Life as Pilgrimage
Greetings Friends,We began the Summer Read of The Hidden Lamp: 25 Centuries of Awakened Women with the first koan—The Old Woman of Wutai, a story about the spiritual path, pilgrimage and life direction that features cron…
Earth Dreams: Zen Buddhism and the Soul of the World
Hosted by Zen teacher Amy Kisei, Earth Dreams: Zen Buddhism and the Soul of the World is a quiet space for exploring what it means to be truly awake in a living, dreaming world. Rather than treating spiritual practice as a retreat from daily life, this podcast gently examines how the core insights of Zen-interconnection, non-separation, and our original nature of freedom-are intimately woven into our dreams, our relationship with the earth, and our sense of soul. Each episode feels like a thoughtful conversation, where ancient teachings meet the raw material of our inner lives and the ecological world around us. You’ll hear Kisei’s reflections on how dreamwork can be a surprising ally on the path of awakening, revealing our deep entanglement with the cosmos. The aim here isn’t abstract philosophy, but a palpable sense of how these liberating perspectives can reshape our experience of reality itself. Tuning into this podcast offers a rare blend of grounded spirituality, where the soul of the world speaks through both silence and symbol, inviting a more creative and loving engagement with existence. It’s for anyone curious about how the heart of Zen Buddhism illuminates our most profound connections.
Episodes
Meeting Fear with Love and Understanding
Happy Summer Solstice!I feel deep gratitude to be on this path of friendship, communion and inquiry with you. The path of dharma is a path of truth, of getting closer to the actuality of our lives—to the heart of what is…
Love: one-hundred-thousand times
I have been reflecting on the nature of practice-awakening. In the Buddhist tradition this refers to the process (both sudden and gradual) of realizing our fundamental wellbeing. This is a transformational practice. This…
The Failure is Wonderful Indeed
One can, the other cannotBoth are freeA god mask, a demon maskThe failure is wonderful indeed —Mumon’s poemIf I reflect back on my life, it is possible to see a series of failures, mistakes, broken dreams and incomplete…
Getting Unstuck
I have been contemplating being stuck. You know that feeling that something else should be happening. Something more, or different, or better. The sense that whatever is happening is somehow wrong, or bad, or amiss in so…
Meeting the Ancestors
Greetings Friends,I am returning from a 10-day stay at my former home—Great Vow Zen Monastery. While I was there I had the opportunity to co-lead a sesshin (weeklong silent meditation retreat). The sesshin’s theme was Th…
Conversations in a Dream
Are you dreaming? How is your experience, like a dream?In one sense, the words you are reading, the sounds you are hearing, the thoughts racing through your mind and the ones seeming to linger in the background, the worr…
Dream as Medicine, Dream as Love
Dream as Analogy for RealityThis world is psychoactive. So much so that we don’t even realize how are fundamental beliefs and unquestioned assumptions shape our sense of who we are and what the world is.One of those assu…
What's Real?
What is real? What is true?These questions are fundamental to the spiritual path, to the path of awakening.There is much confusion in our world right now. Blatant lies or mis-truths are being thrown around about immigran…
Ryonen Scars Her Face
Hello Friends,Happy April 1st! Here we are, its Aries Season, it’s Spring, Mercury and Venus have both been retrograde for a while now (which can give a certain feeling of friction or underworld journey to our days), the…
