In this session of Awareness in Action and speaking from her farm in Alexandria, Louisiana—unexpectedly located at the center of America’s deportation operations—dharma teacher and social justice activist Konda Mason explores the powerful connection between inner and outer equity. Drawing from her transformative move from Oakland California’s progressive bubble to rural Louisiana, Mason shares her appreciation for her practice to cultivate equanimity in the face of her own covert biases. Mason weaves together Buddhist teachings with insights from Hannah Arendt’s concept of “The Banality of Evil” and John Paul Lederach’s “Improbable Dialogue” to demonstrate how contemplative practice enables meaningful engagement across deep political divides. We are encouraged to make the leap beyond polarization toward genuine connection. Referencing Dr. Cornel West’s “Justice is what love looks like in public” Mason adds “Equity is what equanimity looks like in public,” sharing the importance of building authentic democracy rooted in our shared humanity.
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In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Monshin explores the ancient Buddhist teaching of Kanno Doko — “responsive communion” or “mystical communion.” Drawing from a Wallace Stevens poem and the writings of Suzuki Roshi, she reflects on the mind that can “get quiet enough to be in our experience, quiet enough to be our experience.” With plain curiosity, Monshin asks: What do we really feel? How do we sense Buddha’s response to us? What is that really? She weaves together insights from Dōgen, Katagiri Roshi, Simone Weil, and Joanna Macy, showing how this quieting transcends tradition and is expressed in the deep aspiration — the call and intention — for awakening. As Simone Weil writes, “Attention consists of suspending our thought, leaving it detached, empty, and ready to be penetrated by the object.” Through humility and deep listening, we may find that “if we know who we are, we can’t help but make life-honoring choices.”

In the first part of this two-part Wednesday Night Dharma Talk mini-series, Zen teacher Guo Gu explores the deep relationship between silent illumination (or just sitting), and embodiment practice. He traces the historical roots of silent illumination from ancient China and Zen patriarch Hongzhi, through to Dogen’s application of them in the Soto school of Zen. Guo Gu discusses silent illumination as a remedy for our natural tendency to be “top heavy,” saying, “we have to disentangle this overlay of discursive, rumination, ideas, words, and language onto all of our experiences, all the senses.” His approach centers on embodied experiencing – through progressive relaxation of skin, muscles, and tendons, we ground our experience within the body itself—this is how we “come to know ourselves, and come to know the world, others, through our body right now.” This simple but profoundly practical practice reveals how we can transform not just our sitting practice, but our entire way of being present with others in daily life.
In part two, Guo Gu will guide us deeper into embodied practice and explore the unifying quality of wonderment in silent illumination.

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Jiryu affirms the central practice of Zen is to become truly ourselves. Reading from Suzuki Roshi’s teachings, and sharing quotes from Shohaku Okamura, Katagiri Roshi, and others, Jiryu explores two dimensions of practicing being ourselves: being fully who you are in the relative world, and recognizing the deeper self that “includes everything.” As Suzuki Roshi taught, “When you become yourself, your practice includes everything. Whatever there is, it is a part of you.” Jiryu encourages us to see how this seemingly simple invitation to “just be yourself” is actually the complete path of Zen practice and abides naturally within the precepts. This simple practice adheres to the Bodhisattva precepts when we realize true ethics aren’t external rules but flow from our innate loving nature, which already contains all the wisdom we need for living in harmony with others.

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Genzan offers a unique exploration of true dharma expression – weaving together the teachings of 13th century Zen master Dogen with the poetry and life of 18th century hermit-monk Ryokan through the unexpected lens of modern Butoh dance choreography. Genzan suggests we may interpret Ryokan’s poetry as the ‘fu’ or choreography for the Way of practice and guides the audience through Dogen’s “Eight Understandings of Great People,” pairing each teaching with Ryokan’s poetry and his own personal anecdotes. The fundamental understandings: having few desires, knowing contentment, enjoying quietude, and maintaining right mindfulness – pull us in as Genzan skillfully illustrates these teachings to be beautiful, natural, and totally accessible, like how water moves around a rock with “No fuss, no muss, no complaint, no ‘who put this rock here?'” Genzan reveals how the hermit poet danced Dogen’s wisdom from across centuries through his simple alignment with the current moment. The talk culminates with Ryokan’s profound teaching on “no mind” – where blossoms invite butterflies and butterflies visit blossoms in perfect, unknowing harmony with the Way.

