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Reading
Last fall I attended a four-day silent retreat at Pine Mountain Temple. It was quite wonderful. The weather was perfect, the people attending were nice, and, of course, the food was good. I had been on retreats before and was … Continue reading →
Faith in the midst of darkness
Experiencing darkness is part of my life. Most of the time I am not able to recognize the specific reason for this darkness. Nonetheless it often appeared to me as something very real in the past. When in the midst … Continue reading →
The Lotus Flower of emotions
Today as we experience the emotion of grief, as we grieve the loss of Rev. Master Chosei, I’d like to look further into this subject of emotions. Sometimes we oppose emotions to analytical thinking, or reason, or the intellect, and … Continue reading →
Sitting with hurt and blame
I’d like to share with you something that I’ve found helpful in my own training recently, in the context of training in difficult situations. Most of us have probably had one or more events in our lives that have affected … Continue reading →
Meeting the moment
Helping on an Introductory Retreat recently, I gave the meditation instruction and was stuck by how very direct our practice is. Other traditions may use a technique to help bring oneself to the sitting. In Zen we go straight to … Continue reading →
The unknown
On our altars there is a water cup, which sits before the Buddha. That cup represents you, me, each one of us. We train to receive what arises within us, from the great mystery that we call meditation. Like that … Continue reading →
