Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Joan Halifax | Zen Buddhist Teacher Upaya Abbot
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Jul 21, 2025 • 49min

Way Seeking Mind

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, longtime resident and novice priest Jimon Lorene Flaming tenderly offers her long and winding path to practice in her way-seeking mind talk. Inspired by overseas medical service by her father and the values of her Mennonite upbringing, Jimon blazed a passionate path in her life toward service. Aspiring to be of use to the world, she studied public policy at… Source
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Jul 14, 2025 • 39min

Discovering the Reality of the Five Remembrances

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Dainin shares deeply personal stories of accompanying her father and Roshi Joan through life-threatening medical crises, revealing how the Buddhist Five Remembrances transformed from abstract teachings into intimate companions during times of acute uncertainty. Drawing from her unique perspective as both emergency physician and Zen practitioner… Source
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Jul 7, 2025 • 47min

To Be a Peacemaker

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Monshin explores what it means to be a peacemaker in our complicated world. Recalling a creative renaming of the 4th of July as “Interdependence Day,” Monshin identifies the roots of war and aggression as ignorance — “ignorance as in misunderstanding the fact that we’re all connected and dependent on each other.” She encourages listeners to move beyond… Source
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Jul 6, 2025 • 1h 23min

Awareness In Action: Homeboys with Father Gregory Boyle (Part 7 – June)

In this session of Upaya’s Awareness in Action series, Father Gregory Boyle—Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries—offers a profound reflection on kinship, healing, and radical compassion. Father Boyle brings humor, depth, and decades of experience to bear on the essential truths that guide his work. Reflecting on 40 years of work with gang members as “the privilege of my life… Source
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Jun 30, 2025 • 38min

Buddha Meets Buddha: Teacher / No Teacher in Zen

In this informative Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Zenshin Florence Caplow explores the meaning of “Buddha meets Buddha” in the context of how we might skillfully navigate our relationships with spiritual teachers. Zenshin journeys through the relative ethical imperatives and moral responsibilities of teacher-student relationships while illustrating our need to self govern through Suzuki… Source
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Jun 30, 2025 • 1h 19min

Planting Life 2025: Corn And Culture (Part 4B)

This is the 2nd half of the session on Planting Life, where participants explore indigenous food ways and decolonization through cultivated ancient wisdoms. Artist and cultural preservationist Roxanne Swentzell shares her year of projects—from building retreat centers with pumice construction to revitalizing traditional coming-of-age ceremonies and creating seed banks for her community. Source
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Jun 30, 2025 • 1h 9min

Planting Life 2025: Corn And Culture (Part 4A)

This is the 1st half of the session on Planting Life, where participants explore indigenous food ways and decolonization through cultivated ancient wisdoms. Artist and cultural preservationist Roxanne Swentzell shares her year of projects—from building retreat centers with pumice construction to revitalizing traditional coming-of-age ceremonies and creating seed banks for her community. Source
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Jun 30, 2025 • 1h 13min

Planting Life 2025: Three Sisters Garden Planting Ceremony (Part 3)

In this session of Planting Life, we participate in the sacred planting ceremony that honors indigenous wisdom through the cultivation of ancestral crops—corn, beans, and squash—known as the Three Sisters. Led by indigenous teachers, the gathering weaves together Native American agricultural practices with Buddhist mindfulness, sweeping the mind and returning to our roots. Source
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Jun 30, 2025 • 1h 35min

Planting Life 2025: Corn, Cosmos, and the Sacred Architecture of Time (Part 2)

In this session of Planting Life, Mayan archaeoastronomer Alonso Méndez reveals the profound astronomical knowledge embedded in ancient Mesoamerican civilization. Drawing from his decades of research at Palenque, Méndez traces how corn became not just sustenance but the foundation of an entire cosmology that linked human life cycles to celestial movements. He explains the remarkable relationship… Source
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Jun 30, 2025 • 1h 13min

Planting Life 2025 Kinship with the Earth: Bridging Worlds (Part 1)

In this session, Roshi Joan Halifax, Troy Keido Fernandez, Sensei Wendy Johnson, and Alonso Mendez open the annual Planting Life program at Upaya Zen Center. Roshi welcomes in-person and online participants to this sacred gathering that honors ancestral wisdom and earth-based practice. She shares the story of the valley Upaya is nestled in and of the Tewa peoples who have and continue to steward… Source

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