Her other root teacher was BZC Founder Mel Weitsman, a direct transmitted disciple of Shunryū Suzuki, who also founded two affiliated temples, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and the San Francisco Zen Center). For the weekly Saturday Dharma talk, Abbot Linda as she is referred to, extolled the virtues of Theravada Insight Meditation, also known as vipassana, stating that while it is different than Zen's shikantaza, it is just the same. That is to say, they coordinate and aid one another to bring about the same realization(kenshō) or “clear seeing.” Vipassanaliterally means “special or clear seeing.”
Is satori “insight”? Not quite but not altogether different, both being a kind of iteration of wisdom (prajñā), clearly seeing into the true nature of experience -- directly perceiving what is ever-present but usually unseen: The Three Marks of Existence.
RETREAT: 28-day (Aug. 30-Sept. 26) Insight Retreat for Experienced Practitioners with Gil Fronsdal assisted by Ines Freedman: Silent mindfulness retreat for experienced yogis that includes alternating sitting and walking meditation, instruction, Dharma talks, work meditation, and practice discussion with teacher. insightretreatcenter.org
These weekly Dharma talks, and we've attended a few now, generally amount to nothing, doing nothing, accomplishing nothing, but seeming very deep for their Taoist-style nothingness or pointlessness. It may just be that they land later, filled with wisdom and no rush to make any obvious point. Last Saturday (8/22/26), an elderly Zen abbess from Santa Cruz, a long-time professor at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC.edu), gave a wonderful talk about social suicide, literally. She discussed her intimate familiarity with plagiarism and academic scandals in the social sciences as brought up by the tragic case of an accused person-of-color at Cambridge University in England. Accusations by a right-wing troll led to an investigation of Black Prof. Jason Arday (RIP), who was humiliated by the accusation and chose to end his life in ignominy. This is tragic, our Zen speaker explained, because far worse is done by seasoned senior white professors who weather the storm, which usually comes to nothing, no retraction, no dismissal, no punishment. It seems to be the way of hubris and academic progress. She would know because she sat on many a committee to deal with such issues as well as being part of the peer-review process, which even when it turns up plagiarism by professors usually comes to naught.
But this talk was different, better, more substantive, less fluffy white rice, more solid and gomashio-sprinkled tofu, as it were. Why?
The jokes keep coming, little nudges about this and that, never getting too heavy to "stink of Zen," but at the end of it was a reverie about the newest, latest to be recognized bodhisattva, The Dali Parton. Abbot Linda praised "Buddhist Rebecca Solnit." Who knew the feminist woman who can't pronounce "women"* was a Buddhist? News to us.
Everyone giggled and enthusiastically nodded along in recognition of the recently passed country music star, humanitarian, lover of humankind, and philanthropist. This is in accord with the local NPR affiliate in the Bay Area playing the first of a 9-part Radio Lab (by the great Jad Abumrad) series on Dolly: Creator of 'Dolly Parton's America' podcast discusses her life and legacy | KALW
*How to correctly pronounce "women": /wih-minn/
What's so great about Buddhist insight?
What's the point of Buddhism, Dick Gere, insight? - Why not just worship His Holiness, Lisa?
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When one knows-and-sees, the heart lets go.
Then a longtime member of the sangha asked, "What do they do in vipassana meditation?" Abbot Linda perked up and outlined the fourfold setting up of mindfulness the historical Buddha talks about in the two Satipatthana Suttas, the greater and shorter "Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourses." One make the heart/mind serene by sitting and attending to the breath until it is concentrated [and absorbed or in a zen state called jhana if possible. Then one emerges and turns attention to other aspects of the body]. One then progresses, turning attention to feelings (the three categories of sensation, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral). Thereafter, attention is placed on mind.
No, Bart, just sit! Don't you dare have a goal!
Finally, one gives one-pointed attention to dhammas or mental phenomena usually categorized in Buddhist lists like the Five Hindrances and Four Ennobling Truths. [This is generally the way vipassana is understood, cultivating liberating insight by clearly seeing these four categories of "things." For in seeing them clearly, it is very difficult to identify and remain attached to the wrong views of self, satisfaction, and permanence. One instead sees things as they truly are -- hurtling towards destruction, unable to ever satisfy or fulfil, and utterly impersonal. In seeing this, the heart/mind lets go, stops clinging and grasping at ephemeral phenomena, and arrives at release, sometimes glimpsing the awe-inspiring freedom of nirvana. That's satori, that's kensho, thatthe first stage of enlightenment the Buddha called stream-entry.]
