PODCAST

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

Angel City Zen Center

Weekly public talks recorded live at the Angel City Zen Center

religion & spirituality buddhism

All Episodes

44:28

Open Secrets (How to teach Zen) w/ Dave Cuomo

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2025/02/07

Dave looks into Zen’s famous wariness towards teachers and teaching, while delving into his own hang ups around the role as he prepares to formally play it. Are we all doomed to unwittingly adopt our teachers hang ups and issues? Is obedience just a matter of finding someone to tell you to do what you want? Is liberation just telling ourselves that whatever we’re doing is what we really want?? Find out here!

40:07

Spiritual Anarchy w/ Dave Cuomo

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2025/01/31

Dave tries to find some harmony between the power of rigid forms and the chaos of personal liberation, with mixed results, and offers up a practical guide to finding fundamental self worth along the way. Is conforming to tradition a process of maturity, or a great way to stamp out the precious life and humanity from the things we love? Can Zen be an antidote to our corporate consumer culture? Can Dave properly use the word “noumenon” in a sentence without sounding pretentious? Find out here!

33:45

An Unsettled Life w/ Henry Zander

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2025/01/24

Henry eloquently confronts an all too relatable existential crisis of accomplishment as he graduates college and tries to figure out who he is when the stress he knew himself by suddenly falls away. Who are we when our burdens of purpose have run their course? Is setting aside 30 minutes a day to feel panicked the remedy we really need? Are a humble plate rice and beans the best recipe for a hot Buddha Body?? Find out here!

33:39

Epiphany! (What Am I Doing Here??) w/ Andy Thomas

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2025/01/10

Andy generously shares his personal practice story (don’t call it a spiritual journey…) from young Catholic doubts to a midlife crisis that sent him exploring the wilds of the mind in Tibetan Buddhism, and why he turned his back on it to face the wall with us. Can Tibetan Buddhism teach us a few things we lack? Can Zen find a way to help Vajrayana relax? Is anxiety and crisis the best thing that can happen to your meditation?? Find out here!

42:01

The Body Poetic w/ Henry Zander

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2025/01/03

Henry gets us out of our heads and into our bodies with encouragements for a more embodied understanding of what zazen is really doing with us. How can we convince our minds to let the body take the wheel for awhile? How do we translate a stillness that doesn’t speak in sense? Can Henry quote the late great Jacques Lecoq without giggling?? Find out here!!

43:30

The Raw Impulse of Inspiration (Body/Mind Practice)...

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/12/20

Dave brings us a clear and lucid roadmap to working through the mind and body in zazen, from distracted self to senseless samadhi through a recently unearthed recording of a foundational practice discussion with his old teacher, Michael Elliston. How can consciousness let go of its own consciousness? Is breath practice mortally dangerous actually? If the willful mind is an illusion, who put it up to that, who’s really calling the shots, and… can we have a word with them?

41:20

The Good Prison (Sh*t Talk & Criticism) w/ Jordan Mylet

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/12/13

“Would it necessarily be so bad to call out other people, to call out ourselves? What if the fact that we’re all sometimes petty, selfish, thoughtless, and cruel doesn't negate us from being people worth caring about?” - Jordan MyletJordan bravely wades into the muddy waters of shi*t talk and judgements in Zen. Our vows tell us to not criticize, they also tell us to tell the truth… Is liberation always polite? How much self-regulation is healthy in a relationship? Can denigration be a trust

53:53

Embodied Economics w/ Dave Cuomo

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/12/06

“I don't want to fight things anymore. I’d rather just make them beautiful. If we have to do something, let's make it art.” - Dave CuomoDave tries to find a harmony between practiced embodiment and practical economics while sinking into the ocean of sound, being, and time. Is there an honest living waiting for us on the other side of our pretensions? Can we be sincere while still being savvy? Was monastery life awesome actually despite everything we may have said previously?? Find out here!

33:20

Wonderfully Useless (Profitless Pursuit) w/ Patrick...

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/11/30

“You say you'd like to try to do zazen in order to become a better person. How ridiculous. How could a person ever become something better?” - Kodo SawakiPatrick gives a passionate exhortation for Kodo Sawaki’s classic encouragement “Zazen is good for nothing.” What do we lose trying to shape our time to fit a purpose? What is the point of a profitless pursuit? Why don’t these zennies want to admit how good zazen really is for us?? Find out here!

40:47

Mystically Curious (Wellness?) w/ Dave Cuomo

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/11/22

“It's not that we’re trying to be better people by sticking around and helping others, it's that you’re kidding yourself if you think you can get off this wheel alone.” - Dave Cuomo Dave tries to find out if Zen is a wellness practice or a sincere spiritual practice and what the difference might or might not be. Is wellness good for you? Is Zen supposed to be good for you? Can meditation make you too powerful?? FInd out here!

29:06

Rearview Mirror Quarterbacking (Feminine & Masculine...

