Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast

In this year’s Gratefulness and Generosity program Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski explore gratefulness and generosity as essential Buddhist practices for navigating “the pressure of the time we’re in.” Roshi Joan situates generosity as the first paramita—a boundless state of mind—and invites participants to hold both sorrow and beauty, acknowledging the painful histories and difficult… Source

In this penultimate session of Awareness in Action (2025), Roshi Joan Halifax gathers with Sharon Salzberg and Frank Ostaseski to explore love as the foundation for engaged Buddhism, acknowledging the collective “upwelling of perturbation” many feel about the body politic. Roshi describes how spiritual community calls us back into love, noting the nation’s parallel journey: “We fell out of love… Source

In this penultimate session of Awareness in Action (2025), Roshi Joan Halifax gathers with Sharon Salzberg and Frank Ostaseski to explore love as the foundation for engaged Buddhism, acknowledging the collective “upwelling of perturbation” many feel about the body politic. Roshi describes how spiritual community calls us back into love, noting the nation’s parallel journey: “We fell out of love… Source

In this Winter Solstice gathering, Roshi Joan Halifax offers a grounded teaching on awareness amid darkness. Speaking during the longest night of the year, she introduces the Zen phrase ekō henshō—“turning the light around”—as the practice of directing awareness toward awareness itself. Through a story from a vinaya gathering in Thailand and a single word—“phenomena”—Roshi explores how we meet… Source

In this Way-Seeking Mind Wednesday Night Dharma Talk, resident Clayton Genryu Dalton charmingly shares his unexpected path to Zen and reflects on meaningful moments and insights from his life. From bathroom graffiti at UT Austin to Alan Watts, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, emergency medicine, and the abrupt end of his marriage, Genryu embodies life as process. Smiling at his own mistakes and… Source