The Ten Fields of Zen - Field 4 - Dharma Study, Wrestling with the Teachings
Release Date: 12/14/2025
Reimagining Zen Towards and Ethics of Interbeing - Week 5
Bright Way Zen
Pamela Ayo Yetunde writes in Casting Indra’s Net: Fostering Spiritual Kinship and Community: “Mobbery is a process that centers on anger, energy, and power—it is the aggregation of personal anger into a collective anger that develops a power far beyond that of individuals. Mobbery entails using the energy of anger to find people who are angry about the same things you’re angry about, then together harnessing this anger in ways that place blame on others. By taking no responsibility for soothing one’s own anger and projecting blame collectively onto groups identified as...
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The One Who is Not Busy - Domyo (2/1/2026)
Bright Way Zen
In a Koan from Hongzhi's Book of Serenity, two Dharma brothers engage in a conversation. As one sweeps the ground, the other challenges him, observing: "Too Busy!" This feeling of "busyness" is a state that is relatable to many of us. In this talk, Sangha members share what characterizes busyness, and also what characterizes activity without a sense of busyness. How can we be still even in the midst of all of our commitments, activities, and challenges?
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Reimagining Zen Towards an Ethics of Interbeing - Week 4/10
Bright Way Zen
Humans evolved to look out for our own interests but also developed the capacity for completely selfless action when we closely identify with a group. When we feel as much concern for another’s wellbeing as we do for our own, you might call this a sense of “kinship.” The Buddha taught us to practice extending Metta, or loving-kindness – just as a mother would feel for her only child – to all living beings without discrimination. We will discuss the evolutionary psychology perspective on human altruism, ways that our sense of kinship gets activated, and the...
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Transforming Fear - Domyo (1/25/2026)
Bright Way Zen
Our teacher reads from Thich Nhat Hahn's book "Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm" the conviction that transforming fear into fearlessness is possible through deeply acknowledging one's fears and their sources. Domyo invites Sangha members to openly express what they are most afraid of, and then share what ideas and practices help ground them and give them strength. A generous and courageous discussion follows.
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Reimagining Zen Towards an Ethics of Interbeing - Week 3/10
Bright Way Zen
Buddhist practice is wonderfully liberating because it empowers you to let go of your suffering regardless of your circumstances. However, we can also get stuck in the fallacy that conditions don’t matter, thereby making it seem like helping beings (including ourselves) experience things like safety, health, freedom, justice, prosperity, and love are outside of the realm of Buddhist concern. Are we only interested in “spiritual” well-being, as if that can be separated entirely from conditions? Or do we work for the happiness of beings without worrying about distinctions like...
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Returning to the Practice - Sangha member talk with Mick Stukes (1/18/2026)
Bright Way Zen
Mick shares his challenges to keeping a committed and confident practice at home, and reads from the Shobogenzo Zuimonki. Are we "vessels of the Dharma" even in our perceived inadequacies or difficulties? Is the big "E" attainable even if we feel too small for it? Dōgen's radical idea is that practice and enlightenment are not separate. It's when we return to this place, here and now, and simply do our practice that we can find that thing that we're looking for.
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Reimagining Zen Towards an Ethics of Interbeing - Week 2/10
Bright Way Zen
The Buddha famously said, “Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.” How do we really manifest this, even when standing in opposition to what we think is wrong? Can we see through our own sense of self-righteousness? Jonathan Haidt writes in The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion: “This book explained why people are divided by politics and religion. The answer is not, as Manichaeans would have it, because some people are good and others are evil. Instead, the explanation is that our minds...
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Zazen as the Ultimate Self-Care - Domyo (1/11/2026)
Bright Way Zen
Self-care can be defined as regenerative activity, free from a sense of entitlement, that supports healthy functioning. In this context, does Zazen qualify as "self-care"? What can Zazen do for us, and what is its true purpose?
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How Buddhist is Zen? - Domyo (1/4/2026)
Bright Way Zen
David Hinton makes the following argument in his book "China Root: On Taoism, Ch'an, and Original Zen" - that when Buddhism arrived in China from India, it was fundamentally reinterpreted and reshaped by Taoist thought, and then the resulting amalgam of Ch'an, or Zen, is so transformed by Taoism that it is scarcely recognizable as Buddhism at all. Our guiding teacher explores this idea in the context of how original Buddhist teachings combined with Mahayana features such as inherent Buddha nature, interdependence, thusness, "sudden" realization, and radical nondualism to manifest as the...
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Reimagining Zen Towards an Ethics of Interbeing - Week 1/10
Bright Way Zen
Join us for a ten-week journey as we ask ourselves how to manifest our Zen ethics and precepts beyond the personal realm. Traditionally, Buddhism and Zen have focused on individual practice aimed at relief of individual suffering. However, there are many teachings that point us beyond our small selves toward our relationships: We should care for all beings without distinction, practice generosity without limit, actively work for the welfare of others, and accord with the truth of Interbeing – that we aren’t fundamentally separate from anything. In the first week of this 10 week discussion...
info_outlineIn this episode "Dharma Study: Wrestling with the Teachings," Rev. Domyo Burk discusses field 4 in the series on her Ten Fields of Zen - the role that Dharma study and engaging critically with the teachings plays in our practice.