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, longtime resident and novice priest Jimon Lorene Flaming tenderly offers her long and winding path to practice in her way-seeking mind talk. Inspired by overseas medical service by her father and the values of her Mennonite upbringing, Jimon blazed a passionate path in her life toward service. Aspiring to be of use to the world, she studied public policy at Harvard, soaking in their glorification of data and analytics, disregarding the ‘softer skills’ she would come to appreciate later like connections and leadership. Always striving, Jimon moved from the World Bank to positions scattered across Bosnia, Cambodia, Liberia, Afghanistan (and more). She reflects on the intense efforts she made to achieve her goals, foreshadowing experiences to come with the saying “When the gods want to punish you, they answer your prayers.” In Bosnia, an acute escalation of an autoimmune disease tempered her beliefs toward self-reliance and achievement, initiating an arcing journey to return to her true home of inner practice. Jimon shares pivotal moments with spiritual teachers who affirmed her growing belief that of all the challenging destinations where service can be done, within herself is the most important place to travel. As her reflections approach the present, Jimon shares the affinity that arose from finding not only a home inside herself, but a community and sangha at Upaya to practice alongside: “If I had had a magic wand, I could not have dreamed this place up.” Noting the challenges of practice in community, Jimon ends with an encouragement to trust our inner voice, or as Rumi says, “Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you truly love.”

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Dainin shares deeply personal stories of accompanying her father and Roshi Joan through life-threatening medical crises, revealing how the Buddhist Five Remembrances transformed from abstract teachings into intimate companions during times of acute uncertainty. Drawing from her unique perspective as both emergency physician and Zen practitioner, Dainin explores the difference between destructive pessimism and wise acceptance of impermanence. Recounting her father’s fulminant liver failure, Dainin honestly examines how her medical training led her to assume the worst, clinging to stories of doom while missing the possibilities (good and bad) that comes with uncertainty. Through her sister’s confrontation — “What are you doing? We are all here trying to help dad get through this and you are telling us that this is not gonna work” — she discovers how pessimism can become a form of attachment that causes more suffering. Quoting Rebecca Solnit’s insight that pessimism is “like a sinking ship” where we dismiss hope as naive and cannot see “lifeboats that are bobbing all around us,” Dainin illustrates how we often prefer the tempered certainty of negative outcomes over facing the vulnerability of genuine not-knowing. In a moment of clarity and poise, Dainin shares her response to her father’s fear and uncertainty in an elevator ride to another surgery when she leaned in close to say “Dad, you know, we love you, right?”— embodying Roshi Joan’s repeated reminder that “all that matters is love.” Through observing Roshi’s recent journey through open heart surgery, Dainin investigates her comment that “resistance obliterates dignity” and witnesses how true dignity means being present without shame or resistance to whatever the moment brings. Dainin challenges us to see the Five Remembrances not as pessimistic ruminations but as pathways through all Four Noble Truths, guiding us toward acceptance, love, and genuine presence with life’s deepest uncertainties.

