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Living Zen
Spontaneous Zen talks given in the Rinzai tradition by Ven. Eshu Martin, abbot of the Victoria Zen Centre in Victoria, BC, Canada. www.zenwest.ca If you enjoy this podcast, rate it,review it, and share it with your friends on Twitter, Facebook and face to face. www.zenwest.ca Check out the Living Zen Podcast app on the iTunes app store! Language: en Genres: Buddhism, Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Religion & Spirituality Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The Body is the Dharma — January 20, 2026 — Dharma Talk
Saturday, 31 January, 2026
In this talk, I reflect on form as a living, embodied Zen practicioner. Drawing on Rinzai Zen forms — gassho, sasshu, posture, breath, walking, and bowing — I explore how Zen is practiced through the body itself. The forms of practice are not symbolic gestures or rules to get right; they are precise, lived expressions of activity, receptivity, and stillness. This talk explores: plus, minus, and zero as lived experiences of movement, rest, and sitting how posture and mudra help call us back when attention drifts breath as a continuous expression of birth and death walking, chanting, and bowing as embodied Dharma activity how practice meets collapse, fatigue, distraction, and return — without judgment From the meditation hall, the reflection widens into life itself: how we are born and die many times over the course of a single lifetime, how identities fall apart and reform, and how practice supports us in learning — again and again — how to inhabit the world. Nothing here is about doing practice "correctly." The invitation is simply to notice what is happening — in the body, in the breath, in this moment — and to come back. About this podcast The Living Zen Podcast arises from my teaching work with the Zenwest Buddhist Society, a Zen practice community based on Vancouver Island. You can listen at https://livingzen.libsyn.com, or find Living Zen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts. If you'd like to support this work more directly, I share additional teachings and reflections through Red Mountain Way on Patreon. Becoming a member there helps sustain this teaching work. Another meaningful way to support the podcast is by sharing it — telling friends, passing along episodes, or sharing on social media. Comments, likes, and shares are always appreciated. I do read them, and they help others find their way into practice and community. For those seeking one-to-one Zen support, information about my work is available through Monarch Trancework. Thank you for listening, and for practicing together.
