In this Way-Seeking Mind Dharma Talk, resident Tuck Butsumon Stibich offers a moving reflection on his path from intellectual inquiry to embodied Zen practice. Raised in Dayton, Ohio, in a family grounded in both mathematics and Catholic faith, Stibich’s curiosity about the world was nurtured by moments of wonder in nature and study abroad. His life’s arc carried him through Peace Corps service in Mongolia, graduate work in public health, and entrepreneurship before profound loss reshaped everything: his wife Julie’s death from glioblastoma and his own cancer diagnosis. Julie’s fearlessness in facing death, he shared, opened a space of deep connection—“she wasn’t afraid and she wasn’t angry… we ended up just connecting in this amazing, deep way.” Finding refuge at Upaya, Stibich discovered practice as presence rather than expertise, opening the gate for himself, and others through compassion and attentive presence.

In this session of Upaya’s Awareness in Action series, Bhikkhu Bodhi offers a penetrating teaching on discernment as the heart of engaged Buddhism in times of crisis. He reflects on his journey from 1960s activism, through decades of monastic practice in Sri Lanka, and back into the realm of social engagement, emphasizing that “Buddhism must not remain cloistered within meditation halls; it must speak to the burning issues of our age.” Drawing on his founding of Buddhist Global Relief, Bodhi critiques “a world where almost everything—land, water, even human relationships—has been turned into commodities for profit.” He exposes how “corporate, political, and media power weave together to entrench inequality and stifle compassion,” while urging practitioners to resist despair. Against this tide, he calls for “conscientious compassion,” an ethic of active responsibility for one another and the planet. “We have to discover what is true,” he says, “even at the cost of our comfort.”
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In Part 4 of Upaya’s Love and Death program, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan invite participants to “bring death into the room” through a mindfulness practice with photographs of people who stepped through the threshold of life. This practice asks us to directly face mortality and how our bodies, hearts, and minds respond to it—what draws us in and what makes us turn away? Through vivid stories of hospice life, Frank reveals how presence, dignity, and even humor can transform dying into a profoundly human experience. At the heart of the session is the story of Sono, whose death poem teaches surrender, non-attachment, and trust in the journey ahead. Death, Frank reminds us, is not as distant as we think—it is a mirror calling us to live with awareness, compassion, and authenticity now.
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This is the 2nd half of … part 3 of Upaya’s Love and Death program, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax explore the tension between belonging and accommodation. Through personal stories of illness, recovery, and care, they show how dignity in receiving and offering support deepens our understanding of love. Frank distinguishes authentic belonging—our birthright of interconnection—from the self-abandonment of accommodation, revealing how the effort to “fit in” erodes love and freedom. Echoing Brené Brown’s insight that “the opposite of belonging is fitting in,” participants reflected on patterns of accommodation in their own lives and envisioned who they might be without them—“authentic,” “fierce,” “free.” Teachings on loneliness vs. aloneness, radical acceptance, and the “sovereignty of solitude” underscored that love cannot flourish when we reject parts of ourselves. The session closed with Marie Howe’s Singularity, affirming our original belonging to all that is.
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In Part 3 of Upaya’s Love and Death program, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax explore the tension between belonging and accommodation. Through personal stories of illness, recovery, and care, they show how dignity in receiving and offering support deepens our understanding of love. Frank distinguishes authentic belonging—our birthright of interconnection—from the self-abandonment of accommodation, revealing how the effort to “fit in” erodes love and freedom. Echoing Brené Brown’s insight that “the opposite of belonging is fitting in,” participants reflected on patterns of accommodation in their own lives and envisioned who they might be without them—“authentic,” “fierce,” “free.” Teachings on loneliness vs. aloneness, radical acceptance, and the “sovereignty of solitude” underscored that love cannot flourish when we reject parts of ourselves. The session closed with Marie Howe’s Singularity, affirming our original belonging to all that is.
