Desert Rain Zen

Tenney Nathanson
  • 5.0 (2)
  • BUDDHISM

Listen to dharma talks by our teacher Tenney Nathanson Roshi and other teachers in our tradition. Desert Rain Zen is part of The Open Source, a branch of the Pacific Zen School founded by Joan Sutherland Roshi. Our practice centers on an innovative approach to koans and includes group koan conversations as well as individual koan work with Tenney. Desert Rain Zen podcasts are free. If you'd like to support our podcasting and other activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website at https://www.desertrainzen.org/donate.html  Most of Desert Rain Zen's activities take place on Zoom. For more information you can:  email us at desertrainzen@gmail.com  find us at https://www.desertrainzen.org/  and on Facebook.  You can also find more teachings by Tenney at  https://tenneynathanson.com/ . Other Open Source groups include Springs Mountain Sangha in Colorado Springs, led by Sarah Bender Roshi, and Crimson Gate Meditation Community in Oakland, CA, led by Megan Rundel Sensei. Desert Rain Zen podcasts will include talks by Sarah and Megan when they are part of shared Open Source retreats and other activities.

  1. 3D AGO

    Desert Rain Zen Desert Sunrise Retreat, March 2024: Refuge Retreat, 2nd night talk: Tenney

    Send a text Tenney gives the second night talk at our March 2024 Desert Rain Zen Desert Sunrise Refuge Retreat.   “There is someone at peace, / walking in the Tao . . . “ (Yongjia Xuanjue, “Song of Realizing the Way”)  Is that about realizing “oneness” and, if that’s the case, is that the whole story, the whole of “the absolute”?  Maybe not. As Shitou puts it, in Joan Sutherland and John Tarrant’s translation of “Taking Part in the Gathering” (=, in the Japanese, Sekito, “Sandokai”): We and everything we perceive\ are interwoven and not interwoven, and this interweaving continues on and on, while each thing stands in its own place.   And this “each thing” standing “in its own place,” as Suzuki Roshi stresses in his book on Shitou’s poem, is also “RI,” the absolute. Dualism or non-dualism? Yes. So:  BLAM! That’s (also) it!  Corollary (in for a penny, in for a pound):  “Each being's eternal radiance appears before you. Each being is an 8,000-foot precipice.” --Miaozong   There is someone at peace, walking in the Tao.    (talk given March 20, 2024 at the Redemptorist Renewal Center out at Picture Rocks in Tucson)      * About us: Desert Rain Zen is located in Tucson, Arizona. But almost all our activities take place on Zoom or as hybrid events, so you don't need to live here to practice with us. Desert Rain Zen podcasts are free. If you'd like to support our podcasting and other activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website at https://www.desertrainzen.org/donate.html For more information you can email us at desertrainzen@gmail.com or find us at https://www.desertrainzen.org/ and on Facebook. You can also find additional teachings and updated information about Tenney's various activities at https://tenneynathanson.com/ and on his Substack at https://tenneynathanson.substack.com/p/about-tenneynathansonzen

    57 min

  2. JAN 24

    Desert Rain Zen Desert Sunrise Retreat, March 2024: Refuge Retreat, 1st night talks: Tenney & Megan

    Send a text Tenney and Megan give the opening night talks at our March 2024 Desert Rain Zen Desert Sunrise Refuge Retreat, suggesting some ways we can let ourselves fall open to what’s already available, on offer.   “There is someone at peace, / walking in the Tao . . . “ (Yongjia Xuanjue, “Song of Realizing the Way”)   (talks given March 19, 2024 at the Redemptorist Renewal Center out at Picture Rocks in Tucson)  * About us: Desert Rain Zen is located in Tucson, Arizona. But almost all our activities take place on Zoom or as hybrid events, so you don't need to live here to practice with us. Desert Rain Zen podcasts are free. If you'd like to support our podcasting and other activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website at https://www.desertrainzen.org/donate.html For more information you can email us at desertrainzen@gmail.com or find us at https://www.desertrainzen.org/ and on Facebook. You can also find additional teachings and updated information about Tenney's various activities at https://tenneynathanson.com/ and on his Substack at https://tenneynathanson.substack.com/p/about-tenneynathansonzen