This September 2026 vipassana retreat offers an experienced Zen and Insight (Vipassana) meditators a period of intensive residential practice guided by Gil Fronsdal. The teaching and practice orientation will be “Shikantaza Through the Support of Insight,” Shikantaza or “just sitting” being the core Soto Zen practice. The schedule will include mindfulness in complete noble silence with morning, afternoon, and evening formal sitting (zazen); formal ōryōkimindfulness meals (taking the least amount of food); work periods; and daily meditation instructions and nightly Dharma talks. There will also be formal and informal meetings with teachers. Participants commit to stay on for the duration (except by arrangement or emergencies). The retreat includes a 30-day sesshin (接心, lit. means “gathering heart/mind” but is usually translated as “Silent Zen Retreat Intensive”).
UPDATE: We returned to the daily noon zazen (sitting session) and found it silent, powerful, and very uplifting. Ten assembled quietly on a Tuesday, seven on Wednesday, and the orientation really paid off. Many attend on their lunch breaks.
A group of seven meditators gathered Saturday morning at 8:40 am on Russell St. between MLK Jr. and Adeline at BZC. Zen Joe welcomed us into the Zendo for instruction, which is also online (Zoom). We were oriented on how to hold our hands, where to walk, where not to talk then got instruction on how to sit and hold ourselves erect. We got a short sit, walked out, came right back in for a full session of zazen.
After that, following last week's lay entrustment ceremony, Sue (Ju'en Soetsu), 83, gave a Dharma talk, with precious little Dharma and lots of pablum, ordinary chitchat, very down homey and a whole lot of air.
One was reminded of seeing Thich Nhat Hanh in one of his last visits to the Pasadena Auditorium, possibly his very last, articulating next to no words, just giving darshan, uncomfortably, with 5,000 or so onlookers hanging on his every exhale, singing songs, feeling so very in the moment, smiling, settling...until Thay finally made the point that "a flower is composed out of all non-cloud elements," an instruction meant to show [the impersonal nature of] emptiness (shunyata, anatta) that all we take to be so special about flowers is actually water from clouds, nourishment from mud and atmospheric gases, solar radiation, and so on. All that disparate stuff gives us flowers, just as the Five Aggregates give us living beings, who rarely if ever realize they are ultimately only that. One had to think, unless one had been inducted in the Zen cloud of not expecting anything, "Is that all there is, Cristina?"
Instead here, when Sue made some uber-generic observation, one of the helpers signed at the magnificence of the simplicity of her utterance. When we set up no expectations, it's hard to be disappointed. When we do, watch out. Some men in the audience of 40 tried to ask some deeper questions, Sue brushed them off as if she had been studying how to be a difficult Zen interviewee. "Yes," she answered to a multiple-choice question about the meaning of life. "Will you ever answer my question," the audience member persisted, "Yes."
"Will you do it now?" - "Don't worry about it," was her retort to the gleeful squeals of others in the know. Linda Roshi, the committee-selected BZC abbess of the last two years, gently nodded as if in approval. "What are we here but body, breath, and brain [mind]?" she asked rhetorically then quoted Woody Allen of all people, "Showing up is 80%."
More heads nodded, and all we could think was, "This is a 'Dharma' talk?" Someone was viewing it on Zoom, so maybe it's recorded for anyone to review. We asked Zen Joe afterward, "Was that a normal Dharma talk?" He shrugged his shoulders and answered, "Yeah, pretty typical."
"Some say that to speak of the meaning of the coming from the West is already wrong."
"People these days all make unconcern an understanding. Some say, 'There is no delusion or enlightenment: it's not necessary to go on seeking. Even before the Buddha appeared in the world, before Bodhidharma ever came to this country, it could not have been otherwise. What's the use of the Buddha appearing in the world? What did the Patriarch still come from the West for?"
All such views -- what relevance do they have? You must have greatly penetrated and greatly awakened: then as before, mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers, in fact all the myriad things are perfectly manifest. Then for the first time you can be an unconcerned person." - Roshi Reddit
We think that if we were to ask Sue what she meant, she would rightly say to us, "Don't worry about it."
