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PODCAST

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold

Zen Mountain Monastery

Shugen Roshi has been in full time monastic training since the mid-1980"s. He received dharma transmission from Daido Roshi in 1996. He has been the Head of the Mountains and Rivers Order since Daido Roshi"s passing in 2009 and is the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery.

religion & spirituality buddhism

All Episodes

00:45:41

Tending the Lamp

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/10/12

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/12/25 - Passing this lamp that the Buddha lit, it falls to the next generation to tend that lamp for the next generation, and for generations to come. Building something new, whether a temple or a community as Daido Roshi and others from the Monastery’s early years have done, over time it’s the vow itself that comes alive. On this 45th Anniversary of ZMM, Shugen Roshi celebrates all those who helped to put down good roots here. When each of us arrive at the

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00:42:53

Firewood Does Not Become Ash

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/10/05

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 10/05/25 - The opportunity our lives offer is simply to live—not in the past, nor the future, but now—and this requires a measure of both faith and appreciation for all that is present, right now. Rather than living in memory and recollection, or in our hopes and fears, Dogen’s Genjokoan emphasizes that the dharma state of any phenomenon is just this, right now. - Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of Talks - Part 6

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00:45:20

Not Separate From Yourself

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/09/27

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/27/25 - Zazen is a powerful practice for entering an intimate relationship with ourselves. Without adding anything extra, we have available at all times our true mind, our buddha nature, perfect and complete. But how to work with it skillfully? How to let go of all the suffering we carry, and re-create, moment by moment? Drawing from Dogen’s Genjokoan, Shugen Roshi takes up the opportunity this radical intimacy offers. - Fall 2025 Ango - Genjokoan Series of

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00:41:10

To Study The Self, To Forget The Self

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/09/24

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/24/25 - Being devoted to the study of the self which Dogen outlines in Genjokoan is quite different than being self-centered. Rather, it means to take up wholeheartedly the practice of living into our true nature. Making this path real—bringing our understanding out of the realm of concept and abstraction—becomes the entryway to the joy and ease of practice-realization. In recognizing our deluded, karmic self, we are freed to realize the true self, our true

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00:47:21

Intimate Understanding

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/09/21

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/21/25 - Awareness is an essential aspect of being alive, and quite essential for doing good actions to bring healing to our troubled world. In Genjokoan, however, Dogen says a buddha doesn’t need to be aware of being a buddha. What does this mean? Is it a lack of awareness, or something else? Our entire world of experience centers around self-awareness, and a sense of “something” there, even when being truly selfless. This exploration by Shugen Roshi shows how

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00:47:10

When All Dharmas Are Buddhadharma

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/09/07

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 9/7/25 - Becoming aware of our sense of self is central to understanding the True Self—the self of no-self. And with practice, we come to realize that the ten thousand things are none other than what we call “self.” In this talk, Shugen Roshi introduces Genjokoan, a fascicle of Dogen, which brings us face to face with the everyday reality of our lives. Our most important question then becomes: How do we live freely within this great truth, when all dharmas are

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00:50:19

Fall 2025 Ango Opening Talk – “The Way of Everyday...

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/08/31

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/31/25 - Shugen Roshi introduces the theme of the MRO 90-day Fall Ango 2025 training period, "The Way of Everyday Life: Genjokoan."

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00:37:12

What Limits Your Freedom?

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/08/30

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/30/25 - While many people search outside for the causes of feeling constrained and limited, the radical step toward transformation is to turn the light around. Coming close enough to see clearly our own constraining, deluded thinking—to see the truth in our own delusions— takes great courage and honesty. Before we can heal the world, we need to get clear about our own thinking and go beyond what appears to us as the limits of our freedom. This empowerment is

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00:48:36

Turning Words: A Wood Buddha

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/08/24

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/24/25 - What is it to pass through something? Or to not pass through? In koan practice this image is utilized over and over again, and here a buddha made of wood cannot pass through a fire. To pass through or not presents a dilemma, the duality of good or bad, easy or difficult. How does the dharma help us to reach true freedom of mind? Shugen Roshi reminds us that suffering is always in the mind, and the end of suffering is the miraculous activity of our life

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00:50:49

Turning Words: A Gold Buddha

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/08/23

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/23/25 - The discriminating function of our minds has many benefits, and at the same time we need to reveal how it can become weaponized against ourselves. The furnace of a gold buddha might be seen as the more difficult entanglements of our lives, and yet within these circumstances we are empowered to completely transform the mind that resists and defends. Liberation takes determination and commitment to release our own obstructions. - Part 2 of 3. From the

