Zencare Podcast

The Five Hindrances to Practice | Jisho Sara Siebert

“Many Buddhists reject even healthy, compassionate engagement with the world because they haven't figured out how to be in the thick of the world's conditions without dev

Setting Down Our Greed | Koshin Paley Ellison

"The teacher's role is not to give you what you want. Their role is to help you set down your greed, so that you're joyful no matter what happens." On the eve of Yom Kip

This One Note Is Enough | Chodo Robert Campbell

“We don't have to save everyone, solve everything, or understand the whole mystery of our lives. All we have to do is be in this moment, this breath, this body. Then bow,

No Single Act Defines You: The Thief, the Robe, and the Possibility of Change | Chodo Robert Campbell

“The robe of liberation does not hide our imperfections. It doesn't erase our history. It's stitched together from many different pieces of cloth, just as our lives are s

Awakening in the Butcher Shop | Koshin Paley Ellison

“We have to be endlessly humbled and endlessly receptive. And what a joy! That, to me, is the joy of practice: to be endlessly receptive to being changed by whatever kind

“Is That So?” Hakuin, Equanimity, and Seeing All the Perspectives | Jisho Sara Siebert

Editor's Note(s): Just a few weeks ago, Jisho Siebert, teacher at Zen Fields in Ames, Iowa offered the first guest-teacher dharma talk for our summer Commit to Sit. It's

A Quiet Orientation of the Heart | Chodo Robert Campbell

Editor's Note: In celebration of Commit to Sit starting this week and Chodo sensei's birthday last week, we share his talk from this past Winter Commit to Sit. Enjoy and

The Potter and the Fire: Using Suffering as a Gate | Koshin Paley Ellison

Editor's Note: In honor of our Commit to Sit practice period starting July 1st and our Wholehearted Sesshin (silent retreat) in August, we share this opening talk from th

What Must Change, What Must Remain: The Future of Dharma | Koshin Paley Ellison

“How you bow is not just for you.” In this recent dharma talk, Koshin Sensei reflects on what it means to practice consistently: to be the same person regardless of who

Finding the Buddha in Others | Chodo Robert Campbell

“The precept does not ask us to be passive in the face of injustice. The question is always: from what place do we speak?” In this recent talk, Chodo Sensei explores the

Doubt Digs Up the Whole Blue Planet | Chodo Robert Campbell

“The purpose of practice might be to enter the question so fully that it begins to reshape us.” What is the purpose of practice after all? In this talk on doubt and the

Not Turning Away from this Fractured World | Chodo Robert Campbell

“In Zen practice, we talk about bearing witness; not as a passive act, but as a form of deep engagement. To really see what's happening. Not escaping into numbness, but a

What Do We Do With Our Anger? | Chodo Robert Campbell

“In this moment, what does it mean to care?” What do the precepts ask of us in a time of injustice, division, and outrage? In this recent talk, given the day after mil

The Gift of Fearlessness | Koshin Paley Ellison

“Faith is not blind belief, but confidence born of seeing what's actually possible—the willingness to plant a seed without yet seeing the fruit.” In this recent talk giv

Opening the Closed Fist: Money as Spiritual Practice | Koshin Paley Ellison

“Do an audit of how you spend your money. Does it match what you say you really care about?” In this powerful recent talk, Koshin Sensei tackles a topic many spiritual c

Where Do Wars Begin? The Second Precept & Human Dignity | Chodo Robert Campbell

“Our practice doesn't ask us how to end wars, it asks us where the wars begin. In this body. In this flash of rage. In this certainty that I am right and you are wrong.”

No Arrival: Practice and Realization Are One | Koshin Paley Ellison

“When you encounter obstacles, do not see them as hindrances separate from practice.” In this talk from the beginning of the year (and in preparation for the Year of the

Safeguarding What Matters Most | Koshin Paley Ellison

“Many people can study lots of things, but are you living that way?” On the 12th day of our Commit to Sit, during a winter blizzard, Koshin Sensei explores a profound qu

Not Enough: The Practice of Surrendering the Self | Chodo Robert Campbell

“Each in breath is bringing life into the body, and each out breath is a death. We never know if there'll be another inhale.” On the third day of our recent Winter Sessh

Becoming Yourself | Jiryu Rutschman-Byler

“The best way to observe precepts is just to be you yourself and then the precepts are always with you.” What does it mean to “be yourself” in Zen, not as self-improveme