BZC now offers Zen meditation instruction and orientation every Saturday morning, at 8:40 am. Visit BZC at 1933 Russell St., Berkeley by the Thai Theravada temple, next to the library.
BZC shares how we meditate and also some details about how to move around in the zendo (meditation hall) and join services (bowing and chanting).
After orientation, participants are welcome to join the next period of zazen in the zendo (9:40 am) and a lecture at 10:15 am. The Saturday program ends at 11:30 am.
There is no need to sign up. ALL are welcome!
Online instruction is no longer offered live. Please check out the link to Sojun Roshi’s instruction. Or explore the Teachers Page to make an appointment for a one-on-one zazen instruction.
ABOUT: Hakuryu Sojun Roshi (Mel Weitsman) began to practice at San Francisco Zen Center on Bush St. in 1964. In 1969 he was ordained by Suzuki Roshi as resident priest at the Berkeley Zendo. He received Dharma Transmission from Suzuki Roshi’s son and successor, Gyugaku Hoitsu, at Rinsoin Temple in Japan in 1984 and was officially installed as abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center in 1985. Along with his responsibilities in Berkeley, Sojun Roshi helped train students and teachers at several affiliated temples. From 1988 to 1997 he served as co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center. He gave Dharma Transmission to numerous students... More
What happens at a Zen meditation? Los Angeles-based groups are growing, adhering to two basic principles. One, keep it cool, laidback, liberal, lowkey, everyday, normal but, two, make it seem exotic. How is that achieved?
One way is to chant in an Asian language, following the customs and ritual procedures of a formal (zazen) group sitting practice -- including both Soto and Rinzai traditions, which rely on koans ("public cases"). They may sound like paradoxical riddles to the Western ear, but they are in Rinzai rather than Soto Zen centers in the U.S.
Groups walk intent on practicing mindful awareness of the present moment with everything going on here and now. This present moment may not always be pleasant, but it is always tolerable when viewed from a dispassionate perspective, such as noting, "Then there's this," as one Western ajahn is fond of saying.
This point-of-view allows us to be the WATCHER rather than the usual, overly-involved "DOER," "RESISTER," or person taking it all very personally in accordance with the Three Poisons of passion, aversion, and delusion (greed, hatred/fear, ignorance).
WHAT HAPPENS?
Practitioners gather in a quiet place that is not completely quiet. They take to zafus and zabutons, cushions, for seating themselves facing the wall or the center of the space.
Then there's chanting in English, Sanskrit, or a Japanese transliteration of Sanskrit, with wooden percussion and/or singing bowl accompaniment. There's bowing and more clacking sticks. Then the group settles in for a sitting (zazen) session of shikantaza, which is often translated as "just sitting."
There's now nothing to do but observe. There's no need to stop thinking or make anything happen other than what is happening now. This is how it is. A bell rings to signal that walking meditation (kinhin) is about to begin, first very slowly then at normal speed, all the while with everyone remaining very mindful. Another bell announces a second sitting session after walking. That ends with a bell, bowing, arranging cushions in a circle, and then discussion begins.
A Dharma talk might mention the paradox of the impersonal aspiring for "self" awakening. Most groups open up a Q&A discussion. This might start a storm of comments or awkward silence, laughs or uncomfortable shifting, and possibly some insight into American Buddhism. Everyone returns the next week.
Beginner's Mind (Japanese 初心 or shoshin) is a concept from Zen Buddhism. It means it's better to have an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of expectations or preconceptions when practicing meditation and exploring Dharma. Even at an advanced level, approach Truth as a beginner would.
Beginner's Mind is especially used in the study of Zen Buddhism and Japanese martial arts [1]. It became popular outside Japan because of Shunryū Suzuki's book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.
The practice of shoshin acts as a counter to the hubris and closed-mindedness often associated with thinking of oneself as an adept or expert [2].
When we let ourselves think we know everything, we leave no room for surprises, but reality is full of surprises.
For example, in the Einstellung Effect, a person becomes so accustomed to a certain way of doing things that s/he does not consider or acknowledge new ideas or approaches [3], such as thinking outside the box. Like let's say someone asks you, "Who are YOU?"
One more TikTok, hookup, sext, hit of dopamine
"I'm me," you say. Then this exchange takes place:
"You're not who you think you are."
"I'm who other people think I am."
"No, you're not even that."
