This talk explores the experiential territory of the famous slogan from the Heart Sutra: "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form." At first, the talk differentiates between a realizational and a developmental approach in practice: Are we allowing our experience to be exactly as it is [realizational] or are we trying to alter and improve our experience [developmental]? The two approaches exist in an unresolvable tension but complement and complete each other like a dancing couple—just like emptiness and form. Emptiness can be understood and explored as openness, and conversely, form functions as layers of closure. The talk explores examples for how we can maintain openness (spaciousness) in the midst of closure, and how, on the other hand, we must always express and articulate that openness in concrete forms (closures).

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We are excited to announce that a NEW, self-paced course, "Undivided Activity", is now available! In this course, Zenki Roshi offers a complete commentary and experiential translation in a series of talks on Dogen's essay 'Undivided Activity'. Learn more and purchase the course here: https://www.boulderzen.org/undivided-activity

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Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

This talk was given as a closing talk for the 2025 Boulder Zen Center - Everyday Bodhisattva Practice Period. It reviews the basic ingredients of practice and summarizes them as (1) daily zazen, (2) working with views, and (3) cultivating relationships. In traditional Buddhist terms, this can be understood as a commitment to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The talk then explores constancy in practice as the most important attitude for making our practice fruitful. Instead of viewing our practice as a struggle to permanently replace the state of suffering (samsara) with a state of liberation (nirvana), it suggests using each moment to establish Big Mind (a widened sense of here-now-ness and self) and thus releasing grasping, resisting, and fixed views—the three tendencies in the human mind that turn experience into dissatisfaction and suffering.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Did you enjoy the topic of Dogen's essay, Undivided Activity, and want to delve deeper? Zenki Roshi offers a complete commentary and experiential translation in a series of talks on this specific essay. You can now access the full series of talks! All of the material is now part of a self-paced course. Learn more and purchase the course here: https://www.boulderzen.org/all-courses

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber for only $9/month. Dive deeper into the topics through Q&A sessions related to each of the talks. You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives. Learn more here: https://zenmind.supercast.com/

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org.

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.

This talk was given as part of a sesshin (7-day meditation intensive) at Boulder Zen Center. It begins by examining the limited view we have in our Western culture of the body as a material object and introduces an alternative view of the body as flow—material as well as energetic flow. The Western word 'energy' is often used to translate the Eastern concept of 'qi,' but this can lead to misunderstandings if energy is understood as the name for a 'quantifiable physical property' rather than a pointer to experiencing a 'dynamic relational vitality' through our very own body. We can discover and cultivate our energy (qi) through various practices of interrelating attention, breath, movement, and space. After exploring examples of such practices, the talk suggests how awareness of our energy body can be used in Zen practice to support and refine the zazen posture, and how it can lead to an experiential understanding of emptiness and interdependence.

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If you would like to listen to all 7 of the Dharma talks given during this intensive and from other intensives, please become a premium podcast subscriber! Doing so will give you access to talks given during all of our intensives plus the recorded Q&A sessions with Zenki Roshi that follow each of the regular public Dharma talks. Memberships begin at only $9/mo! Your support goes a long way towards helping the continuation of the Boulder Zen Center and Zenki Roshi’s teachings.

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Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better!

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org.

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.