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Monshin explores what it means to be a peacemaker in our complicated world. Recalling a creative renaming of the 4th of July as “Interdependence Day,” Monshin identifies the roots of war and aggression as ignorance — “ignorance as in misunderstanding the fact that we’re all connected and dependent on each other.” She encourages listeners to move beyond demonizing those with different views, asking us to genuinely consider: “Who are these people I don’t understand who act in ways I see as really harmful?” Quoting Father Greg Boyle’s Cherished Belonging, she shares his insight: “we’ve all met the broken, the despondent and damaged, the desperate and unwell, the traumatized, the wounded, the injured, but never anybody evil.” This helps us shape conflict as measures of misunderstanding or ignorance rather than an immutable aspect of person or society. Sharing stories from her 40 years as a public school teacher working with challenging students she guides participants through reflective questions about what it would take to be a genuine peacemaker in family, sangha, community, and within ourselves, asking: “What would you need to let go of? What would you need to pay attention to?” Through inspiring stories of Bernie Glassman’s Zen Peacemaker Order, the women of La Patrona helping migrants, and women in Wajir, Kenya creating zones of peace, Monshin illustrates how peacemaking begins with simple responses to immediate need, rather than enactment of lofty ideals. Her talk directs us again and again towards interbeing, challenging us to remember Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching that we are both victim and perpetrator, and calling for the moral imagination to transcend taking sides. We are inspired to recognize that to make real peace is to see that every side is our side.

In this session of Upaya’s Awareness in Action series, Father Gregory Boyle—Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries—offers a profound reflection on kinship, healing, and radical compassion. Father Boyle brings humor, depth, and decades of experience to bear on the essential truths that guide his work. Reflecting on 40 years of work with gang members as “the privilege of my life,” he discloses that “the day won’t ever come when I am more noble or more courageous or closer to God than the thousands upon thousands of men and women I’ve been privileged to know.” At the heart of his message are two powerful beliefs: that every person is unshakably good, and that we belong to each other. These principles, he says, if held without compromise, could dissolve every complex social problem we face.
Through tender and humorous stories of transformation, Father Boyle shows what happens when we move from judgment to awe, from fixing to cherishing—what he calls “love with its sleeves rolled up.” He recounts unforgettable moments: a young man confusing “exalted” with “exhausted,” toppling a revered God into a God who is weary (from loving us); gang rivals becoming friends through shared work; and his mother’s final words that teach us about presence and delight. These stories are not just anecdotes—they are invitations to stand confidently at the margins, “because that is the only way they will be erased,” and to build a circle of compassion with no one left outside. Whether confronting violence, addiction, or despair, Boyle’s work reveals a simple, luminous truth: healing comes through love, community, and the courageous act of cherishing one another.
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.

In this informative Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Zenshin Florence Caplow explores the meaning of “Buddha meets Buddha” in the context of how we might skillfully navigate our relationships with spiritual teachers. Zenshin journeys through the relative ethical imperatives and moral responsibilities of teacher-student relationships while illustrating our need to self govern through Suzuki Roshi’s teaching: “I am one tree, and each one of you is a tree. And by yourself, you should stand up. When a tree stands up by itself, we call that tree a Buddha.” Drawing from her own experiences with calligraphy master Sato Sensei and Zen teachers Norman Fisher and Bruce Fortin, Zenshin points to the ability of teachers to guide and support, while emphasizing that we must stand on our own spiritual foundation. Her talk addresses the complexities of American Zen’s brief but troubled history with teacher misconduct, advocating for relationships grounded in “shizen” – naturalness without pretense – rather than idealization. Sharing wisdom gleaned through her decades of practice, Zenshin offers ten pieces of practical advice for those seeking to enter teacher-student relationships. At the core of her recommendations is being skillful and aware: “Check them out carefully… Listen to talks, read about them. See how they interact with others,” while remembering that “we are in this together – Buddha meets Buddha.”

This is the 2nd half of the session on Planting Life, where participants explore indigenous food ways and decolonization through cultivated ancient wisdoms. Artist and cultural preservationist Roxanne Swentzell shares her year of projects—from building retreat centers with pumice construction to revitalizing traditional coming-of-age ceremonies and creating seed banks for her community. Her son Porter Swentzell, anthropologist and educator, traces 9,000 years of agricultural history, explaining how corn “domesticated human beings” by transforming entire worldviews and ways of life. The session reveals how colonization systematically disrupted these ancient relationships, yet celebrates resilience through Roxanne’s work helping her community return to ancestral foods that reversed conditions like diabetes and other health issues within months. Porter emphasizes that traditional agriculture was never just about growing food but about entering sacred relationship: “you almost have to become adherent to an entirely different worldview.” The session demonstrates practical skills like pumice construction and mycelium cultivation while exploring deeper teachings about land-based practices as foundations for tribal sovereignty. In reflecting on her ancestors, Roxanne observes, “we are here because they figured out how to survive”. Now we must re-learn as contemporary communities how to thrive through honoring indigenous wisdom and fostering right relationship with the land.
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.

