Weekly Zen practice, patiently preserved.
Intro to Zen Online offers recordings of Zen sittings built around guided practice, short teaching, and occasional group questions. Its center is steady instruction: count the breath, feel the body, notice thought, and keep coming back without making meditation another project.
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Intro to Zen Online is built from weekly Zen sittings, and it keeps the feel of a live room. The audio is plain. The teaching is careful. Episodes often begin with a practical setup for meditation: follow the breath, count the breath, scan the body, soften around tension, or notice sounds while staying grounded in sensation. From there, the talk tends to circle patiently around one problem of practice. How much effort is enough. How open awareness differs from spacing out. How posture matters without becoming another perfectionist project. How the instruction to do nothing can still require real discipline. The show returns again and again to breath as an anchor, not as a trick for calm but as a way to study attention. It also treats concentration as something cultivated, with breath counting described as a basic but serious first step. The more philosophical passages stay close to practice. A discussion of Soto and Rinzai traditions becomes a way to think about complacency, striving, koan training, and the maturity needed for shikantaza. A mention of Natalie Goldberg turns writing practice into another angle on mind and whole-life attention. Group questions give the episodes their lived texture. Someone feels spacey when time drops away. Someone worries about posture. Someone wants to know which thoughts count as part of practice. The answers are gentle, but they do not sentimentalize meditation. They ask for patience, honesty, and a willingness to begin again with the ordinary sensations already present. Intro to Zen Online will suit listeners who want Zen instruction that stays close to the cushion. It is not sleek or performative. Its value is in the repeated return: body, breath, thought, awareness, effort, release, and the simple fact of sitting here.
Made for: For listeners interested in Zen meditation as a concrete practice, especially those working with breath, posture, concentration, and open awareness. It also suits experienced practitioners who appreciate careful reminders about basics.
What sets it apart: The show keeps the unvarnished shape of a real sitting, including guidance, teaching, questions, responses, and closing thanks. Its strength is the patient movement between bodily instruction and larger Zen reflection.
Welcome to "Intro to Zen Online," a podcast that distributes audio recordings of the Williamstown Zen Group's weekly sittings. For more info about the Williamstown Zen Group (including how to attend these sittings online or in person) visit: https://williamstownzengroup.org/about
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Concrete meditation guidance meets candid reflection on effort, attention, posture, and the demanding simplicity of just sitting.
Intro to Zen Online builds each sitting around practice, then gives the experience a careful verbal frame. The host guides breath counting, body scans, posture, concentration, and open awareness before turning to questions or a longer talk.
Breath counting becomes a full-contact sport when Bernie tells you to practice like your hair is on fire.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Breath counting is framed as a practice of returning, with the discussion widening before it settles back on the next number.
Ep. 281 treats breath counting as a way of returning, not as a test of stillness. It points to two familiar methods, notes that listeners can stay with whichever one already works, and then moves outward into why concentration is so difficult at all.
A calm talk that treats open awareness as harder, sharper, and more demanding than it first appears.
Bernie starts with a plain point that only gets harder to hold onto: open awareness looks simple, but practice makes it clear how demanding it is.
A calm, practical guide to sitting with posture worries and letting attention do the work.
Intro to Zen Online opens with Bernie setting aside the larger talk to answer two emailed questions about meditation practice, especially posture and focus.
A plainspoken body scan that moves into Zen practice, writing, and the discipline of not forcing results.
The piece begins with a straightforward body scan, moving attention from the head down through the body without promising a special result. That restraint gives it a calm footing.
A plain meditation talk that turns restlessness and spaciness into practical guidance.
The talk keeps to the basics and benefits from that restraint. It follows the breath, notices how the day has left the mind stirred up, and makes room for being instead of constant doing.
Hindi guru bhajans in direct devotional form.
Yoga research, translated without the haze.
The talk opens with concentration and breath counting.
Bernie opens by checking whether the room can hear him, then says the talk will be about concentration.
Bernie opens by pausing before the sit to answer two emailed questions about meditation practice.
It starts with a body scan.
The session settles into a plain breath practice.
A guided Zen meditation session followed by a talk on non-picking and choosing in practice.
A Zen teacher provides guided meditation instructions focusing on breath awareness and body sensations.
A Zen Buddhist teacher guides listeners through an unguided meditation session, encouraging them to focus on the breath and environmental awareness.
A Zen Buddhist teacher guides a meditation group through a loving-kindness practice based on early Buddhist scriptures.
A Zen teacher introduces open awareness meditation (Shikantaza) as a method for working with challenging thoughts and emotions like fear and anxiety.
A Zen teacher gives a dharma talk on working with fear and anxiety in daily life.
A Zen teacher guides a group in breath-focused meditation, referencing Buddhist scriptures on mindfulness.
This episode introduces a meditation session focused on resting awareness in surrounding sounds, with practical tips and broader thoughts on practice to follow.
This episode introduces a Shikantaza meditation session followed by a talk on working with discomfort, exploring how accepting discomfort as a natural part of human experience can reduce suffering.
This episode is the second in a four-week series on meditation fundamentals, focusing on concentration practice through breath awareness.
This episode explores the fundamental yet nuanced aspect of meditation practice, focusing on how to handle thoughts during sitting meditation like Zazen, with insights from Zen teacher Joko Beck.
A Zen Buddhist teacher guides a group meditation session, focusing on breath awareness and the role of rituals in practice.
A Zen Buddhist teacher gives meditation instructions and leads a group sitting.
A guided introduction to a Zen meditation sitting, focusing on following the breath with open awareness.
A guided Zen meditation session with instruction on bringing mindfulness into daily life.
A Zen Buddhist teacher guides participants through an unguided meditation session, offering instructions on breath and sound awareness.
A guided introduction to a Zen meditation session, including body rocking and settling into practice.
A guided meditation session from the Williamstown Zen Group, leading listeners through body awareness and relaxation.
This episode features a guided meditation session focusing on a body scan and open awareness to help listeners work with fear-based conditioning through gentle instruction.
A Zen teacher guides participants in a 25-30 minute unguided sitting meditation, offering breath awareness and counting techniques.
A guided introduction to a Zen Buddhist meditation session, focusing on breath awareness and daily practice.
A guided Zen meditation session with instructions on breath awareness and handling distractions.
A Zen teacher introduces the concept of 'not knowing' through a koan from the Book of Equanimity before a group sitting.
A Zen teacher introduces the concepts of goallessness and not-knowing as central to Zen practice, explaining their importance and addressing potential misunderstandings.
A Zen teacher guides a meditation session and gives follow-up instructions on breath counting and working with pain.