Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

Marriage Material (12 Fold Chain) w/ Sara Campbell

Sara takes a trip down the memory lane of dating and old anxieties around marriage to explore the 12 fold chain of dependent origination - the cycle that creates and perpetuates all our suffering (nbd). How often are we chasing after happiness based on societal expectations rather than personal truth? Why is breaking free from our desires so challenging, even when we're aware of them? And why is LA so disaster prone even (and especially) when it comes to dating?? Find out here!

Freestyle! (Don’t Waste Time) w/ Pedro Peres

Pedro wrestles with the wasting of time and how to know whether we’re on the right path. Is the way in front of us a confusing multitude of branching streams we need to choose, a bright freedom of present possibility, or a blank void of ‘why bother’? Are we trying to repress our inclinations to conform to a prescribed practice, or finding our own freestyle? Is goofing off a waste of time, or is working hard not appreciating it?? Find out here!

A Quiet Cockiness (Zen 101) w/ Dave Cuomo

Dave gives us an intro to Zen talk for beginners of all experience levels, including instruction on how to not meditate while meditating, some light (uncannily relevant) history, and advice and encouragements for whole heartedly engaging in the modern day. How do we learn what no one can teach us? Is Zen the avoidant lover of spiritual practices? And does Dave’s attachment to it make him the worst kind of ambassador? Find out here!

Chaotic, Reckless, Wakefulness (How to train Zen) w/ Gyokei Yokoyama

Gyokei takes an honest historical look at the tough love of monastic training, and the rebels and reformers who tried to improve it along the way. What kind of people are we trying to cultivate, and what kind of monks are we actually making? What does it take for a monk to be so bad even Dogen won’t sit with them? And does meeting the great matter of life and death actually require risking your life? Find out here!

Open Secrets (How to teach Zen) w/ Dave Cuomo

Dave looks into Zen’s famous wariness towards teachers and teaching, while delving into his own hang ups around the role as he prepares to formally play it. Are we all doomed to unwittingly adopt our teachers hang ups and issues? Is obedience just a matter of finding someone to tell you to do what you want? Is liberation just telling ourselves that whatever we’re doing is what we really want?? Find out here!

Spiritual Anarchy w/ Dave Cuomo

Dave tries to find some harmony between the power of rigid forms and the chaos of personal liberation, with mixed results, and offers up a practical guide to finding fundamental self worth along the way. Is conforming to tradition a process of maturity, or a great way to stamp out the precious life and humanity from the things we love? Can Zen be an antidote to our corporate consumer culture? Can Dave properly use the word “noumenon” in a sentence without sounding pretentious? Find out here!

An Unsettled Life w/ Henry Zander

Henry eloquently confronts an all too relatable existential crisis of accomplishment as he graduates college and tries to figure out who he is when the stress he knew himself by suddenly falls away. Who are we when our burdens of purpose have run their course? Is setting aside 30 minutes a day to feel panicked the remedy we really need? Are a humble plate rice and beans the best recipe for a hot Buddha Body?? Find out here!

Epiphany! (What Am I Doing Here??) w/ Andy Thomas

Andy generously shares his personal practice story (don’t call it a spiritual journey…) from young Catholic doubts to a midlife crisis that sent him exploring the wilds of the mind in Tibetan Buddhism, and why he turned his back on it to face the wall with us. Can Tibetan Buddhism teach us a few things we lack? Can Zen find a way to help Vajrayana relax? Is anxiety and crisis the best thing that can happen to your meditation?? Find out here!

The Body Poetic w/ Henry Zander

Henry gets us out of our heads and into our bodies with encouragements for a more embodied understanding of what zazen is really doing with us. How can we convince our minds to let the body take the wheel for awhile? How do we translate a stillness that doesn’t speak in sense? Can Henry quote the late great Jacques Lecoq without giggling?? Find out here!!

The Raw Impulse of Inspiration (Body/Mind Practice) w/ Dave Cuomo

Dave brings us a clear and lucid roadmap to working through the mind and body in zazen, from distracted self to senseless samadhi through a recently unearthed recording of a foundational practice discussion with his old teacher, Michael Elliston. How can consciousness let go of its own consciousness? Is breath practice mortally dangerous actually? If the willful mind is an illusion, who put it up to that, who’s really calling the shots, and… can we have a word with them?