This is the 1st half of the session on Planting Life, where participants explore indigenous food ways and decolonization through cultivated ancient wisdoms. Artist and cultural preservationist Roxanne Swentzell shares her year of projects—from building retreat centers with pumice construction to revitalizing traditional coming-of-age ceremonies and creating seed banks for her community. Her son Porter Swentzell, anthropologist and educator, traces 9,000 years of agricultural history, explaining how corn “domesticated human beings” by transforming entire worldviews and ways of life. The session reveals how colonization systematically disrupted these ancient relationships, yet celebrates resilience through Roxanne’s work helping her community return to ancestral foods that reversed conditions like diabetes and other health issues within months. Porter emphasizes that traditional agriculture was never just about growing food but about entering sacred relationship: “you almost have to become adherent to an entirely different worldview.” The session demonstrates practical skills like pumice construction and mycelium cultivation while exploring deeper teachings about land-based practices as foundations for tribal sovereignty. In reflecting on her ancestors, Roxanne observes, “we are here because they figured out how to survive”. Now we must re-learn as contemporary communities how to thrive through honoring indigenous wisdom and fostering right relationship with the land.
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.

In this session of Planting Life, we participate in the sacred planting ceremony that honors indigenous wisdom through the cultivation of ancestral crops—corn, beans, and squash—known as the Three Sisters. Led by indigenous teachers, the gathering weaves together Native American agricultural practices with Buddhist mindfulness, sweeping the mind and returning to our roots. The ceremony emphasizes our deep connection to the earth, with Roxanne reminding us that “we are corn people” and that seeds carry the memory of generations. Participants plant with intention, understanding that “culture doesn’t happen overnight but through time.” The ritual planting includes prayers for healing, offerings to ancestors, and the creation of clay vessels (ollas) —an ancient southwestern technology. Underlying the afternoon is a theme of humility and gratitude, with Keido sharing another dichos from his grandmother: “Some people don’t plant one seed, but they want to eat the best corn… Don’t be like that one.” This gathering represents both agricultural practice and spiritual communion, honoring the original inhabitants of the land while fostering cultural resilience through the “medicine of the land.”
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In this session of Planting Life, Mayan archaeoastronomer Alonso Méndez reveals the profound astronomical knowledge embedded in ancient Mesoamerican civilization. Drawing from his decades of research at Palenque, Méndez traces how corn became not just sustenance but the foundation of an entire cosmology that linked human life cycles to celestial movements. He explains the remarkable relationship that corn’s 105-day growing season perfectly complements the human gestation period of 260 days to create a full year—a cosmic coincidence that became the basis for the Maya calendar and worldview. Through detailed analysis of temple alignments and hieroglyphic inscriptions, Méndez demonstrates how Maya rulers synchronized their coronations and ceremonies with zenith passages, lunar standstills, and seasonal markers, creating what he calls “sacred architecture of time.” This session reveals how ancient astronomers achieved scientific breakthroughs by calculating forward and backward through astronomical cycles, embedding their creation mythology in stone monuments oriented to celestial events. As Méndez reflects on his teacher Don Antonio, the last traditional keeper of these practices, he emphasizes that “we should all learn to become true persons” who hold the center and maintain the sacred relationship between earth and sky. Alonso offers a stunning dive into how indigenous knowledge systems integrated practical agriculture, sophisticated astronomy, and spiritual practice into a unified understanding of human place in the cosmos.
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In this session, Roshi Joan Halifax, Troy Keido Fernandez, Sensei Wendy Johnson, and Alonso Mendez open the annual Planting Life program at Upaya Zen Center. Roshi welcomes in-person and online participants to this sacred gathering that honors ancestral wisdom and earth-based practice. She shares the story of the valley Upaya is nestled in and of the Tewa peoples who have and continue to steward the land in these challenging times. Roshi offers that “this is a ceremony, and it is a ceremony in a way that marks the coming together of worlds” – bridging indigenous traditions with Buddhist practice through the rematriation (a returning) of ancestral seeds to Roxanne Swentzell of Santa Clara Pueblo. Wendy Johnson, joining virtually as a new grandmother, guides participants in earth-touching meditation, reminding us from Keido’s talk yesterday that “seeds change themselves in relationship to where they’re planted” – she adds “so let us change and be changed by the ancestors, by the old voice.” Keido reflects on querencia and herencia – which translate to the places that love us into being and the wisdom passed down through generations, asking what is our ancestral inheritance? Alonso, with touching truth, shares the power of speaking directly to the Earth. He says “put your hands back in the soil, where they belong” and “make the soil tender for the little seeds we plant.” The evening concludes with Roshi and participants singing the meal gata, honoring the land and beings who nourish us.
To access the resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here.

