Welcome to the

Zen Studies Podcast!

Study Buddhism Online for Free

New episodes weekly!
Listen to episodes in order in specific categories:

Buddhism Today
Buddhist History
Buddhist Practice
Buddhist Teachings
Buddhist Texts
Dharma Talks
Meditation
Zen Teachings

Start at the beginning: Listen to all the episodes in order – or read the content instead!
Subscribe via email to be notified of new weekly episodes (see sidebar to sign up)
Subscribe via a podcatcher (like iTunes) to have the audio delivered to your podcast app (see sidebar)
Browse and see what interests you! See Categories, Recent Posts, Series, look through the Glossary, or type a topic of interest in the search box.

How Can the Podcast Be Free?

I offer most of the content on the Zen Studies Podcast for free, because I want the Dharma (Buddhist teachings) to be available to everyone. Plus, I enjoy creating episodes – audio and text – about this ancient, incredibly rich spiritual tradition.

However, we all need to make a living, and I currently spend 15-20 hours a week on the podcast. Members support the podcast with a small monthly pledge. If you want to help me keep generating great content, consider becoming a member!

Recent Episodes

2019-03-15 Off-Week Book Review: Why Buddhism Is True

by Domyo | Mar 15, 2019

I review Robert Wright's Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment. While it's not necessary to know the "why" of things in order for Buddhist practice to be effective (and it can actually be a distraction), sometimes it can help us gain additional freedom from our subjective experiences.

92 – Buddha’s Teachings 11: The Five Hindrances – Part 1

by Domyo | Mar 8, 2019

We all know meditation and other aspects of Buddhist practice can be difficult. According to the Buddha, it’s useful to pay attention to exactly what’s going on when we’re feeling challenged. Any obstacle can be characterized as one of five hindrances: 1) Sense desire; 2) ill-will; 3) sloth-and-torpor; 4) restlessness-and-worry, or 5) uncertainty (or skeptical doubt). By identifying our hindrance, we get a better sense of what caused it to arise and how we can best overcome it, because the Buddha offered a number of teachings on the subject.

91 – Unethical Buddhist Teachers: Were They Ever Really Enlightened?

by Domyo | Mar 1, 2019

The list of supposedly-highly-realized Buddhist teachers who have abused their power and acted in harmful ways – particularly in the realm of sex – is long, and getting longer all the time. Unethical and selfish behavior is incompatible with our Buddhist ideal of true enlightenment, and transgressing teachers are often exactly those held up as especially inspiring examples of realization and practice, so what does all of this say about realization and practice? Were the teachers ever really enlightened?