27 Nonviolence - Today's teisho by Sunya Kjolhede Sensei is from a talk given at our regular Sunday sitting, on June 8th, 2008. Thanks for your continued interest in these podcasts. Send us an email at windhorsezen@att.net Let us know who you are, ask questions, just let us know you're listening. The Windhorse Zen Community has meditation open to the public, and has a residential zen training program. To learn more, and to help support our podcasts and the work of the Windhorse Zen Community, see our website at www.windhorsezen.org

Lectern Free! Today's teisho by Sunya Kjolhede Sensei is from a talk given at sesshin in August of 2008. Thanks for your continued interest in these podcasts. Send us an email at windhorsezen@att.net Let us know who you are, ask questions, just let us know you're listening. The Windhorse Zen Community has meditation open to the public, and has a residential zen training program. To learn more, and to help support our podcasts and the work of the Windhorse Zen Community, see our website at www.windhorsezen.org

Chosha's Spring Walk- Today's teisho by Sunya Kjolhede Sensei is from a talk given May 4th, 2008. The koan discussed is Chosha goes for a Walk, case #36 in the book of koans, The Blue Cliff Record. There is a very helpful brief introduction to koans that we have copied out and used for the preceding podcast. We have had an excellent response to these podcasts. Please send an email to us at windhorsezen@att.net . Let us know who you are, ask questions, just let us know you're listening. The Windhorse Zen Community has meditation open to the public, and has a residential zen training program. To learn more, and to help support our podcasts and the work of the Windhorse Zen Community, see our website at www.windhorsezen.org

An introduction to koans- Sunya Sensei often discusses koans. This brief introduction to koans is taken from a longer teisho, Chosha's Spring Walk that will follow this podcast. Roshi Kapleau, our teacher's teacher, said in his book The Three Pillars of Zen, that a koan is "a formulation, in baffling language, pointing to ultimate truth." A well-known example is "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" Sunya sensei refers to the most widely used initial koan in our practice is Joshu's Mu. Zen teaches us that all things have Buddha nature. The koan goes, "A monk asked Joshu, Does a dog have Buddha Nature?" Joshu replies "Mu" , which means "no". The student is asked to demonstrate what is mu. Sunya Sensei refers to the dokusan room. Part of our practice is the formal private interview with the teacher, dokusan, during which the student is asked to demonstrate understanding of the koan.