If we know how to experience our discomfort gracefully, we suffer much less. We’re no longer afraid of eating the blame when this is called for. One of my favorite Zen stories goes like this: One day at a certain monastery in 10th century China, ceremonies delayed preparation of the noon meal, and when they…
Who is maladjusted? It is someone who lost the ability to be surprised. We must re-learn how to be surprised. Alice Walker has good advice for all of us who practice mindfulness meditation: Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise. As a meditation teacher, I’m happy when folks describe feelings familiar from childhood resurfacing in meditation,…
Tears well up as I type these words. I ask myself, can I let myself be mindfully undone by this pain and not shut down from it? A few days ago, President Zelensky addressed the UN Security Council via video link from Kiev. He ended his talk with a short video montage of still photos…
That Putin is digging into a hole he will not get out of, is a trigger for the Buddhist contemplation practitioner to re-frame this situation as a historic teachable moment. Last week I asked if we should be preoccupied with the war in Ukraine. I got several answers back from you, the most pithy being:…
I am ambivalent about mixing politics with spirituality, so I am trying to be very cautious here. But as the French sculptor Daniel Buren once wrote: Every act is political whether one is conscious of it or not. If our meditation practice is to be of any real value to us, it must shine a…
Although I try to not address too many political issues on this blog, for reasons I hope to make clear if you choose to read this post, the coup in Burma the morning of February 1 is worthy of some discussion. The current extraordinary interest in mindfulness, both as a systematic approach to meditation…
Tears just flowed from my face when I heard Amanda Gorman, at only 22 years old, stride up to the microphone in front of an anxious worldwide audience and recite her moving poem The Hill We Climb during the inauguration. I have wept often in my 64 years, and yesterday’s weeping is staying with me…
I’ve always loved the way Japanese poets influenced by the Jodo Shinshu tradition express their wisdom in verse. Here is a haiku by the priest Ho Sen: Another year passed.Empty rice sacks remind mehow lucky I am You would think Ho Sen would feel lucky if his rice sacks were full, but instead he reflects…
News stories are not the conversation starters they used to be. In the day, I could fill an awkward gap by saying “Guess what I heard on NPR this morning?” I don’t use that line anymore. These are intense times. We need to find our footing in an information age that may be getting the…
I feel that I should be above it all, but mostly I’m not. I struggle with my emotions. Practicing mindfulness of emotions helps a lot, but sometimes I am just plain sad or overcome by all that is untenable in the world, borrowing a line from Brother Steindl-Rast. I feel that I should be above…