A Dharma talk or Dhamma talk or Dharma sermon (Japanese: 法語 (ほうご, Hōgo), Chinese: 法語) is a public discourse on Buddhism by a Buddhist teacher.

In some Zen traditions a Dharma talk may be referred to as a teisho. However, according to Taizan Maezumi and Bernard Glassman, a teisho is "a formal commentary by a Zen master on a koan or Zen text. In its strictest sense, teisho is non-dualistic and is thus distinguished from a Dharma talk, which is a lecture on a Buddhist topic." In this sense, a teisho is thus a formal Dharma talk.Vietnamese master Nhat Hanh says the following about Dharma talks:

Thubten Chodron is an American Tibetan Buddhist nun and a central figure in reinstating the Bhikshuni (tib. Gelongma) ordination of women. She is a student of H. H. XIVth Dalai Lama, Tsenzhap Serkong Rinpoche, Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and other Tibetan masters.

Born in 1950, she grew up in a "non-religious" Jewish family near Los Angeles, California, United States and earned her B.A. in History, University of California at Los Angeles in 1971. While doing graduate work in Education, she taught elementary school. She took a course with Ven. Lama Yeshe and Ven. Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1975, inspiring her to study and practice Tibetan tradition at their monastery in Nepal. In 1977, she received Sramanerika (novice) ordination, and in 1986, she travelled to Taiwan to receive the full Bhikshuni ordination.

She has studied and practiced Buddhism of the Tibetan tradition extensively, in India and Nepal, and for three years at Dorje Pamo Monastery in France. She has held several significant posts, including Director of the spiritual program at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy for two years, Resident Teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, and ten years as Spiritual Director and Resident Teacher at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle. She has written numerous articles and books, such as Open Heart, Clear Mind; Buddhism for Beginners; Taming the Mind; Working with Anger; How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator; and Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig.

Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahathera (known to most as Ajahn Brahm), born Peter Betts in London, United Kingdom on 7 August 1951, is a Theravada Buddhist monk. Currently Brahm is the Abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, in Serpentine, Western Australia, the Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia, Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of Victoria, Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of South Australia, Spiritual Patron of the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore, and Spiritual Patron of the Bodhikusuma Centre in Sydney.

Peter Betts came from a working-class background and went to Latymer Upper School. He won a scholarship to study Theoretical physics at Cambridge University in the late 1960s. After graduating from Cambridge he taught in high school for one year before traveling to Thailand to become a monk and train with the Ajahn Chah Bodhinyana Mahathera. Brahm was ordained in Bangkok at the age of twenty-three by the Abbot of Wat Saket. He subsequently spent nine years studying and training in the forest meditation tradition under Ajahn Chah.

Thích Nhất Hạnh ( listen; born October 11, 1926) is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist who now lives in France where he was in exile for many years. Born Nguyễn Xuân Bảo, Thích Nhất Hạnh joined a Zen (Vietnamese: Thiền) monastery at the age of 16, and studied Buddhism as a novitiate. Upon his ordination as a monk in 1949, he assumed the Dharma name Thích Nhất Hạnh. Thích is an honorary family name used by all Vietnamese monks and nuns, meaning that they are part of the Shakya (Shakyamuni Buddha) clan. He is often considered the most influential living figure in the lineage of Lâm Tế (Vietnamese Rinzai) Thiền, and perhaps also in Zen Buddhism as a whole.

In the early 1960s, he founded the School of Youth for Social Services (SYSS) in Saigon. This grassroots relief organization rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools, established medical centers, and resettled families left homeless during the Vietnam War. He traveled to the U.S. to study at Princeton University, and later to lecture at Cornell University and Columbia University. His focus at the time was to urge the U.S. government to withdraw from Vietnam. He urged Martin Luther King, Jr. to publicly oppose the Vietnam War; King nominated Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in January 1967. He created the Order of Interbeing in 1966, establishing monastic and practice centers around the world. In 1973, the Vietnamese government denied Nhat Hanh permission to return to Vietnam and he went into exile in France. From 1976 to 1977 he led efforts to rescue Vietnamese boat people in the Gulf of Siam.