This talk is plucked from the middle of the 6-week Practice Course 'Transforming Habits' which just concluded at the Boulder Zen Center. The talk provides a summary of some of the ground that has been covered during the course up until this point: the nature and purpose of habits; the structure of habits – cue, craving, behavior, reward; how habits can become dysfunctional; and the "gears" we can use to transform habits: (1) mapping, (2) disenchantment, (3) awareness, (4) transformation through untangling. The idea of gears is borrowed from research psychologist Judson Brewer (see book recommendation in the show notes). Using concrete examples, the talk outlines how to work with the first two gears and then centers on the role awareness plays in habit transformation. A guided meditation is offered to demonstrate how readily available this transformative awareness is to all of us at any time. The fourth gear, which goes beyond Brewer's model, doesn't get covered in this talk. If you're interested to learn more, check out the show notes to access the self-paced version of the complete course 'Transforming Habits.'

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Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

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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.

This episode is a conversation with meditation teacher and author Gaylon Ferguson about his new book "Welcoming Beginner's Mind." The conversation touches on the main themes of the book and their importance in our practice and everyday life such as welcoming experience just as it is, spaciousness, control and grasping, stages of practice, and what is called our true nature or Buddha-nature.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. Dive deeper into the topics through Q&A sessions related to each of the talks. You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives. Learn more here: https://zenmind.supercast.com/

Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

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.

This talk was given in preparation for this year’s Lay Initiation Ceremony (Jukai). It explores the ethical dimension of Zen practice as expressed in the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts. On the one hand, the precepts don’t appear to be different from other religious moral codes. They formulate common sense behavioral guidelines. On the other hand, they can be interpreted from the point of view of emptiness. Then they become the description of how a Buddha functions in the world. They are inseparable from zazen practice. As we begin to use zazen to be intimate with the field of undivided activity and realize it to be our own mind, we find (maybe to our own surprise) that the precepts are a natural expression of this wide, open, and inclusive mind. The intentions to kill, steal, objectify others for sexual pleasure, etc. simply do not occur in this mind. So instead of trying hard to be a good person, when we find ourselves contracting into our small self with its self-centered intentions, our practice is to widen out and shift to Buddha mind. With this shift, refraining from unwholesome action and doing wholesome action are effortlessly present.

Welcome to Zen Mind!

Love the dharma talks and want to hear more? Become a Premium Podcast subscriber. Dive deeper into the topics through Q&A sessions related to each of the talks. You can even ask questions of your own through the 'Ask Me Anything' platform and gain access to previously unpublished talks from intensives. Learn more here: https://zenmind.supercast.com/

Zenki Roshi's book, THE PATH OF ALIVENESS is now available in both hardcopy and audiobook formats! We appreciate you leaving a rating on Amazon, and if you have time, a review is even better!

Join us live for our Saturday Dharma talks, in person or online.

See all events and join our mailing list at www.boulderzen.org. Email us at office@boulderzen.org or give us a call: (303) 442–3007.

If you're enjoying these talks, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review!

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.