Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

Emma Roy - Not Being Special

Emma reads “On (Not) Being Special” by Ken McCleod to ask the questions of whether any of us are special, whether zazen does anything special, whether we are all destined for enlightenment, and ultimately what is a good use of a human life or a Monday night (or the 40 minutes it takes to listen to a podcast…). The sangha jumps all the way in and discusses why being art necessarily breeds misery, why they don’t want to be special, why they wouldn’t recommend Zen to anyone, but can’t stop doing it if they tried, and ultimately lament that enlightenment never did anyone’s dishes. All in all, it is a prime example of a good use of a monday night and a fantastic way to spend your 40 minutes to listen.

Emily Eslami - Not to be Achieved by Wanting (Unnecessary Roughness)

Emily wraps up her series on the three marks of existence with Buddhism's favorite least favorite topic - The Truth of Suffering. She leads the sangha in an acknowledgement of all the large and small ways we experience suffering on a daily basis and then goes into the ways we exacerbate that and compound the problem with the classic parable of the second arrow. Drawing on both straightforward teachings of classical Buddhism and the more open ended Zen approach she explores the ways that suffering is both an inherent product of life and also far more avoidable than we might think.

Dave Cuomo - A Better Way (History of Zen - pt 4)

Dave Cuomo continues his series on the history of Zen with pt 4 - Ashoka! It's one of the most extraordinary and unexpected stories in world history as a bloodthirsty warlord emperor sees a simple monk walking across a field and over night turns one of the world's largest empires into a bastion of peace, piety, and goodness. Everything we know about Buddhism comes from this one moment and Dave explores all the implications of what happened and why. The sangha jumps in and discusses what morality is and where it comes from, how the Buddhist cannon was formed, and who exactly we can call a sociopath.

Craig French - Community

To inspire the sangha in our new center, Craig French gives a reading from Crooked Cucumber, the story of Sunryu Suzuki and San Francisco Zen Center. Craig and the sangha get cute as they discuss community, what it means to help out, the connection between different lineages of Zen, bringing Zen to the West, and whether the Ramones were trying to start British Punk Rock on purpose.

Dave Cuomo - Ananda and the Dharma of Not Getting It (History of Zen pt 3)

Dave Cuomo continues his History of Zen series w/ pt 3 - Ananda. He’s the great unreliable narrator of all Buddhist scripture. Dave tells the story of this sweet and simple character and looks into the wisdom in his unenlightnment, what it means to live a life of service, and why Buddhism requires us to ask stupid questions.

Nina Snow - Love and Kindness

Nina and the sangha wade into the messy grey areas of being nice. Reading from “The Thousand Eyes and Hands of Compassion” in Brad’s latest book, they explores the nuanced ways compassion is as much about the way we treat ourselves as it is being kind to others.

Emma Roy - Dogen and the Eternal Age of Collapse

Emma discusses the life of Dogen with readings from Hee-Jin Kim’s “Dogen - Mystical Realist.” She explores parallels between Dogen’s time and ours including the the recurring feeling that we’re living on the verge of collapse. The sangha dives in and debates why every generation seems to feel that way even as the world shambles along without ending.

Dave Cuomo - Hopeless

Dave tries to shock the sangha with a talk on the delusion of hope and the liberation of being hopeless, letting go of our ideals in favor of being open to what is. It’s a talk about goallessness and the freedom and kindness that come from giving in to reality. The conversation is lively and not without disagreement as the sangha discusses expectations, whether there is a basic goodness in staring at the wall, whether we can live without desire, dealing with death, and how pretty a leaf can look in the sunlight.

Erik Andersen - Seeing True Nature

Erik continues his inquiry into beliefs and how they can hinder us. He looks at what was meant by the classic Zen promise of "seeing true nature," beliefs as attachment, and how this is all worked with in psychology, while the sangha turns the discussion to mental health and whether it's possible to be happy about being sad.

Dave Cuomo - History of Zen pt 2

Dave continues his series tracing the philosophical and social history of Zen. In part 2 we come to Buddha himself, what was the social context he was teaching in, who were his teachers and what did they teach him? What was the problem he was trying to solve and how did he solve it?? The sangha discusses our connection to history and whether history is even knowable, what if anything, Buddha was doing differently, and of course, what is the meaning of life?