https://youtu.be/_UNoDgeRB5IOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/mB8tqc_K3xoOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/CRwXazx3s8YOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/v3OKQKAr6JwOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/9KESGDMo7w4Oleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/d4jiZHX_bWoOleh Sokuzan

Prajna is sometimes called mirror-like; it’s reflecting back the mystery of the whole thing. You can’t know what this is. Everything that’s showing up in your life is unreal. You can continue to look at everything and just receive it.https://youtu.be/DAKI8feFhxkOleh Sokuzan

The inspiration of the bodhisattva path is at the core of our practice. Chiezan talks about ground, path and fruition, and the first paramita of generosity. We are beginning to transition from a poverty mentality to a mentality of abundance.https://youtu.be/0B2jCWLKpKc?si=QWFHuwB75Ci4vcWPOleh Sokuzan

We are conditioned to make assumptions. We live in a consensus reality. The Buddhist path encourages us to begin to look beyond the reasonable aspects of our phenomenal world, to see non-duality, beyond the fear of groundlessness or spaciousness.https://youtu.be/wXCl9ZbA0FcOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/T5EfdwVKTEEOleh Sokuzan

Be responsible for your mind stream without adding your personal condiments to everything. Grasping comes out of desire, which stops the awareness, the wisdom mind. The response is just to include and observe the desire. There is no formula or standard there.https://youtu.be/DCRwdQrI87cOleh Sokuzan

This is a way of looking at not attaching to what arises. Don’t buy in, but also don’t dismiss or reject it. Don’t take any position on anything. This is very difficult to do. Have some consideration for the energy that’s moving around in your kitchen or in your mind stream. If you’re training your mind, you will know if you need to do something.ht…

The fundamental issue is the suffering, anxiety and difficulty we run into, sometimes with no apparent cause. We are trying to squeeze some happiness out of samsara. You can’t fix it. This is the illusion you need to see. If you see this, nothing will be running your life.https://youtu.be/kL1GDEqPOS4…

https://youtu.be/hFsLWvYa-boOleh Sokuzan

Pre-order Sokuzan's newest book, Sixty Second Sokuzan: 52 one-minute Zen Buddhist teachings HERE:https://www.sokukoji.org/product-page/sixty-second-sokuzanVideo-link of this talk:https://youtu.be/y_G5Bnewd6cOleh Sokuzan

We tend to believe what shows up in our minds; it feels safer and more comfortable. The teaching here is that it’s an illusion. Just believing that this is an illusion doesn’t mean that it won’t continue to delude you. The two fundamental areas we need to see clearly are belief in a self as a separate being and belief that there is an other. It nee…

https://youtu.be/c_CLjo_LB1oOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/NayGP3EIm8sOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/nv_mOJgqSLkOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/le_DOmAOGAAOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/sdhy91flxSQOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/dNrbbJaN4XIOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/kdk1uBpma6cOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/6iDljPcOHjwOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/bHtuD_wOOToOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/HcRAn1ykQ8kOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/n39BN8-hryQOleh Sokuzan

Instead of trying to do things out in the world, go within. Slow down, sit still, and watch the continued, very subtle movement in your mind stream. Everything is dependently arisen.https://youtu.be/GY_RGOZW3hsOleh Sokuzan

This talk title is a line from a classical text in Soto Zen literature: verse 20 in the Book of Serenity. You don’t have to know anything, but you have to study and receive everything. Stop responding out of some kind of interpretation based on your conflicting emotions about the nature of reality.https://youtu.be/UyazzC2VUIY…

Part of a series of talks, this is the first of the four reminders that return our minds to the dharma. First contemplate the preciousness of being free and well favored: our precious human birth.https://youtu.be/bS-I4YKTWGgOleh Sokuzan

Look at the confusion without stories about how to fix it. You have no control - that’s the illusion we are buying in to.https://youtu.be/ge8O5KtNb4UOleh Sokuzan

Chiezan answers students’ questions about meditation and practice in this Q and A format.https://youtu.be/LKihlG3Im60Oleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/dx6SF9YCLhAOleh Sokuzan

