Two Arrows Zen

08/12/2025

Most of us want to change… but lasting change takes more than good intentions.

It takes guidance, structure, and a community that will challenge you to grow.

Join Diane Musho Hamilton—Zen teacher, mediator, and author—and Gabriel Kaigen Wilson—Zen monk and executive coach—for a free live info call introducing their upcoming online course, Waking Up & Growing Up.

This is not about escaping the pressures of modern life. It’s about learning to meet them with more presence, emotional maturity, and skill—whether that’s in your personal relationships, your work, or your spiritual path.

Free Info Call
Friday, August 22, 11:00 am–12:00 pm MT (10 am PDT / 1 pm EDT / 7 pm CEST)
Via Zoom
Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tdeQl9nUSWalisthTMHGmg

Over 8 weeks, this program blends Zen meditation with tools from Integral psychology, neurophysiology, and trauma-informed practice. You’ll explore emotional awareness, communication skills, and ways to stay grounded and open—even in the heat of conflict.

More info: https://reallifeprograms.org/real-life-facilitator-program

08/12/2025

Can Zen practice help us become more grounded, connected, and compassionate in today's divided world?

Tune in TODAY at 3:06pm PDT, 6:06pm EDT for an inspiring discussion with Diane Musho Hamilton on her new book Waking Up and Growing Up: Spiritual Cross-Training for an Evolving World

Moments with Marianne airs in the Southern California area on KMET1490AM & 98.1 FM, an ABC Talk News Radio Affiliate! https://www.kmet1490am.com

Diane Musho Hamilton combines decades of work in in conflict resolution with depth of experience in sitting meditation. She often says that "mediate" and "meditate", share the same purpose: to bring what is divided or in dispute into harmony. In meditation, one brings disputing parties to agreement. In meditation, one brings body, speech, and mind into coherence with the environment. With extraordinary warmth, depth and insight, she encourages us to work with our differences, while discovering our fundamental unity. https:// www.dianemushohamilton.com

Order on Amazon: https://a.co/d/8j9fWuh
For more show information visit: https:// www.mariannepestana.com/

08/08/2025

Two Arrows Zen is offering a free, live online call with Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi and Gabriel Kaigen Wilson to introduce their upcoming 8-week course, Waking Up and Growing Up. This program blends the depth of Zen practice with practical tools from developmental psychology, adult learning, and embodied awareness.

In this one-hour session, you’ll:

Learn practices to cultivate emotional maturity and resilience

Explore how to deepen relationships through skillful communication

Discover ways to integrate your spiritual practice into the complexity of modern life

Experience how “waking up” (spiritual realization) and “growing up” (psychological development) work together to create lasting transformation

This free call is a chance to ask questions, get a feel for the course, and see how these teachings can support you—whether you’re brand new to Zen or have been practicing for decades.

Free Info Call
Friday, August 22
11:00 am–12:00 pm MT (10 am PDT / 1 pm EDT / 7 pm CEST)
Via Zoom

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tdeQl9nUSWalisthTMHGmg
Learn more about the program: reallifeprograms.org

08/08/2025

August 11 — Remembering Kokan Shiren
On this day in 1347, the Rinzai Zen master, scholar, and poet Kokan Shiren left this world.
Born in Kyoto in 1278, he was a child prodigy who entered monastic life early, eventually becoming one of the most respected Zen figures of his age. His life bridged rigorous practice, deep scholarship, and artistic expression.

Kokan Shiren is best remembered for compiling the Genko Shakusho—the first comprehensive Buddhist history written in Japan—and for his elegant Chinese-style poetry, which wove together the landscapes of the natural world with the landscapes of the mind.

In Zen, he stands as a reminder that awakening is not bound to the meditation hall alone. It can find voice in scholarship, in art, and in the written word—each a way of pointing to what cannot be said.

Today, we remember his life and work with gratitude, and we take inspiration from his example: that the Dharma can flow through brush and ink as surely as through stillness and silence.

“The pine and the bamboo, untouched by frost,
stand as they are.
The plum blossoms, knowing the snow will fall,
open all the same.” — Kokan Shiren

08/08/2025

This Friday, August 8 – 1:06 PM PDT / 4:06 PM EDT

We’re excited to share that Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi will be featured on the nationally syndicated radio program Moments with Marianne on KMET Radio. She’ll be discussing her new book, Waking Up and Growing Up: Spiritual Cross-Training for an Evolving World.

In this rich conversation, Diane draws from decades of Zen practice and conflict resolution work to explore how meditation and mediation both bring what is divided into harmony. Her warmth, clarity, and insight will inspire anyone seeking to live with greater awareness, compassion, and resilience in today’s complex world.

Moments with Marianne, hosted by Marianne Pestana, is known for uplifting, thought-provoking interviews with leaders and visionaries. This episode will also feature Venerable Lama Lhanang Rinpoche & Mordy Levine, authors of The Buddha in You. Diane will join as the second guest.

