Hardcore Zen

This is a talk I gave at the Rochester Zen Center on April 24, 2016 about Dogen and his essay "Mind Alone is Buddha." What the heck did he mean by that? Here's my attempt at answering that question.

Here's a conversation I had with Sufi sheik Ingo Taleb Rashid at Benediktushof Meditation Center in Germany on September 27, 2017. We talk about God and Star Trek and take questions from the audience.

In this episode I read from the chapter "Who Walked My Dog" from my new book, The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being." It's a sneak preview of the book, which is available now, and of the forthcoming audiobook.

This is a lecture I gave in Vienna in 2018 about Dogen's famous essay "The Samadhi of Receiving and Using the Self."

Here's a talk I gave in Phoenix, Arizona in 2012 about the Grand Canyon and Enlightenment.

In this Q&A session from 2019 in Finland I talk about what it means to be a Zen teacher and then we get into the subject of "good zazen" vs. "bad zazen."

In 2016 I spoke in a bar in Texas about the concept of "No Self" as expressed in Dogen's most famous essay Genjo Koan (The Realized Universe). Here's the recording!

Here's a talk I did in 2015 at Felsentor, a Zen monastery in Switzerland that was established by a dharma heir of Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi, my first Zen teacher's teacher. It's about the Heart Sutra but I also talk about some other stuff including Hitler's golden elevator. Enjoy!

In today's podcast I ask a group of Germans at a Zen retreat "Are we wasting our time doing this?" I also present a long quote from Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi, one of the greatest contemporary Zen teachers.

Lots of people ask what Zen teaches about life after death. Here is my really long answer!