In Buddhism there are six or sometimes ten paramitas (perfections). The first paramita is dana, or the traditional gesture of giving, particularly to the monastic community through alms and material goods. What makes it a little different from a more traditional generosity is there is nothing transactional about it. One gives freely without expecti…

https://youtu.be/-wN3iNYbNM0Oleh Sokuzan

You don’t have to be a Buddhist, but this is so important: you need to find the truth, to be aware, to donate your awareness to everything. You can’t maintain it. There’s no correct way to do this. Just return. Awareness doesn’t go anywhere.https://youtu.be/0B7p83GHdh0Oleh Sokuzan

In this Q & A format, a student asks, “What is the meaning of our precept of no attaching to fruition (fulfillment)?” Sokuzan answers, “See how you’re attached to outcomes. It’s about observing the attachment, not some kind of a standard that you have not live up to.”https://youtu.be/er7-o6RCWggOleh Sokuzan

These questions from students include, “What is the meaning of the sixteenth Karmapa’s teaching that nothing happens?” What appears to be happening is an illusion. There are many ways to talk about this apparent singularity that doesn’t last.https://youtu.be/CjTvfQuY0VoOleh Sokuzan

Sokuzan answers more questions from sangha in this Q and A formatted talk: What creates other? “Fear.” What creates fear? “Believing your thoughts and emotions.”https://youtu.be/QW1TBBgx-nIOleh Sokuzan

A student asks: “If we don’t do anything with what’s arising, does that mean we're not functioning out of what’s arising?” If you see what is actually happening, you won’t do much: no commentary, just receive whatever shows up.https://youtu.be/Qr9L5lRMWmwOleh Sokuzan

If whatever shows up is what we need to see, does that include pushing away what’s showing up? What is the difference between meditation and sitting still? Sokuzan answers students questions about practice and meditation.https://youtu.be/iApaJciDuwMOleh Sokuzan

Questions from sangha include how to keep going on the path, and, "What is perception without a self?" Consciousness masquerades as a self.https://youtu.be/tlnizqfwkBUOleh Sokuzan

https://youtu.be/hpm34zAUBCYOleh Sokuzan

You don’t have to stop your thoughts, but you do have to relate to them clearly and sanely. A teaching that might help you do that is alternating sense awareness practice (ASAP). This is about including, in particular the five sense fields of touch, sight, hearing, smelling and tasting.https://youtu.be/qEF6622JtCU…

The projecting part is thinking things occur because of our interpretation of the situation. We conclude without really looking beyond our thoughts about it. Only awareness sees beyond thought. Thought is trapped by thought.https://youtu.be/G3ruIm_Uqz0Oleh Sokuzan

These are opinions or structures we use to protect self-centeredness and to reify and reinforce that we are someone going somewhere and doing something, which is also ego. The impulse is to stop it. Just try to be aware of what’s happening rather than trying to control it.https://youtu.be/qhw3tZVIa1k…

Something happens and instead of just receiving what that is, we comment on it: thinking, judging, concluding. Rarely do we receive something as it is, unless it’s so intense, we can’t help but receive it. It’s not about getting rid of anything; it’s about awareness.https://youtu.be/vc8g21FbGjIOleh Sokuzan

A reading from the Majima Nikaya, the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, speaks about the bondage and shackles of of theorizing. The Buddha said, “It does not lead to nirvana; This is the danger I perceive in these views, which makes me discard them all.“https://youtu.be/1QTfjFiqwPIOleh Sokuzan

Empty of Other is a third turning teaching. The otherness is what confuses the self-centeredness and gives the illusion that you have some say so about things. That doesn’t mean there isn’t something here, but it’s not a centralized entity, a ‘me’ with some kind of credential. Bodies come and go - you don’t go anywhere.https://youtu.be/Q8K3pgIDnew…

It’s very important to just observe. We never can look at what something actually is. We add on things; what that is and, and almost imperceptibly, the person who is looking at it. We create an individual over and over again. Not only is what it looking at is unreal but that which is being looked at or observed is unreal.https://youtu.be/0OJvaOL0xx…