“Non-doing allows us to cultivate compassionate presence.”

Doing nothing is not about inaction. In this dharma talk, Chodo Sensei invites us to set down our preoccupation with doing – excessive striving, frenetic working – and consider the generative possibilities of non-doing. Can we practice full presence, broad awareness, and deep compassion?

Exploring the subtle differences of zazen between counting the breath or shinkantaza, opens the way for Chodo to share his understanding of what non-doing looks like in our lives and livelihoods. This talk beautifully transitions through a discussion of the foundational dynamics of practices into an interactive mondo that allows space for others to join the conversation by sharing insights and asking questions. At the end we are treated with a poem by Louise Glück called “Crossroads”.

ZENTALK NOTES

Chodo Campbell Sensei is a Zen teacher, bereavement specialist, grief counselor and a recognized leader for those suffering with the complexities of death & dying, aging, and sobriety.  The educational non-profit he co-founded, the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, touches thousands of lives every year through its numerous educational programs, contemplative retreats, and Soto Zen Buddhist practices. Chodo has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, CBS Sunday Morning and other media outlets. 

MUSIC

Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji –  Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.

NYZC PUBLICATIONS

• Untangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-book
• Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1t
• Awake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL

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The post The Art of Non-Doing | Chodo Campbell appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

“The way of belonging is doing.”

On the occasion of Hana Matsuri, a ceremony to celebrate the Buddha’s birth, Koshin Sensei invites us to set down our demand for things to be a certain way, for things to be perfect, and to fully enter the world in all its messy beauty. As Kodo Sawaki Roshi instructs, “Nothing has to be done in a particular way. Yet it has to be done in the highest and best possible way.”

According to one of the earliest accounts of the Buddha’s birth, what is astounding, even magical, is that the Buddha enters the world ‘consciously, deliberately, and at the center of his own story.’ Grounded, clear, and connected is Buddha nature. Or as Kodo Sawaki Roshi puts it, “What is called having magical powers doesn’t mean anything more than having a facial expression that isn’t muddled.” Near the end of this talk, Koshin discusses teachings from the Buddha, as relevant in our time as his own, about the three intoxications with youth, health, and life. Obsessions that can actually bring deprivation. Leaning into the deep wisdom of the myths surrounding Hana Matsuri, Koshin is asking us to consider what is birthed when we make the effort to honor who we are right now? It is not about being or doing anything perfectly, but rather about fully showing up.  

ZENTALK NOTES

Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, leader in contemplative care, and co-founder of an educational non-profit called the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. His books, grounded in Buddhist wisdom and practice, have gained national attention. Through its numerous educational programs, contemplative retreats, and Soto Zen Buddhist practices, the New York Zen Center touches thousands of lives every year.

MUSIC

Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji –  Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.

NYZC PUBLICATIONS

• Untangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-book
• Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1t
• Awake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL

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The post The Magic of Entering the World | Koshin Paley Ellison appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

“How do you practice not wasting time?”

Stories have impact. Our thoughts and beliefs can take over our minds and actually take us out of relationship. Koshin Sensei reminds us, “We waste a lot of time indulging our thoughts.”

In this recent dharma talk, Koshin draws on the myths and narrative resonances of easter to shed light on our tendency to treat what we think and believe as most important. “What actions are we cultivating?” Koshin asks. We are invited again and again to come back to the practice of zazen, to ‘think non-thinking.’ Dogen Zenji and Sawaki Kodo Roshi are clear: seated meditation is central and “Non thinking is the art of seated meditation.” This is Zen’s ‘primary ceremony’ and where we practice cultivating being no where else but where we are. When we cultivate actions that keep us attuned to the here and now, we waste less time waiting for things to happen, for life to begin. Instead, show up and we enliven the capacity to avail ourselves of buddha nature in everyone and everything.

ZENTALK NOTES

Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, leader in contemplative care, and co-founder of an educational non-profit called the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. His books, grounded in Buddhist wisdom and practice, have gained national attention. Through its numerous educational programs, contemplative retreats, and Soto Zen Buddhist practices, the New York Zen Center touches thousands of lives every year.

MUSIC

Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji –  Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.

NYZC PUBLICATIONS

• Untangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-book
• Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1t
• Awake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL

CONNECT WITH US

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The post Non-thinking: The Art of Seated Meditation | Koshin Paley Ellison appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

“It is a form of generosity, how we show up.”

What do we do with the stories we often tell ourselves about ourselves? Many of us worry, ‘Am I good?’ or think, ‘I am no good’. Many of us feel, ‘No one sees me,’ or are sure that ‘Everyone is judging me.’ These stories are not new or unique. They are very human. What if we stopped telling them?

