Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

Zen History: Informing our Practice and Lives Today

In this Wednesday night Dharma talk during Upaya’s Fall Practice Period, Sensei Sokaku Kathie Fischer explores how Zhaozhou’s teachings invite the busy, generalizing mind

Ancestral Stories: A Dharma Gate of Intimacy with Our Lives

In this Wednesday night Dharma talk, Sensei Cynthia Ryotan Kear opens up the practice of koans as part of Upaya’s Fall Practice Period devoted to the Chinese master Zhao

Zhao Zhou’s Mu: The Threshold of Everyday Practice

In this Wednesday night Dharma talk, Sensei Shinzan explores the famous koan “Mu” from Zhao Zhou (Joshu in Japanese), leading up to Upaya’s fall practice period devoted t

LOVE and DEATH 2026: Keeping Close (Part 5B)

This is the second half of the closing session for the Love and Death series: Roshi Joan Halifax reflects on what it means to practice beyond our transactional habits. Sh

LOVE and DEATH 2026: Keeping Close (Part 5A)

This is the first half of the closing session for the Love and Death series: Roshi Joan Halifax reflects on what it means to practice beyond our transactional habits. She

LOVE and DEATH 2026: The Law of Change and Becoming (Part 4)

In part four of the Love and Death series, Frank Ostaseski brings death into the room through photographs of people he accompanied at the Zen Hospice Project. Inviting pa

LOVE and DEATH 2026: Guided by Grief (Part 3B)

In this second half of part three of the Love and Death series, Frank Ostaseski continues with Guest teacher Sensei Koshin Flint Sparks, a poet and former psychologist, w

LOVE and DEATH 2026: Guided by Grief (Part 3A)

This is the first half of part three of the Love and Death series, Frank Ostaseski discusses grief as “the river running through our lives.” Recognizing that grief takes

LOVE and DEATH 2026: Fearless Love (Part 2B)

This is the second half of part two of the Love and Death series, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax explore the fearless nature of love, which meets loss without tur

LOVE and DEATH 2026: Fearless Love (Part 2A)

This is the first half of part two of the Love and Death series, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax explore the fearless nature of love, which meets loss without turn

LOVE and DEATH 2026: Opening the Great Gifts : Opening Session (Part 1)

In this opening session of Love and Death, Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski return to the line that anchors this annual series: “Love and death are the great gifts

Ordinary Mind is the Way

In this Wednesday night Dharma talk, Sensei Koshin Flint Sparks explores a simple and radical teaching: our ordinary experience is itself the awakened way. By ordinary, h

The Measure of Our Humanity: BELONGING

In this session of the ongoing series, The Measure of Our Humanity, Frank Ostaseski along side Roshi Joan explores what it means to truly belong—not as something earned o

Being real

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Frank Ostaseski traces what he learned sitting at the bedside of thousands of dying people: “to sit next to people and not mess with

Grace in Prison

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Dainin describes bringing Roshi Joan’s G.R.A.C.E. compassion training into New Mexico’s prison system. Working previously with

The Measure of Our Humanity: POSSIBILITY

This session of The Measure of Our Humanity series opens with Roshi Joan Halifax‘s welcome and a grounding meditation led by Dainin, before writer and activist Rebecca So

The Open Gate

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Fushin turns to the first two folds of the Eightfold Path—right view and right intention—the wisdom from which the rest of the

Varela 2026: Closing Q&A (Part 11)

In Part 11, the closing of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Roshi Joan Halifax, John Dunne, Molly Crockett, and Adam Frank address questions from the participant

Varela 2026: Panel Discussion – AI, Experience, and Ethics (Part 10)

In Part 10 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Roshi Joan Halifax, John Dunne, Molly Crockett, and Adam Frank gather as a panel to open questions on AI before ci

Varela 2026: A Conversation with Michael Pollan (Part 9)

In Part 9 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Roshi Joan Halifax introduces a pre-recorded conversation with author Michael Pollan on the value and limits of mys