What We’re Listening To

VIDEO

“Lessons of Freedom from within Prison, with Kim Grose Moore” by Sati Center for Buddhist Studies

As the executive director of the Guiding Rage Into Power (GRIP) program, a California restorative justice organization, Kim Grose Moore shares her experience with the transformative power of dharma in the prison yards. As a compassionate witness to the universal condition of human woundedness, Moore asks us to look past particulars, see ourselves in others, and see the incarcerated as fellow travelers on this shared human journey: “You are not your crime. We see you for your full humanity.”

DHARMA TALK

How Do I Apply the Dharma to THIS!?! by Karuna Buddhist Vihara

The Karuna Buddhist Vihara is a small Theravada monastery for bhikkhunis in Sunnyvale, California, offering sutta study and dharma talks. Led by the calming presence of Ayya Santussika and Ayya Cittananda, this dharma talk series radiates their joy for practice, encouraging us to “be kind for the sake of kindness.” They meet monthly in Berkeley and weekly at Sunnyvale—both can be joined online or watched later on their YouTube channel. Check their website calendar for links and dates.

MUSIC

Organic Music Tokyo with Chee Shimizu by NTSLive

DJ, producer, and owner of Tokyo’s much-loved Organic Music secondhand record store, Chee Shimizu hosts this sixty-minute monthly romp through his eclectic collection of experimental, soundscape, ambient, post-bop, funk, and jazz fusion. Shimizu effortlessly guides the listener through some of the biggest names in the industry, favoring tunes that manifest Buddhist understanding and delivering a sonic journey that approaches the sublime. Hosted on the free NTSLive stream, this stunning curation surely has every bodhisattva in the Buddhist multiverse listening.

DHARMA TALK

Learning Not to Turn Away by Sensei John Pulleyn

This teisho (dharma talk) from a codirector of the Rochester Zen Center takes up a pressing challenge for practitioners and, indeed, citizens in these difficult times. It is certainly tempting, in the face of the news that confronts each day, to turn aside, to look inward, and to retreat. But however difficult it is, we must maintain our attention. As Pulleyn says, “What we want to do is to find the wherewithal, the patience, the determination, to hold our own feet to the fire, to keep looking directly, not to deflect.”