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“So long as you think that there’s something ‘out there,’ then this ‘out here’ is threatening. If you can catch that, then you’re beginning to understand what meditation is. Keep that awareness.” Excerpt from a Dharma Talk given by Nyogen Roshi at the Hazy Moon Zen Center.

Nyogen Roshi talks us through the basics of allowing body, mind and breath to settle–the heart of our Zen practice. Excerpt from a Dharma Talk given at the Hazy Moon Zen Center.

“By using the practice you can begin to free yourself from the illusion of separation. But don’t try to understand it–understanding is in the realm of delusional thought. This pure awareness is what you are.” Excerpt from a Dharma Talk given by Nyogen Roshi at the Hazy Moon Zen Center.  

“The practice of Buddha-dharma is to realize and actualize in this moment what our life truly is all about.” Excerpt from a Dharma Talk given by Nyogen Roshi at the Hazy Moon Zen Center.  

“As a sentient being living in the world of samsara there is the worst kind of illness. This is the fear and the suffering of unfulfilled spiritual practice. The great healer, Shakyamuni Buddha, diagnosed this illness and offered us a way out.” Excerpt from a Dharma Talk given by Nyogen Roshi at the Hazy Moon […]

“Koans are these marvelous contrivances given to us by the enlightened masters. Don’t try to understand what I’m saying. Just sit here awake. You are a perfectly functioning Buddha. Just wake up now–this is the whole point of Buddha Dharma.” Excerpt from a Dharma Talk given by Nyogen Roshi at the Hazy Moon Zen Center. […]

“Modern science–quantum physics–will never prove Buddha Dharma, but Buddha Dharma might validate their work.” Excerpt from a Dharma Talk given by Nyogen Roshi at the Hazy Moon Zen Center.  

In this new Teisho, Nyogen Roshi connects his renewed emphasis on affirmations with some of the fundamental insights of the Shurangama Sutra. “This is the place where it’s easiest to work on enlightenment,” Roshi says. “The whole process is evolvement of consciousness. If you don’t get that, you’re going to miss the most amazing journey.” […]

At the start of a weekend sesshin, Nyogen Roshi reminds us why meditation retreats are so valuable. ”When you begin to quiet down and you stop looking for something out there, then the Buddha-Mind manifests. And then you begin to experience the wonder of what you are.”  

In this excerpt, Nyogen Roshi recounts some of the key moments in his relationship with Maezumi Roshi and reflects more broadly on the student-teacher relationship, lineage and transmission. “Transmission isn’t something that you can think your way into,” Nyogen Roshi says. “It is profound. And it has come through 81 generations down to here.”  

“The thing I most want you to experience is that the teaching of Buddha Dharma is real. Some of you still play with this as a conceptual game. But real transformation is absolutely possible.” Excerpt from a Dharma Talk given by Nyogen Roshi at the Hazy Moon Zen Center.  

As Nyogen Roshi reminds us, the notion of belief always carries with it the shadow of doubt. It also implies a host of intellectual assumptions that only serves to obscure the pure state of being that we’re working to realize in our practice. “We cannot simply think ourselves into this state of samadhi,” Roshi says. […]