Do you have to meditate every day? The question really should be can I be happily present with things just as they are, rather than struggling with a goal? I find that newer students don’t ask this question much in their meditation groups, fearing, perhaps, that they might be the only ones with this concern.…
The only way to fail at meditation is to stop meditating. As long as you show up, the meditative process happens. It’s really simple: sit down on a chair or a cushion, set the timer on your phone for, let’s say, 20 minutes, then pay attention to how your body feels, or how your breath…
There is a lot of pressure on the whole pandemic New Year’s thing, right? I mean, the pandemic, economic turmoil; not to mention I am behind a few loads of laundry. And all of a sudden I am somehow supposed to start fresh, become a brand new, happy, healthy person, and so on. Not happening.…
A few folks have asked me if I am feeling any lingering effects from my recent Covid-19 illness. Not really; but I do I find mindful dish-washing in the kitchen sink to be much more fulfilling. I used to find myself wondering, pre-Covid-19, if washing dishes until kingdom come was getting in the way of…
I love Buddhist humor. I especially love the way many Buddhist meditation masters find humorous ways to show us how uptight we can get. If you don’t have a sense of humor, you have no sense at all. I think of that menu and its message from time to time, as I struggle to keep…
Good poems, for me, are often potent teachings on how to live this precious life we are given. Over the years I have been moved to tears reading poems. There is one poet in particular I keep coming back to, the Japanese poet Ryōkan Taigu, who lived from 1758–1831. Ryokan was a quiet and eccentric Sōtō…
Meditation is not easy, I get it. There are aches and pains in the body and the mind can get restless … and there is inner simplicity. But, as Hawaii-born retired Sumo grand-master Akebono would say to reporters after winning yet another match, “I just try my best.” That’s all we ask. Try your best.…
Karen Maezen Miller, in a piece in Lion’s Roar, describes the domestic practices of ancient Zen masters as intimate daily life transformations. Following in their steps she reflects: In the fall, the broad canopy of giant sycamores in my backyard turns faintly yellow and the leaves sail down. A part of every autumn day finds…
While everyone is wishing their co-workers, friends and family a fantastic new year, I would settle for an ordinary new year. Wishing others an entire year of monumental experiences or events, is curious to me. I am not sure I can handle anything too out of the ordinary. In fact, I am quite happy with…
This year, I don’t think I’ll make any resolutions. Well, except for maybe one. I resolve to live a little more happily. And that comes by clearly seeing how I make myself unhappy. How I keep carrying this heavy bag of “me” around. Even after I put it down temporarily in meditation, I manage to…