The Zen Mountain Monastery Podcast

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The Inner Wilderness

June 07, 2026

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 6/7/26 – How Buddhism uses the term “attachments” is often misunderstood as being something bad, which should not happen, but our sense of self is made up of a series of attachments: to identity, position, and so on. When we see through these many ideas of who we are, we can eventually settle our minds and experience our true nature. Using an ancient koan and the words of Henry David Thoreau, Shugen Roshi explores the world o...

Dharma Encounter with Shugen Roshi

May 31, 2026

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – 5/31/26 – Mundane truth, enlightened truth, from the beginning are all together one. But there are snags that grab us, some of them repeatedly. Hongzhi describes our original mind this way: “from the beginning it is fundamentally all together complete, undefiled, clear down to the bottom.” In this Dharma Encounter with the sangha, Shugen Roshi asks: how do each of us use our difficulty, troubles, heartache and anger to relieve our suffering? How do...

Does That Person See It, Or Not?

May 30, 2026

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – 5/30/26 – Zen is filled with koan stories asking this question: do they see it or not? Do you see “it”? Shugen Roshi says that we see only as far as our penetrating vision can reach at any time. And yet that is plenty. Our present experience invites us to look further and not solidify our moment to moment experience. The Path is not linear in the usual sense, although there is practice and realization, much more valuable is learning to ask, to get c...