To be alive is to have problems. While having problems is unpleasant, the deeper difficulty, this talk proposes, is not the problems themselves but the resistance we bring to them. Suffering is not one thing; it is pain multiplied by resistance. Beginning with the Five Remembrances and their reminder that aging, illness, death, and the loss of what we love cannot be escaped, the talk turns to the feelings we least want to feel, taking anxiety and powerlessness as the examples, and asks what it would mean to stop organizing our lives around their avoidance. Zazen offers the training ground: learning, in Suzuki Roshi's phrase, to sit with painful legs without being disturbed by them, then carrying that capacity into the disturbances that arise off the cushion. Reading a section of Being-Time (Uji), where Dogen links change itself, any change, with glorious golden radiance, the talk suggests that our challenge is to find aliveness even within our most unwanted feelings and states of mind. They also belong.

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We're pleased to announce that Uji – Being-Time, a new self-paced course taught by Zenki Dillo Roshi, is now available! Through a line-by-line commentary on Dogen's Uji (Being-Time)—one of the most profound texts in the Zen tradition—Zenki Roshi brings these teachings into everyday life with clear guidance and practical suggestions for practice.

The course includes an introductory talk, nine modules of commentary, practice suggestions, a concluding talk on daily-life practice, text translations, video and audio recordings, written study materials, lifetime access, and a free practice meeting with Zenki Roshi.

Special introductory offer: Receive 30% off through July 24 with the code UJI30. Learn more and enroll here: https://www.boulderzen.org/being-time-self-paced-course

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Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.