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This is the 2nd half of … part two of Upaya’s Love and Death weekend program, Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski deepened the exploration of how personal love can open into universal compassion. Framed by the bodhisattva path, Roshi Joan recounted Thich Nhat Hanh’s story of youthful love for a nun, which he transmuted into service for a suffering Vietnam: “She represented everything I loved… bringing Buddhism into society, and realizing peace and reconciliation.” Participants reflected on their own “first loves,” discovering how such tender awakenings point beyond the self. Frank then introduced the four brahmaviharas—loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity—as practices that ground love in wisdom and service. The session closed with guided metta practice, encouraging participants to feel into the pathways from intimate connection to boundless care.
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In part two of Upaya’s Love and Death weekend program, Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski deepened the exploration of how personal love can open into universal compassion. Framed by the bodhisattva path, Roshi Joan recounted Thich Nhat Hanh’s story of youthful love for a nun, which he transmuted into service for a suffering Vietnam: “She represented everything I loved… bringing Buddhism into society, and realizing peace and reconciliation.” Participants reflected on their own “first loves,” discovering how such tender awakenings point beyond the self. Frank then introduced the four brahmaviharas—loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity—as practices that ground love in wisdom and service. The session closed with guided metta practice, encouraging participants to feel into the pathways from intimate connection to boundless care.
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In the opening session (part 1) of Love and Death, Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski welcomed more than 1,300 participants into a shared inquiry of love and mortality. Framed by Rainer Maria Rilke’s insight that “Love and death are the great gifts that are given to us. Mostly they are passed on unopened,” the dialogue explores how dying strips away pretense, dissolves stories, and reveals uncontrived tenderness. Participants spoke of distilled, luminous moments at the edge of life and the essential questions that arise: Am I loved? Did I love? Roshi Joan’s candid reflections on her recent surgeries and near-death experience embody the vulnerability at the heart of this teaching. This session set a foundation for the weekend’s continued unwrapping of these gifts through practice and community dialogue.out history. Ultimately, Dear calls for an uncompromising commitment: “There is no cause ever again… for which you and I will ever support the taking of a single human life.”
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In this intriguing Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Kodo inspires us with the lion’s roar of Queen Srimala. Beginning with reflections on how motivations and intentions consciously and unconsciously impact behavior, Kodo guides us into the surprising and unexpected teachings of Queen Srimala. Counter to common cultural conceptions of Buddhism, Queen Śrīmālā proclaims the four shining qualities of Buddha Nature as permanence, happiness, self, and purity. Kodo connects her lion’s roar to a familiar chant at Upaya: the Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo. With a snap of recognition, he points us to the line “Jo Raku Ga Jo”—translated as “eternal, intimate, pure, and joyful.” In doing so, Kodo reorients us from detachment and non-grasping toward vow, intimacy, and the freedom to be fully ourselves. Coming full circle and inviting us to look deeply into our practice, and intentions, he asks: “What can truly call to our deepest aspirations and bring us into the practice and action we long to embody in this world?”

In this timely session of Awareness in Action, Father John Dear confronts the urgency of our times with an echo from Martin Luther King Jr.: “The choice is no longer violence or non-violence… It’s non-violence or non-existence.” Rooted in Gandhi’s teaching that “nonviolence is the highest form of human consciousness,” Father John presents nonviolence not as passivity but as the already existing, already pervading force waiting to be tapped – a force that can transform humanity, embodies healing and compassion toward all beings, and is accessible and expressible by all. He challenges religious practitioners who condone war, reminding us that without nonviolence, we “miss the whole point” of Buddha, Christ, and peacemakers throughout history. Ultimately, Dear calls for an uncompromising commitment: “There is no cause ever again… for which you and I will ever support the taking of a single human life.”
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In this unique Wednesday Night Dharma Talk before the upcoming Love and Death program, Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski engage in an open dialogue on Life, Death, and Freedom. Departing from scripted teachings, the evening unfolds through participant questions that touch the raw edges of grief, love, and mortality. Roshi Joan frames grief as “unmediated access to truth,” while Frank emphasizes that questions of love—“Am I loved? Did I love?”—belong in daily practice, not reserved for the deathbed. Together they highlight freedom as found not in escape, but in authenticity, presence, and compassion that responds to each moment’s conditions. With honesty, vulnerability, and wisdom drawn from decades in death and dying work, Roshi Joan and Frank model how to face impermanence and suffering as a path to deepening true intimacy.
