TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST

May 2018 Special Zazenkai with Rev. EDWARD ESPE BROWN (The Tassajara Tenzo)

On Sunday May 6th, Soto Priest and famed former "Tenzo" (Head Cook) at the Tassajara Zen Monastery Rev. Edward Espe Brown offered a very special Zazenkai and Talk, live from California and Treeleaf Tsukuba.
Edward Espe Brown, a Soto Zen Buddhist priest, was was ordained in 1971 by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and he received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman in 1996. He was the first head resident cook at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center from 1967 to 1970. He later worked at the celebrated Greens Restaurant in San Francisco [then operated by San Francisco Zen Center], serving as busboy, waiter, floor manager, wine buyer, cashier, host, and manager. He has taught meditation retreats and vegetarian cooking classes throughout North America and Europe. He is the author of several books and also has edited a book of Suzuki Roshi lectures, Not Always So. Ed is the founder and teacher of the Peaceful Sea Sangha.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:ATTENTION: Special Zazenkai SUNDAY with Rev. EDWARD ESPE BROWN (The Tassajara Tenzo) »

April 2018 Zazenkai Talk (Dogen's Dharma Hall Discourses - Celebration of the Buddha's Birthday)

Our Zazenkai today is in CELEBRATION of BUDDHA'S BIRTHDAY, traditionally APRIL 8th in Japan.  Today's Talk will dance with Dharma Hall Discourses by Master Dogen in Celebration of the Buddha's Birthday (from the Eihei Koroku, trans. Leighton and Okumura).
We also CELEBRATE the Dharma Transmission of our Treeleaf Priests: Kyonin, Shingen and Shokai.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:April 6th-7th, 2018 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! - CELEBRATING BUDDHA'S BIRTHDAY! »

March 2018 Zazenkai Talk (Dogen’s Hokyoki - Part IV)

I thought that we might spend a few months with the text, taking it a few pages at a time. Not all the advice is something one need agree with in modern times, maybe (based on his own later Teachings) some of it even Dogen did not take to heart. However, let us see what we can find.
I am going to read from page 21 through the first few lines of 24 today if there is time. It is a grabbag of topics, so let's see what we find.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:March 2nd-3rd, 2018 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! »

February 2018 Zazenkai Talk (Sandokai - The Identity of Relative and Absolute)

Today's Talk is based on the Sandokai (Identity of Relative & Absolute) that we chant each month.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:February 2nd-3rd, 2018 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! »

January 2018 Zazenkai Talk (Dogen’s Hokyoki - Part III)

We continue this series of talks on a text by Dogen which is not so commonly the topic of Dharma Talks, but which contains a detailed record of Dogen's own lessons and interactions with his Teacher in China, Master Tiāntóng Rújìng (天童如淨; Japanese: Tendō Nyōjo). Dogen was then a young student who went to travel (by boat, across deadly seas, not airliner) seeking an answer to many questions. This is the record of Dogen's remembrances of much of the advice and guidance he received on those questions from his own Teacher.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:January 5th-6th, 2018 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! (Welcoming the New Year & Jukai) »

November 2017 Zazenkai Talk (Dogen's Hokyoki - Part II)

Our Reading Text for Today's Talk: Hokyoki (Journal of My Study In China) by Master Eihei Dogen - Part II (Pages 8 to 12). We continue this series of talks on a text by Dogen which is not so commonly the topic of Dharma Talks, but which contains a detailed record of Dogen's own lessons and interactions with his Teacher in China, Master Tiāntóng Rújìng (天童如淨; Japanese: Tendō Nyōjo). Dogen was then a young student who went to travel (by boat, across deadly seas, not airliner) seeking an answer to many questions. This is the record of Dogen's remembrances of much of the advice and guidance he received on those questions from his own Teacher.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:November 3rd-4th, 2017 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! »

October 2017 Zazenkai Talk (Offering Metta to Violent People)

For today's Metta (Loving Kindness) Recital, in the section of offering Metta to people difficult in our lives or in this world, I will be offering in my heart to "people like Stephen Paddock", the man who killed 58 people, and wounded hundreds more, in Las Vegas this week.
I feel I need to explain why, and the meaning of this. Someone might misunderstand or be confused. I am sorry that it is a little complicated.
Our Metta chant states:
May he be free of suffering; may he feel safe and still.
May he be free of enmity; may he be loving, grateful and kind.
May he be healthy and at ease in all his ills.
May he be at peace, embracing all conditions of life.
We must somehow not turn away, not forget ... yet see the real culprit as the "greed anger and ignorance" that infects human beings. Perhaps it is too hard to ask people to forgive, but at least, let us strive not to meet anger with further anger of our own. The best response to hate is ... peace.
Hostilities aren't stilled through hostility, regardless. Hostilities are stilled through non-hostility: this, an unending truth.(Dharmapada 3-5)
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:October 6th-7th, 2017 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! »

October 2017 SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Sailing, Shikantaza

I feel that 80% of Shikantaza teachers these days are teaching only 80% of Shikantaza ("Just Sitting" Zazen). The wind is often left out of Shikantaza's sails. The point of Shikantaza is an action done for such action's sake, with the action itself as Total Fulfillment beyond judgment or measure. This is a rarity in our never resting, never satisfied, always running and chasing lives. Sitting is Sacred, Whole and Complete just in Sitting alone.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Sailing, Shikantaza »