Dharma Talk: "The 'Such-as-this' Sutra" with Valerie Forstman

Opening with a reading of Mountain Cloud's Land Acknowledgment, this talk is framed by a tribute to Joanna Macy through poetry that helped to inspire her deep and abiding support for the earth and all forms of life.

Within this frame, Valerie turns to a koan about Prajnatara, teacher of Bodhidharma and an ancestor who may well have been a woman. Case 3 of the Shoyoroku or Book of Equanimity presents Prajnatara embodying the way by "always reciting the 'Such-as-this'-sutra" and opening our eyes to what that is.

Recorded on January 22nd, 2026

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