TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST

The Elephant In The Zazen Room

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

June 2023 Zazenkai Talk - Nyorai Zenshin (A Mini-Lesson in Dogen Jazz)

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 ’Inner Switch’ Of Zazen

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

May 2023 Monthly Zazenkai Talk (Shinjinmei Series Part 5)

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

April 2023 Monthly Zazenkai Talk (Shinjinmei Series Part 4)

Our Zazenkai today is in celebration of the Buddha´s birthday, traditionally April 8th in Japan! We will look at the Buddha's birthday and the Shinjinmei
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:April 7-8, 2023 -OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI »

March 2023 Monthly Zazenkai Talk (Shinjinmei Series Part 3)

Today's Talk will be the third in a series reflecting on: THE SONG OF TRUST MIND (信心銘 Shinjinmei), A Key to Zazen
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:March 3rd-4th, 2023 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Shinjinmei (III) »

February 2023 Monthly Zazenkai Talk (Shinjinmei Series, part 2)

In Today's Talk, we continue our dance with the 信心銘, called the Xinxinming in Chinese and the Shinjinmei in Japanese, and by a variety of names in English
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:February 3rd-4th, 2023 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Shinjinmei (II) »

January 2023 Monthly Zazenkai Talk ( Shinjinmei Series, part 1)

CELEBRATING THIS EVER NEW YEAR! Today's Talk will be the first in a series reflecting on: THE SONG OF TRUST MIND (信心銘 Shinjinmei), A Key to Zazen
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:Jan 6-7th, 2022 - OUR (NEW YEAR!) MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Shinjinmei (I) »