Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

Angel City Zen Center

Weekly public talks recorded live at the Angel City Zen Center

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300 episodes
Updated Friday

Episodes300

Newest first

Oct 10, 2025 · 37 min
Get Lost (True Teachers) w/ Gyokei Yokoyama
Gyokei explores what it means to seek and find a true teacher through the story of his own yearning and search for one. Is the idea of a true teacher just one more delusion, will reality always betray our expectations? Should we practice with those we feel comfortable with or those who challenge us? Is giving up on people the best way to show your faith in them? Find out here!
Oct 3, 2025 · 37 min
Can’t We All Just Get Along? (Accord) w/ Dave Cuomo
Dave takes a historical and personal look at getting along with others and the magic sauce to finding a teacher and community you click with. Do we get to pick our sanghas any more than we get to pick our family? Is self reliance actually a Zen goal? And how do we get along in places where we’d definitely rather not belong?? Find out here!
Sep 26, 2025 · 30 min
The Deserving & The Undeserving (Doormats & Compassion) w/ Jordan Mylet
Jordan walks us through a wonderfully complicated talk on being a compassionate person in our complex modern world - what we think it means, what we might wish for it to mean, and what honestly brings out the best in you and me. Can we be the kind person we long to be? How do we avoid just becoming a doormat in our kindness, and do the old teachings even want us to avoid being doormats (and are we ok with that)? Are we qualified to wield Zen’s famous so called fierce compassion, or are we kidding ourselves about that whole idea? Find out here!
Sep 19, 2025 · 33 min
Maybe It’s Me? (What Am I Doing Here??) w/ Bryan Turley
Bryan brings us the story of growing up in a Zen that was not his own, going off to look for meaning everywhere else, only to find himself right back maybe where he started, and maybe not at all. What does it take to find ourselves enough to know when we’ve found our people? What lies underneath our ethics, and can finding it help bring us together? Is the problem actually me, or is it maybe you? Find out here!
Sep 12, 2025 · 37 min
Imperially Alone (Loneliness) w/ Sara Campbell
Sara takes a Zen look at loneliness and the isolations we so often lament and long for. What’s the difference between loneliness and being alone? Do we get to pick our friends and community? Why do they make it sound like the goal of practice is to not need to rely on others at all, while also telling us there’s no such thing as ever truly being alone?? Find out here!
Sep 5, 2025 · 39 min
Enjoy Your Self (Making Peace) w/ Dave Cuomo
Dave brings us a talk on how to make peace with ourselves, guaranteed, after a difficult retreat when he’s feeling anything but peaceful. Whats the fool proof recipe to make peace with yourself and the world around you? Is it healthy to get people together in a room and convince them there's a good reason (we won’t tell you) to be uncomfortable and likely unhappy for extended lengths of time, and that your reward will be nothing? What was the final sign Dave had completely and totally given up on Zen?? Find out here!
Aug 29, 2025 · 31 min
The Abstract Folder (Agency and Acceptance) w/ Matthew Sherling
Matthew takes us on a spiritual journey through his curious resistance to Zen’s boundless acceptance. Is acceptance a hindrance to growth and change? Do we ultimately fear the contentment we seek? Does our Zen have room for both aimlessness and agency?? Find out here!
Aug 22, 2025 · 33 min
Home Unbound (Safety & Anxiety) w/ Samm
Samm takes us on a lyrical and lucid walk through what it means to be at home wherever you are, with some infotaining side quests into the relationship between polyvagal theory and zazen along the way. Why don’t we feel safe even when we apparently are? What (if any!) control do we have over our nervous system? Is too much discipline just another distraction or is an inconsistent regimen the most disciplined kind?? Find out here!
Aug 15, 2025 · 1 hr 12 min
Faith With Eyes Wide Open (Boundaries & Scandal) w/ Dave Cuomo
Good teachers go bad - which is confusing and upsetting. Dave does his best to walk us through best practices for managing boundaries, roles, and scandals in Zen as a balanced part of this complete practice. Is there something about Zen that makes it particularly prone to scandal? Are there things about Soto Zen that make it peculiarly well setup for healthy sanghas relationships? Were our teachers ever worthy of the roles we put them in, and do we even need such teachers at all?? Find out here!
Aug 8, 2025 · 33 min
The Big Gulp (Healthy Desire) w/ Sara Campbell
Sara takes an honest look at desire to see if she can afford a fulfilling life with less filling pay. How can desires lead to fulfillment? Is too little ambition just as dangerous as too much? If we really followed Buddha’s prescriptions could the internet even exist?? Find out here!
Aug 1, 2025 · 25 min
My Greatest Wish (Zazen Yojinki) w/ Keizan Jokin
Our great ancestor friend Keizan takes us on a wild ride of epically thorough zazen instruction, warnings, epiphanies, inspirations, cosmic descriptions and everything in between in ACZC’s fresh new translation of his classic “Points to Keep in Mind for Zazen” (Zazen Yojinki). What is the mind and what should we do with it? What should we do with tip of our nose and our belly button during zazen? If we feel sleepy, learned, scattered, or enlightened, does Keizan have the remedy?? (Yes!) Find out here!
Jul 25, 2025 · 41 min
Go Be Clever (AI & Zen) w/ Dave Cuomo
Dave gets topical with a talk on AI from the Zen perspective to see if we can shed any light on what it is, what we should do with it, and whether or not we’re getting that right. Do the robots have any more or less of a self than we do? Is Zen a moral (or amoral…) philosophy? Are we all out of a job, and if so, are we really going to miss it?? Find out here!
Jul 18, 2025 · 39 min
Bring It On! (Obon, Ghosts, & Materialism) w/ Gyokei Yokoyama
Gyokei gives us stories of friendly (and hungry!) ghosts as he explains the meaning and history of Obon, the summer festival of spirits in Japanese Zen. Is it possible to keep dying traditions and communities alive while also letting them go? Has a fish ever remembered to be grateful for water? Do ghosts count as living beings?? Find out here!
Jul 11, 2025 · 39 min
...& Then You Grow Up (Grief & Emotional Regulation) w/ Dave Cuomo
Dave loses a good dog friend and gets curious about the sweet and silly human feelings that come up in a week of sweet sorrow. Should monks be having more sex? Is Buddhism trying to cut us off from the most beautiful parts of life? Was Buddha (and California) wrong about the benefits of anger?? Find out here!
Jul 4, 2025 · 28 min
Hard Feelings (Change & Transiency) w/ Mota
Mota gets an unexpected phone call and takes the opportunity to dig into some tough love teachings on change and transiency, and how they might even open us up to something warm and maybe even a little fuzzy. Have we forgotten how to die in this country? Why is Zen oddly good at the idea? Can it help us deal with the odd role reversals that come with parents getting older? Find out here!
Jun 27, 2025 · 35 min
Fool’s Errand w/ Jordan Mylet (Meditation & Optimization)
Jordan takes a critical look at the benefits of zazen and questions whether that was ever really the point, or even something we should rely on. Can meditation become a form of avoidance? Is the need to feel better just one more attempt to control the world? And if Buddhism is really working why do we still wake up with a brain full of a-hole thoughts and feelings? Find out here!
Jun 20, 2025 · 38 min
Off the Hook (Impermanence & Ambition) w/ Sara Campbell
Sara goes looking for healthy ambitions in certain impermanence as she rests her case on training with a deeply personal breakdown and exegesis of her story/koan of the season - Dasui’s Kalpa Fire. How do we live a life worth living when society, and our own standards, aren’t aligned with our values? Does Zen offer alternative ambitions to aspire to? Is it possible to diagnose our own distress while sitting smack dab in the middle of it?? Find out here!
Jun 13, 2025 · 35 min
This. Is a Good Idea (Buddhist Creation Story) w/ Dave Cuomo
Dave tells us the full creation myth of how Buddhism says this world came to be, how it’s going to end, and all the mishaps and miracles in between. Has all of this happened before? Is everything we love just a lament for what we lost? Was this whole existence thing really a good idea and is there even such a thing as a true story?? Find out here!!
Jun 6, 2025 · 6 min
Waiting for Vairocana (Flash Fiction!)
Sara Campbell closes out our first official training ango with a flash fiction final - a brief loving study of our favorite Buddha and Bodhisattva archetypes.
May 30, 2025 · 37 min
Holy Hypocrisy (Buddhist Modernism) w/ Dave Cuomo
Dave tackles the big Buddhist question of the hour - are we really learning traditional Buddhism over here or are we making up our own thing and covering it up with a set of appropriated robes? Is it actually a problem if we are (and would it be possible not to)? Are lay people even supposed to be meditating? Is the East/West cultural divide too wide to bridge, or too fascinating not to try?? Find out here!!

