Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

Jan 31 2025 297 ep. 41 mins 148
Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast artwork

Weekly public talks recorded live at the Angel City Zen Center

  Religion & Spirituality
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Spiritual Anarchy w/ Dave Cuomo

Jan 31 2025 40 mins  
Dave tries to find some harmony between the power of rigid forms and the chaos of personal liberation, with mixed results, and offers up a practical guide to finding fundamental self worth along the way. Is conforming to tradition a process of maturity, or a great way to stamp out the precious life and humanity from the things we love? Can Zen be an antidote to our corporate consum

An Unsettled Life w/ Henry Zander

Jan 24 2025 33 mins  
Henry eloquently confronts an all too relatable existential crisis of accomplishment as he graduates college and tries to figure out who he is when the stress he knew himself by suddenly falls away. Who are we when our burdens of purpose have run their course? Is setting aside 30 minutes a day to feel panicked the remedy we really need? Are a humble plate rice and beans the best re

Epiphany! (What Am I Doing Here??) w/ Andy Thomas

Jan 10 2025 33 mins  
Andy generously shares his personal practice story (don’t call it a spiritual journey…) from young Catholic doubts to a midlife crisis that sent him exploring the wilds of the mind in Tibetan Buddhism, and why he turned his back on it to face the wall with us. Can Tibetan Buddhism teach us a few things we lack? Can Zen find a way to help Vajrayana relax? Is anxiety and crisis t

The Body Poetic w/ Henry Zander

Jan 03 2025 42 mins  
Henry gets us out of our heads and into our bodies with encouragements for a more embodied understanding of what zazen is really doing with us. How can we convince our minds to let the body take the wheel for awhile? How do we translate a stillness that doesn’t speak in sense? Can Henry quote the late great Jacques Lecoq without giggling?? Find out here!!

The Raw Impulse of Inspiration (Body/Mind Practice) w/ Dave Cuomo

Dec 20 2024 43 mins  
Dave brings us a clear and lucid roadmap to working through the mind and body in zazen, from distracted self to senseless samadhi through a recently unearthed recording of a foundational practice discussion with his old teacher, Michael Elliston. How can consciousness let go of its own consciousness? Is breath practice mortally dangerous actually? If the willful mind is an illusion

The Good Prison (Sh*t Talk & Criticism) w/ Jordan Mylet

Dec 13 2024 41 mins  
“Would it necessarily be so bad to call out other people, to call out ourselves? What if the fact that we’re all sometimes petty, selfish, thoughtless, and cruel doesn't negate us from being people worth caring about?” - Jordan Mylet Jordan bravely wades into the muddy waters of shi*t talk and judgements in Zen. Our vows tell us to not criticize, they also tell us to tell t

Embodied Economics w/ Dave Cuomo

Dec 06 2024 53 mins  
“I don't want to fight things anymore. I’d rather just make them beautiful. If we have to do something, let's make it art.” - Dave Cuomo Dave tries to find a harmony between practiced embodiment and practical economics while sinking into the ocean of sound, being, and time. Is there an honest living waiting for us on the other side of our pretensions? Can we be sincere whil

Wonderfully Useless (Profitless Pursuit) w/ Patrick Carroll

Nov 30 2024 33 mins  
“You say you'd like to try to do zazen in order to become a better person. How ridiculous. How could a person ever become something better?” - Kodo Sawaki Patrick gives a passionate exhortation for Kodo Sawaki’s classic encouragement “Zazen is good for nothing.” What do we lose trying to shape our time to fit a purpose? What is the point of a profitless pursuit? Why don

Mystically Curious (Wellness?) w/ Dave Cuomo

Nov 22 2024 40 mins  
“It's not that we’re trying to be better people by sticking around and helping others, it's that you’re kidding yourself if you think you can get off this wheel alone.” - Dave Cuomo Dave tries to find out if Zen is a wellness practice or a sincere spiritual practice and what the difference might or might not be. Is wellness good for you? Is Zen supposed to be good for you

Rearview Mirror Quarterbacking (Feminine & Masculine in Zen) W/ Sara Campbell

Nov 15 2024 29 mins  
“You are the universe experiencing itself. And you have to respect that… The way that I am is exactly the way I should be. It's not just about stripping you of the stuff that's getting in your way, but also building you up.” - Sara Campbell Sara raises some deep questions about femininity and masculinity in Zen while looking back on her own life of practice. Were our teachi