    28 min

  3. 11/23/2025

    Open Source Retreat, October 2025: “Golden Wind,” 2nd night talk: Tenney

    Send a text Tenney gives the talk on the second night of our retreat. Beginning by exploring various translations of the “Golden Wind” koan and the different feel they give to Yunmen’s response to the student, Tenney brings the case into relation to Wallace Stevens’s poem “The Snow Man.” Then, via consideration of commentaries on the case by Xuedo, Yuanwu, Hakuin, and Tenkei, dragons get into the mix. This leads, courtesy of a suggestion made by Sojun Mel Weitsman Roshi in a recorded talk on the case, to an exploration of dragon imagery and energies in Dogen’s fascicle “Dragon Song.”  A group conversation follows Tenney’s talk.   (talk given October 14, 2025 at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico)  * About us: Desert Rain Zen is located in Tucson, Arizona. But almost all our activities take place on Zoom or as hybrid events, so you don't need to live here to practice with us. Desert Rain Zen podcasts are free. If you'd like to support our podcasting and other activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website at https://www.desertrainzen.org/donate.html For more information you can email us at desertrainzen@gmail.com or find us at https://www.desertrainzen.org/ and on Facebook. You can also find additional teachings and updated information about Tenney's various activities at https://tenneynathanson.com/ and on his Substack at https://tenneynathanson.substack.com/p/about-tenneynathansonzen

    1h 1m

  4. 11/23/2025

    Open Source Retreat, October 2025: “Golden Wind,” 4th night talk: Sarah

    Send a text Sarah gives the talk on the fourth night of our retreat. A group conversation follows Sarah’s talk. (talk given October 16, 2025 at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico)  * About us: Desert Rain Zen is located in Tucson, Arizona. But almost all our activities take place on Zoom or as hybrid events, so you don't need to live here to practice with us. Desert Rain Zen podcasts are free. If you'd like to support our podcasting and other activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website at https://www.desertrainzen.org/donate.html For more information you can email us at desertrainzen@gmail.com or find us at https://www.desertrainzen.org/ and on Facebook. You can also find additional teachings and updated information about Tenney's various activities at https://tenneynathanson.com/ and on his Substack at https://tenneynathanson.substack.com/p/about-tenneynathansonzen

    1h 9m

  5. 11/23/2025

    Open Source Retreat, October 2025: “Golden Wind,” 1st night talks: Tenney, Megan, and Sarah

    Send a text Tenney, Megan, and Sarah give brief talks on the opening night of our Fall 2025 Open Source “Golden Wind” retreat.    A student asked Yunmen, “When the tree withers and the leaves fall, what’s that?” Yunmen said, “The Golden Wind reveals itself.”                                                                         Blue Cliff Record Case 27    (talks given October 13, 2025 at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico)  * About us: Desert Rain Zen is located in Tucson, Arizona. But almost all our activities take place on Zoom or as hybrid events, so you don't need to live here to practice with us. Desert Rain Zen podcasts are free. If you'd like to support our podcasting and other activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website at https://www.desertrainzen.org/donate.html For more information you can email us at desertrainzen@gmail.com or find us at https://www.desertrainzen.org/ and on Facebook. You can also find additional teachings and updated information about Tenney's various activities at https://tenneynathanson.com/ and on his Substack at https://tenneynathanson.substack.com/p/about-tenneynathansonzen

    37 min

  6. 10/25/2025

    Open Source Retreat, September-October 2024: “Sickness and Medicine,” 2nd night talk: Tenney

