What We’re Listening To

“You Are Not It, In Truth It Is You” by Kokyo Henkel

In a dharma talk at a Green Gulch Farm Zen Center retreat, Soto Zen priest Kokyo Henkel uses the auto industry’s often-overlooked sagacious warning—“objects in the mirror are closer than they appear”—as a launching point for a relatable master class on seeing through the delusions we create to glimpse our buddha-nature. Drawing on stories of the 9th-century Chan master Dongshan, Henkel reminds us: “It’s easy to fall in love with the reflections in the mirror and forget our original face.”

Uganda Buddhist Centre Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary by Uganda Buddhist Centre

This short documentary celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the Uganda Buddhist Centre, a fast-growing community in East Africa founded in 2005 by the Theravada monk Kaboggoza Buddharakkhita. A preschool, high school, bakery, organic farm, and medical center have been added to the center to serve both the residents and the local community. Buddharakkhita’s vision is grand. Through the many monastics he is training, he hopes to expand his center “to each African country.”

“Beyond Silence: Music & Ritual in Zen Buddhism” by Shōren Heather Iarusso

On the Spark Zen podcast, the Stanford scholar and jazz saxophonist turned Zen ritual expert Michaela Mross explores the sonic dimensions of Soto Zen liturgy. Drawing on her fieldwork in Japan and her book, Memory, Music, Manuscripts, Mross discusses how melodic chanting (Jp.: shomyo) and elaborate rituals, such as koshiki, shape collective memory, embodiment, and awakening. Mross reflects on how the pure sounds of ritual can “preserve the reverberation of the universe from the time of the Buddha” and help practitioners reach salvation.

PODCAST

“Religious Psychosis & Dark Retreat” by Steve James

Psychotherapist Caroline Van Damme and Yangti Yoga Retreat Center founder Justin von Bujdoss examine the dangers of dark meditation. Moving between Christian theology, tantric views of consciousness, and modern psychology, they caution against casual engagement with this practice. “We know that when you have sensorial deprivation,” Van Damme notes, “you can induce psychotic states, and everyone will become psychotic at one point or another.” This conversation brings to light a tradition long kept in the dark—for important reasons.