Shows
Way of Oneness: A Sangha Podcast3rd Foundational Dharma Talk: Mono No Aware - Embracing ImpermanenceExcerpt:
At the heart of the teaching of impermanence is conditioned existence but what is conditioned existence?
Conditioned existence is the reality that all phenomena, all things that exist arise in dependence upon other phenomena: "if this exists, that exists; if this ceases to exist, that also ceases to exist"
This is the heart of impermanence of all - because all things all phenomena arise out of conditions and when the condition causes it to arise, cease then, that which arose, vanishes or transforms into something different. That is way the Buddha says,
...2023-04-2438 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha Podcast#2 Foundational Dharma Talk: Way of the Foolish BeingIn this talk we explore the idea of bonbu - of each of us being "foolish beings" and who this informs our community and practice.
Excerpt
"It is our studentship that we share, not our specialness or holiness. It is with humility being aware of our limitations. As I have said time and time again, I too will be disappointed, and that I do not nor have I ever claimed to be a guru or a master, just a foolish being.
This idea of the foolish or ordinary being is the foundation to wh...2023-04-2130 min
The Evolved Man w/Steve Cutler79: Come as You Are w/Sensei Christopher Kakuyo Ross-LeibowApply for coaching at https://www.evolve-cast.com/get-started
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Come as you are. This is the message of our guest for episode 79. Practicing Buddhist principles can be an empowering way to EVOLVE into your highest self. Steve Cutler and W Myles Riley EVOLVE your knowledge in episode 79 with the Sensei of the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship, Christopher Kakuyo Ross-Leibow.
Christopher Kakuyo Leibow is the founder and practice leader of the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship and trans-sectarian Buddhist community in Salt Lake City. He i...2023-02-051h 22
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastFollow Your Authentic PathEXCERPT
"Breathing in I am aware that I am breathing in, breathing out, I am aware that I am breathing out. To really live life we can touch this simple reality with deep awareness – underneath my stories, religion, ideas and philosophy –
I appreciate this so much,
At the time Akegarasu Sensei began teaching he was rather revolutionary, looking for a way to take the teachings of Buddha into people’s everyday lives. His language is different, more direct, less dogmatic and more personal
Rev Akegarasu goes on to write in Shout of Buddha.
"Besid...2023-01-2328 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastDharma Highway Sutra: Driving and Buddhist PracticeExcerpt
"That aside, here I am driving to work or home from work, like I do every day and the reality that I want, the reality that I EXPECT is the following:
no red lights,
goodly speeds,
graceful lane changes,
blinkers, yes blinkers.
I expect traffic to be light and if it is heavy, still moving efficiently.
But what happens when these expectations are dashed after the first right hand turn? Anger? rage? We, I mean I become frustrated, my pulse races, my vision narrows. I am assigning all kinds of character traits to people I don’t k...2023-01-2332 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastSangha As PracticeExcerpt
"The fellowship is our training ground in our practice. It is where we come as we are and that means there is lots of opportunities to practice the virtues of patience, humility, compassion, deep listening, letting go of views and expectations
The practice of sangha can be very difficult because your come as you are is really screwing with my come as I am are right now.
The spirit of come as you are or sonomama in Japanese keeps us steadfast and open.
Over the years you have heard me compare the Sangh...2023-01-0934 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha Podcast#1 Attend to All and Each -The Meaning of Come as You Are.Here is the first of Eight Foundational Dharma Talks that share the teachings that make our community what it is and our tradition's expression of the Buddha Dharma and Everyday Buddhism.
This is a dharma talk that shares what we mean when we translate Namu Amida Butsu as "come as you are." What does that mean in a contemporary context? I also share how the mythic Buddha Amida fits into it all and how this Buddha is relevant today, even for the more secular minded of the West.
2022-08-0935 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastGoing for Refuge - Taking Refuge in Buddhayearly before our Summer Retreat we review what going for refuge to the three jewels means. In this Talk Christopher Kakuyo talks about taking refuge in general and more specifically regarding taking refuge in the Buddha. As westerns we seem to have a challenge taking refuge in the Buddha. This may be because of our Post Religious' Stress Disorder. We embrace the Dharma and even the Sangha, but the Buddha we keep at arms length, lest he becomes some sort of deity. Christopher thinks, that by doing this we are doing a disservice to our practice.
EX...2022-08-0159 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastDoing Nothing as Skillful PracticeWe use an old Zen story to look at Doing Nothing as skillful action.
Excerpt
"A young monk is struggling and he goes to his master, telling him he is really struggling. So he asks his Master Ganto. When the three worlds threaten me, what shall I do?" Ganto answered, "Sit down." "I do not understand," said the monk. Ganto said, "Pick up the mountain and bring it to me. Then I will tell you." ..
