Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

Dave rings in the new year with a spirited rendition of Dogen’s Time Being and a wholehearted dissection of the idea and experience of time. Is time just an unreal concept, or the be all and end all of everything? (Yes) Do we need to learn to lighten up or learn to take ourselves far more seriously? (Yes!) Can we fulfill all our wildest aspirations without falling prey to our own agendas?? (Let’s find out…) Find out here!

Great sangha friend Beth Kaiserman brings us the story of what she’s doing and why she’s here; a story about spirituality for the irreligious and making a practice out of expressing yourself from the cushion to the page to the stage, even when deep down we might get the sneaking suspicion there’s nothing to explain. Who did we learn our resistance to authority from? Is it ever possible to truly do nothing? Can we, or should we even try to, make ourselves legible?? Find out here!

In a rousing exhortation for retreat, Sara takes on the impossible question of what exactly happened to Buddha the night he sat too long under a tree and apparently fixed everything. Is Buddha’s enlightenment for everybody, or is that just an ego’s fantasy? Why is a sense of belonging often such a foreign concept? What are we bursting to say after days of learning to silently communicate?? Find out here!

“ The revolution is in the individual spirit, or it is nowhere. It is for all or it is nothing. If it is seen as having an end, it will never truly begin.” Ursula Le Guin    Dave passes the caretaker torch and talks about dharma transmission, continuous practice, and never ending revolutions. Can we honor the past without being doomed to repeat it? Were the great masters of the past ever supposed to be role models? Are our charismatic teachers what’s holding us back? Find out here!

ACZC’s favorite poet in residence Matthew gives us a talk on Zen, creativity, and art and the many frictions and harmonies between them. Can we train spontaneity? Does Zen’s famous skepticism of the written word discourage or liberate our writing? If we’re so focused on letting our thoughts go, will we still be able to grab the good ones and get them on the page?? Find out here!