Earth Dreams: Zen Buddhism and the Soul of the World

All is blessed, all is blessed

Greetings Friends, I am returning from the Grasses, Trees and Great Earth Sesshin at Great Vow Zen Monastery. An outdoor sesshin I have had the deep pleasure of co-leadi

Nothing in this World Frightens Me

Greetings! It’s Leo season (how is it the over 50% of people I know are Leos?) I have had the joy of some travel over the past month—Mud Lotus Sangha did our first weekl

equanimity's full range

Greetings Friends, I have been reflecting on the art of living a life of attention and intention. This is an art form I have dedicated much of my life to, and one that c

the size of awakening?

Greetings Friends, Happy Solstice! Here in the northern hemisphere it is the longest day of the year, one of two days of the year where the sun appears to stand still on

Let the soft animal of your body, love what it loves

Greetings Friends, Happy New Moon! This past week we explored the Hidden Lamp Case 21: Linji Meets the Old Woman Driving the Ox. Linji Meets the Old Woman Driving the O

Shadeless Trees

Greetings Friends, We are moving through this wonderful collection of encounters with Buddhist Women found in the book The Hidden Lamp for our Summer Read. This week we

Actualizing Care, Recognizing Beauty

Greetings and Happy Early Summer! We are continuing our Summer Read of the Hidden Lamp again this year. Every week we will explore a different koan story from the collec

Not-knowing is Love

Greetings Friends, I am returning from the Light of the Ancestors Sesshin at Great Vow Zen Monastery and feeling deep gratitude for this path of practice and all the peo

In Praise of Poetry

Greetings Friends, I’m a lover of poetry. A sometimes writer of poems. A sometimes reader. Poetry for me is more of a way of being, a willingness to be carried across by

Encounters with the Stone Woman

One of the figures that we encounter in the Zen literature is the stone woman. In the Precious Mirror Samadhi we find her dancing, in another story she calls us back from

Circling Back to Ourselves

Greetings Friends, Happy April Fool’s Day! Last week I had the opportunity to co-facilitate a Zen sesshin in the mountains of West Virginia at Saranam Retreat Center.

Mountains and Rivers are Sutra

I will be joining the Mud Lotus Sangha in West Virginia for our first sesshin of the year. Sesshin is now often translated as a Zen-style meditation retreat. But the word

Being Born and Unborn

Greetings Friends, This past weekend I had the opportunity to join the Pause Meditation community for a deep dive into practice around the theme of the beginner’s mind.

the world is not what we name it or think it

I wanted to share with you a profound, beautiful and somewhat unsettling teaching from the Diamond Sutra. I would say its unsettling precisely because it is so radical,

Realizing the Mind that Abides Nowhere

dust returns to dust earth to earth mind always at home in itself where does it return? This past week I was reflecting on the 6th Chan Ancestor, Huineng and his encount

A Lotus Blooming in the Fire

A lotus blooming in the fire is an image that comes from the Zen tradition. And before I write further on the symbolism of the image or the dharma teachings it evokes—I w

Our Extra-Ordinary Heart

Greetings Friends, I have been reflecting on one of the simplest and perhaps most profound teachings in the Buddhist tradition— the teaching of our extra-ordinary heart.

Compassion is Our Nature

Greetings Friends, In the heartbreak, pain, confusion of this moment. I wish to remember together the Way of the Bodhisattva. The image or archetype of the Bodhisattva

Stepping from the One-Hundred Foot Pole

New Years Blessings! And wow, it feels like its off to a chaotic start. In times like these, I find it vital to ground myself in this bodhisattva vow. To remember what is

Faith, Heart and the Return of the Light

When faith and mind are not separate. And not separate are mind and faith, this is beyond all words, all thoughts. If you have been reading these posts this season, you