This dialogue was marked by poignant and deeply personal questions and reflections from participants, including: a recently bereaved partner questioning the meaning of freedom, Buddhist perspectives on assisted suicide, the relationship between love and death, the interplay of freedom with life and death, estrangement, addiction, suicide, and social oppression. Roshi and Frank bring warmth and care to each question, inspiring practice and contemplation of our own love and loss in life.

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Dainin interweaves personal story, Buddhist teaching, and contemporary challenges to show how the Bodhisattva vow can be lived — and is urgently needed — in our times. She shares how her understanding of compassion shifted through practice, from a fixed character trait to something that can be cultivated and allowed to emerge. “In order to make compassion possible,” she explains, “we need to have a stable and relaxed nervous system that is open to perceive reality in a way that is completely inclusive.” By training the elements of our awareness, we increase the conditions for compassion to arise spontaneously. Sensei Dainin introduces Roshi Joan’s G.R.A.C.E. model — Gather attention, Recall intention, Attune to self and others, Consider what will serve, and Engage and End — as a practical, universal framework for compassion in action. She closes with a moving story from the Nomads Clinic in Nepal, where G.R.A.C.E. became a guide for perseverance: once we have done our best, we can pause, breathe, and try one more time.

In this session of Upaya’s Awareness in Action series, writer and activist Rebecca Solnit joins Roshi Joan Halifax to explore how stories shape reality, the nature of human behavior in crisis, and the discipline of hope as an antidote to despair. Rebecca reminds us, “Hope is not an emotion, it’s a commitment to not give up, to keep looking for possibilities… to remember, we make the future in the present with what we do or fail to do.” Roshi Joan echoes this, noting that “the stories we tell shape not only our individual experience, but also a nation’s destiny.” Their exchange reveals how Buddhism and storytelling both invite us to embody resilience, courage, and solidarity, affirming that in caring for others we discover our fullest, most connected selves.
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei James Fushin explores vulnerability as a profound gateway to awakening. Drawing from the Vimalakirti Sutra and physicist Brian Cox’s question—”How do we live a finite, fragile life in an infinite, eternal universe?”—Fushin reflects on illness, silence, and the dissolution of self and other as pathways to true healing. From Vimalakirti’s teaching, “Because all beings are sick, I am sick,” he expands on the notion of interconnected suffering and healing, saying, “Vulnerability really is a dharma gate for all of us, because beyond Vimalakirti’s own compassionate identification with suffering, he’s identifying with the suffering of the world—and from that, being a bodhisattva to relieve that suffering.” Fushin weaves together personal stories—his relationship with his father, Roshi Joan’s recent heart surgeries, and a Palestinian-Israeli friendship—showing vulnerability as the ground of intimacy and peace. Reflecting on a brief moment with his father, he tenderly offers: “I think all of us miss moments to show up to vulnerability. You know, we’re not quite able to meet it. I mean, we feel it, but we can’t quite meet it. And I just want to tell you… don’t let it stop you.” Fushin emphasizes that tenderness is not weakness but the most honest response to impermanence. Ultimately, he invites us to companion our vulnerability with awareness, embodying compassion in this brief constellation of being.

In the second part of this two-part Wednesday Night Dharma Talk mini-series, Zen teacher Guo Gu guides us into the embodiment of silent illumination. He begins not with theory but with experience: posture, presence, and body. Speaking with a soft, smooth cadence—measured and unhurried—we explore the terrain of our own physicality through an extended guided meditation followed by a reflection on the practice of silent illumination. Noticing most people live in their heads, estranged from their own physicality, Guo Gu teaches that rooting attention in the body diminishes the grip of thought. This space from mental activity allows for “curiosity and great interest” in what remains – the felt edge before ideas form. Resting in this alert wonderment is silent illumination, a practice that seeks nothing and, in seeking nothing, reveals the treasury of true intimacy.

