The Zen of Everything

A zen take on life, love, laughter, and everything else.

About the show

The Zen of Everything presents a zen take on life, love, laughter, and everything else. With Jundo Cohen, a real zen master, and Kirk McElhearn, a guy who knows a bit about zen.

Episodes

  • Episode 38: Reconciliation

    November 13th, 2020  |  26 mins 9 secs

    After the results of the presidential election in the United States, Jundo and Kirk talk about reconciliation.

  • Episode 37: The Zen Master's Dance

    October 30th, 2020  |  24 mins 5 secs

    Jundo has a new book out: The Zen Master's Dance, A Guide to Understanding Dogen and Who You Are in the Universe. He and Kirk discuss Dogen, the book, and how to dance.

  • Episode 36: A Zen Guide to Elections

    October 16th, 2020  |  22 mins 14 secs

    Without endorsing any particular candidate, Kirk and Jundo talk about how Buddhist values and Precepts should guide the voter in elections in the U.S. and other countries.

  • Episode 35: Karma

    October 2nd, 2020  |  26 mins 2 secs

    Good karma, bad karma, everyone knows about karma, right? Jundo and Kirk discuss what karma means, and how you count your karma points.

  • Episode 34: How an Online Sangha Works

    September 18th, 2020  |  27 mins 16 secs

    Treeleaf is an online sangha, and has been around since 2006. How does a sangha work when members don't meet each other physically?

  • Episode 33: Competition

    September 4th, 2020  |  24 mins

    Is zen competitive? Is competition a bad thing?

  • Episode 32: Happiness

    August 21st, 2020  |  28 mins 21 secs

    Can zen make you happy? Should it?

  • Episode 31: The Precepts

    August 7th, 2020  |  29 mins

    There are a number of precepts that have to be followed by Zen practitioners. Jundo and Kirk discuss these precepts, and how strict they are.

  • Episode 30: Rituals

    July 24th, 2020  |  27 mins 45 secs

    There are a lot of rituals in Zen. Where do they come from? Why are they still performed? And what's the thing about the number 108?

  • Episode 29: Zensex

    July 10th, 2020  |  26 mins 19 secs

    Many Zen priests in Japanese Buddhism have active sex lives, others are celibate. We discuss how Buddhism treats sex, and how it makes the world go around.

  • Episode 28: Our Team

    June 26th, 2020  |  26 mins 53 secs

    Jundo explains the importance of lineage in Zen, how the teachings have been handed down over the centuries from Zen teachers to students, in an unbroken chain.

  • Episode 27: For Justice & Peace

    June 12th, 2020  |  27 mins 30 secs

    In this time of protests around the world, we discuss how Zen approaches injustice and protest.

  • Episode 26: Zen Books

    May 29th, 2020  |  28 mins 10 secs

    "Zen is a special transmission outside the scriptures, not depending on words and letters." With that in mind, Jundo and Kirk discuss Zen books: how to read them, what to read, and when to burn them.

  • Episode 25: Sitting with Pain

    May 15th, 2020  |  26 mins 18 secs

    Sitting meditation can be painful for a lot of people. Jundo and Kirk discuss how to sit without pain, or how to accept the pain when sitting.

  • Episode 24: Walking

    May 1st, 2020  |  27 mins 27 secs

    Walking can free your mind, but can also be an act of meditation.

  • Episode 23: Silence

    April 17th, 2020  |  27 mins 2 secs

    Is zen all about silence?