SokukoJi Buddhist Temple Monastery
913 episodes - English - Latest episode: 18 days ago - ★★★★★ - 19 ratingsA Sōtō Zen Buddhist Temple. Visit: SokukoJi.org
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Episodes
Save All Beings - By Sokuzan - Saturday, March 31, 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
April 03, 2018 12:00 - 43.5 MB“I vow to save all beings”, or as it is also said “I vow to be with all things” is to the vow that the bodhisattva takes to put others before one’s self. Of all the precepts if you were to just observe that vow completely, the rest of the vows and precepts could dissolve into that one because you would be just looking out for the welfare of others, not based on your opinion but based on perception. You perceive an apparent other and at the same time, if you are training your mind, you will a...
Deconstruct Ego - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, March 28, 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
April 02, 2018 12:38 - 40 MBYou can’t decide to become selfless, you can only see that the self never existed in the first place. Deconstruct ego by seeing the way that it is built. The five skandhas, the twelve links and other Buddhist teachings are ways to look at the structure. Sitting meditation is away to observe outside of any belief system. See what the energy of hope and fear is. Eventually you see that there is no solid self. If you see the construction, it deconstructs itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Exercise The Awareness - By Sokuzan - Sunday March 25 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
March 28, 2018 12:13 - 35.7 MBWe lift weights and run to exercise muscles. How do you exercise awareness? You sit down and you find the separation between thinking and awareness. See it without meddling with it. If you just see it, the thought process will re-prioritize itself. It’s like it minds. It minds because the awareness is finally becoming the priority in your life. You’re starting to lead your life with your awareness instead of the thought process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXsnKqFMGzo
The Three Modes - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, March 21, 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
March 26, 2018 13:58 - 42.9 MBThe Three Modes is a basic teaching of Yogacara or Cittamatra, the consciousness-only school of Buddhism. It is three kinds of ways of talking about and contemplating the nature of existence. Paratantra is the dependently arisen nature. Parikaplita is the imaginary nature where we impute meaning on what is dependently arisen. Parinishpana is the perfected nature, when we see what is fundamentally true, which is empty of what we project onto it. If you see there is not a self or an other anyw...
More Giving and Receiving - By Sokuzan - Sunday, March 18, 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
March 21, 2018 14:16 - 29.6 MBThe kind of generosity that is often overlooked is giving your attention to everything. Look at what is happening in front of you and in your mind and receive that. Don’t put up obstacles to what is coming towards you by having ideas, opinions and judgement before the situation even shows up. Anytime you interpret anything you actually prevent it from being what it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsXG1gzIBQA
Giving and Receiving Part 2 - By Sokuzan at Traverse City - Saturday, March 17, 2018
March 21, 2018 14:15 - 34.4 MBPractice receiving. How do we do that? Sit down, hold still, and notice how we keep objecting to everything. Eventually we see where that’s coming from and when you see where that’s coming from, that starts to release too. You can’t release it, it releases itself. That’s how we train ourselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xnKTKjc18s
Giving and Receiving - By Sokuzan at Traverse City Part 1 - Saturday March 17 2018
March 21, 2018 12:36 - 55 MBA profound and subtle form of generosity is giving everything your attention. If you endeavor to give your attention in your awareness practice, you’ll notice what a tremendous and amazing situation is coming towards you. Whatever is happening, just receive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBS4lFI5fQg
Drop One Fist - By Sokuzan - Wednesday March 14, 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
March 20, 2018 14:09 - 38.5 MBWe get angry anger. It is a way to protect the self-centeredness. If you find yourself in an angry fit, do nothing with that. The very energy of forcing down anger adds to the strength of the aggression. At the same time, the energy of expressing anger reinforces the delusion, the emotional proof that “I exist”. Practice sitting and doing nothing with the anger. If awareness is strong, it won’t support someone who is mad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gceCQ_0BLqY
Angry At Anger - By Sokuzan - Sunday, March 11, 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
March 12, 2018 13:43 - 28.9 MBWe get angry anger. It is a way to protect the self-centeredness. If you find yourself in an angry fit, do nothing with that. The very energy of forcing down anger adds to the strength of the aggression. At the same time, the energy of expressing anger reinforces the delusion, the emotional proof that “I exist”. Practice sitting and doing nothing with the anger. If awareness is strong, it won’t support someone who is mad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gceCQ_0BLqY
Refine The Perception - By Sokuzan - Wednesday March 7 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
March 09, 2018 13:31 - 35.2 MBRefine the perception. When we see what is out there then turn the witness around to see the identify of what witnesses, there is really no space between those two. When you see what is true in the perception only the actual identity of the subject and the identity of the object collapse into the perception. You can actually live your life that way and if you do, the world changes quite a bit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUPvq6b3_Zc
Its Still Complicated - By Sokuzan - Sunday March 4 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
March 06, 2018 17:38 - 34.7 MBWatch how the mind keeps making up stuff. The ego mind wants to sort it out based on belief. The constant chatter in our own minds is just the surface. It’s complicated. What’s being recommended here is to simplify. Sit down, hold still and watch the complications come and go. Don’t personalize them, and don’t depersonalize them. Don’t try to control your mind based on hope and fear. Direct perception is without the intermediary of passion, aggression and ignorance, which can’t live in the...
Crosstalk Under It Over It - By Sokuzan - Wednesday February 28 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
March 01, 2018 15:26 - 42 MBCrosstalk: It could be various aspects of your own consciousness interacting, it could be between you and someone else while one of you or both are caught up in your ideas about things, or it could be between two people you are observing. When you find you are distressed, you could go under it. Move into your five senses and drop into awareness of your body. It’s not about feeling comfortable, it’s about being present. You could go over it; rest in the nature of alaya, the very nature of c...
A Unit Of Consciousness Is Not A Self - By Sokuzan - Sunday February 25 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
March 01, 2018 12:21 - 28.6 MBJust because there is a unitary feeling happening in consciousness does not mean that it needs to congeal into an identify that is ongoing and needs protection. Look closely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrUQ3veSFg0
Confidence, Relative And Unconditional - By Sokuzan - Saturday February 24 2018 - sokukoji.org
February 27, 2018 12:22 - 41.7 MBhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23qcGHruItw
Incomplete Inquiry - By Sokuzan - Wednesday February 21 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
February 26, 2018 14:05 - 32.3 MBWhat is this? A part of the consciousness that is in the way of the perception is actually filtering out direct perception of what life is. Incomplete inquiry. The seventh consciousness, the ego mind, tends to be the gatekeeper. With some intention to live a sane, awakened life, we need to look at how insane and unawake we are. The power of shikantaza, or zazen, starts to operate because we repeatedly do that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G749dNk1p7M
It Is Not Reasonable - by Sokuzan - Sunday February 18, 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
February 19, 2018 13:15 - 19 MBWe’re always thinking about something. Quite often we find ourselves thinking about meditating rather than meditating. Am I doing this right? Should I be doing something else? Shouldn’t I feel better? The practice of meditation includes the thinking about meditation. Train your mind to see very clearly what is going on beyond your thought patterns, so that when you get up off of the cushion, some of that clarity comes along. The feeling you might be having when that occurs is being less ...
Thinkin About Meditation - by Sokuzan - Wednesday February 14, 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
February 16, 2018 12:58 - 28.2 MBWe’re always thinking about something. Quite often we find ourselves thinking about meditating rather than meditating. Am I doing this right? Should I be doing something else? Shouldn’t I feel better? The practice of meditation includes the thinking about meditation. Train your mind to see very clearly what is going on beyond your thought patterns, so that when you get up off of the cushion, some of that clarity comes along. The feeling you might be having when that occurs is being less ...
Meditation is Action Part Six - by Sokuzan - Sunday February 11 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
February 15, 2018 12:28 - 11.6 MBYour life is like a stage. Leave that stage and sharpen the blade of awareness so that when you go back onto the stage you are much more clear about what your part is in everything. You are better off at minding your business and working with your own mind rather than evaluating other people’s activity. Seeing the complete inappropriateness of trying to control…. this is renunciation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjNLRBafxzU
Mountains and Rivers - by Sokuzan in Traverse City - Saturday February 10 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
February 14, 2018 12:26 - 26 MBSokozan discusses impromptu question and answer sessions that take place at the monastery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgBLfEfyiOc
Truth is Not a Fact - by Sokuzan in Traverse City - Saturday February 10, 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
February 13, 2018 12:22 - 36.4 MBIn the relative situation, whatever is true has its opposite. That’s how we know about it, through contrast. In our minds we are looking for facts we can believe in to secure our identity. When we sit down in meditation and watch our thoughts come and go, we are endeavoring to see what is true for ourselves, the Truth that has no opposite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oQrr4wQ_PE
When Ego Trains Ego - by Sokuzan - February 7, 2018 - http://sokukoji.org
February 12, 2018 13:23 - 28.5 MBWhen ego trains ego, you’re being trained by the person you want to get rid of. Meditation opens up the dynamic of “Me me me!” Sit down and hold still until it becomes obvious. You don’t have to be anyone else. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW9T2AVKuCk
When Others Are Wrong - By Sokuzan - Sunday, February 4, 2018 - http://SokukoJi.org
February 06, 2018 15:45 - 27.6 MBIt is difficult to be work with someone when there is chatter in your mind about how incorrect they are. It’s a judgement that you really don’t have any control over because it’s already on top of you before you can give it some space. If you can’t see entirely all the causes of everything then you could ask the question “what is that?” As soon as you come to a conclusion you shut down on the awareness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qlE8VaSP10
The Two Veils - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, January 31, 2018 - SokukoJi.org
February 05, 2018 15:14 - 39.9 MBThe two veils-conflicting emotions and primitive beliefs-prevent us from seeing what is already the case: that you are already liberated and that you are not separate from the Buddha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=preXCLKpNfs
Intimacy - By Sokuzan - Sunday, January 28, 2018 - SokukoJi.org
January 29, 2018 15:24 - 31.7 MBWhat does it look like to become more intimate with ourselves? One way would be by not abandoning anything, not moving towards or away from anything or assuming anything. The traditional word for this is “sunyata” or emptiness. Emptiness does not mean absent. Emptiness means no longer insisting on separation based on how you feel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCpPJ7vBCPo
Why, How, What - By Sokuzan - Saturday, January 27, 2018 - SokukoJi.org
January 29, 2018 15:21 - 37.3 MBIf you ask “why”, you are looking for “because”, it is very circular. It is similar with how. When you ask “what” it is more direct. If something comes back you keep asking “What is that” and it automatically reduces and reduces to it’s most subtle elements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU1oQ5tAVLA
Cultural Constructions - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, January 24, 2018 - SokukoJi.org
January 25, 2018 17:42 - 35.8 MBIf you really want to see the truth about things, look at the cultural deceptions. The basic misunderstanding of the nature of reality is the assumption that there is someone here who sees someone out there. The sitting practice of meditation as a spiritual path is a way to use attention to observe cultural constructions arise before there is a problem with it. Train your mind so that the mind starts to seep out in front of the thought process. If you lead with your awareness, you won’t kn...
Include, Don't Conclude - By Sokuzan - Sunday, January 21, 2018 - SokukoJi.org
January 25, 2018 17:40 - 27.8 MBWhen things arise that you want to get rid of, negative thoughts, emotions feeling...please, give yourself a break and include it. Don’t conclude. Wait awhile. Hold your seat. Look at it. Don’t buy into the thought patterns coming out of your self-centeredness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txa6ZjmBO4g
Ego Blinders - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, January 17, 2018 - SokukoJi.org
January 25, 2018 17:38 - 37 MBEgo blinders is a way to describe looking for what we want, looking for what we want to find. If you were in a room full of gold and you were blinded by your self-centeredness, you would be looking for what you want to find....you could walk through this whole room of gold and never see the gold because you are so swamped by your own preconceptions about what you think it should be, what you think you really want, what you think is desirous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvuLXnHM5cg
It's Complicated - By Sokuzan - Sunday, January 14, 2018 - SokukoJi.org
January 25, 2018 17:31 - 33.8 MBSimplify. Sit down. Strike the bell. Hold still, and with the attitude of simplicity allow the complications to arrive. Don’t make it more complicated by trying to control your thoughts. If you really could control your thoughts wouldn’t you just have happy ones? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbwgtnXQUY4
Drop Down, Rise Up - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - SokukoJi.org
January 25, 2018 17:27 - 47.6 MBWe project that there is thinking up in the head, and fear down in the gut. Drop down, rise up between fretting and worrying. What if you were just in the heart? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvnZMzD0hkk
What Are We Training - By Sokuzan - Sunday, January 7, 2017 - SokukoJi.org
January 25, 2018 17:19 - 31.7 MBWe are training our mind. How do we do that? Sit down, hold still, and watch what moves. Body and mind are more connected than you think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bliJizgBw_o
Not Detected Or Measured - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, January 3, 2018 - SokukoJi.org
January 25, 2018 17:17 - 39.6 MBhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai7WytSobtc
Open Interviews - By Sokuzan - Sunday, December 31, 2017 - SokukoJi.org
January 25, 2018 12:40 - 25.3 MBSokuzan responds to questions in open interviews with several close students. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flJckU37ZTw
Svabhava - By Sokuzan - Saturday, December 30, 2017 - SokukoJi.org
January 24, 2018 12:20 - 54.5 MB“Svabhava” is a Sanskrit work that means “own-being” or “self”. “Nisvabhava” mean there is no self, no self in the skandhas of form, feeling perception, memory and consciousness. Don’t lock down on one way or the other, and at the same time, don’t look away. Examine this feeling of a self. What is this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYwy8o_T7yo
Within Enlightenment - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - SokukoJi.org
January 23, 2018 12:28 - 35.5 MBSokuzan reads and teaches from a line in “The Precious Treasury of The Basic Space of Phenomena” by Longchen Rabjam, a fourteenth century teacher of Dzogchen: Within enlightenment, awareness without transition or change, the universe of appearances and possibilities, whether of samsara or nirvana, arises with nothing to renounce or attain. In the experience of yogins who do not perceive things dualistically, the fact that things manifest without truly existing is so amazing that they burst...
Perception Is Not Proof - By Sokuzan - Sunday, December 24, 2017 - SokukoJi.org
January 22, 2018 15:50 - 30.7 MBPerception is not proof. If it is, it is without doubt. It is beyond this and that, beyond opinion, fact and fiction and is called vijnapti-matra, the Sanskrit for perception or consciousness only. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0ZkrCbmnS4
I Need Help - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, December 20, 2017 http://sokukoji.org
January 08, 2018 16:25 - 43.2 MBSokuzan talks about asking for help, receiving help, and responding when we are asked to help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az8H2R9jH5w
Why Chant the Sutras and do the Forms - By Sokuzan - Sunday, December 17, 2017 - http://SokukoJi.org
January 04, 2018 14:33 - 39.8 MBWhy Chant Sutras and Do the Forms? We put ourselves in the Form so we can understand one of the profound teachings of Mahayana Buddhism: Emptiness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi1Mn9O3U5k
Don't Weaponize Emotions - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, December 13, 2017 - http://sokukoji.org
January 03, 2018 16:19 - 38.4 MBDon’t weaponize emotions. How do we do this? You actually have to witness your activity of aggression. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDLKatj8770
Leavers Of Home - By Sokuzan - Sunday, December 10, 2017 - http://sokukoji.org
December 12, 2017 12:36 - 28.6 MBLeaving home can be moving away from your physical home or it can be moving away from your concepts and preconceptions. You show up and open all the doors and practice receiving whatever is happening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhFuUCMVE_Y
Action, Gross, and Subtle - by Sokuzan - Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - SokukoJi
December 11, 2017 14:21 - 32.1 MBDuring SokukoJi's annual Rohatsu Sesshin, Sokuzan helps retreat attendants investigate and explore the contrast between gross action, or karma, and the subtle action in the form of thoughts that precede. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnGoD_jUm7M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_gPxiBiV8I
Action, Gross and Subtle - By Sokuzan - Sunday, December 3, 2017 - http://sokukoji.org
December 04, 2017 13:28 - 30.3 MBhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5VP3rKjiJY
Streetwise Mind - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, November 29, 2017 - http://sokukoji.org
December 01, 2017 13:48 - 70.8 MBIf anything happens out in the environment that is completely unpredictable, you may not have time to rely on your usual thinking protocol. Strengthen your awareness, so that when you do go out into your life and the unexpected happens you lead with your “streetwise mind”. That might look like not knowing what to do next, and you don’t mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeGCx3izA_c
Chemtrails Of The Mind - By Sokuzan - Sunday, November 26, 2017 - http://sokukoji.org
November 29, 2017 12:46 - 32 MBThe causes and conditions that rise up in the atmosphere are still way too complicated to fully understand, but there seems to be a deliberate stirring up of all kinds of things to cover up or control what is really happening. Train your mind. Use the environment of sitting meditation to see the chemtrails of your mind, your own blockages in the form of beliefs and disbeliefs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNE03xtjoNs
Don't Quiet The Mind - By Sokuzan - Saturday, November 25, 2017 - http://sokukoji.org
November 28, 2017 13:16 - 46.2 MBDon’t quiet the mind. Trying to control what’s happening in the mind by way of techniques like following the breath, reciting mantras and labeling thinking is a subtle form of spiritual materialism. When you do formal sitting meditation, don’t interfere with the very dynamic of thoughts and memories that you really need to witness. Train your mind to be with all things. This is the practice of shikantaza, the teaching of Zen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJo6P6f-3yk
Smart Phones - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, November 22, 2017 - http://sokukoji.org
November 27, 2017 20:33 - 43.2 MBIs there a middle way with smart phones and social media? Is there a way to do just a little bit? There is no particular formula for that other than to train your mind, see the crud that is in the way of the truth and don’t be fooled by what pops up; don’t believe it, don’t disbelieve it, and don’t look away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5cAK5LjiKY
More Do Zen Don'ts - By Sokuzan - Sunday, November 19, 2017 - http://sokukoji.org
November 20, 2017 16:11 - 33.8 MBDo get into the zendo and do meditate. Don’t follow the breath, and don’t ignore the breath either. Do use the natural reference point of the body. Then, whatever arises, don’t do anything. Don’t add. Don’t subtract. Don’t divide. Don’t take away its original value. It takes a while. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7zr3xaGjm4
Don't Conclude - By Sokuzan - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - http://sokukoji.org
November 17, 2017 19:27 - 39 MBWhat is the motivation or intention of jumping to conclusions? Be generous with the space that is called your mind. If you bring your awareness on the cushion it will invisibly and mysteriously infiltrate your life. You can actually have an open dimension there. Be willing to rest in the space between belief and disbelief. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95MPmVsaYwY
Zombie Thoughts - By Sokuzan - Sunday November 12, 2017 - http://sokukoji.org
November 17, 2017 12:27 - 31.2 MBHow can we work with our minds when we keep resurrecting something that is over with? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNv3CNJy5Mo
Lead With Awareness - By Sokuzan - Saturday November 11, 2017 - http://sokukoji.org
November 16, 2017 14:23 - 35.7 MBWe are generally taught in life to lead with our thinking. This is not necessarily a problem, but we tend to over-do it, but thinking is generally based on partial evidence. Sometimes thinking takes you further down the rabbit hole of difficulty and anxiety. Sokuzan talks about how to train your mind to strengthen the awareness so that when you go into a situation you lead with your awareness rather than a group of thoughts based on hope and fear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndbbgturtos