The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Danica Shoan Ankele, Sensei – ZMM – 10/18/26 – While concepts and ideas help us to learn about and understand our world, they also have a way of limiting our ability to experience things as they really are. Don’t keep yourself in a state of numbness or emotional distance from whatever is arising, but study and practice with a full and capable heart. (From the Gateless Gate, Case 27 – Neither Mind Nor Buddha.)

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 10/11/26 – Shugen Roshi officiates the Fall Ango Jukai ceremony at Zen Mountain Monastery. Today, two students formally receive the sixteen Buddhist precepts, taking up these living teachings, living vows in the company of the sangha with family and friends:  George Ando (“peaceful earth”) Milne and Tre Shokai (“divine ocean”) Miller.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 10/04/26 – Taking up a segment from Dogen’s fascicle on Buddha Nature, Shugen Roshi illuminates how we lead ourselves into misunderstanding our fundamental nature because we grasp so readily at things—at language, at meaning, and what it says about “me”—before we actually experience our fundamental nature. “Not this” is a negation, but it can really mean: “Not this, but This” —our fundamental buddha nature—which cannot be grasped at, owned, or taken away. Not ever.

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei – ZMM – 9/27/26 – Drawing on Dogen’s teaching that all beings are Buddha nature, Hogen Sensei asks how we bring this truth to life through practice. What inner resources do we draw on in difficult times, and where do they come from? In facing illness, navigating relationships, and making moral choices, how do we bring forth wisdom and compassion amid uncertainty? How do we meet whatever life brings as an expression of our true nature?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 9/26/26 – Drawing on Dogen’s Bussho, Shugen Roshi explores the seemingly contradictory teachings that all beings are, have, or have no Buddha nature. If Buddha nature isn’t something we can possess or acquire, what are we realizing through practice? These teachings invite us to loosen our grip on fixed ideas and discover for ourselves what they point to. Through a story of simple hospitality becoming a lifelong friendship, we see how ordinary acts of kindness and generosity give this practice life. Can we trust the path and meet our difficulties as opportunities to practice?