Is it possible that no one, including our loved human or non-human friends to beings in the warzones, dies at a wrong moment for a wrong reason? Also, how are “We the middle of forever”, with no birth and no death?

Important note: Engaged Buddhist or Ecodharma teachers, including Dr. Kritee, emphasize the importance of compassionate “Bodhisattva” actions for social and environmental change without attachment to results. This is so even for causes where our efforts are inclined to “fail” or when people or groups of people we support will die. We must act in support and healing of all life even if our efforts are not “successful”. So even though, at the “absolute” level, this talk suggests that it is not possible for anyone to die at a wrong moment for a wrong reason, our actions in support of alleviation of suffering in the moment are crucial for anyone on a spiritual path. Our actions, when rooted in wisdom and compassion, create conditions that lead to better outcomes—even if they are only marginally better outcomes as compared to without such actions.

How to stay motivated to undertake compassionate actions is an important question. In addition, if it is not possible for anyone to die at a wrong moment for a wrong reason, how do we hold both human grief and trans-human acceptance? How do we honor the truths of devastating losses and injustices while accessing deep spiritual equanimity?

In this talk, addressed to experienced meditators in the middle of a long residential silent meditation retreat, Dr. Kritee focuses on these profound questions related to death and impermanence. Speaking from a place of authenticity and deeply flowing spontaneity, she explores the classic koan "Hyakujo and a Wild Duck" where a teacher pinches his student's nose to embody that nothing truly flies away. Drawing on personal stories of paralysis, grief around events of October 7th and ongoing violence in Palestine, and teachings from her own spiritual teachers, Sensei Kanko guides practitioners through the territory where everything feels like it's flying away—democracy, health, loved ones, peace of mind. She offers practical guidance on creating altars for grief, differentiating between guilt and shame, and working with the phrase "We are the middle of forever." The talk weaves together themes of impermanence, oceanic consciousness, trauma-informed practice, and the invisible realms that root for us even in our loneliest moments, inviting us to work with one breath at a time while trusting in a wholeness that exists even amidst heartbreak.

Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the fourth day of 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

Can we transcend suffering by letting go of notions of good and bad? When does medicine become a sickness?

In this profound talk, Sensei Kritee Kanko explores one of Zen's most challenging teaching: everything on earth—including our most painful experiences—is medicine. Drawing from her 25 years of practice, she reveals how our desperate attempts to escape suffering through meditation and spiritual practice can paradoxically become another form of sickness. With refreshing honesty about her own past spiritual bypassing (neglecting her husband, mother, and even her own health in pursuit of “enlightenment”), Kanko examines the delicate balance between disciplined practice and harmful attachment to the "blue sky mind." She bridges ancient Zen wisdom with Joanna Macy's contemporary grief work, discussing how both the “absolute level” wisdom that "Fear or grief is Buddha" and living compassionately along with the messy process of being accountable are essential—and how focusing on only one aspect (wisdom vs compassion) creates harm. Using the metaphor of a consciousness microscope to examine the “components” of grief and fear in our bodies, this talk offers a nuanced path through these times of polycrisis that honors both transcendent realization and grounded community healing.

Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a Zazenkai (half-day meditation retreat) in October 2025.

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

Should a slave meditate to wake up?

How can we access a larger trauma-informed view in Zen? In this talk, Sensei Kanko discusses a very emotionally triggering koan with the greatest gentleness. How can we hold our bodies and emotions with gentleness to not fall into the shadows of Zen? How can we remain firm in our need to make changes in the society around us? And at the same time how to make sure we don't lose the golden idea of Zen that there is a possibility to wake up at any point, even in one of the worst circumstances as a sex worker forced into that profession?

Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the 3rd day of a Zen retreat in October 2020.

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.

What is the relationship between the big “eternal” spiritual mind and our small lonely or calculative mind? How to live our daily lives in these times of polycrisis and systemic oppression?

This talk by Sensei Kanko (Dr. Kritee) flows like a compassionate boat running down a wild river and embodies a deep spontaneity. Here, she guides listeners through Zuigan's paradoxical koan—calling his own self "Master!" and then answering "Yes sir!"—to explore who these two selves “Master” and “Attendent/student” are within us: Perhaps the observer vs. the observed or the experiencing mind vs. the experience, or the small critical or lonely self vs. the vast blue sky mind. With humor and vulnerability (including her early fear that enlightenment would steal her partner away), she challenges masculine Zen's "get enlightenment at all costs" approach. She instead advocates for embodying a "curious, kind and patient host" to all clouds that visit our consciousness—even very painful clouds like fear of death or feeling unlovable.

Weaving together insights from Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, Tibetan demon-feeding spiritual practices, and Hindu wisdom traditions, Kanko also emphasizes the need for a crucial discernment: distinguishing personal struggles we can address through spiritual practice from systemic oppression. While traditional Buddhism might say "go back to your breath and hara" for every problem, Kanko insists we recognize when issues stem from societal trauma (e.g., millennial’s inability to afford housing or womxn’s inability to get education in patriarchal systems). She also teaches how we can integrate three pillars of Zen practice in our lives: faith, determination, and great curiosity.

