The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZMM – 08/16/2026 – Drawing on Dogen’s Mountains & Rivers Sutra and various texts on walking meditation, Hojin Sensei brings alive a study of how we move through space and time. Drawing on the “virtue of walking” as a constantly alive practice , she asks: how does stillness move? How does practice on the cushion stand up and move through all aspects of our lives?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – 8/9/26 – With effort in practice, we bring forth our natural aliveness. To do this we make an effort to let go of self-clinging and other ways we deplete our energies. Even with expectations of the way we imagine “letting go” to be, when we encounter the reality of how tight we grasp on to our attachments, can we yield our fixed and self-centered ideas? Shugen Roshi explores this energy of aliveness with the Five Powers of the Buddha as well as a koan from Dogen’s 300 Koan Shobogenzo. (From The True Dharma Eye, Case 44: Guishan’s “I have already exhausted myself for you.”)

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – ZCNYC – 8/9/26 – The Buddha said that all conditioned things—all things that begin to exist at a particular time—are impermanent, and will eventually decay and disappear. Aging is normal. Illness is normal. Death is normal. Yes, I will be separated from what I hold near and dear. My only real possessions are my actions. This is normal for everyone, no matter where we are. Is Buddhism, then, pessimistic—negative for bringing these facts to our attention? No. Hojin Sensei elucidates the difference between destructive pessimism and the wise acceptance of impermanence, quoting Rebecca Solnit, who offers this insight: “Pessimism is like a sinking ship. Even when we are faced with the possibility of hope and action, we dismiss hope as, ‘These people are naive. I know what’s going to happen. I know the real deal. This is gonna sink.’” She says, “It’s kind of like not even being able to see lifeboats that are bobbing all around us.” To see impermanence clearly is not to give up hope. It is to open ourselves to creation.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – 8/2/26 – Koan study can turn our minds inward, showing us where we get stuck in our own habitual tangles and ways of thinking about reality. What is the true nature that ’mind training’ can reveal? Shugen Roshi brings alive the subtle teachings of Zhao Zhou with this question. Through practice, we gain some ground in working with our own minds, therefore finding ways to untangle ourselves and live in true freedom. (From the Gateless Gate, Case 11 – Zhao Zhou Examines the Hermits.)

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei – 8/2/26 – “A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies, there is no end to the air.” Following a retreat at the temple, Avian Traces, Hojin Sensei speaks about being with her mother recently in her dying process, and a bird showing up on the windowsill making contact. She links this with other stories of birds and the fact that birds have been showing up in the Buddhist teachings going back to the time of the Buddha.