You can just see the poor monk, overwhelmed by the three worlds, which are the world of form, th...2022-08-0143 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastJuneteenth - a dharma talk by Rachel Koshinyo
Here is a dharma talk from one of the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship's community on Juneteenth,
Enjoy
2022-07-1820 min
Everyday Buddhism: Making Everyday BetterIntroducing Where The Light Meets: Spin-Off Podcast on Buddhist & Christian Reflections and PracticeJoin us for this introduction of an Everyday Buddhism spin-off podcast! Follow the conversation of 4 friends: Holly Rockwell, a spiritual director and Ignatian prayer guide; Levi Shinyo Walbert Sensei, a Buddhist Lay Minister and seminary student pursuing chaplaincy and a Master of Divinity; Christopher Kakuyo Ross-Leibow Sensei, a Buddhist Lay Minister and sangha leader of the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship; and me, Wendy Shinyo Haylett, a Buddhist Lay Minister and your host of both podcasts. Listen as we will continue to talk about how you can enlighten your Buddhist practice through...2021-02-111h 00
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastAlready Broken: A Dharma Talk on Impermanence.From Already Broken a Dharma talk given Jan 24th, 2021 at the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship.
"Without an intimacy with impermanence, our whole lives are spent in what we can do or will do tomorrow or we spend time worrying about the past, not living in the here and now. The problem is that we think we have time. We don't. Living without an intimacy with impermanence, our lives lack a deep transformative gratitude and in its place, there is a subtle but stifling entitlement. Somehow we think that we are entitled to tomorrow. We are n...2021-01-2827 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastEnoughness: Reflections on the Second Precept of Buddhism.Excerpt
When I first started to explore and examine this precept, my first inclination was to feel guilt for taking paper clips from work or printing things for personal uses on my work computer. Funny, that I found ways around it Like buying a ream of paper to replace the 40 pages I used. I started to make sure I paid for all of my Trax rides.
I did start to examine some of my motivations for doing what I was doing, but for me, most of these simple practices were very superficial and mo...2020-09-2322 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastAffirming Life: The First PreceptEven though the precepts were not directed to the community directly, they are all about community. The precepts are about action and intention. I appreciate this from Wendell Berry,
“ To act in short is to live. Living is a total act. Thinking is a partial act. And one does not live alone. Living is a communal act…
He goes on to quote Emerson,
“I grasp the hand of those next to me, and take my place in the circle, to suffer and work.”
I love the lack of sentimentality in these words. Fo...2020-09-1534 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastThe Five - The Ethical Foundation of Meditation2020-09-0921 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastWhat Are You Carrying?Excerpt from the dharma talk.
The heaviest burdens we can carry are the burdens of the past- either for something that was done to us or done by us, and we spend so much time there. I have talked about this before, that we are constantly time-traveling from the past to the future and rarely present in the flow of now. We fix ourselves firmly in the past or because our dissatisfaction with the present or our unwillingness to change in the present, we travel constantly to the future, where everything is controllable, and the outc...2020-09-0124 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastAttend to all and each
From the dharma talk,
"Whatever it is inside of ourselves that we are running from – that is what we attend to because we know we can come as we are. As Jung said, I would rather be whole than good. This is meeting each other in the open field – the pure – land – out beyond good and bad. This is attending to yourself. This acceptance is the opposite of spiritual bypassing.
When we attend to ourselves and others, we take the journey into all the places we have hidden our suffering, our woundedness from view and bring it as an offering to the Budd...2020-08-2400 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastProtective AngerThis is something I have been thinking about in our current environment. With so much polarity in our greater community, we stop listening to one another and when we do we start seeing one another as enemies. The Buddha taught 2600 years ago that hatreds never cease through hatred ... through love alone they cease. This is an eternal law. The challenge we face is that our own righteous anger can be a barrier to listening and close us off from love.
Sometimes I think we fall into this trap when we see our anger as " righteous", a species of anger the...2020-01-0632 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastAuthentic Life2019-11-0927 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastDeep Listening a Call to Presence2019-10-3123 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastTaking Refuge in the DharmaFrom the dharma talk
"Many appreciate and value the teachings of the Buddha, post endless memes with quotes he said and never said, there are some who have got out of bad marriages, bad jobs because of something they read or heard on a Buddhist podcast – and all this is the fruit of the teaching. At the same time, going for refuge is more than just an intellectual appreciation of the Buddhas Brains.
Going for refuge is not simply an activity of thinking, of ideas or concepts but the walking of the path of t...2019-08-1017 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastRepentance, Confession and Forgiveness: A Buddhist Take.excerpt...