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Cynthia Ryotan explores the ancient Zen poem “The Mind of Absolute Trust” or “Xinxin Ming.” She unpacks how our preferences “chop up our lives and create suffering,” from minor choices like vanilla vs. chocolate to major political divisions that can feel “like a cleaver coming down.” Ryotan challenges us to examine our attachment to preferences, explaining how “that brutality, that harshness, that a cleaver can bring, come down in that moment [of preference] and can separate us from peace and ease and wellbeing.” Rather than living trapped in this cycle of separation and grasping, she explains that all our experiences are actually underpinned by oneness: “Just at the same time, the waters of the absolute are right here up at our chin level, and we could drink endlessly out of the absolute.”
Ryotan connects these waters of ease and relief to our sitting practice, saying “this is why we do zazen, to put ourselves in the way of having these glimpses into the absolute.” Moving away from rigid dualism, she reminds us how we might find balance between these forces: “I have no control or extraordinarily little control over what happens to me in my life, but I have complete control over how I respond to it. That is our freedom and that is our liberation.” Ultimately, Ryotan and the poem “The Mind of Absolute Trust” are calling us to cultivate faith and trust in our ability to be nourished by the absolute while remaining in skillful service to our relative lives and relative world.

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Kodo explores the concept of impermanence as it relates to love, loss, and appreciation through the Portuguese word saudade – the inseparable feelings of sorrow and joy that arise from loss, and the Japanese phrase mono no aware, the slender sadness, or the inseparability of beauty and impermanence. Kodo shares his own recent encounter with saudade and aware in the uncertain moments with Roshi Joan before her heart surgery just two days prior. Kodo invites us to imagine saying goodbye to someone we love, asking ourselves “what if this might really be the last time I’m with them?”
Through relatable musings about our “techno-capitalist regime that’s built to make money by harvesting your attention” and reflecting on amygdala-tapping algorithms that make it possible, Kodo makes the point that “these forms of media are really unhappy-making at the very least. And at their most harmful, they’re extremely destructive.” Weaving through the attention markets of modern capitalism and ancient Buddhist canon, Kodo questions how we should really take in the teachings of non-attachment.
Pulling from the Pali Maha Parinibbāna Sutta to see how attachment was expressed at the time of Buddha’s death, Kodo reads “the arhats mindful and clearly comprehending, reflected in this way: Impermanent are all compounded things. How could this be otherwise?” adding for comedic effect: “And they were chill.” Kodo comments: “How does that strike you? I mean, a little odd, isn’t it? …Is that why we’re practicing, so that when our most cherished loved one dies, we can be like, “everything is impermanent?” I don’t think so.” Kodo instead advocates for sincere engagement with our circumstances, quoting Gary Shishn Wick’s commentary on case 58 of the Book of Equanimity: “…Zen is not about killing all feelings and becoming anesthetized or numb to pain and fear. Zen is about being free to scream loudly and fully when it is time to scream; when it is time to scream we scream. When it is time to laugh we laugh…”
Rather than numbing ourselves to life’s fragility, Kodo invites us to let the bittersweet recognition of impermanence awaken us to the preciousness of each moment we share.

