Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

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

Varela 2026: Ethical Considerations in an Age of AI – Panel Discussion (Part 8)

In Part 8 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Adam, Molly, John, and Roshi Joan open the floor to important questions of our time. Following Molly’s session on A

The Metta Sutta: What’s Love Got to Do with It?

In this Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, Sensei Koshin Flint Sparks explores the Metta Sutta as a practice that asks far more of us than simple sentiment. Quoting two lines o

Varela 2026: In the Grove of Mortality (Part 7)

In Part 7 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Molly Crockett turns to a question with real stakes in the race of AI development: Can Buddhist ethics be taught to

Varela 2026: Kensho, Joriki, and Ordinary Mind in Zen Practice (Part 6)

In Part 6 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Roshi Joan Halifax leads a guided sitting before turning to what she calls the four often-conflated categories of c

Varela 2026: Re/cognizing the Mystical (Part 5)

In Part 5 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, John Dunne returns for his second talk of the program, tracing “mystical experience” to its roots as a 19th-century

Varela 2026: The Blind Spot – Part B (Part 4B)

In Part 4B (the 2nd half of Part 4) of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, astrophysicist Adam Frank, PhD., turns to what comes after: a “new physics of life” built

Varela 2026: The Blind Spot – Part A (Part 4A)

In Part 4A (the first half of Part 4) of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Molly Crockett opens with a guided meditation on the breath, exploring impermanence and

Varela 2026: Panel Discussion – Time, Perception, and Not-Knowing (Part 3)

In Part 3 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, the faculty explores the nature of experience in this Day 1 panel session — reflexive awareness, the distortions of

Varela 2026: Reflexive Awareness and Encountering Reality (Part 2)

In Part 2 of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, John Dunne, PhD, opens with a guided meditation on reflexive, non-dual awareness before turning to a central questi

Varela Contemplative Science Retreat 2026: Opening Session (Part 1)

In this opening session (Part 1) of the Varela Contemplative Science Retreat, Roshi Joan Halifax welcomes practitioners on-site and online, tracing the retreat’s roots to

Dogen Seminar 2026: Our Care-full Attention (Part 7 of 7)

In this final session of Upaya’s Dogen Seminar 2026, Sensei Sokaku Kathie Fischer takes up Dogen’s Mountains and Waters Sutra, tracing how sustained attention dissolves t