Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast
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Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast
The Upaya Dharma Podcast features Wednesday evening Dharma Talks and recordings from Upaya’s diverse array of programs. Our podcasts exemplify Upaya’s focus on socially engaged Buddhism, including prison work, end-of-life care, serving the homeless, training in socially engaged practices, peace & no...
Recent Episodes
127 episodes
A Time to Mark the Reality of Vow: The Presence of Care
In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Monshin opens by acknowledging the 33 practitioners preparing to receive jukai — and the vow to carry non-...
Sitting with Original Love: Closing Session
This final session of Sitting with Original Love opens once again with Nicolle Reigetsu leading the community in singing the Metta Sutta — words of lo...
Sitting with Original Love: Wisdom, Love, and the Organism of Now
This Saturday evening session of Sitting with Original Love opens with a beautiful performance from Nicolle Reigetsu, drawing the community into tende...
Sitting with Original Love: First Love and Bodhicitta
In this Saturday afternoon session of Sitting with Original Love, Roshi Joan Halifax and Henry Shukman guide participants into an exploration of bodhi...
Sitting with Original Love: The Love That Will Not Die
In this Saturday afternoon session of Sitting with Original Love, Henry Shukman frames the direction of spiritual practice — not as a solitary ascent...
Sitting with Original Love: Beneath the Categories
In this mid morning session of Sitting with Original Love, Roshi Joan Halifax leads a passionate and sweeping teaching on the many faces of love — fro...
Sitting with Original Love: Two Tracks
In this morning session of Original Love, Henry Shukman introduces a central metaphor from early Chinese Buddhism: a cart drawn on two wheels — one wh...
Sitting with Original Love: Opening Session
In this opening session of Sitting with Original Love, Roshi Joan Halifax and Henry Shukman share the personal crucibles that led them to explore a mo...
The Measure of Our Humanity: COURAGE
This session of The Measure of Our Humanity brings together Roshi Joan Halifax, Rebecca Solnit, and Christiana Figueres to reflect on courage, interco...
Dharma Discussion: Cold Mountain, Companionship, and Heart of the Poet
In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Kodo hosts a conversation with Sensei Kaz Tanahashi and poet-translator Peter Levitt in anticipation of th...
Hungry Ghosts and the Five Buddha Families
In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk coinciding with Lunar New Year, Senseis Kodo and Dainin Lau guide viewers through a recording of Upaya’s Gate of S...
Original Love: A Path Down and Through (Not Up and Out)
In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, poet, author, and meditation teacher Henry Shukman explores the topic of his latest book, Original Love, by walki...
What Silence Holds
In this dharma talk following Upaya’s Winter Practice Period, Sensei Fushin explores silence not as absence but as presence itself—”our own true natur...
WPP2026: Sesshin Day 5: Direct, Ordinary, Inexhaustible: Seven Aspects of Realization
On the fifth and final day of the Winter Practice Period Sesshin, Roshi Joan Halifax, and Senseis Kodo and Dainin gather the threads of practice into...
WPP2026: Sesshin Day 4: Joy and Responsibility in Practice
On the fourth day of the Winter Practice Period Sesshin, Sensei Kodo and Sensei Dainin continue the exploration of Dōgen’s Three Minds. Kodo opens by...
WPP2026: Sesshin Day 3: The Three Minds – From Kitchen to Cushion
On the third full day of the Winter Practice Period Sesshin, Sensei Kodo and resident priest Butsumon reflect on how practice comes alive through ordi...
WPP2026: Sesshin Day 2: Nyoho–Compassion, Integrity, Thussness
Day two of the Winter Practice Period Sesshin opens with Sensei Dainin recalling placing the names of Renee Good and Alex Pretti—both killed in recent...
WPP2026: Sesshin Day 1: Zenki–Undivided Activity
On the first full day of the Winter Practice Period Sesshin, Roshi Joan Halifax reflects on alignment and presence, exploring how practice begins by m...
WPP2026: Auspicious Circumstances: Responsive Recipes
In this Zazenaki Talk during the Winter Practice Period, two recently ordained priests— Butsumon and Genryu—explore Dōgen’s Tenzo Kyokun through perso...
