Zen and Ecodharma Talks by Kritee Kanko

Goso's Buffalo Passes Through the Moon Gate — Mumonkan 38

How can you become fully enlightened like a Buddha? If you were a Buffalo, how can you be enlightened from head to tail? Or is that a delusional goal? In this talk, Sensei Kanko (Dr. Kritee) explores the koan of a buffalo passing through the window ( or a in Chinese architecture). In the koan, Buffalo’s head, horns, and four legs all make it through the window, but the tail cannot. What is this stubborn little tail that nags at us after years, even decades, of practice, therapy, and healing? Which patterns of unlovability, shame or inadequacy do we keep circling around or trying to hide from others? Drawing on personal stories — her arrival in the U.S. a week before 9/11, her early depression, and a recent health scare with her mother — Sensei Kanko offers a trauma-informed reading of this koan. She suggests we replace the word "ego" with "trauma," and invites us to hold the tail with tenderness rather than trying to eliminate it. She also gestures toward a deeper, absolute dimension of the koan, where the distinction between tail and enlightenment begins to dissolve — pointing, as Dogen did, to how the very sense that "something is missing" can itself be a mark of Dharma filling body and mind. Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a recent half-day sit (Zazenkai) in April 2026. If this talk speaks to you, consider joining Sensei Kanko and Imtiaz Rangwala for the upcoming Zen sesshin at Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center from May 11–17, 2026, which includes a "Solo" day of practice in nature. Details and registration are available at www.boundlessinmotion.org [http://www.boundlessinmotion.org]. Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com [http://www.kriteekanko.com].

Mailey Scott Meets Loneliness - Hidden Lamp 39

Why might cuddling, hugging and belonging be important in our spiritual paths? In this talk, Sensei Kanko explores the tension between the koan's spiritual teaching on an “absolute” or “ultimate” plane, i.e., nothing in life is out of place, and what she sees as a deeper historical truth: that loneliness is out of place. We are mammals. Mammals experience safety, learning, and healing through touch, play, and physical closeness. Yet the epidemic of loneliness in modern life has severed us from ways to meet this basic evolutionary need. Drawing on stories from her own life and from a powerful experiment in one of her community "pods," Sensei Kanko makes the case that spiritual practice alone cannot substitute for what we need as mammals. While emphasizing the importance of developing ways to feel safe and to heal the wound of loneliness, she also explores the “absolute” spiritual truth: from the perspective of emptiness (called Shunyata or Mu in Asian languages), no wave in the ocean is out of place — not loneliness, not fear, not even death. The worst, she reminds us, is already baked into every human life. How do we relax into that impossible truth while also honoring our mammalian need to be held?  Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a half-day sit (Zazenkai) in late March 2026.  Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

My Return from Pilgrimage in Indian Forests – Emperor Wu Asked Bodhidharma, Hekiganroku Case 1

Sensei Kanko ventured into Indian forests frequently visited by predators such as leopards, tigers, sloth bears, venomous snakes, and wild elephants. Why did she do this? What does fear held in trust look like? And why does she feel more hopeful and alive now than she has ever felt in her life?  In this talk, Sensei Kanko shares what motivated her to make this trip to India and reconnect with her ancient ancestral roots and ecosystems in India. She shared what happened during one part of her 2.5 month long journey. And she describes how does this journey relates to the first koan of the legendary Hekiganroku (Blue Cliff Record), in which Bodhidharma — the teacher who carried Buddhism from the Indian subcontinent to China — answered an emperor's questions about morality and goodness with "Emptiness, No Holiness" and "Not Knowing". Sensei doesn't give any direct answers but offers hints and examples of what it might mean to follow a path uniquely meant for you.  Sensei Kanko gave this talk upon her return from India in early 2026.  Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com [http://www.kriteekanko.com]

Chen's Mountain Flowers - Hidden Lamp 13

How does spiritual communication with plants and microbes happen? Are nature kinning practices essential in a spiritual path? Should you treat plants and microbes as equal or more intelligent than you? In this talk, Sensei Kanko explores a rare koan that directly addresses our relationship with the natural world, in order to inspire and give a rationale for nature kinning practices. Drawing on the ancient Chinese teacher Chen's verse and contemporary herbalist Stephen Buhner's thought provoking teachings, she gives no direct answers but invites us to consider: How can woodcutters with the "spirit of the knife and axe" ever see mountain flowers reflected in water, glorious and red? What does it mean to truly perceive plants and trees? Do only outlaws and troublemakers see plants truly? Can we cultivate the stillness and humbleness needed to hear "the quiet ones, the polite ones" who have been here for 700 million years—long before humans arrived half a million years ago? The talk offers both scientific insights and spiritual wisdom on balancing the necessary rigor of indoor concentration practice with opening our hearts to the wildness that shaped our very senses.  Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the second day of a Fall 2025 Zen retreat. Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com

Jō Jōza Stands Still - Hekiganroku 32

.Why are both hardship and gentleness invaluable in the spiritual path? Why is it sometimes helpful to be slapped and pushed away by the circumstances and the world around us? And how can it be also pivotal to treat ourselves gently like our best buddy or kind deity like Gyanyin would treat us? In this tender and powerful talk given on the first day of the Fall 2025 Zen retreat, Sensei Kanko addresses these questions through a classical koan about standing still in the face of life slapping and battering us. Many people our community knows are going through profound changes—breakups, cancer diagnoses, workplace abuse, or maybe deep health crises. The larger world is collapsing around us. How do we not collapse with these challenges? Using the story of Jō Jōza who "stands still" after being seized, slapped, and pushed by his teacher Rinzai, Sensei Kanko reveals the profound gift of Rinzai Zen to the world: the capacity to find your rooted core in the middle of intense storms. But she adds what traditional Zen often misses—a trauma-informed understanding that we must "go soft before we go still." For those whose relationship with breath practices causes them anxiety, for those who have been pushing too hard, the instruction is revolutionary: speak to yourself with profound kindness first. Tell yourself how precious you are, how hard what you've been through has been, how your medicine is needed in this world. Only from this softness can we access the stillness that allows us to belong—to ourselves, to the human community, to our natural ecosystems, and to what Kanko calls invisible realms. This is not about mastering meditation techniques or experiencing enlightenment experiences. This is about cultivating a heart overflowing with love for yourself, so you can watch life's waves from the perspective of the deep still ocean within. Sensei Kanko gave this talk during the Fall 2025 Zen retreat (sesshin). Thank you for listening to the Boundless in Motion podcast. You can access more information about our programs and retreats by going to www.boundlessinmotion.org or www.kriteekanko.com