In this Wednesday Night Public Dharma Talk, resident practitioner Hunt Anshin Hoffman offers his first Dharma talk relating to his path and relationship with practice (way seeking mind talk). Anshin begins by invoking the 13th century German mystic Meister Eckhart’s insight: “when we seek ways to God, we find ways but lose God.” This sets the tone for Anshin’s exploration of a “practice that’s not quite a practice” but rather “life itself.” Anshin demonstrates his deep engagement with practice through the ease in which he brings quotes and teachings from different traditions under the same roof. Referencing teachers from Meister Eckhart’s concept of “releasement”, Bankei’s teaching on “the unborn,” and contemporary masters like Drodrup Chen Rinpoche, Anshin explores how “activating the mind without dwelling on anything is the essential message of the whole canon.” Anshin shares his own transformative experience in which he is pulled from his negative thought spiral by a voice who commands, “Just stop talking to yourself!”. We are reminded that while practice is simple and always available, zazen provides essential training in embodiment, freeing us from objectifying ourselves or our practice as means to other ends.

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Keido Troy Fernandez, a 13th generation native New Mexican and Zen priest at Upaya, tenderly weaves together ancestral wisdom, land-based practice, and Buddhist teachings. Drawing from his grandmother’s dichos (sayings) and experiences from a lifetime of practice, he explores the boundless courage of a planted seed and the persistence and mystery of the life that gives and grows us. Keido shares a remark from Tewa native, artist, and activist Roxanne Swentzell: “The seeds themselves change in relationship to the land where they’re planted”—which he offers as a metaphor for how dharma adapts and evolves through cultures while maintaining its essence, reflecting on the many ways we come to hear the dharma. Through stories ranging from visits to Japan’s ancient temples to his father’s irrigation work, Keido emphasizes that “Ancestors, the ancient Buddhist ones, whether in Japan or … the ones in our personal family or lineage, are not out there somewhere relegated to the past. They are here, always here, in you and me.” In closing, Keido connects Mark Nepo’s “The Courage of the Seed” to the Buddhist practice of surrender, inviting us to surrender as the seed does to the unknowable process that enables growth and ultimately our liberation… “Do not be afraid, life always gives to life.”

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Roshi Jan Chozen Bays provides a grounded and practical reflection on the teaching of impermanence. She explores impermanence (anicca) as one of Buddhism’s three fundamental marks of existence and guides us through both the challenges and gifts of impermanence. Drawing on personal stories and examples from music to cherry blossoms, and engaging with comments from participants, Roshi Chozen discusses how our suffering often stems from fighting reality by perpetuating the thought “this shouldn’t be happening.” Chozen suggests that rather than anxiously anticipating when things will break or go wrong, we take up the perspective of seeing “everything as already broken”—which allows us to savor what is currently in our life, transforming attachment into appreciation. Chozen examines the pace of impermanence in current events and global conflicts, suggesting that accepting the truth of impermanence can open our hearts to compassion for others facing this rapid change in more acute ways, helping us recognize the privilege and stability that exists in our lives. Through practical meditation techniques, including working with pain and cultivating “just now mind,” we are encouraged to see how we can balance thinking and awareness to find stability within change. Essentially, seeing the inherent fragility in all things paradoxically allows us to appreciate their preciousness more fully, allowing for peace in the tension of opposites. Roshi Chozen offers the promise that through practice, we can maintain a baseline of equanimity while remaining engaged with the world’s suffering and transformation.