Good teachers go bad - which is confusing and upsetting. Dave does his best to walk us through best practices for managing boundaries, roles, and scandals in Zen as a balanced part of this complete practice. Is there something about Zen that makes it particularly prone to scandal? Are there things about Soto Zen that make it peculiarly well setup for healthy sanghas relationships? Were our teachers ever worthy of the roles we put them in, and do we even need such teachers at all?? Find out here!

Sara takes an honest look at desire to see if she can afford a fulfilling life with less filling pay. How can desires lead to fulfillment? Is too little ambition just as dangerous as too much? If we really followed Buddha’s prescriptions could the internet even exist?? Find out here!

Our great ancestor friend Keizan takes us on a wild ride of epically thorough zazen instruction, warnings, epiphanies, inspirations, cosmic descriptions and everything in between in ACZC’s fresh new translation of his classic “Points to Keep in Mind for Zazen” (Zazen Yojinki). What is the mind and what should we do with it? What should we do with tip of our nose and our belly button during zazen? If we feel sleepy, learned, scattered, or enlightened, does Keizan have the remedy?? (Yes!) Find out here!

Dave gets topical with a talk on AI from the Zen perspective to see if we can shed any light on what it is, what we should do with it, and whether or not we’re getting that right. Do the robots have any more or less of a self than we do? Is Zen a moral (or amoral…) philosophy? Are we all out of a job, and if so, are we really going to miss it?? Find out here!

Gyokei gives us stories of friendly (and hungry!) ghosts as he explains the meaning and history of Obon, the summer festival of spirits in Japanese Zen. Is it possible to keep dying traditions and communities alive while also letting them go? Has a fish ever remembered to be grateful for water? Do ghosts count as living beings?? Find out here!

Dave loses a good dog friend and gets curious about the sweet and silly human feelings that come up in a week of sweet sorrow. Should monks be having more sex? Is Buddhism trying to cut us off from the most beautiful parts of life? Was Buddha (and California) wrong about the benefits of anger?? Find out here!

Mota gets an unexpected phone call and takes the opportunity to dig into some tough love teachings on change and transiency, and how they might even open us up to something warm and maybe even a little fuzzy. Have we forgotten how to die in this country? Why is Zen oddly good at the idea? Can it help us deal with the odd role reversals that come with parents getting older? Find out here!

Jordan takes a critical look at the benefits of zazen and questions whether that was ever really the point, or even something we should rely on. Can meditation become a form of avoidance? Is the need to feel better just one more attempt to control the world? And if Buddhism is really working why do we still wake up with a brain full of a-hole thoughts and feelings? Find out here!

Sara goes looking for healthy ambitions in certain impermanence as she rests her case on training with a deeply personal breakdown and exegesis of her story/koan of the season - Dasui’s Kalpa Fire. How do we live a life worth living when society, and our own standards, aren’t aligned with our values? Does Zen offer alternative ambitions to aspire to? Is it possible to diagnose our own distress while sitting smack dab in the middle of it?? Find out here!

Dave tells us the full creation myth of how Buddhism says this world came to be, how it’s going to end, and all the mishaps and miracles in between. Has all of this happened before? Is everything we love just a lament for what we lost? Was this whole existence thing really a good idea and is there even such a thing as a true story?? Find out here!!

Sara Campbell closes out our first official training ango with a flash fiction final - a brief loving study of our favorite Buddha and Bodhisattva archetypes.

Dave tackles the big Buddhist question of the hour - are we really learning traditional Buddhism over here or are we making up our own thing and covering it up with a set of appropriated robes? Is it actually a problem if we are (and would it be possible not to)? Are lay people even supposed to be meditating? Is the East/West cultural divide too wide to bridge, or too fascinating not to try?? Find out here!!

Poet in residence and long time ACZC collaborator, Matt, generously boils down 14 billion years of carefully cultivated circumstances into one lucid and spiritually eclectic tale of what he’s doing and why he’s here - from the Zen prone slowness of the South, to the urban chaos of LA, to the sacred solitude of getting lost in foreign lands. Is restlessness a hindrance or a catalyst to personal progress? Can we go off recipe and create our own  practice from whatever ingredients intrigue us? What creative fruits lie waiting for us in the gaps between what we think and what we see?? Find out here!

Dave unpacks the Ryogone, that monster of a magical incantation we’ve recently incorporated into our laid back secular practice here, and along the way explains how to work with magical traditions in the modern age, the use of chanting and daranis in Zen practice, and a whole a host of legends and lore complete with a battle of five armies. Can the secular among us pray so that it works and what does that actually mean?? What keeps us coming back to our Zen Centers after the honeymoon glow wears off? If we don’t believe in ghosts, can we still ask them for help?? Find out here!

Sara hits a roadblock in love and zazen and takes the opportunity to teach us how to turn the worms that turn us sideways into features not bugs. How can insecurity be a source of confidence? What do we do when the “you” who is actually the ultimate “it” is also what’s getting in the way of us getting it? Can the teachers who shut us down be the perfect tool for opening ourselves up? And can Mark Zuckerberg handle the depths of our Metta?? Find out here!

In his eagerly anticipated ‘What Am I Doing Here??’ talk, morning stalwart and life of the party, Tip, takes us to the pivotal personal moments that turn life around and upside down and led him to become a fixture here at ACZC. What hope does a better tomorrow offer us for today? Is volunteering at your local Zen center selfish if it helps keep you from falling apart? And is paying 15 bucks to stare at a wall way too much or not nearly enough?? Find out here!

Dave takes a critical look at modern Zen’s emphasis on daily zazen, going deep on what “practice” means and what’s it really for. Is skipping zazen self-care or self-delusion? If we’re really meditating all the time, do we still need to sit down and meditate? Do the sun, moon, and stars really depend on our zazen to shine?? Find out here!

Very special guest Kiyo Tezuka joins us all the way from Hikone, Japan to share an epic tale of wayward youth spent as a globe wandering hippie looking for truth before accidentally settling down to the responsible(?) life of a temple monk. What do we become when we’re all grown up and still don’t know what we want to be when we grow up? Does Western Zen have something unique to teach Japanese Zen in return? Is parallel parking one of those secret magical powers Buddha hinted we might one day attain?? Find out here! 

Dave’s History of Zen series returns to visit a war-torn China and the calamities that led to Zen’s initial explosion on to the scene. Is Zen uncannily tailor made for upheaval and uncertain times? Were some dubious PR and a sketchy teacher exactly what a plucky young upstart tradition needed? Is jumping on a stage and claiming to be a 10th level Bodhisattva the height of delusion or something we wish we’d thought of first??? Find out here!

After going many rounds mano y mano with the relentless critical voice in his head, Chris reports back on how Zen teachings on false suffering and conceptual thought offer us help with the wars we wage with ourselves. Is it possible to stop having an adversarial relationship with yourself or is it just something we have to live with? Is facing the wall in zazen doing anything to dispel our fantasies? And is it possible to mute yourself both on Zoom AND in your brain?? Find out here!