The Zen Studies Podcast
Episodes on Meditation
57 – Dogen’s Bendowa Part 1: What’s the Big Deal about Zazen?
Zen master Dogen wrote Bendowa in 1231 to introduce his Japanese students to Soto Zen. In a sense, then, it's "Soto Zen in a nutshell." In this episode I introduce the text and the context in which it was written, and talk about how and why Dogen recommends zazen - seated meditation - above all other Buddhist practices. I also talk about how Soto Zen elevates zazen far above a mere method for achieving awakening to enactment of enlightenment itself.
read more48 – How to Guide Your Own Meditation Part 2: First-Person Stories
In this second episode of two on "How to Guide Your Own Meditation," I illustrate the process by sharing four first-person narratives about meditation experiences. In each story, someone turns their attention toward their meditative experience itself, and finds a way to adjust their effort in order to improve it.
read more47 – How to Guide Your Own Meditation Part 1: Do Something, Don’t Just Fall Asleep
We sometimes get stuck in simplistic meditation instructions and therefore sell our meditation short. It's valuable to learn how to guide your own meditation - being mindful of your experience, arousing determination to do your best, and then being creative and diligent in finding ways to stay alert and focused. In this episode I explain this approach to meditation, and in the next episode I'll offer first-person stories about meditative experiences to illustrate the process.
read more28 – Listener’s Questions: The Teaching of Rebirth and Too Much Thinking During Zazen
This week’s episode is a Q&A session, based on listener’s questions I’ve received by email. I’ll start out with a series of questions about the Buddhist teaching of rebirth, and end with a question about how to deal with a busy mind during zazen, or seated Zen meditation.
read more24 – Deepen Your Zazen by Not Getting Stuck in Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction
It's tempting, particularly in Mahayana Buddhism, to get stuck in a kind of superficial satisfaction with your zazen and practice. Of course, it's possible to get stuck in dissatisfaction as well. In this episode I walk you through four steps to deepen your zazen by using your dissatisfaction as guide for your efforts. I also compare zazen to walking on a tightrope - the instructions are simple, but actually doing it is challenging and requires experience, effort, and attention.
read more21 – Sesshin: 24-7 Silent Meditation Retreats
Buddhists all over the world regularly gather for silent meditation retreats with a 24-7 schedule. In this episode I describe a Zen retreat, or sesshin, including what a typical day is like, and the challenges and rewards of maintaining silence and meditating for 6-10 hours a day.
read more4 – Zazen Part 2: How to Deal with Thinking, Stay Engaged, and Maintain a Practice
If you’ve tried zazen (or any other kind of meditation), you’ll know that even if you really want to meditate, and you fully intend to be present without agenda for the whole period of meditation, you’re still liable to get caught up in thinking – usually many, many times over the course of a meditation period. What can you do about it? In this episode, I cover how to deal with stimulus-independent thinking during meditation, how to stay engaged and energetic while doing a practice that’s essentially doing nothing, and how to maintain a zazen practice over time.
read more3 – Zazen (Seated Meditation) Part 1: What Zazen Is and How to Do It
Zazen, seated meditation, is the central practice of the Zen school of Buddhism. This episode is about what zazen is and why we do it. I also give you instructions for how to do zazen, including physical posture and what to "do" with your mind. After listening, you'll have everything you need to give zazen a try.
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