Buddhist Temple Of Toledo Podcast

Jay Chikyo Weik offers a presentation entitled, "Obstacles to Practice," given at the Toledo Zen Center on December 2, 2007. "Typically, what are taught as being the primary challenges or the main difficulties have to do with the six realms. In the center of those realms, there are three poisons that are providing the gravity that's holding these beings in these various realms of suffering. What those three poisons are called are Greed, Anger, and Ignorance." For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at hermitageheart.org.

Jay Chikyo Weik offers a presentation entitled, "Obstacles to Practice," given at the Toledo Zen Center on December 2, 2007. "Today, our mission is to talk a little bit about the things that might get in the way of maintaining a spiritual practice; now that we have a sense of what the practice is, what kind of things arise that actually get in the way and obstruct and hinder us in that effort; and then some solutions. What can we do to help that?" For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at hermitageheart.org.

Jay Chikyo Weik offers a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on November 28, 2007. "For reasons as varied as the people who have them, we have a really hard time letting ourselves be. We find it almost impossible to just not be so aggressive with ourselves.... If you are sitting on that cushion and you have some subtle or overt aggressive gaining agenda... it's just a matter of time before you give the whole endeavor up. And probably you'd be better served to give it up, if that's what you're practicing. Better yet, to learn how to practice well; to practice with real sincerity." For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit www.toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at www.hermitageheart.org.

Jay Chikyo Weik offers a talk and discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on November 21, 2007. "From Master Dogen's Bodhidharma Shisoho: 'Giving means non greed.' This has to do with not just a physical thing.... In the dharma, the giving can be vastly more encompassing than material things. 'Giving means non-greed. Non-greed means not to covet. Not to covet means not to curry favor.... It is to give away unneeded belongings to someone you don’t know, to offer flowers blooming on a distant mountain to the womb of suchness itself, or to offer treasures you had in your former life to sentient beings.'" For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit www.toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at www.hermitageheart.org.

This talk and discussion was led by Jay Chikyo Weik at the Toledo Zen Center on November 14, 2007. The great way is not difficult / for those who have no preferences / When love and hate are both absent / everything becomes clear and undisguised / Make the smallest distinction however / and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart / If you wish to see the truth / then hold no opinions for or against anything / To set up what you like against what / you dislike is the disease of the mind / When the deep meaning of things is not understood / the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail. -Sosan Zenji, Faith Mind For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit www.toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at www.hermitageheart.org.

Jay Chikyo Weik offers a presentation on the Four Noble Truths, given at the Toledo Zen Center on November 11, 2007. This is the third podcast of a three-part series. "The second truth is that there is a cause for that [suffering]. There's a very specific thing that creates that sense of unsatisfaction. It's not just the way things are, actually. There's a reason why that's the way the experience communicates to us. And to make it as simple as we can, the cause of that suffering is basically craving, or thirst." For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit www.toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at www.hermitageheart.org.

Jay Chikyo Weik offers a presentation on the Four Noble Truths. This presentation was given at the Toledo Zen Center on November 11, 2007. "One thing that will help make this talk a little more real, more helpful for you, is if you bear in mind that what we're talking about here is your own experience of your life. It's not an abstract.... It's not some story about how the universe came to be or anything like that. It's talking about how it is when you wake up in the morning; what it feels like between your bed and the bathroom; and how you deal with that child, that job, that ex-spouse, or that credit card. That's what it's about.... it's not intended to be abstract. However, it comes from a different culture; it comes from a very different time, and it takes a little digestion to get it to actually be helpful." For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit www.toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at www.hermitageheart.org.

Jay Chikyo Weik offers a presentation on the Four Noble Truths. This presentation was given at the Toledo Zen Center on November 11, 2007. "Buddhism itself is a really large worldwide religion; there are many different facets and approaches. The Buddha himself taught for something like forty years, and he taught different things to different groups of folks.... The kinds of things that we're going to cover today would be included by any of the schools of Buddhism that exist, and there are many. But they all have certain things in common, and basically they revolve around these truths." For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit www.toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at www.hermitageheart.org.

The following mondo was presented by Jay Chikyo Weik at Shobu Okugyo Aikido retreat at Farm & Wilderness Center in Vermont on November 2, 2007. "So, what is it about? ...There are many different routes and different practices and different techniques... but, basically, they all lead to expressing your true nature." Chikyo wishes to acknowledge Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi and his Big Mind process, which influenced a portion of this presentation. For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit www.toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at www.hermitageheart.org. For more information about Okugyo Aikido retreats with Chikyo and Bill Gleason Sensei, please visit www.shobuokugyo.com.

Jay Chikyo Weik offers a talk entitled, "Living Zen: Awakening the Joyful Heart." This introductory talk was presented at the Toledo Zen Center on October 27, 2007. "So then [the Buddha] sat under a tree, and started to actually practice what we now know as zazen, sitting zen. In that process, he made a radical shift in his way of perceiving himself and the universe and everything around him. It's that shift in perception that has come to be called enlightenment, or awakening." For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit www.toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at www.hermitageheart.org.

Jay Chikyo Weik offers a Dharma Discourse and leads a Dharma Discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on October 24, 2007. "What the Dharma does is get into the heart of that 'I'. Who is the 'I' that believes this? Who is it that's experiencing this feeling? (Suzuki) Roshi points out that the point of the practice is not to create some deep feeling, some religious feeling, some spiritual feeling.... What is it that the practice is doing? The practice is helping us to study ourselves." For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit www.toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at www.hermitageheart.org.