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00:44:19

Turning Words: A Mud Buddha

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/08/20

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 8/20/25 - In the language of koans, we are invited to step right into the embodied experience of the koan, which in this case is a Buddha made of mud which cannot pass through water. Can you immerse your mind in the muck and entanglement of a mud buddha? Is this mind trustworthy? To reveal our minds to ourselves, we can take up the method of focusing our own “miraculous awareness” within zazen, to bring forward the freedom and generosity to which we aspire. -

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00:46:31

Buddhist Studies and Language

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/05/04

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 5/4/25 - How we take up the Dharma includes how we study, using words to go beyond words and concepts. How we see words being used in the world should give us an understanding of how we might get tangled in our own objectification of things. Freedom emerges hand in hand with how we learn to be free of grasping, even in the realm of language, and to apply what we hear in liturgy and the sutras to our own experience. - From the Book of Serenity, Case 45 - Four

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00:39:16

Fusatsu: Wholesome and Unwholesome Actions

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/03/28

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 3/28/25 - Perfecting our actions is how we cultivate the qualities of a bodhisattva, and this is what is practiced in the moral and ethical teachings of Zen Buddhism. In this realm of existence, we can have a positive effect even on difficult circumstances. This talk by Shugen Roshi explores what is of benefit in this present life and how a practitioner can live in accord with this. - Teisho during the March 2025 Fusatsu at ZMM.

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00:45:30

Dreaming Yourself Awake

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/02/02

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 2/2/25 - What do you see in front of you? Our perceptions are windows to the world, and provide material for how we create “the self” as a separate and seemingly solid entity. But all beings are fundamentally not fixed or solid, and to study this we can put an end to clinging and suffering. How do we live freely and compassionately? These instructions from Shugen Roshi point to our own wakefulness and freedom. (From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 40 - Nan Ch'uan's

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00:38:58

At the Heart Of Your Path

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2025/01/12

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 1/12/25 - Gateless Gate, Case 16: The Bell's Sound and the Priest's Robe - We have these forms in Zen for meditation, for liturgy, for taking a meal and for practicing the dharma together. But what use is a form? How can we use forms without getting caught up in the form itself? To benefit from Zen practice as a vehicle to liberate ourselves from grasping at forms—or at anything—is to learn to shift as conditions change within every aspect of our lives.

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00:41:46

Celebrating the Buddha’s Enlightenment

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2024/12/08

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi ZMM - 12/08/24 - Having exhausted all the methods that were available at the time, Shakyamuni Buddha turned toward a new path, a simple seclusion and inward turning of mind. He received nourishment from Sujata and courageously defeated Mara on the path of liberation. This inspiring tale is retold by Shugen Roshi on the occasion of the annual Buddha’s Enlightenment Vigil.

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00:45:54

Seeing Our True Identity

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2024/12/01

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 12/01/24 - From Master Wu-Men's Gateless Gate, Case 12 Jui-yen Calls "Master" - How does our sense of self come about? Does it happen automatically and, if so, is it illusory? The aim of zen practice is to cut through the illusion, see the self and other as an interdependent whole and therein recognize our true identity.

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00:54:14

The Supreme Method

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2024/11/23

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/23/24 - Letting go of our grasping mind is wisdom itself. Yet it’s difficult to understand “wisdom” as a quality we embody, in part because wisdom is devoid of self-nature and cannot be grasped. But if there is no self, for whom do we extend compassion? Who receives the benefits? Conventional existence and the ultimate nature are both true, and holding both is the expression of wisdom and compassion.

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00:48:51

Your True Home

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2024/11/20

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 11/20/24 - Drawing from the wisdom chapter of Shantideva’s teachings and other sources, Shugen Roshi brings out the subtle distinctions between craving-as-a-hindrance and aspiration. By seeing into the true nature of all reality, we can free ourselves from the endless cycles of clinging and attachment without needless confusion about what we call “the self,” and live within our true home.

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00:44:19

Karmic Actions and Conditions

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold ·

2024/11/17

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 11/17/24 - We often ask ourselves in response to outside conditions: what do we do now? Our typical reactive, worrying state is often laying on extra trouble as we search for ways to act, to respond. While we have intrinsic, perfect buddha nature and can rely on this, we also live in the midst of strong forces of karma: karmic actions and conditions. There are things in this world of samsara that are deeply challenging, but how we experience them is key to how we free

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74 results

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