Bright Way Zen

Rev. Domyo Burk

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BUDDHISM

Bright Way Zen is a Zen community in Portland OR, USA, and worldwide via our "Cloud Zendo" (Zoom). This podcast includes talks and classes by our teacher, Rev. Domyo Burk, (Zen Studies Podcast) and by Sangha members and visiting teachers. If you like this, please consider joining us at brightwayzen.org!

5 DAYS AGO

Building Beloved Community - Domyo (2/8/2026)

Based on finding a potential new Zendo property, plus the recently successful fundraising effort, Domyo describes our shared vision and the role of trust through the eyes of Dharma. Sangha members express their feelings of community support, connection and gratitude as we navigate toward owning a place where we can go - "where everybody knows your name."

55 min
4 FEB

Reimagining Zen Towards and Ethics of Interbeing - Week 5

Pamela Ayo Yetunde writes in Casting Indra's Net: Fostering Spiritual Kinship and Community: "Mobbery is a process that centers on anger, energy, and power—it is the aggregation of personal anger into a collective anger that develops a power far beyond that of individuals. Mobbery entails using the energy of anger to find people who are angry about the same things you're angry about, then together harnessing this anger in ways that place blame on others. By taking no responsibility for soothing one's own anger and projecting blame collectively onto groups identified as "other," a new shared reality is created and allowed to harden. The more that angry people gather and strengthen one another, the more their sense of power intensifies. Those identified as others are vilified and attacked, and this is repeated over and over again. This dynamic builds momentum while demonstrating how the power of anger can be exerted on others and how such acts can be interpreted as victories."

47 min
2 FEB

The One Who is Not Busy - Domyo (2/1/2026)

In a Koan from Hongzhi's Book of Serenity, two Dharma brothers engage in a conversation. As one sweeps the ground, the other challenges him, observing: "Too Busy!" This feeling of "busyness" is a state that is relatable to many of us. In this talk, Sangha members share what characterizes busyness, and also what characterizes activity without a sense of busyness. How can we be still even in the midst of all of our commitments, activities, and challenges?

49 min
29 JAN

Reimagining Zen Towards an Ethics of Interbeing - Week 4/10

Humans evolved to look out for our own interests but also developed the capacity for completely selfless action when we closely identify with a group. When we feel as much concern for another's wellbeing as we do for our own, you might call this a sense of "kinship." The Buddha taught us to practice extending Metta, or loving-kindness – just as a mother would feel for her only child – to all living beings without discrimination. We will discuss the evolutionary psychology perspective on human altruism, ways that our sense of kinship gets activated, and the implications for the way we operate in the world.

55 min
27 JAN

Transforming Fear - Domyo (1/25/2026)

Our teacher reads from Thich Nhat Hahn's book "Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm" the conviction that transforming fear into fearlessness is possible through deeply acknowledging one's fears and their sources. Domyo invites Sangha members to openly express what they are most afraid of, and then share what ideas and practices help ground them and give them strength. A generous and courageous discussion follows.

56 min
21 JAN

Reimagining Zen Towards an Ethics of Interbeing - Week 3/10

Buddhist practice is wonderfully liberating because it empowers you to let go of your suffering regardless of your circumstances. However, we can also get stuck in the fallacy that conditions don't matter, thereby making it seem like helping beings (including ourselves) experience things like safety, health, freedom, justice, prosperity, and love are outside of the realm of Buddhist concern. Are we only interested in "spiritual" well-being, as if that can be separated entirely from conditions? Or do we work for the happiness of beings without worrying about distinctions like "material" or "spiritual?" You might also see this is a tension between "internal" and "external" practice. How do we balance internal work with working to make conditions more supportive and life-affirming for ourselves and others?

58 min
19 JAN

Returning to the Practice - Sangha member talk with Mick Stukes (1/18/2026)

Mick shares his challenges to keeping a committed and confident practice at home, and reads from the Shobogenzo Zuimonki. Are we "vessels of the Dharma" even in our perceived inadequacies or difficulties? Is the big "E" attainable even if we feel too small for it? Dōgen's radical idea is that practice and enlightenment are not separate. It's when we return to this place, here and now, and simply do our practice that we can find that thing that we're looking for.

54 min
14 JAN

Reimagining Zen Towards an Ethics of Interbeing - Week 2/10

The Buddha famously said, "Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule." How do we really manifest this, even when standing in opposition to what we think is wrong? Can we see through our own sense of self-righteousness? Jonathan Haidt writes in The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion: "This book explained why people are divided by politics and religion. The answer is not, as Manichaeans would have it, because some people are good and others are evil. Instead, the explanation is that our minds were designed for groupish righteousness. We are deeply intuitive creatures whose gut feelings drive our strategic reasoning. This makes it difficult—but not impossible—to connect with those who live in other matrices, which are often built on different configurations of the available moral foundations."

59 min

Bright Way Zen is a Zen community in Portland OR, USA, and worldwide via our "Cloud Zendo" (Zoom). This podcast includes talks and classes by our teacher, Rev. Domyo Burk, (Zen Studies Podcast) and by Sangha members and visiting teachers. If you like this, please consider joining us at brightwayzen.org!

Creator

Rev. Domyo Burk
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

19
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2025
Show Website

Bright Way Zen