Desert Rain Zen
Listen to dharma talks by our teacher Tenney Nathanson Roshi and other teachers in our tradition. Desert Rain Zen is part of The Open Source, a branch of the Pacific Zen School founded by Joan Sutherland Roshi. Our practice centers on an innovative approach to koans and includes group koan conversations as well as individual koan work with Tenney.
Desert Rain Zen podcasts are free. If you'd like to support our podcasting and other activities, you can make a tax-deductible donation on our website at https://www.desertrainzen.org/donate.html
Most of Desert Rain Zen's activities take place on Zoom. For more information you can:
email us at desertrainzen@gmail.com
find us at https://www.desertrainzen.org/
and on Facebook.
You can also find more teachings by Tenney at
https://tenneynathanson.com/ .
Other Open Source groups include Springs Mountain Sangha in Colorado Springs, led by Sarah Bender Roshi, and Crimson Gate Meditation Community in Oakland, CA, led by Megan Rundel Sensei. Desert Rain Zen podcasts will include talks by Sarah and Megan when they are part of shared Open Source retreats and other activities.
Episodes
16 episodes
Desert Rain Zen Sunrise Retreat, March 2026: 3rd night talk: Megan
Megan gives the third night talk at our spring retreat focusing on Zhaozhou. She explores the crucial ways in which Zhaozhou’s teaching not only emphasizes our ordinary mind and our actual lives, but does so by inducing us to ground ourselves i...
Desert Rain Zen Sunrise Retreat, March 2026: 2nd night talk: Tenney
Tenney gives the second night talk at our spring retreat focusing on Zhaozhou. Bringing in several short Zhaozhou mondo, Tenney talks briefly about some of what he’s noticed keeping company with these short dialogues, and then opens things up f...
Desert Rain Zen Sunrise Retreat, March 2026: 1st night talks: Tenney & Megan
Tenney and Megan give the opening night talks at our spring 2026 retreat, which focuses on the teachings of Chan teacher Zhaozhou.
Desert Rain Zen Desert Sunrise Retreat, March 2024: Refuge Retreat, 2nd night talk: Tenney
Tenney gives the second night talk at our March 2024 Desert Rain Zen Desert Sunrise Refuge Retreat. “There is someone at peace, / walking in the Tao . . . “ (Yongjia Xuanjue, “Song of Realizing the Way”) Is that ab...
Desert Rain Zen Desert Sunrise Retreat, March 2024: Refuge Retreat, 1st night talks: Tenney & Megan
Tenney and Megan give the opening night talks at our March 2024 Desert Rain Zen Desert Sunrise Refuge Retreat, suggesting some ways we can let ourselves fall open to what’s already available, on offer. “There is someone at pea...
Open Source Retreat, October 2025: “Golden Wind,” 4th night talk: Sarah
Sarah gives the talk on the fourth night of our retreat.A group conversation follows Sarah’s talk.(talk given October 16, 2025 at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico)
Open Source Retreat, October 2025: “Golden Wind,” 2nd night talk: Tenney
Tenney gives the talk on the second night of our retreat. Beginning by exploring various translations of the “Golden Wind” koan and the different feel they give to Yunmen’s response to the student, Tenney brings the case into relation to Wallac...
Open Source Retreat, October 2025: “Golden Wind,” 1st night talks: Tenney, Megan, and Sarah
Tenney, Megan, and Sarah give brief talks on the opening night of our Fall 2025 Open Source “Golden Wind” retreat. A student asked Yunmen, “When the tree withers and the leaves fall, what’s that?”Yunmen said, “Th...
Open Source Retreat, September-October 2024: “Sickness and Medicine,” 2nd night talk: Tenney
Tenney gives the second night talk on “Sickness and Medicine,” discussing the Blue Cliff Record commentary on the case and bringing in a few anecdotes, from both his own practice history and the Open Source community. Hakuin says that ...
Open Source Retreat, September-October 2024: “Sickness and Medicine,” 4th night talk: Sarah
Sarah gives the fourth night talk on “Sickness and Medicine.” (check back soon for expanded notes on this episode!)
Open Source Retreat, September-October 2024: “Sickness and Medicine,” 3rd night talk: Megan
Megan gives the third night talk on “Sickness and Medicine,” focusing on sickness and suffering not as mistakes to be “fixed” but as inescapable aspects of our vulnerable lives in the world that deepen and humanize our hearts, making us tender ...
Open Source Retreat, September-October 2024: “Sickness and Medicine,” 1st night talks: Tenney, Sarah, & Megan
Open Source teachers Tenney Nathanson, Sarah Bender, and Megan Rundel each give introductory talks on the first night of our retreat. Our retreat takes its title from Blue Cliff Record Case 87: “Yunmen said to the assembly, ‘Medicine a...
Desert Rain Zen Sunrise Retreat, March 2025: "The World of Dew," 4th night talks: Tenney & Megan
Tenney and Megan each give talks on the final night of the retreat. Tenney brings in a collection of anecdotes to continue exploring the sustenance available when we allow loss and grief to permeate us and intertwine with the radiance and etern...
Desert Rain Zen Sunrise Retreat, March 2025: "The World of Dew," 3rd night talk: Megan
Megan gives the third night retreat talk, bringing in several Issa poems that focus on impermanence, loss, and grief, then offering an extended meditation on “the world of dew / is the world of dew / and yet, and yet.” How can we allow ourselve...
Desert Rain Zen Sunrise Retreat, March 2025: "The World of Dew," 2nd night talk: Tenney
Tenney gives the talk on the second evening of our retreat (the end of our first full day). Taking up three koans from The Blue Cliff Record that all concern the mysterious interweaving of the ephemeral and the eternal, he focuses on o...
Desert Rain Zen Sunrise Retreat, March 2025: "The World of Dew," 1st night talks: Tenney & Megan
Tenney and Megan give introductory talks on the first night of our Spring 2025 Desert Sunrise Retreat, "The World of Dew." Issa's heartbreaking haiku for the death of his young child is a central focus of these opening talks, and of the retreat...