In this recent dharma talk, Koshin Sensei invites us to engage with our stories in a new and playful way. Drawing on Kodo Sawaki’s assertive teachings, Koshin shows us how we get caught up in our little dramas, in yet another “scene in the play of self-deception.” The teachings of the Buddha, like the lion’s roar, arrives to completely focus our attention to the way our “little personal problems” block us from fresh possibilities. Can we be more open and expansive? If we engage with one another and remain playful within ourselves, something new can happen. Koshin asks us to imagine: “What would it be like to see your little personal problems as not that interesting?”

ZENTALK NOTES

Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, leader in contemplative care, and co-founder of an educational non-profit called the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. His books, grounded in Buddhist wisdom and practice, have gained national attention. Through its numerous educational programs, contemplative retreats, and Soto Zen Buddhist practices, the New York Zen Center touches thousands of lives every year.

MUSIC

Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji –  Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.

NYZC PUBLICATIONS

• Untangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-book
• Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1t
• Awake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL

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The post Engaged and Playful | Koshin Paley Ellison appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

“How do your opinions and preferences take you out of relationship and a life of practice?”

Honoring the Buddha’s death, Nehan-e observance is an opportunity to pay closer attention to your life, to show up and step forward. How will you life your life without regret?

In this dharma talk, Koshin Sensei implores us to fully commit to being in our lives. To stop holding back and to move forward into the fullness of who we are. Commemorating the death of Shakyamuni Buddha is for the living. Like all rituals, it is a another chance to set down our small selves and experience the connections between all things. When we wholeheartedly step into the practice together we see how everyone of us is strange and ordinary; unique and exactly the same. 

ZENTALK NOTES

Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, leader in contemplative care, and co-founder of an educational non-profit called the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. His books, grounded in Buddhist wisdom and practice, have gained national attention. Through its numerous educational programs, contemplative retreats, and Soto Zen Buddhist practices, the New York Zen Center touches thousands of lives every year.

MUSIC

Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji –  Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.

NYZC PUBLICATIONS

• Untangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-book
• Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1t
• Awake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL

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The post Step In | Koshin Paley Ellison appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

“We indulge in our fears way too much in the guise of protecting our freedom.”

In this dharma talk, Koshin Sensei asks us to look closely at what separates us from ourselves and each other. There is difference and we are all one. But our fears hold us back and create distance between us. Fear, at least as ancient as our species, may have kept us alive, but it also confines us to our own little caves. We are invited to look more closely at our fear, to practice with more devotion.

“Devotion is a gateway to oneness,” Koshin teaches. Our lineage is replete with those who cast off ‘myriad involvements’ and ‘just do’ without concern for name and fame. Too often we wait for conditions to change before fully committing. Drawing on the teachings of Dogen Zenji and Kodo Sawaki, Koshin enlivens our devotion to practice and encourages us to see just how interwoven everything is. Are we able to experience our devotion to practice as the gateway through fear and toward connection? 

ZENTALK NOTES

Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, leader in contemplative care, and co-founder of an educational non-profit called the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. His books, grounded in Buddhist wisdom and practice, have gained national attention. Through its numerous educational programs, contemplative retreats, and Soto Zen Buddhist practices, the New York Zen Center touches thousands of lives every year.

MUSIC

Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji –  Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.

NYZC PUBLICATIONS

• Untangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-book
• Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1t
• Awake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL

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The post Difference and Oneness | Koshin Paley Ellison appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

“If the practice is going well, no one is becoming like anyone else.”

In this dharma talk, Koshin Sensei invites us to experience what happens when we wholeheartedly practice. What changes within ourselves? What blooms between one another?

Genyu Kojima Roshi asks his sangha to consider what ‘bad’ religion is. It can happen when everyone is told they must become the same thing. There is another way, a community where everyone commits to being who they actually already are. There is liberation in becoming who we are and no one else. Koshin invites into this possibility by beautifully interconnecting his teacher’s words, teachings by Kodo Sawaki and writings from Dogen Zenji with intimate stories from those near the end of their life. “Before a step is taken you have already arrived. Before a word is spoken the truth has been expressed fully.” (300 Koan Shobogenzo, Case #201, capping verses) 

ZENTALK NOTES

Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei is a Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, leader in contemplative care, and co-founder of an educational non-profit called the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. His books, grounded in Buddhist wisdom and practice, have gained national attention. Through its numerous educational programs, contemplative retreats, and Soto Zen Buddhist practices, the New York Zen Center touches thousands of lives every year.

