH US—Instagram —Facebook —Donate

“They will not ask me why I wasn't Moses. They will ask, ‘why weren't you Zosia? Why weren't you more yourself?’” On the 82nd day of our recent Commit to Sit, Koshin Paley Ellison delivered this dharma talk on the Buddha's final teaching about useless and frivolous discussion. Drawing from Dogen's commentaries and the Buddha's last instructions, Koshin asks how much of our day we spend entertaining confusion versus actually practicing presence. Through humor and honesty, this talk illuminates how our tight grip on wanting things to be different than they are creates suffering and loneliness. Koshin shares the story of Rabbi Zosia and Suzuki Roshi's teaching on “becoming yourself,” clarifying that this doesn't mean reinforcing our opinions, but becoming more ourselves with everyone. A call to soften wherever we're holding too tight, discriminate what's truly wise, and practice the beautiful way together. MUSICHeart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji – Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto. ‍ NYZC PUBLICATIONSUntangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-bookWholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1tAwake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL‍ ‍ CONNECT WITH US—Instagram —Facebook —Donate

“The truth had never been expounded before because the time to do so had not yet come. Now is the time to drop the story about what should have happened.” What if your practice wasn’t about self-improvement, but about opening the door of Buddha wisdom for all beings? Drawing on Chapter Two of the Lotus Sutra, Koshin Sensei speaks about skillful means, our wildly different capacities, and the confusion we create when we cling to comfort or try to please everyone. He introduces the fierce energy of Fudō Myō-o, the immovable one who protects the Dharma in the midst of fire, and asks how we might welcome all our aspects, whether rage, tenderness, confusion, and clarity, into the assembly of our lives. With humor and tenderness, he points us toward a life guided by vow rather than habit. MUSICHeart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji – Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto. ‍ NYZC PUBLICATIONSUntangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-bookWholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1tAwake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL‍ ‍ CONNECT WITH US—Instagram —Facebook —Donate

“There is no enemy except our delusion, and even that, when bound to the path, becomes a place of support.” In this talk, Koshin Sensei reflects on the ancient figure of Fudo Myo-o, the “Immovable Wisdom King”, and the role of the abbot as one who stands on the stone mountain in the midst of fire. Drawing on the Lotus Sutra’s parable of the burning house, he invites us to bind everything to the path: our fears, our demons, our need to control the future, even our suffering storylines. Rather than making enemies of our difficulties, we learn to let them become protectors and Dharma gates, burning away what no longer serves and revealing an unwavering vow at the heart of our lives. MUSICHeart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji – Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto. ‍ NYZC PUBLICATIONSUntangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-bookWholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1tAwake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL‍ ‍ CONNECT WITH US—Instagram —Facebook —Donate

“A good teacher will take the mask off your face.” In this recent drama talk, Koshin Sensei reflects on the first two chapters of the Lotus Sutra. There is a crowd gathering to hear the Buddha teach, millions of beings of all kinds. One of the Buddha's disciples is repeatedly imploring the Buddha to speak and the Buddha finally agrees. Just as he is about to address the crowd, five thousand monks stand up, bow, and leave. Koshin reflects on why these monks left and what we can learn from mutinous groups among and within us. How are we practicing with the dissenters? Are we really listening, carefully pondering or are we convinced we already know? The practice humbles our arrogance and sangha is often a 'messy middle' where everything is not so clear but all are welcome. Together we can learn and practice and start again.  ‍MUSICHeart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji – Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto. ‍ NYZC PUBLICATIONSUntangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-bookWholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1tAwake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL‍ ‍ CONNECT WITH US—Instagram —Facebook —Donate

“The wisdom of the Buddhas is infinitely profound and immeasurable... and that door is difficult to understand and difficult to enter when we believe our stories.” In this recent dharma talk, Koshin Sensei reflects on becoming an “assistant gardener” whose job is to sit zazen with the plants, learning to practice not just for ourselves, but with all beings. Drawing from the opening chapters of the Lotus Sutra, Koshin explores what it means to sit in the middle of life without excluding anything or anybody, even in the face of terminal illness, fear, and uncertainty. Through tender stories, including a friend facing death with curiosity and wonder, this talk illuminates how the wisdom of the Buddhas is “infinitely profound and immeasurable,” not something to understand intellectually but to embody. Koshin offers practical guidance on working with fear, releasing our stories, and practicing “soft belly” awareness rather than overthinking. ‍MUSICHeart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji – Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto. ‍ NYZC PUBLICATIONSUntangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-bookWholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1tAwake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL‍ ‍ CONNECT WITH US—Instagram —Facebook —Donate

“When I forget who I am, I return to the Buddha. When I’m lost in confusion, I return to the Dharma. When I feel alone, I return to the Sangha.” In this tender and luminous talk, Chodo Sensei reflects on the Three Refuges of Buddhism—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—through the lens of impermanence, community, and compassion. With stories of accompanying his dear friend Rande in her final days, and reflections on awakening amid global unrest, Chodo reminds us that refuge is not found in escape, but in presence. To take refuge, he says, is to return, again and again, to what is real: the Buddha within each of us, the Dharma revealed in every moment, and the Sangha that holds us when life unravels. This talk invites us to wake up to grief, to change, to each other, and to remember that the path of practice is nothing less than the ongoing act of returning home. ‍MUSICHeart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji – Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto. ‍ NYZC PUBLICATIONSUntangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-bookWholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1tAwake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL‍ ‍ CONNECT WITH US—Instagram —Facebook —Donate