"Awareness practice is not just breathing in and breathing out, it's not just noticing the breathing of your lover or the dharma talk of a meadow of wildflowers, it is also going down in the muck and mud of ALL of who we are, not just the curated parts of who we share on Facebook.
Awareness practice supports our aspiration to forgive and be forgiven, it is at the heart of accepting who we are as we are, and others as they are, and this aspiration is at the heart of come as you, is at...2019-07-0524 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastSitting in the Dark
excerpt from the Dharma talk delivered May 26th in Salt Lake City.
"..that brings to my mind the Mojave desert at night - the Mojave Desert Preserve is also a dark skies Preserve meaning that any artificial list is restricted and it is one of the few places that you can see the Milky Way the way our ancestors did for millennium - Lots of tourist come get of the tour bus and look up at the night sky for about 5 minutes and say “that’s nothing I can see that at home” disappoin...2019-05-2722 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastMother's Day Dharma Talkexcerpt of a talk given on May 12, 2019, in Salt Lake City.
I really love this from Gyomay Kubose Sensei. He was talking to a bright you man who said his mother did nothing for him growing up, that she only caused him trouble. I appreciate this insight from my teacher.
In ordinary moral life and modern utilitarian point of view if someone was kind to us then we express our thankfulness. This is to say, if we received some benefit, then we expressed thanks and appreciation. This kind of human relationship is...2019-05-1531 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastLoving KindnessDharma talk given May 5th in Salt Lake City
Excerpt
"Here is something that many are not aware of and I have heard this before but just found this quote Samyutta Nikaya,
“We will develop and cultivate the liberation of mind by lovingkindness, make it our vehicle, make it our basis, stabilize it, exercise ourselves in it, and fully perfect it.” The Buddha
So what is the Buddha saying is the path to cultivation a liberated mind? Loving-kindness.
Loving Kindness is the way, the ground from which we practice...2019-05-0644 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastYour Story is Not You: Anattabelow is an excerpt from Dharma talk given at the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship Aril 21st 2019
I want to start from the account of the Buddha’s retelling of what happened on during the night just before his awakening experience. From the MahaSaccaka Sutta and for me this has become the practical understanding of non-self for my everyday life.
“When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of recollecting my past lives. I recollected my manifold...2019-04-2738 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastThe Three Marks of ExistenceA Dharma talk given By Christopher Kakuyo Sensei at the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship March 24th, 2019
" On first blush – Impermanence, suffering, and non-self – this sounds rather dreary. Nothing lasts, life is suffering and you’re not anybody after all. The curious thing about this and the insight of the Buddhas is actually the opposite, understanding impermanence, the nature of suffering and our true selves is actually the path to boundlessness, equanimity, and joy. Our engagement with the Four Noble Truths and our practice of the Eight-Fold Path help us to develop a new relationship with these re...2019-03-2634 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastRight Speech - Right ListeningFrom our Right Speech Dharna talk
"As humans, we are worded beings – we engage with the world through the abstraction of language. The thing we call “us” is a language created story. It makes sense that words can both heal and harm and reveal and hide. Our very existence in a languaged existence; verbal and non- verbal.
Is that the reason we all long to be heard, to be deeply listened to?"
2019-03-1626 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastViolence as Entertainment?an excerpt from a Dharma talk given Jan 27th at the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship by Christopher Kakuyo Sensei
" I don’t think that violent images make us more violent but I do think that it makes us numb to violence, and also teaches us to objectify the "other" as objects that we can justify hurting or killing because they are different from us, because they are bad, because we do not see them as "subjective" beings with; fears, hopes, dreams and their own tender suffering that may be like ours. As long as we see...2019-01-3027 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastIntimacy with all ThingsDharma talk delivered April 26th, 2019 by Christopher Kakuyo Sensei at the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship
Excerpt from Intimacy with All Things,
If I am a stranger to my own mind carried away by the rise and fall of thought and feelings I am going to be blind to see the grace that abounds and the final aspect of intimacy that I want to talk about is, the cultivation of the practice of intimacy with “all things” as Dogen teaches
When we forget ourselves then we are awakened by the myriad of...2019-01-2225 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastThe Gray Parrot and the Bodhisattva Vows
"Our aspiration is for awakening but If we decided to wait until we are awakened to help others, what good would that be. Our vows are the vows of ordinary human beings sparked by love, we vow to become wounded healers. Our awakening is in the vow itself "
- Christopher Kakuyo Sensei
2019-01-1618 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastFreed From Knowing"I don’t know" also applies to our practice. When we think we Know with a capital K what mediation is, what Buddhism is, what awakening is, even who we are, we cut ourselves off from what these really are and by so doing we keep them from manifesting in our lives naturally, unhindered by our silly meddling."
