Recorded: January 19th, 2008
Posted on: August 18th, 2008
Speakers: Roshi Joan Halifax, Jim Austin MD, Neil Theise, MD, Jason Buhl, BA, Al Kaszniak, PhD
Show: 90
Neil Theise MD discusses several topics including acoustic waves and acupuncture, fetal organization regions and the possibility that internal examples of fetal organization regions exist and we know them as the seven chakra points, telemerase enzyme studies and the connections between meditation and longevity, amongst others.
Recorded: January 19th, 2008
Posted on: August 11th, 2008
Speakers: Roshi Joan Halifax, Jim Austin MD, Neil Theise, MD, Jason Buhl, BA, Al Kaszniak, PhD
Show: 89
Roshi Joan Halifax and Neil Theise, MD
Roshi Joan opens this session with a discussion of what we don’t know, the quest for good questions to drive this research, the motivations behind the Zen brain research interest, and the connection of these studies to real life.
Neil Theise, MD continues with a fascinating look at perspective– how it influences scientific study, and how alternate perspectives have opened and continue to allow for new understanding about the body-mind experience and functioning.
Recorded: January 18th, 2008
Posted on: July 29th, 2008
Speakers: Roshi Joan Halifax, Jim Austin MD, Neil Theise, MD, Jason Buhl, BA, Al Kaszniak, PhD
Show: 88
Al Kaszniak, PhD
Dr. Kaszniak presents an historical overview of research studies of compassion and speaks about his own current research in compassion studies.
Recorded: January 18th, 2008
Posted on: August 4th, 2008
Speakers: Roshi Joan Halifax, Jim Austin MD, Neil Theise, MD, Jason Buhl, BA, Al Kaszniak, PhD
Show: 87
Jason Buhl, BA
Continues his presentation with a more in depth look at what we now know about the functioning of certain areas of the brain particularly in regards to forms of cognition and attention.
Recorded: January 17th, 2008
Posted on: July 22nd, 2008
Speakers: Roshi Joan Halifax, Jim Austin MD, Neil Theise, MD, Jason Buhl, BA, Al Kaszniak, PhD
Show: 86
Jason Buhl, BA
This presentation is a fast-paced exploration of the tools and methods past and current which are utilized to study the workings of the mind/brain.
Recorded: January 17th, 2008
Posted on: July 15th, 2008
Speakers: Roshi Joan Halifax, Jim Austin MD, Neil Theise, MD, Jason Buhl, BA, Al Kaszniak, PhD
Show: 85
Neil Theise, MD, discussed his years of stem cell research involving primarily, the human liver. He takes us on an astonishing journey into the cellular organization of the human body, it’s correlates in the natural world (ants) and the incredible synchronicity with ancient buddhist teachings about the bodymind.
Recorded: January 16th, 2008
Posted on: July 11th, 2008
Speakers: Roshi Joan Halifax, Jim Austin MD, Neil Theise, MD, Jason Buhl, BA, Al Kaszniak, PhD
Show: 84
Neil Theise and Roshi Joan Halifax discuss zazen and the scientific method as two forms of focussed observation, and attention to processes. They ask us to be both practitioners and scientists and discuss the unusual circumstance of ‘being that which we are studying’.
Recorded: January 16th, 2008
Posted on: July 7th, 2008
Speakers: Roshi Joan Halifax, Jim Austin MD, Neil Theise, MD, Jason Buhl, BA, Al Kaszniak, PhD
Show: 83
Introductory opening of the Zen Brain retreat by Roshi Joan who acknowledges the pioneering work of Jim Austin and Francisco Varela. Each of the featured presenters then gives a quick overview of what participants might expect from their respective presentations and include some historical background to the field of study.
Recorded on December 20th, 2006 at Upaya Zen Center.
On this talk, Roshi and William Irwin Thompson celebrate the 5th anniversary of the opening of Dokan-ji or “Circle of the Way Temple” on winter solstice 2001. She recounts the struggle and the joy of building and designing the temple with her friend Mark Little, having an ecumenical opening celebration–with a wild 26 foot calligraphy made by Kazuaki Tanahashi.
Bill Thompson speaks of sacred geometry, mythopoeic interpretation of symbols and cultural history, and our connectedness with the earth.
Path of Service
June 21 - July 1, 2007
Wilderness Fast for Social Activists, Caregivers, and Educators
Roshi Joan Halifax and John Braman
July 5 - 8, 2007
Liberation through Yoga and Buddhism
Richard Freeman and Roshi Joan Halifax
July 11 - 15, 2007
In the Shelter of Each Other Women’s Retreat: Engaged Practice in the Heart of the World
Roshi Joan Halifax, Zuleikha, Mayumi Oda, Tessa Bielecki, Cynthia West, Rabbi Malka Drucker, Barbara Tedlock, Diane Haug
Recorded at Upaya Zen Center December 7th, 2006
In this talk, Roshi Joan and Kaz Sensei use the death of Ashoka as the centerpiece of their discussion. Roshi tells us that the practice is hard–that when we sit on a zafu we are swimming upstream, bucking social conventions.
Further on in the talk, Roshi relates Ashoka’s wisdom to the motherly instinct–the drive to nurture, not to toil in war or social intoxicants.
In honor of that motherly spirit and wisdom, here is the poem by Billy Collins:
The Lanyard
The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.
No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly -
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.
I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.
She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light
and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.
Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth
that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.
Zen Practice
Zen & Compassion
cognition
mind body connection
bodymind
zazen
zen focus