Listen live anywhere: https://www.kmet1490am.com
Encore: August 12 – 3:06 PM PDT / 6:06 PM EDT

More about Diane: https://www.dianemushohamilton.com
Order Waking Up and Growing Up: https://a.co/d/8j9fWuh

At Two Arrows Zen, Diane’s teachings help practitioners work skillfully with both sameness and difference—an approach that continues to shape our practice community.

07/26/2025

Honoring Joanna Macy (1929–2025) : Joanna Macy, Buddhist teacher, eco-philosopher, and peace activist, passed away peacefully on July 19, 2025, at the age of 96 in Berkeley, California.

Macy devoted her life to awakening—within ourselves and within the world. A scholar of systems thinking and deep ecology, she is best known for her body of work called The Work That Reconnects—a framework integrating Buddhist teachings on interdependence with ecological awareness and action.

Her teachings invited people into a living experience of the Dharma—not as an escape from the world’s pain, but as a gateway into greater connection, clarity, and compassion.

Though she did not teach in the Zen tradition, Macy’s life and work deeply embodied the Bodhisattva vow: to meet suffering with courage and to respond with wisdom and love.

May her memory inspire us to sit deeply, act boldly, and remain open to the web of life.

Read more about Joanna Macy’s life and legacy:

https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/buddhist-teacher-and-environmental-activist-joanna-macy-has-died-aged-96/

May she rest in great peace, and may her teachings continue to nourish generations to come.

The widely respected American Buddhist teacher and environmental activist Joanna Macy, PhD, has died peacefully at her home in Berkeley, California.

07/26/2025

On July 28, many Buddhist communities around the world—especially in the Tibetan tradition—observe Chokhor Düchen, marking the day the Buddha gave his first teaching after awakening. It is known as the Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.

Although Two Arrows Zen is rooted in the Zen tradition, not Tibetan Buddhism, we join in honoring this day. The Buddha’s first teaching—the Four Noble Truths—is the foundation for all schools of Buddhism, including Zen:
1. There is suffering.
2. There is a cause of suffering.
3. There is an end to suffering.
4. There is a path that leads to the end of suffering.

These truths are not beliefs to adopt, but realities to be examined directly through our own experience. In zazen, we meet them not as doctrines, but as living questions.

As we continue to sit, study, and wake up together, we take our place in the ongoing turning of the Dharma wheel.

Join us for zazen and upcoming retreats at Two Arrows Zen.
www.twoarrowszen.org

07/08/2025

In this short video, Mugaku Roshi speaks about the importance of sitting meditation and the value of longer practice periods like sesshin.

Sitting is at the heart of Zen. It grounds us, quiets us, and helps us see more clearly.

Sesshin offers a chance to deepen this practice, stepping away from distractions to sit together in silence.

Join us for zazen and upcoming retreats at Two Arrows Zen.
www.twoarrowszen.org

07/08/2025

On July 7, 897, the great Tang Dynasty Zen master Joshu (Zhaozhou Congshen) passed away, 1,128 years ago this week.

Joshu is known for his sharp, clear teaching style, his gentle humor, and his unwavering encouragement for students to look directly into the heart of practice.

One day a monk asked him, “What is Zen?”
Joshu replied, “The cypress tree in the courtyard.”

No philosophy, no explanation—just pointing directly to the moment, the place, the reality at hand.

Another time, when asked if a dog has Buddha Nature, Joshu replied simply: “Mu.”
This single syllable has guided countless practitioners to look beyond concepts, to see what is here before thought.

As we move through the height of summer, Joshu’s teaching reminds us to return to simplicity, to the breath, to the courtyard tree, to this very moment.

May we sit together in this spirit.

Join us for zazen this week at Two Arrows Zen.
www.twoarrowszen.org

07/07/2025

We’re all moving through life without guarantees, trying to find our way through uncertainty—work, relationships, health, the world itself.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche put it plainly:
“The bad news is everyone is free falling through life, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is, there’s no ground.”

At Two Arrows Zen, we don’t promise to take away uncertainty. Instead, we practice meeting it with presence and curiosity. When we sit down and breathe together, we find we can face the unknown without turning away. We discover space in ourselves that can hold both our fear and our hope.

In meditation, we find we don’t need to land somewhere to rest. We can rest right in the middle of it all.

If you’re looking for a place to sit quietly, to breathe, and to remember what truly matters, you are welcome here.

Come sit with us.

Learn more and view our schedule at:
www.twoarrowszen.org

06/29/2025

Bill Moyers passed this week, leaving behind a legacy of deep listening and honest conversation. Please enjoy this short excerpt from his incredible interviews with the late, great Joseph Campbell. Their dialogue continues to remind us of the power of myth, story, and the inner journey we each walk.

06/27/2025

Sit As A Mountain Sesshin with Mugaku Roshi invites you to a week of deep, extended sitting in Torrey, Utah. Periods of sustained practice are essential for those who want to deepen their Zen and awaken to their own Buddha nature.

September 14-21. Registration open.

twoarrowszen.org