The Zen Studies Podcast

The discussion dives into the dynamics between Zen teachers and students, exploring their roles in teaching and personal growth. It highlights the complexities of mentorship, emphasizing the need for open dialogue and the balance between guidance and independence. There's a focus on how individuals can pursue Zen practice outside traditional frameworks, showcasing personal journeys and community engagement. The podcast also examines the importance of tailored guidance and the nuances of commitment in cultivating a meaningful teacher-student relationship.

In this episode and the previous one, I do something radical and share my experience of a sesshin I recently attended, describing it day by day. There are many reasons not to do this, and I went into those reasons in the last episode (part one), where I also described my first two full days of retreat. In this episode I describe days 3-5 and make some closing remarks.

In this episode I’m going to do something radical and share with you my experience of the sesshin I attended last week, describing it day by day. There are many reasons not to do this, which I will go into. I certainly don’t intend to do it again. Still, despite my misgivings I thought it might be helpful for you to get an insight into what a sesshin is like for another person. In this episode I get through the first couple days of the retreat, and I will finish my story in the next episode.

This episode is the third installment of chapter five of my book-in-process, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners. In the first episode, I described the central role of Precepts in Zen and covered the Three Refuges, Three Pure Precepts, and two of the Grave Precepts. In the last episode, I talked about the Grave (serious, or weighty) Precepts 3-8. In this episode, I’ll discuss Grave Precepts nine and ten, and talk about how we work with Precepts.

This episode is the second part of chapter five of my book-in-process, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners. In the last episode, I described the central role of Precepts in Zen and covered the Three Refuges, Three Pure Precepts, and two of the Grave Precepts. In this episode, I talk about the Grave (serious, or weighty) Precepts three through eight. In the next episode, I’ll discuss Grave Precepts nine and ten, and talk more about how we work with Precepts.

The fifth Field of Zen Practice is living according to moral Precepts. The Buddhist precepts guide our ethical conduct, ensuring we minimize the harm we do to self and others. Such conduct is a prerequisite for the peace of mind we need for spiritual practice. The precepts also serve as valuable tools for studying the self; when we are tempted to break them, it alerts us to our self-attachment and reveals our persistent delusion of self as a separate and inherently-existing entity. Keeping the precepts familiarizes us with acting as if the self is empty of inherent existence. This episode is the first part of chapter five of my book-in-process, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners. 

According to Zen master Keizan’s Denkoroku, Ananda spent 20 years at the Buddha’s side. He had a perfect memory, understood all the teachings, was an impeccable practitioner, and attained arhatship. Despite this, the Buddha made Kashyapa his Dharma heir, and Ananda spent another 20 years practicing with Kashyapa. Finally, Ananda asked Kashyapa, “What am I missing?” This chapter of the Denkoroku discusses their subsequent exchange and Ananda’s long-awaited awakening.

This episode and the last, “Dharma Study: Wrestling with the Teachings,” comprise chapter four of my book, The Ten Fields of Zen Practice: A Primer for Practitioners. In the last episode, Part 1, I talked about the value of Dharma Study and how best to approach it. Then I discussed how to go about deciding what you want to study. In this episode I offer a list of eight fundamental teachings I recommend becoming familiar with, along with suggested texts to begin your investigation of each topic. I’ll end with a discussion of how to engage the teachings you study in a meaningful way. 

The fourth Field of Zen practice is Dharma Study, or becoming familiar with and investigating Buddhist teachings. The texts and teachings in Buddhism include tools we can use for practice and inspirational guidance for our behavior, but the most critical part of Dharma Study is challenging the ideas and views we already hold, not acquiring new ones. The teachings describe Reality-with-a-Capital-R and invite us to investigate and verify the truth for ourselves. We don’t seek to acquire insight into Reality for its own sake, but because it is liberating and transformative.

We all have negative aspects of ourselves we want to fix, disown, or even expunge completely from our being, but even with practice some things are extremely hard to change. As we strive to break free of our less-than-helpful aspects of self, we typically employ violent means, ranging from subtle rejection to vicious and debilitating self-loathing that may even manifest physically. Regardless of the severity of the violence, it causes damage. Much more transformative than our typical approaches to change is making a vow of complete, unconditional, inner nonviolence and then working toward complete acceptance and integration.