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

Get Lost (True Teachers) w/ Gyokei Yokoyama

Can’t We All Just Get Along? (Accord) w/ Dave Cuomo

The Deserving & The Undeserving (Doormats & Compassion) w/ Jordan Mylet

Maybe It’s Me? (What Am I Doing Here??) w/ Bryan Turley

Imperially Alone (Loneliness) w/ Sara Campbell

Enjoy Your Self (Making Peace) w/ Dave Cuomo

The Abstract Folder (Agency and Acceptance) w/ Matthew Sherling

Home Unbound (Safety & Anxiety) w/ Samm

Faith With Eyes Wide Open (Boundaries & Scandal) w/ Dave Cuomo

The Big Gulp (Healthy Desire) w/ Sara Campbell

My Greatest Wish (Zazen Yojinki) w/ Keizan Jokin

Go Be Clever (AI & Zen) w/ Dave Cuomo

Bring It On! (Obon, Ghosts, & Materialism) w/ Gyokei Yokoyama

...& Then You Grow Up (Grief & Emotional Regulation) w/ Dave Cuomo

Hard Feelings (Change & Transiency) w/ Mota

Fool’s Errand w/ Jordan Mylet (Meditation & Optimization)

Off the Hook (Impermanence & Ambition) w/ Sara Campbell

This. Is a Good Idea (Buddhist Creation Story) w/ Dave Cuomo

Waiting for Vairocana (Flash Fiction!)

Holy Hypocrisy (Buddhist Modernism) w/ Dave Cuomo