    Send a text Tenney gives the second night talk on “Sickness and Medicine,” discussing the Blue Cliff Record commentary on the case and bringing in a few anecdotes, from both his own practice history and the Open Source community. Hakuin says that if you take the phrase “sickness and medicine cure each other” as itself being medicine, that’s a big mistake (it’s too glib). Sickness isn’t “quelled” so simply, through a formula or an upbeat attitude, one-and-done. If not, what might the koan ask of us, and what might it offer us?  * About us: Desert Rain Zen is located in Tucson, Arizona. But almost all our activities take place on Zoom or as hybrid events, so you don't need to live here to practice with us. Desert Rain Zen podcasts are free. If you'd like to support our podcasting and other activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website at https://www.desertrainzen.org/donate.html For more information you can email us at desertrainzen@gmail.com or find us at https://www.desertrainzen.org/ and on Facebook. You can also find additional teachings and updated information about Tenney's various activities at https://tenneynathanson.com/ and on his Substack at https://tenneynathanson.substack.com/p/about-tenneynathansonzen

    41 min

  7. 09/22/2025

    Open Source Retreat, September-October 2024: “Sickness and Medicine,” 4th night talk: Sarah

    Send a text Sarah gives the fourth night talk on “Sickness and Medicine.” (check back soon for expanded notes on this episode!) * About us: Desert Rain Zen is located in Tucson, Arizona. But almost all our activities take place on Zoom or as hybrid events, so you don't need to live here to practice with us. Desert Rain Zen podcasts are free. If you'd like to support our podcasting and other activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website at https://www.desertrainzen.org/donate.html For more information you can email us at desertrainzen@gmail.com or find us at https://www.desertrainzen.org/ and on Facebook. You can also find additional teachings and updated information about Tenney's various activities at https://tenneynathanson.com/ and on his Substack at https://tenneynathanson.substack.com/p/about-tenneynathansonzen

    1h 3m

  8. 09/22/2025

    Open Source Retreat, September-October 2024: “Sickness and Medicine,” 3rd night talk: Megan

    Send a text Megan gives the third night talk on “Sickness and Medicine,” focusing on sickness and suffering not as mistakes to be “fixed” but as inescapable aspects of our vulnerable lives in the world that deepen and humanize our hearts, making us tender and strengthening our practice, our zen minds. Medicine, likewise, takes multiple forms: often it consists of a widening of perspective, a softening of our views about our illness, a sense that suffering might draw us toward others rather than isolate us. “Sickness and medicine correspond”: an always unfolding conversation, a shimmer. Other koans discussed include “Dongshan is Unwell” and “Master Ma’s Sun-Face Buddha Moon-Face Buddha.” * About us: Desert Rain Zen is located in Tucson, Arizona. But almost all our activities take place on Zoom or as hybrid events, so you don't need to live here to practice with us. Desert Rain Zen podcasts are free. If you'd like to support our podcasting and other activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website at https://www.desertrainzen.org/donate.html For more information you can email us at desertrainzen@gmail.com or find us at https://www.desertrainzen.org/ and on Facebook. You can also find additional teachings and updated information about Tenney's various activities at https://tenneynathanson.com/ and on his Substack at https://tenneynathanson.substack.com/p/about-tenneynathansonzen

    1h 7m
See All (13)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Listen to dharma talks by our teacher Tenney Nathanson Roshi and other teachers in our tradition. Desert Rain Zen is part of The Open Source, a branch of the Pacific Zen School founded by Joan Sutherland Roshi. Our practice centers on an innovative approach to koans and includes group koan conversations as well as individual koan work with Tenney. Desert Rain Zen podcasts are free. If you'd like to support our podcasting and other activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website at https://www.desertrainzen.org/donate.html  Most of Desert Rain Zen's activities take place on Zoom. For more information you can:  email us at desertrainzen@gmail.com  find us at https://www.desertrainzen.org/  and on Facebook.  You can also find more teachings by Tenney at  https://tenneynathanson.com/ . Other Open Source groups include Springs Mountain Sangha in Colorado Springs, led by Sarah Bender Roshi, and Crimson Gate Meditation Community in Oakland, CA, led by Megan Rundel Sensei. Desert Rain Zen podcasts will include talks by Sarah and Megan when they are part of shared Open Source retreats and other activities.

Information

  • Creator
    Tenney Nathanson
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Desert Rain Zen
  • Show Website
    Desert Rain Zen