Natural Wisdom

This is a metta meditation using traditional Pali phrases.

At this time of year, my teaching at Omega Institute approaches. Here is a recording of Metta infused with the light and birdsong of the Omega Sanctuary.

This Dharma talk is based on Zen Master Un Mun's koan, "Medicine and disease cure each other. The whole world is medicine. What is your true self?"

At this time, let’s recognize that Mindfulness is not about continuous serenity.  If we are doing our work we experience wholeness, a dynamic state that involves working with emotions such as powerlessness and fear. Join us in this exploration.

In addition to teaching Zen, I have also trained in counseling and psychology, and done some training in trauma and recovery and have offered stress reduction classes in hospitals, universities, a variety of settings. I sense the Covid experience as a collective trauma, most skillfully addressed through somatic approaches. Like all trauma, it is also a kind of initiation, requiring that we uncover...

Open Gate Zen Collective  Saturday Morning 3.14.20  We are collectively going through a time of complete transformation: Kairos, a turning moment. Kairos, to the Greeks, referred to the sacred and vital nature of time, a choice point, in which we must seize the opportunity as it arises.  Kairos is the root of chaos. Yet as we center ourselves in this moment, this experience of chaos...

In which flying birds leave no footprints on the blue sky.

Given at the Chapel of Awareness November 23, 2019

As Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh notes, to see clear water, one must look past the reflection and the sunlight. In this episode we discuss the three bodies of Buddha: Dharmakaya, Nirmanakaya and Sambhogakaya-- and point directly to mind.

This Dharma talk was given at CIHS November 8th , 2019.

This is the first Dharma Talk on the Diamond Sutra in an occasional series.  Recorded at Chapel of Awareness, November 9, 2019.

Recorded at Chapel of Awareness November 9, 2019

This Dharma talk was given on Saturday, October 19th at Chapel of Awareness, Encinitas.  If you receive benefit from this podcast series, you can support the creator with a dana donation, which will help support the future of this podcast and the Dharma teaching:   paypal.me/naturalwisdomdana .

We visit Inspiration, waterfalls, and the entire universe in a single flower. Given at Chapel of Awareness, October 11, 2019.

From a Buddhist perspective, it is believed that death, like life, is a journey. The consciousness opens up in a particularly powerful way at the time of death; there is the opportunity for awakening on that great journey ... In this presentation, we will explore Buddhist approaches to end-of-life, as well as art and ceremonies that can truly be a celebration of life, as based in traditional Buddh...