"But, but, what else is there? If I'm not who I think I am, and I'm not who others think I am, do I just not exist?"
"No, you are who you think others think you are."
"Oh, yeah, because we're social creatures, right? There's always that [performative] factor of being watched, even if we only think we're being watched."
"Something like that."
"Ah, what do you know?"
"Hey, at least I got you to think outside the box, realize it's not binary -- a this or that, thesis or antithesis. There's often a synthesis, an interaction, a third or fourth option not thought of within the confines of the assumptions surrounding the question."
"Oh, yeah, huh?"
"Monkey."
The word shoshin combines sho (Japanese 初, "beginner" or "initial") and shin (Japanese 心, "mind" or "heart") [4], which is not necessarily the brain but the intuition, knowing, heart, or the ability to discern. More
This is very easy to answer. In Japanese zen literally means "meditation" in the sense of "absorption" (Pali jhana, Sanskrit dhyana, Chinese chan or channa, Vietnamese thiền, Korean sŏn or seon, and Japanese zen). Absorptions are progressive states of stillness (samadhi), misleadingly translated as "concentration."
The connotation of this rendering is struggle, force, and effort, whereas "absorption" is the result of persistent balanced effort (sādhanā practice) but itself is effortless: It is not accomplished by "muscling" or "over-efforting" but rather by "letting go" and no longer "clinging" to things.
Through persistent, steady, calm practice these obstructions are replaced by the Five Factors of Absorption (jhana'anga. "limbs of absorption"), detached tranquility, dispassionate observation, and mindful looking on or objective witnessing or simply watching, at first accompanied by a sort of "bliss" (piti, rapture, uplift, joy, enthusiasm, zeal), "happiness" (sukha), and "contentment" (santosha).
"Zen" with a capital Z is a different story, for it may refer to the entire history and set of practices in the Japanese Mahayana Chan School originating in China, having spread to Korea and other parts of Asia and now the world.
Perplexing discussions of "emptiness" (shunyata) and "suchness" (tathātā) are more easily understood in the older texts of the Theravada.
The Wheel of the Dharma (8 spokes)
Thera-vada is the "Teaching of the Elders," who are the enlightened direct disciples of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, the "Sage of the Sakas" or the Indo-Scythians of ancient Gandhara, one of the Angas.
Of course, as much as one Buddhist school might influence or explicate another, Zen (Chan) is part of the Mahayana movement, a later "reformed" rather than a back-to-basics "orthodox" movement like Theravada. Zen is so thoroughly blended and saturated with Taoism (and to a lesser extent Chinese Confucianism and Japanese Shinto) that most of what is pondered and assumed to be "Buddhist" is strictly Taoist in nature. All the fun of Zen is more related to Lao Tzu (and later Hinduism, Tantra, and Vajrayana) than the historical Buddha's Teachings. One need only listen to Alan Watts to realize that.
What are those "things"? They are everything other than the only compact (noncomposite) item, the sole unconditioned element, which is called nirvana (Pali nibbana).
Nirvana, as our habitual logic might compel us to conclude, is notnothingness. Rather, it is the end of:
For anyone who's convinced that the Buddha never had anything to say about nirvana, there is this lovely description describing the indescribable, almost capturing the ineffable, or seeming to put words to that which is really beyond words.
These words are said as a corrective for everyone making the massive mistake of concluding that nirvana has to mean "annihilation, nothingness, non-existence, or the void," a pernicious wrong view.
Could anyone ever draw what can't be imagined?
THE BUDDHA: “There is, O meditators, an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed. Were there not, O meditators, this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed, there would be no escape from the world of the born, originated, created, formed. But since, O meditators, there is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, and unformed, there is an escape from the born, originated, created, formed.”
Anyone not yet convinced that the Deathless is not Eternal Life (but perhaps closer to the Ancient Greek term mistranslated as such, aion, as spoken of by the wise Gnostics) and the Unconditioned is just not like the conditioned (all those composite things utterly dependent on causes and conditions), the Buddha said more:
“Truly, there is a realm, where there is neither solid, nor fluid, neither heat, nor motion, neither this world, nor any other world, neither sun nor moon. This I call neither arising, nor passing away, neither standing still, nor being born, nor dying. There is neither foothold, nor development, nor any basis. This is the end of suffering" (Ud. VIII. 1 - The Immutable).
Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Savatthi in Jeta's Grove at Anathapindika's monastery.
On that occasion he was instructing, rousing, inspiring, and gladdening the meditators with a Dhamma talk connected with NIRVANA, and those meditators, being receptive and attentive and gathering their whole mind, were intent on listening to teaching. Then, on realizing the significance, the Buddha delivered this inspired utterance:
What would such a timeless place be like?
"Meditators, there is that base where there is no earth, no water, no fire, no air [the Four Elements]; no base consisting of the infinity of space, no base consisting of the infinity of consciousness, no base consisting of nothingness, no base consisting of neither-perception-nor-non-perception [the Four Immaterial Absorptions]; neither this world nor another world nor both; neither sun nor moon. Here, meditators, I declare, there is no coming, no going, no staying, no ceasing, no rising. Not fixed, not movable, it has no support. Just this is the end of suffering" (Udana 8.1).
This counterintuitive Teaching is for the wise.
What could this sutra mean? It is clearly stating that there is something beyond the beyond -- beyond the "universe" that is the 31 Planes of Existence, which is divided into three spheres (lokas): our sensual sphere, the heavenly fine-material sphere, and the incomprehensible immaterial sphere. They are increasingly subtle until they peter out into an even more sublime situation where there is not even that which was already incomprehensible. It does not matter that it is incomprehensible BECAUSE it is experienceable, personally verifiable, a truth attainable here and now, not in another rebirth (in heaven or otherwise), not in an afterlife, but here and now in this very life. So nirvana should be embraced as practical, excellent, and worthy of knowing-and-seeing directly, and not dismissed as theoretical or unknowable. Let's look at the original Pali canon wording:
Paṭhama-nibbāna-suttaṃ
1. Evaṃ me sutaṃ: ekaṃ samayaṃ bhagavā sāvatthiyaṃ viharati jetavane anāthapiṇḍikassa ārāme. Tena kakho pana samayena bhagavā bhikkū nibbānapaṭisaṃyuttāya dhammiyā kathāya sandasseti samādapeti samuttejeti sampahaṃseti. Te ca bikkū aṭṭhi katvā [1] manasi katvāsabbaṃ cetaso [2] samannāharatvā ohitasotā dhammaṃ suṇanti.
2. Atha kho bhagavā etamattaṃ viditvā tāyaṃ velāyaṃ imaṃ udānaṃ udānesi: - "Atti bhikkave, tadāyatanaṃ, yattha neva paṭhavi, na āpo, na tejo, na vāyo, na ākāsānañcāyatanaṃ, na viññānañcāyatanaṃ, na ākiñcaññāyatanaṃ, na nevasaññānāsaññāyatanaṃ, nāyaṃ loko, na paraloko, na ubho candimasuriyā. Tatrāpāhaṃ bhikkhave, neva āgatiṃ vadāmi, na gatiṃ, na ṭhitiṃ, na cutiṃ, na upapattiṃ. Appatiṭṭhaṃ appavattaṃ anārammaṇamevetaṃ. Esevanto dukkhassā"ti.
Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly edited by Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly
For years, Zen came to Pasadena through PasaDharma under the auspices of Founder Roshi Jeff Albrizze (Rev. Lotus Peace), successor Meditation Guide Seven, and PasaDharma's friends at:
perplexing riddles to help us overcome rigid and limiting habits of mind and get us thinking outside the box (koans),
questions and answers, and
an open group discussion.
Sensei completed his Hossenshiki ceremony in Japan, a necessary step for a Sotoshu novice to take toward becoming a full-fledged Zen Buddhist priest, as he became Zagen (pictured above), then Osho. He is also the author of a very helpful Guide to Zen:
With 4.3 out of 5 stars (38 reviews), this 2021 Simon & Schuster introduction to Zen is unlike any readers have ever seen — inspired by manga and graphic novels. It offers a comprehensive overview of Soto Zen Buddhism in a delightfully captivating way.
Complete with dynamic, detailed illustrations, American Soto Zen Priest Seigaku Amato uses a semi-narrative style to take readers on a visual tour of Buddhism and, using specifics to illuminate universals, dives deeply into the practices and forms of Soto Zen.
In honor of our teacher the Buddha Shakyamuni
Whether we are just taking our first step or have been practicing Zen for years, this creative and profound book can serve as a constant companion and guide on the journey as it explores topics such as:
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