Sensei Kanko gave this talk during the last day of May 2019 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

How is an enlightened compassion the essence of our “impossible" suffering?

In this profound talk, Dr. Kritee explores case 21 of the Mumonkan, where a student asks Zen Master Yunmen "What is the essence of Buddhism?" and the master answers: "Kanshiketsu"—toilet stick. Through personal stories about extremely hard (impossible) life situations and sitting with a friend facing breast cancer, Sensei Kanko illustrates how the most challenging suffering can get transmuted on our spiritual path. She offers tools for working with life's inevitabilities of old age, sickness, and death—from recognizing the universality of our experience, to finding support in community, to accessing the vast inner space offered by meditation. She goes deeper and asks us to draw from Zen Buddhist, Indigenous, and Tibetan traditions which teach that our deepest spiritual potential lies in facing our greatest suffering to access the great compassion within. Using the touching example of 96-year-old Joanna Macy dying peacefully with playfulness, this talk invites us to discover how the things we desperately want to eliminate might be gateways to the sweetness we are literally made of.

Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a half day meditation in July 2025.

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

How do we cultivate deeper trust in life when everything seems to be falling apart? What does it mean to "proceed on from the top of a hundred-foot pole" - to let go just when we think we've learned to control some aspects of life.

In this powerful talk on the last day of silent May 2025 Zen retreat, Sensei Kanko explores the profound teaching of trusting the universe and releasing our grip on comfort and control. Drawing on inspiring examples - from Dipa Ma who could sit for seven days without moving to a contemporary practitioner's complete surrender to Kali - she illuminates how limitless trust in life is the essence of enlightenment. Making a crucial distinction between trusting the divine/natural order and accepting injustice and toxicity created by humans, Kanko offers practical wisdom for maintaining both trust and healthy boundaries. Through personal stories and the metaphor of learning to "kin" with nature, she shows how deepening our trust allows us to act with compassion even as we navigate these times of polycrisis.

Sensei Kanko gave this talk on the final day of the May 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

Using the example of the Babemba tribe’s harm resolution ceremony, Sensei Kritee explores “What if a wise response to our current times is to expand our vision and perception beyond the limits of a single human lifetime?”

Babemba tribe has unlimited belief in the fundamental goodness of all human beings. Where does such deep belief come from? They don’t start lashing out in fear and anger at people who cause harm. They actually remind people of their goodness when individuals end up causing harm. How does such a “beloved community” get created?

The intense times of polycrisis that we are living in are constantly making us contract our awareness and focus only on immediate survival. But what if, instead of listening to these messages from autocratic capitalist systems causing harm to our planet and vulnerable beings, the trust in life would come from expanding our awareness wider and deeper across time and space? What if we are not limited to the short timelines of a single human lifetime and not limited to a human-centric worldview? What if we are limitless in our trust that there are dimensions and beings far beyond what we can see and observe with our human eyes? When we embrace this wider perspective of the universe, we can develop a deep trust in life and have our small human life be a part of the larger process without doing what we can do in this lifetime.

In this talk, Sensei Kanko explores different approaches to living life that are rooted in Indigenous worldviews and practices that connect humans with the natural world and with “Mu” (Shunyata). These worldviews and practices help us trust the fundamental goodness of all human beings.

Sensei Kanko gave this talk during a May 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

How can we make wholesome decisions in the face of impossible dilemmas that life throws at us? How do we face impossible choices when hanging between life and death?

In this talk, Dr. Kritee Kanko reflects on a strange Zen story where someone finds themselves in an impossible situation: hanging by their mouth from a tree branch over a cliff, he must either answer a spiritual question and fall to his death, or remain silent and fail to fulfil his vow to help all beings. Is the koan presenting us with a false choice between self-preservation and service to others?

We all need to make seemingly impossible choices around old age, sickness, and death concerning ourselves, our loved ones, and all living beings.

Sensei Kanko explains with vivid and vulnerable personal stories related to her own chronic health issues that it's not easy, that it is okay to make mistakes or to feel that we have failed. She explores how we can find profound spiritual depth even while experiencing physical limitation. With tenderness, Sensei Kanko reveals how meditation allows us to transcend black-and-white (i.e., right vs wrong) thinking, embracing both our human vulnerability and spiritual potential simultaneously. She discusses how facing our own mortality can deepen our practice, encouraging us to "die on the cushion" while still fully embracing life. In these times of polycrisis and systemic collapse, she emphasizes the essential role of community in facing our deepest fears and challenges, reminding us that true Buddhism was never meant to be a hyper-individualistic pursuit of enlightenment.

Sensei Kanko gave this talk during the February 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