The Zen Studies Podcast

Mar 15 2025 308 ep. 29 mins 3.2k

The Zen Studies Podcast artwork

Learn about traditional Zen and Buddhist teachings, practices, and history through episodes recorded specifically for podcast listeners. Host Domyo Burk is a Soto Zen priest and teacher.

Religion & Spirituality

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297 – Investigating the Wandering Mind

Mar 15 2025 36 mins

Almost everyone who practices meditation or mindfulness encounters the phenomenon of the wandering mind – when, despite your conscious intention, your mind is filled with thoughts that have nothing to do with your current experience. You can employ various techniques to let go of the thoughts and “bring the mind back” to your meditative object or to the present moment, but of

296 – Q&A: Paramis, Mindfulness, Karma, and Enjoyment

Mar 07 2025 34 mins

This is an extemporaneous question-and-answer episode. Do you know the difference between a parami and a paramita? Do I still like to think of mindfulness as "undivided presence?" What about when Buddhists use the idea of karma as an excuse not to take compassionate action? Why can't our practice include more activities aimed at the cultivation of joy, creativity, and other positiv

295 - The Power of Equanimity

Feb 28 2025 30 mins

Equanimity is a powerful state of being that not only reduces our stress and suffering but also enables us to respond effectively. However, in our efforts to achieve some measure of equanimity, we may end up stuck in the tentative calm of denial or in the coldness of indifference. True equanimity is clear-eyed, undefended, compassionate, and inclusive – but how do we cultivate it

294 - Ten Fields of Zen, Field 10 - Connecting with the Ineffable, or What Is Most True

Feb 17 2025 35 mins

The tenth Field of Zen is Connecting with the Ineffable. Zen is not based on a belief in God in a theistic sense. However, at its core there is a strong emphasis on a much more profound, inspiring, significant, and hopeful Reality than the bleak, mundane, and discouraging one people sometimes experience in their ordinary daily lives. Call this “greater reality” anything you lik

293 – Q&A: Veganism, Letting Thoughts Go, and Motivation for Action

Feb 07 2025 26 mins

In this episode I extemporaneously answer questions listeners have submitted by email, including: Why aren't Buddhist vegan if the first moral precept is "do not kill?" What does it really mean to "let go" of a thought? And: Isn't taking action - including compassionate action - always the result of being dissatisfied in some way?

292 - Ten Fields of Zen, Field 9 – Bodhisattva Activity: Enacting Vows to Benefit All Beings

Jan 31 2025 35 mins

Bodhisattva Activity is enacting vows to free all beings as well as yourself. This is an acknowledgment that you are interdependent with all beings and things, and such an aspiration can give a sense of purpose and direction to your whole life. Of course, it’s impossible to fulfill this vow literally, and when you try to put it into action it is no easy matter! It requires tangib

291 - Keizan's Denkoroku Lead Chapter: Shakyamuni's "I and All Beings"

Jan 17 2025 43 mins

In Episode 272, I discussed the third chapter of Zen Master Keizan’s book The Denkoroku, or the Record of the Transmission of Illumination. In the interest of thoroughness, I figured I’d start back at chapter one, with Shakyamuni Buddha’s “I and All Beings.” This text explores the nature of enlightenment and the tension between individuality and non-separation.

290 - Ten Fields of Zen, Field 8 – Realization: Direct Experience of Reality-with-a-Capital-R

Dec 28 2024 38 mins

The eighth Field of Zen Practice is Realization, gaining a direct, personal experience of the truth. Realization helps you respond appropriately, allowing you to live by choice instead of by karma. Even more importantly, it gives you a larger perspective that can result in equanimity, even joy. There are different levels of truth, and the Dharma – Reality-with-a-Capital-R – is

289 - Ten Fields of Zen, Field 7 – Opening Your Heart: Self-Acceptance and Non-Separation (2 of 2)

Dec 18 2024 31 mins

This episode is the second half of the seventh chapter of my book-in-progress, The Ten Fields of Zen: A Primer for Practitioners. Listen to/read the previous episode (288) first, where I talk about the importance of Opening Your Heart and how that effort is viewed in the Buddhist tradition. In that episode I also discussed the four Brahmaviharas – goodwill, compassion, sympatheti

288 - 10 Fields of Zen, Field 7 – Opening Your Heart: Self-Acceptance and Non-Separation (1 of 2)

Nov 29 2024 36 mins

The seventh Field of Zen Practice is Opening Your Heart. Working explicitly to open your heart not only benefits other living beings, it puts you in accord with the Dharma and supports all other aspects of your practice. You work on radical self-acceptance to make Awakening and compassion possible. You work on real and personal relationships with other beings – overcoming your so