Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

Dave explores the body mind and the art and science of flow states with a brief autobiography of his own body and all the things it knows and does that he will never comprehend. Why is everything just easier on the days we do yoga? Do our bodies know, think, and express things our brains don’t understand, and can we get them in touch with each other? What are the often overlooked virtues of being a short man, and what is your own unique brand of weird you get to work with?? Find out here!

Dave gives us a personal, factual, and historical explanation of enlightenment in Buddhism and how we might or might not relate to it in our everyday practice. What does a healthy relationship to such a pie in the sky concept look like in the modern day? Do our teachers have it? Do they need to have it? Why does it feel taboo to talk about it plainly if it’s so central to our whole tradition? Are the old legends real or just canny pr?? Find out here!

Sara wrestles with the competitive spirit, who we’re really competing with, and what we might actually be trying to win. What does a healthy relationship to being right look like? Can we become winners without making losers? Is there a compassionate way to be a know it all?? Find out here!

Dave gives a road map to meditation and what you might expect to find in doing it for a half hour, an hour, a decade, or a lifetime or two. What is the one technique that unlocks all benefits instantly while carrying us down the stream unendingly? Can meditation done wrong actually do harm? And why does Zen think death is so funny?? Find out here!

In our ongoing series where brave sangha members tell us the story of what they’re doing and why they’re here, while we just maybe learn something about those things for ourselves, good sangha friend Sebastien brings us a fascinating and curious philosophical autobiography that searches skeptically through a couple thousand years of religion & thought to see if one of them might hold up to the stress test of an actual life. What do we lose when we have no religion and what do lose when we take one on? Is Buddhism’s takeover  of psychology complete? Is skepticism the most solid ground for faith? And is Buddhism gaining culture currency just a recipe for making it corny? Find out here!