Pandemic Zen

Dec 17 2024 13 ep. 108 mins 7

Pandemic Zen Podcast artwork

An experimental podcast exploring the healing and life-sustaining potential of Zen insight, meditation and mindfulness in a modern world of existential challenges to health, happiness and our very survival. The author has over 50 years training in Zen practice, studying under roshis Philip Kapleau, Joshu Sasaki and Richard Clarke, his root teacher whom he succeeded in 2013. He is a medical doctor specializing in Emergency Medicine and Addiction Medicine. Credits: Recorded by: Paul Gerstein, MD Podcast channel creation and website design: James Kieffer, Kieffer Consulting, LLC Intro music: Dancing for the Answers, Nick Mulvey

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Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Dec 17 2024 41 mins

How can Zen practice precisely meet the moment when things go "wrong"? We place the election of Trump in a larger context with the help of a shocking koan from the Mumonkan collection.

The Substance of 'Me'

Oct 28 2024 46 mins

Lecture (teisho) to a Zen retreat by Paul Gerstein on 10/27/2024 in which he presents the 7th koan from the Hekigan Roku (Blue Cliff Record): "You Are Eh-Cho!" To help elucidate this terse and penetrating koan, Paul discusses a famous line from The Diamond Sutra and goes on to explore an incorrect approach to mindfulness practice that can contribute to a kind of meditation illness

Stuck in a Moment

Aug 11 2024 33 mins

Zen talk given to a morning Zen retreat (Zazenkai) on August 11, 2024. We start with a poem titled, "My Catastrophe", highlighting the doneness of each present moment and the freedom to shine one's truth. We go on to discuss the importance of "attentive desisting"; then read and comment on an excerpt on Zen practice, Easiness for Beginners, from the great 20th century Ch'an master,

At the End of Time

Apr 24 2024 19 mins

Talk to Zen retreat group on how to approach the "end" of everything. We discuss koan #29 from the Hekigan Roku: "It will be gone with the other."

An Invisible Shield

Mar 03 2024 23 mins

This is a Zen lecture (teisho) to a virtual retreat group. We start with a TV commercial from the 1950s and progress to the strange "preliminary koan" called, The Duck in the Bottle.

Zen lecture: ”Lotus Leaves”

Oct 11 2021 33 mins

In this episode, Paul gives a teisho (Zen lecture) on a koan from The Blue Cliff Record (a Tang and Sung dynasty collection of 100 teaching stories). Recorded by: Paul Gerstein, MD Intro music: Dancing for the Answers by Nick Mulvey Ending music: Kerosene Hat by Cracker

Hopeless and Fearless

Aug 08 2020 1062 mins

In this episode, we discuss the rapidly worsening pandemic in the U.S. and the troubling opposition by many to proven mitigation efforts. We examine the famous statement by Milarepa, an 11th century Tibetan master: “Abandon hope and fear.” Finally, a teaching story from The Blue Cliff Record points to a way out of struggling against painful difficulties of everyday life.

Observation vs Belief

Jul 15 2020 25 mins

In this episode, Paul starts with a brief bio of his training in both medicine and Zen followed by a deep dive into facts and fictions regarding COVID-19. The contrast between blind beliefs and careful observation highlights how the scientific method and mindfulness practice counters the false narratives of anti-science, political propaganda in the setting of an alarmingly worsenin

Something's Happening Here

Jun 30 2020 28 mins

The release of a cellphone video of the killing of an African American jogger, followed by one of a Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, leads to a world-wide explosion of outrage over racism and police brutality.

Freeze Frame

Jun 30 2020 21 mins

Paul discusses the ongoing pandemic and its effects on our psyches and everyday lives.