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/11/15

“You are the universe experiencing itself. And you have to respect that… The way that I am is exactly the way I should be. It's not just about stripping you of the stuff that's getting in your way, but also building you up.” - Sara Campbell Sara raises some deep questions about femininity and masculinity in Zen while looking back on her own life of practice. Were our teachings and techniques really built for all who might attend? Is there a practice that can build us up as much as it breaks us

48:32

Shake the Quake (Confidence & Certainty) w/ Dave Cuomo

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/11/08

“Zen is not an established technique. It's sitting down and admitting that nobody can tell you what is right but you. No one knows the ground beneath your feet but you. Nobody can bear witness for you. And when something really shakes you, there can be a powerful moment where all of the sudden you just know one thing for certain. But it might be different than what you think.” - Dave Cuomo Dave goes looking for confidence in a world of certain uncertainty with the story of the time Buddha touched

31:51

Controlled Demolition (Anger) w/ Chris Arnett

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/11/01

“If there is just one person in the world, he will always be neutral. If someone is very angry, but is the only person in the world, he's a little crazy.“ - Kobun ChinoChris opens up the pandoras box of trying to productively deal with anger. We get angry, we vow not to indulge it, we know we can’t wish it away. Is it wisdom, skill, or spiritual bypassing to pretend not to be angry when we actually are? Can we be a jerk without being a jerk? And was driving ever a sane thing to do?? Find out

37:01

You are Invited (Harmony & Discord) w/ Dave Cuomo

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/10/25

“The most destabilizing thing I know is trying to impose harmony on other people. Because it always finds a way to explode. Everything finds a way to come out.” - Dave Cuomo Dave looks into harmony and discord, and whether trying to all just get along means suppressing our unruly little individualities (as much of our teachings and training seem to suggest), weaving myths and legends from across continents and centuries along the way, and bonus! A fresh original translation of the Harmony of

39:36

Revenge Fantasy #3 (What Am I Doing Here??) w/ Samm

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/10/18

“Revenge fantasy #3: Live a satisfactory life. Rescue from the rubble what I still love about Buddhism…” - Samm Samm brings us the unvarnished story of what she’s doing and why she’s here as a second generation Zennie growing up in Buddhist America; a story of snake oil salesmen, tyrants, a revenge best served warm, and a Buddhism that somehow survives despite everything us humans try to throw at it. Should we trust the spiritually special? Is it possible to disidentify from your own narrative? Is

41:50

Spiritual Security (Spacetime & Community) w/ Dave Cuomo

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/10/11

“If you don't want a boss, don't need a boss. If you don't like your country, be a better one.” - Dave Cuomo Dave takes us out to the odd intersection where the warm fuzzies of scrappy boot strap community organizing meet the wild and wonderful mysticisms of space, time, and being. Can all that trippy transcendent brain candy of Zen philosophy help ground us in the things that matter most, or are they just one more pretension waiting to be let go? Is it possible to live an authentic meaningful

38:54

Holy High (Intoxicants) w/ Patrick Carroll

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/10/04

“Let it run. Let your mind go. Let it wear itself out like a kid running around going crazy while their parents say, ‘They’ll sleep good tonight.’”- Patrick CarrollPatrick draws on the full education of his bartending certificate and his sobriety chips to sort through our most intoxicating impulses with a deeply person talk on the 5th precept - no dealing in intoxicants. Can good Buddhists still enjoy a little beer? How can Zen help us control our addictive impulses? Is the desire for self

41:31

I Blame God (Regret & Responsibility) w/ Dave Cuomo

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/09/27

“I have no self. I'm fully responsible for everything. I can't control anything. Also I'll do better next time. Also we don't technically believe in time...” - Dave Cuomo Do we need to change the world, or do we need to change ourselves? Dave tries to figure out if Buddhism is advocating for supreme personal responsibility, or ultimate social accountability. How do we take responsibility for a world, self, and circumstances we don’t have any real control over and technically are all emptiness

36:52

Pop! (Music, Sound, and Consciousness) w/ Robert...

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/09/20

“If you dislike a sound, listen to it again. If you still dislike it, listen to it again. If you dislike that, listen to it again. And if you like something, listen to it again. If you still like it, listen to it again…” - Robert Holliday Robert demonstrates how creativity can lead to realization in an autobiography of deconstructing himself through sound and music, complete with all the bells and whistles (literally!) as he plays us a symphony of revealing irrationalities. Can we find spiritual

45:45

Win/Win/Win (Spiritual Attainments) w/ Dave Cuomo

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast ·

2024/09/13

“Don't sell yourself short. It's been done by lesser people than you. It might've even been done by you when you weren't paying attention and didn't count it.” - Dave Cuomo Dave takes a nitty gritty bare bones look at spiritual attainments in Buddhism while trying to find out where Zen gets it credibility from, whether we can trust them on that, and what we can aspire to ourselves. What are the stages of meditation that lead to awakening? What’s beyond them? Is the idea of dharma transmission just

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Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

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