MUSIC

Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji –  Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.

NYZC PUBLICATIONS

• Untangled: https://bit.ly/untangled-book
• Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1t
• Awake At The Bedside: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL

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The post The Liberation in Becoming Who We Are | Koshin Paley Ellison appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

“Do not take anything for granted. See everything as a gift.”

The sixteen bodhisattva precepts are guidelines to live by, aspirations to live into. In this talk, Chodo Sensei introduces us to an extended study of the precepts with a moving story from his experience as a hospice chaplain. It is about a “tiny lady with an enormous presence” and we are invited to witness her clarity of mind.

At the end of this talk, we walk with Chodo along 23rd Street in Manhattan, seeing what he sees, and learning to affirm life in all of its forms and expressions. The storytelling is greatly enhanced as Chodo pauses to weave in the verses of atonement. For its narrative ease, reverent irreverence, and humor, this dharma talk is alive and an offered gift.

ZENTALK NOTES

Chodo Robert Campbell Sensei is a Zen teacher, bereavement specialist, grief counselor and a recognized leader for those suffering with the complexities of death & dying, aging, and sobriety.  The educational non-profit he co-founded, the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, touches thousands of lives every year through its numerous educational programs, contemplative retreats, and Soto Zen Buddhist practices. Chodo has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, CBS Sunday Morning and other media outlets. 

MUSIC

Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji –  Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.

NYZC PUBLICATIONS

• Untangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-book
• Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1t
• Awake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL

CONNECT WITH US

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The post Affirm Life In All Its Forms | Chodo Campbell appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

“How do we create the conditions to become more free?” 

We are here because of those who came before us. In this talk, Koshin Sensei gratefully reminds us that our continuing practice and commitment have deep roots going back eighty eight generations through ancestors from India, China, and Japan. From teacher to student, or from ‘warm hand to warm hand,’ in the heartening phrase from Jisho Warner, Soto Zen carries on in the awakening path. Rooted, expansive, free. 

While our individual bodies are ‘essential flesh’, we must always keep the larger view in mind. As Koshin says, “There is something very beautiful about going beyond what we think we are to realize that we are moving toward buddha, awakening.” Like those who preceded us on this path, seeing things through and practicing together offers a way to actually see through things, even ourselves, to experience what it is to be fully grounded, spacious, and free.  

ZENTALK NOTES

Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, leader in contemplative care, and co-founder of an educational non-profit called the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. His books, grounded in Buddhist wisdom and practice, have gained national attention. Through its numerous educational programs, contemplative retreats, and Soto Zen Buddhist practices, the New York Zen Center touches thousands of lives every year.

MUSIC

Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji –  Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.

NYZC PUBLICATIONS

• Untangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-book
• Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1t
• Awake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL

CONNECT WITH US

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—Donate

The post Seeing Things Through | Koshin Paley Ellison appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

“How often do you live in fear of what is going to happen?” 

Can you actually be where you are and nowhere else? In this talk, Koshin Sensei explores this simple question as an invitation to experience its truth in your everyday life. Zen ceremonies are about bringing your mind’s full attention to this moment. Koshin asks, can you see that your whole life is a ceremony?

Through the teachings of Dogen and Kodo Sawaki, we learn how to trust being nowhere else. Can we notice how fears and shadows take us away from the here and now and out of relationship? We create harm when everything is about the small self. The world narrows, fractures, and dims when it’s all about ‘me’. When we are actually here with each other and fully in our bodies, we nurture the buddha seeds of kindness, connection, and joy.

ZENTALK NOTES

Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, leader in contemplative care, and co-founder of an educational non-profit called the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. His books, grounded in Buddhist wisdom and practice, have gained national attention. Through its numerous educational programs, contemplative retreats, and Soto Zen Buddhist practices, the New York Zen Center touches thousands of lives every year.

MUSIC

Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji –  Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.

NYZC PUBLICATIONS

• Untangled here: https://bit.ly/untangled-book
• Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up here: https://amzn.to/2JTKF1t
• Awake At The Bedside here: https://amzn.to/3aijXdL

CONNECT WITH US

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The post Being Here & Nowhere Else | Koshin Paley Ellison appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

“It is not through ease that we open, but through challenge, the challenge of being in relationship.”    In this talk, Koshin Sensei encourages us to face our discomfort and notice all the ways we distance ourselves from everyone and everything around us. Imagine what encountering your life might look and feel like. Koshin explores […]

The post How do you actually meet your life? | Koshin Paley Ellison appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.