In the Mango Grove
/Enryu Anusha Fernando gives a talk on the Meghiya Sutta and its focus on the importance of friendship.
We don’t live in a neutral experience and our practice is to pay attention to the offerings of community, of sangha.
Dharma Podcast and Teachings
The Mountain Rain Zen Dharma Podcast
features talks by our guiding teachers, Myoshin Kate
McCandless and Shinmon Michael Newton, as well as a
variety of MRZC practice leaders and other guest speakers.
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Recent talks can be found below.
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Teachings Archive
You can browse all past talks by speaker, date, category, and program in our archive found HERE
Admirable Friendship - Begin Again
/Myosen River Shannon asks in what way we can encourage each other in our practice. If spiritual friendship is an antidote to isolation and fragmentation, how do we achieve wise relationships, creating, through dharma, a space in which it is safe to fail.
On Crooked Cucumbers
/Shinmon Michael Newton offers a talk about David Chadwick, a Soto Zen priest, author, archivist, and one of the earliest disciples of Shunryu Suzuki (February 9, 1945 - February 23, 2026).
“I don't know anything about consciousness. I just try to teach my students how to hear the birds sing.”
Natural Healing
/Myoshin Kate McCandless acknowledges that our deeper wounds need to be given protection and healing care. The darts and arrows of a human life can be sharp and painful - the body and mind are supported by practicing the dharma.
The Problem is the Problem
/Shuso Heito Lee Lourdeaux explores how anger can transmute into compassion. "Understanding is love's other name."
Think Beyond Thinking
/Shinmon Michael Newton affirms that beyond recitation and intellectual understanding of the sutras, our practice is full of heart. All is mutually interdependent and dynamic, and all activities are expressions of dharma blossoms.
“If thinking and beyond thinking do not divide the mind you can steer the white ox cart endlessly.” (Zen master Hui-neng)
Dogen Writes for You
/Shinmon Michael Newton continues the Genzo-e by reflecting on Dogen’s “Buddhas and ancestors of old were as we - we in the future shall be buddhas and ancestors.”
Dharma Blossoms Turn Dharma Blossoms
/Myoshin Kate McCandless emphasizes that co-awakening is the nature of our experience- it is only in relationship with the world around us that enlightenment happens.
“When your mind is deluded, you are turned by the dharma blossoms. When your mind is enlightened, you turn the dharma blossoms” (Dogen)
