Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

Love & Emptiness w/ Emily Eslami

Let’s talk about love! We all know Zen can be reluctant to talk about mushy things like love and kindness, but Emily bravely tackles loving kindness head on in the latest installment of her series on the Bramaviharas. From Buddha, to Dogen, to us, it’s a 2500 year long epic love story where the happy ending is always right here and now. How do we love the people we hate? (Boundlessly!) How do we let go of the ones we love? (By letting them go!) And what do we do about those pesky tree demons bothering us when we sit?? (Love them too!)

Dave Cuomo - Good Friends (History of Zen - The Platform Sutra)

In our latest installment of History of Zen, Dave gets very excited about sharing one of his favorite books with us that also happens to be the original defining text of Zen as we know it. In this 1300 year old sutra, Dave reads to us the warm words of our self professed good friend Huineng, who offers up a surprisingly modern take on secular spirituality. With humble wit and good humor, Huineng lays out a religion that asks us to only believe in what we already know - that we are perfect just the way we are. And in case we ever forget, there will always be a good friend here to help remind us.

Michele Roldan-Shaw - Street Buddhism (Jataka Tales)

Michele Roldan-Shaw spins classic Jataka Tales (folk tales of the Buddha's past lives) for us with all their ambiguities, tough love, and hard choices. We get to meet sea spirits, unruly crows, guilt ridden partridges, and yes a renunciant hermit disappointing his parents, all running around out there trying to figure out how to be decent beings in a world that rarely wants to make that easy for us. You can check our more of Michele's work at - https://www.micheleroldanshaw.com. And our own Brad Warner also posted a video about the stories and this talk up here! - https://youtu.be/SHOHnzQl9xg

Erik Andersen - Worry Time

Erik looks at anxiety in a wide ranging and well informed discussion of everything from the intricacies of classic Zen literature to contemporary psychology and all the vulnerable (and personal) twists and turns he takes to be able to share them with us. With readings from the great Huangpo, and tips and techniques from the latest in mental health science, Erik generously presents us with his own in the moment process of the anxiety of giving the talk itself to bring us a full meta exploration of how to manage and maintain through the method of no methods.

Dave Cuomo - Catastrophe! (History of Zen - Shenhui & The An Lushan Rebellion

In the year 757 in the middle of a catastrophic civil war surrounded by ruins and disaster, a monk named Shenhui stands on a hastily built grass platform and invents Zen as we know it with fiery speeches of enlightenment right here and now. The country, and the fledgling Buddhist school, are torn apart and put back together into something new and unique in world history. Continuing our series on Shitou’s classic poem, “The Harmony of Difference and equality,” we also get to see the historical context of why that piece was written in a story of meeting the moment and finding harmony in conflict and chaos.

Dave Cuomo - Siren Songs and Bluejays

Dave reads us excerpts from Suzuki's talk "The Bluejay Will Come Right Into Your Heart" and adds some of his own commentary on embracing distraction, sound and listening as practice, and fighting the urge to run after sirens. Along the way we get good advice on how to thoroughly hate the person next to sitting next to you on retreat, why maybe enlightenment is more trouble than it's worth, and how to be a good Dad by doing less.

Emma Roy - Buddha's Anger

Emma Roy takes us on a journey through one of our favorite pieces of Zen writing, The Harmony of Difference and Equality. We get a poetic reading of the piece, helpful context of the why, when, and where it comes from, and commentary from the great Sunryu Suzuki himself. The sangha runs with the conversation in a wide ranging discussion about how to measure time from the moving platform of life, whether learning is possible, how and when anger is necessary and good, some helpful dog training advice, and how this all relates to dating.

Dave Cuomo - Explaining the Joke (History of Zen - Shenxiu)

In the year 700, a humble mountain monk named Shenxiu was called to the Chinese capitol by the Empress Wu. Within just a few years he almost single handedly made Zen the foremost religious school in China and was universally recognized as the greatest spiritual teacher of his time. Emperors bowed to him, thousands converted. For the first time, Zen was cool. But within decades of his death, Shenxiu's name was written into history as the biggest loser in Zen, his teaching was universally mocked, and even his poetry was said to be weak. What could turn such a beloved teacher into a laughingstock so quickly? Was his reputation deserved? Was his poetry really that bad??? This month on History of Zen, Dave takes a look at the story of Shenxiu, the famous anti-hero of the Platform Sutra, and what we can know about him beyond the legendary histories. We look at the so-called Northern School of Zen he comes from that all later Zen would define itself against to see if its was really as weak and corrupted as would later be said, delving into the books and teachings of Shenxiu and his forbears themselves to see what they have to say in their own defense. Along the way the sangha discusses the pitfalls of success, whether or not there’s such a thing as “true history,” and why explaining the joke is never as satisfying as laughing out loud.

Dave Cuomo - The Great Cosmic Joke (Nishijima’s Four Views)

Dave Cuomo delves into Nishijima’s Four Views with SOAR!, the handy four letter acronym that explains all reality. It’s the “philosophy of action” that Nishijima humbly tells us is “the solution to western philosophy.” It’s the place where the rubber meets the road, where your subjective experience meets an objective world that might very mush disagree, and the great sparks of reality that fly when that happens. It’s the ultimate battle of idealism vs materialism with all of reality at stake! And the whole universe always wins. Also it’s a handy way to remember who and what we are at the times we need it most, and how to make a perfect plan and see it through to an unpredictable reality. Have we oversold this one? We think not, but find out here!

Emily Eslami - Stupid Joy

Emily Eslami gives us a Zen take on sympathetic joy. With readings from Dogen, Sawaki, the Pali Canon and more she takes us through on honest and vulnerable look at the difficulty of taking selfless joy in the successes of others, even when that seems really hard to do…