WPP2026: Wholehearted Apamada
In this Winter Practice Period Zazenkai Day Talk, resident priest Jimon and Sensei Wendy Johnson explore apamada—careful, heedful practice—through the...
WPP2026: Introduction to The Text: Tenzo Kyōkun
In this introduction to Dōgen’s Tenzo Kyōkun (Instructions for the Cook) during the opening days of Upaya’s Winter Practice Period, the faculty explor...
WPP2026: Dogen’s Tenzo Kyokun – Actualizing The Way in Everyday Life: Opening Session
In this opening session of the Winter Practice Period, Roshi Joan Halifax, alongside Senseis Wendy Johnson, Dainin, Kodo, and Hoshi Senko, names this...
The Measure of Our Humanity: INTERCONNECTEDNESS
This opening session of The Measure of Our Humanity series gathers over 1,000 participants worldwide to reflect on what sustains our humanity in diffi...
Just Doing One Thing
In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk during the Winter Practice Period at Upaya, Sensei Dainin collects our attention from the many paths we feel pulle...
Standing Stone
In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk during the Winter Practice Period at Upaya, Sensei Wendy Johnson explores Dōgen’s Tenzo Kyokun (Instructions for t...
Open Dharma: Peaceful Dwelling
In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Roshi Joan Halifax is joined by Senseis Kodo, Dainin, and longtime Upaya friend and master Zen gardener Sensei We...
Rohatsu 2025: Day 6 – Full and Seamlessness
On the final day of Rohatsu sesshin, the faculty turn toward presence as the heart of the bodhisattva way. Sensei Kaz Tanahashi reflects on the final...
Rohatsu 2025: Day 5 – Indra’s Net and One Body Practice
On the fifth day of Rohatsu sesshin, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi explores Indra’s Net—jewels “reflecting one another forever” in “inter-illumination”—showing...
Rohatsu 2025: Day 4 – Ethics and the Awakened Heart
On the fourth day of Rohatsu sesshin, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi reflects on the previous evening’s full moon atonement ceremony, revealing that “I think to...
Rohatsu 2025: Day 3 – The Circle of the Way
On the third full day of Rohatsu sesshin, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi illuminates the radical teaching at the heart of Zen practice: we begin with enlightenm...
Rohatsu 2025: Day 2 – Vow, Liturgy, and Becoming One Body
On the second full day of Rohatsu sesshin, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi explores the Avatamsaka Sutra’s vision of Shakyamuni Buddha as Vairocana—the Dharmakay...
Gratefulness & Generosity 2025
In this year’s Gratefulness and Generosity program Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski explore gratefulness and generosity as essential Buddhist pr...
Awareness In Action: Going Forth with Joan Halifax, Noah Kodo Roen, & Wendy Lau (Part 16 – December)
In this penultimate session of Awareness in Action (2025), Roshi Joan Halifax gathers with Sharon Salzberg and Frank Ostaseski to explore love as the...
Awareness In Action: Love with Frank Ostaseski & Sharon Salzberg (Part 15 – December)
In this penultimate session of Awareness in Action (2025), Roshi Joan Halifax gathers with Sharon Salzberg and Frank Ostaseski to explore love as the...
Eko Hensho – Turning the Light Around: Winter Solstice Talk
In this Winter Solstice gathering, Roshi Joan Halifax offers a grounded teaching on awareness amid darkness. Speaking during the longest night of the...
No Other Life
In this Way-Seeking Mind Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, resident Clayton Genryu Dalton charmingly shares his unexpected path to Zen and reflects on mean...
Wandering in the Treasury of Radiant Light
In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Hoshi Senko reflects on Radiant Light as the everyday experience of being alive. Drawing on Dōgen Zenji’s Komyō (...
Rohatsu: Undivided Activity
On the first full day of Rohatsu sesshin, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi and Roshi Joan Halifax open practice with teachings on non-division and “undivided acti...
Awareness In Action: Bridging with Tara Brach (Part 14 – November)
In this session of Awareness in Action, spiritual teacher, psychologist, and author Tara Brach begins by acknowledging the profound pressures in our s...
Awakened Action: The Warrior’s Heart, Grandmother’s Wisdom, and the Path of Abundant Possibility (Part 7B)
This is the 2nd half of the closing session of the Awakened Action series begins with Christiana Figueres joining from Costa Rica, fresh from COP30 in...