Christopher Kakuyo Sensei
2019-01-0828 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastWhat are you carrying?In this Dharma Talk, Christopher Kakuyo Sensei looks at how we can get stuck in the past and how doing so pulls us away from the ground of being that can only be found in the flow of "Now".
From What are you Carrying,
" My biggest reason for visiting the past was to find the answer to the chant-like question that echoed in my heart and in my head, "Why me?, Why me?" Why me? is ultimately an unknowable question. Maybe it is the first "koan" we are ever given. In my...2018-12-1419 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastGuided Meditation on InterdependenceHello everyone,
I have gotten behind in my recording schedule and I am working on getting back in the groove. So here is a guided meditation that I wrote for our Summer Retreat in the Uinta Mountains. This meditation was inspired by a book written by Hideo Yonezawa where he talks about when we breathe we have no control over it - we just breathe and with each breath, we touch the inconceivable.
So the idea behind this meditation is to help cultivate our awareness of our interconnectedness to all things and through that a...2018-10-0915 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastThe Grace of Parents and Other PeopleKakuyo Sensei continues this podcast with ideas of the Four Graces of Won Buddhism and looking how Naikan reflection relates to this grace.
Excerpt
"Gratitude is born out of the realization of how much is given, up until now we have not been able to see the abundance. The small egoic-self’s constant craving and its relentless state of perceived scarcity is finally permeated by the reality of so much grace; by a new understanding of the oneness of life. This is only magnified when we realize that a similar grace surrounds u...2018-07-2920 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastOneness and the Four Graces of BuddhismKakuyo Sensei continues talking about the Path of Gratitude. In this podcast episode, he shares his thoughts on oneness and the Four Graces of Won Buddhism and how we can cultivate our awareness of our absolute interdependence will all things.
From the podcast
"So understanding the truth of our interdependence our mutual resonance as Soga Ryojin writes, our very being is relational; this is oneness – and our natural response to oneness is an appreciative humility. We become aware of a daily grace – something that is beyond self-power, self-conceit – an inherent gift, something beyond us that i...2018-07-2122 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastThe Problem with DeservingIn the podcast episode, Christopher Kakuyo Sensei talks about the problem with the ideas of deserving and not deserving, and how we all can aspire to transcend the dualism and suffering inherent in these concepts.
"We love our concepts of deserving and not deserving, it gives us a sense of controlling our worlds., I am not saying that we do not need to “earn” a living or do the things that we need to do to be responsible for our families, what I am saying is that our sense of “deserving” is skewed. "
...2018-07-1721 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastThis is not me... Over the years we have talked a lot about our stories of self and how these stories are rarely examined, and how our sense of a solid, unchanging self is really a creation of these unexamined stories – today I would like to talk more about this –
As a child I was raised to be a martyr – my mother being Catholic, unconsciously had sewn the book of martyrs deep within her heart and when I came along, into mine also ...it too became my story, a dubious one at best. Guy Claxton has written,
“..consciousness is a mechanism f...2018-07-0715 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastThe Darkness is Your CandleThe title of this podcast comes from a poem by Rumi. “What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.” Here Kukuyo Sensei shares how darkness is not something the be afraid of, but something to learn from. He draws on various teachers to share their insights and his in regards to the valuable lessons we can learn from the dark, not the dark that can be tamed by electric illumination - but the wild an unknown parts of ourselves –
2018-07-0415 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastMeaningless Meaning, Purposeful PurposelessnessKakuyo Sensei starts this talk with a quote from his mentor Gyomay Kubose Sensei,
“ A reporter from a local newspaper came to our house to interview my wife about the Japanese tea ceremony. This report continually asked, “What is the meaning? What for? Why do you do that? What is the purposes for that?” This kind of question was directed at everything in the making tea – at every gesture, every implement. Without thinking or deliberating, my wife finally replied, “No meaning. Meaningless meaning. It is purposeless purpose.”
– Gyomay Kubose Sensei
Kakuyo Sensei...2018-06-3016 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastThe Need for Quiet“It’s important to take time to have some quiet moments in our lives, otherwise we get caught up in the busy-ness of always having something going on.” Gyomay Kubose Sensei
With this quote, Kakuyo Sensei shares his thoughts on the importance of Quiet in our lives and seeking out silences.
2018-06-2924 min
Way of Oneness: A Sangha PodcastThe Grace of OnenessA talk by Christopher Kakuyo Sensei of the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship. Many people aren't aware that gratitude and grace are a very important part of the Buddha Way - Grace from a more modernist Pure Land Buddhist view can be seen as the "other-power" that Amida Buddha represents.
2018-06-2809 min