In this session of Awareness in Action, Roshi Joan Halifax and Terry Tempest Williams guide participants to witness the world with care, presence, and courage. Roshi Joan opens with the Zen koan—“A monk asked Joshu, when great difficulties come upon us, can they be avoided?” Joshu replies, “Welcome.”—and, in the same spirit, notes the similarity in Chinese kanji between “crisis” and “opportunity” helping to frame our global challenges alongside our global potential. Terry invites us to dwell in the spaces between light and dark, love and grief: “To be in light and to be in dark is to hold that space in between.” She shows how even the smallest acts of noticing can become profound practice, saying, “Attention is a prayer.” The session explores the deep intertwining relationship between spiritual practice and civic engagement, revealing that democracy, ecological care, and awakening unfold not in abstraction, but in patient, loving attention to the world and each other.
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In this closing session of Upaya’s Dogen Seminar, faculty and participants reflect on how ancient teachings become living transmission through courage, friendship, and practice. Roshi Joan reminds us that discovery emerges not through resolution but through living fully within paradox, just as Dogen himself persisted amid loss and uncertainty. Steven Heine and Kazuaki Tanahashi illuminate Dogen’s poetic range—paradoxes that resist mastery yet open insight. Norman and Kathie Fischer return us to what matters: practice as generosity, kinship, and the tender work of being human. Genzan invites us to bring Dogen home—reading, writing by hand, and connecting with others through our questions and insights. This communal closing affirms that understanding ripens not in concepts, but in relationship—with the teachings, each other, and our own wakeful life.
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In the seventh session of Upaya’s Dogen Seminar, Sensei Genzan explores Dogen’s Eight Awakenings of Great Beings (Hachi Dainin Gaku), weaving scholarship with lived experience to reveal how Zen practice addresses the paradoxes of daily life. “It’s not that Dogen is paradoxical,” he notes, “our lives are paradoxical.” With humor and humility, Genzan shows how the Eight Awakenings form not a list but “a holistic mandala,” where each quality—few desires, contentment, quietude, diligence, remembering the dharma, samadhi, wisdom, and refraining from idle talk—contains all the others. Through vivid stories, from a restless zazen to gently escorting a spider from his bathtub, he demonstrates how ordinary experiences embody awakening. This intimate teaching invites us to live the paradox of practice with kindness, courage, and freedom.
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In the sixth session of Upaya’s Dogen Seminar, the faculty engage in a rich exploration of Dogen’s use of language, paradox, and poetry as spiritual communication. Heine highlights how paradox functions as a “turning word,” pushing beyond ordinary discourse to liberate us from fixed assumptions. The faculty respond with perspectives on authenticity, context, and translation, illuminating Dogen’s genius as both philosopher and poet. Norman Fischer emphasizes that Dogen was not paradoxical in ordinary life, but an intelligent, grounded human being who communicated appropriately—whether instructing monks, speaking with donors, or handling everyday matters. The conversation celebrates Dogen’s timeless ability to weave philosophy, artistry, and humanness into teachings that remain profoundly relevant today.
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In this fifth session of Upaya’s Dogen Seminar, Norman and Kathie Fischer explore Dogen’s Four Methods of Guidance (Bodaisatta Shishobo), one of the most accessible and transformative fascicles of the Shobogenzo. Building on reflections about paradox in Zen, Norman Fischer explains how paradox “extends the subtlety and the scope of what you mean,” allowing us to deepen our curiosity toward teachings such as “Nirvana is samsara.” Together, Norman and Kathie unpack Dogen’s radical instructions: generosity as “not craving,” kind speech as truly caring, beneficial action as “benefiting self and others together,” and identity action as the non-separation of self and other—exemplified in the story of Lingzhao who, after seeing her father fall, runs up and falls beside him. “She did not run up to help her father solve his problem. She just joins him. She just comes to be with him just where he is.” We are pulled into the question: what is it like to join the joyful paradox of service through practice?
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