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Today's Talk will reflect on our "Dedication of Merit", which we recite each time, but maybe without looking closely Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Dedication of Merit»

This is the sixth (and last) in our monthly series based on the modernized translation of the Genjo Koan, from Jundo's book "The Zen Master's Dance" A Guide to Understanding Dōgen and Who You Are in the Universe. Today a message very appropriate for a good life in this New Year and every day ... Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - A Happy New Year Genjo!!

Today, we find enlightenment in EVERY aspect of this world, even the hard parts we do not welcome. And we find enlightenment in how we live in this world, finding our own role Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI»

We continue our series on Genjo Koan, 'Realizing the Truth Right Here,' and the way of Bodhidharma found there. Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Remember Bodhidharma Day!

This time, we will be looking at passages of Genjokoan based on the modernized translation from 'THE ZEN MASTER’S DANCE A Guide to Understanding Dōgen and Who You Are in the Universe' in light of our Jukai (Undertaking the Precepts) and Ango (Peaceful Abiding) Season ... Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Commencing JUKAI & ANGO!

Practitioners sometimes think that enlightenment is the endpoint of practice rather than an ongoing series of daily actions that are each an opportunity to manifest either ignorant or enlightened behavior. They think that they must get to a perpetually blissful place called “enlightenment,” removed from the pain and complexity of this world, and all their problems will disappear but their wishes and desires will be fully satisfied. Actually, that has never been the way Zen masters considered enlightenment Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:Aug 4-5th 2023 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hr ZAZENKAI - Genjo Koan (II) - The Key to Dogen's Zen

We Start of New Series on Genjo Koan, 'Realizing the Truth Right Here," the Key to Master Dogen's Zen. The text for the talk today, the first in a monthly series, is based on Jundo Cohen´s modernized translation of the Genjo Koan, from his book ¨THE ZEN MASTER’S DANCE¨ A Guide to Understanding Dōgen and Who You Are in the Universe Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:July 7-8th 2023 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hr ZAZENKAI - Genjo Koan (I) - The Key to Dogen's Zen

The following is an audio version of the essay with the same title by Treeleaf Sangha founder and guiding teacher, Roshi Jundo Cohen ¨One must sit Shikantaza with profound trust that sitting is whole, complete, nothing lacking, the sitting of the Buddhas and Ancestors sitting as this sitting right here and now, no other place to be, nothing more in need of doing, nothing more to attain, that Zazen embodies enlightenment itself.¨ The essay can be found HERE

The following is an audio recording of an essay by Treeleaf founder and guiding teacher, Jundo Cohen. Here's the "elephant in the room" of Shikantaza Zazen: What does it mean to "think-non-thinking?" In ordinary life, our daily minds resemble a mad circus, maybe a chaotic jungle. We react to the elephants passing through our awareness, jumping on, leaping from one to the next, pulling their tails, prodding them with a stick, often tangled in their trunks. Sometimes we chase them to catch them, sometimes we run away in fear, sometimes we get trampled underfoot. What is more, all our meddling seemingly summons ever more elephants of thought and emotion into the crowded room. The jumbled circus of "thought jumbos" and "emotion mastodons" never ends, and we taunt them and stir them up more. But in Zazen, the elephants are tamed. Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:The Elephant in the Zazen Room

Today we'll scat with Dogen's jazz in Shobogenzo Nyorai Zenshin (The Buddha Whole Body). Some 700 or so years before modern jazz folks, Dōgen had the equivalent jazzy approach, taking “standard” Mahayana Buddhist teachings, fanciful but traditional Buddhist images, and “samples” of quotes from well-known stories related to his intended topics, tearing them apart, and tossing all back together again, remixing them, in order to discover and uncover new feelings, sounds, implications, visions, and Wisdom, all in what was often pretty wild imagery to start with! Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:June 2-3 2023 -OUR MONTHLY 4-hr ZAZENKAI- Nyorai Zenshin -A Mini-Lesson in Dogen Jazz

The following is an audio recording of an article by Treeleaf founder and guiding teacher, Jundo Cohen. "So much of all life is like a neutral canvas to which we add our judgments and reactions, coloring it with our feelings. It is like an empty container or some bland ingredient, like Tofu for example, that can be decorated or flavored as our heart decides. The experience is bad if we make it bad but it is whole, complete, fulfilling and welcoming if our heart makes it so." Further reading and discussion for this are available on the Treeleaf forum:The "Inner Switch" of Zazen

In Today's Talk, will close our dance with the 信心銘, the Xinxinming, or Shinjinmei. Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:May 5th-6th, 2023 -OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI