Buffalo Tail: A Story of Continuous Practice

Buffalo Tail: A Story of Continuous Practice

From Podcasts | Upaya Zen Center by Joan Halifax | Zen Buddhist Teacher Upaya Abbot

May 25, 2026 · 38 min

About this episode

Sensei Dainin discusses the intersection of western medicine and Zen practice, emphasizing the importance of compassion and connection in facing life's challenges.

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Dainin — emergency physician turned dharma teacher — explores what western medicine trains us to suppress and what Zen practice invites us to reclaim. Tracing her own path from clinical dissociation to a reawakening of compassion and connection at Upaya’s Being with Dying training, she turns to the well known koan of a water buffalo whose tail catches in a lattice window. Where we instinctively see a problem to solve, Dainin identifies this caught tail as an image of the fixing impulse itself: the urge to suppress or solve rather than turn and face what holds us: “The part that makes us human, that little tiny tail that’s preventing us from going beyond, is what allows us to care, to come alongside, and to vow these impossible vows to save all beings, to alleviate suffering.” What catches us, she teaches, can become what connects us. She reflects on a year in which being with dying became personal — and how non-conceptual practice carried her through what clinical knowledge could not.

People in this episode

Host: Joan Halifax

Guest: Sensei Dainin

Topics covered

  • Zen practice
  • compassion
  • connection
  • western medicine
  • dharma talk
  • koan

Keywords

  • Zen
  • dharma
  • compassion
  • western medicine
  • koan
  • practice
  • suffering

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Upaya Zen Center

Books & works: Being with Dying

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