The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/8/26 - When we are complete within ourselves, nothing is left aside as unimportant. All of it is important. We can look to the great bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, as one who does not make any distinctions whatsoever. All things have their skillful use, can be turned toward benefit, even those most difficult things, those most challenging moments. What we do moment to moment is what makes the path of practice and realization possible. How do we manifest compassion? By looking to what we do, moment to moment, as a very real living vow. - From Master Dogen's 300 Koan Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye), Case 105 - "The Hands and Eyes of Great Compassion"

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/1/26 - What did Vimalakirti say when Manjushri asked him to speak? In our own lives, how do we find freedom amid the dualities we encounter—sick or well, right or wrong, left or right? And what does the nonduality of form and emptiness reveal? When nothing stands opposed, where is the other side? In this talk, Shugen Roshi explores the nonduality of wisdom and compassion, and the selfless quality that makes each inseparable from the other. - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 84: Vimalakirti's Gate of Nonduality.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 2/22/26 - Known by many different names throughout the Buddhist world—Avalokitesvara, Kwan Yin, Kannon—they are the hearer of the cries of the world. This being embodies that compelling ability to relieve all suffering and lead beings to complete, perfect enlightenment. Unburdened, we are thereby able to free others and ourselves from suffering. Learning to not create these states in the first place, is the hard work of practice. Perfection is a given, but we still need to realize it ourselves. The third talk on metta, lovingkindness, given by Shugen Roshi during the February sesshin.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Osho - ZMM - 2/19/26 - Coming into the experience of our emotions and thoughts, we can find the way our minds shape our experience from one moment to the next. If we’re not grounded in this embodied experience, and willing to feel our feelings, we may tend to push them away or numb ourselves. This informal talk given during February sesshin invites us to gently and directly feel what we are experiencing, body and mind, and begin to free ourselves from the endless proliferation and ruminating, and rather lead us toward spaciousness and freedom.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 2/15/26 - All along the bodhisattva path, we make vows to serve others. When the conditions of our lives grow difficult—when stress feels real and urgent—these vows become more vivid and deeply personal. Shugen Roshi shares stories and leads a renewal of our commitment to the well-being of all who seek refuge in the Sangha. On this long path, however often we fall short, we return to and rely upon our vows.