Zen Wisdom for Your Everyday Life

Send us Fan Mail t's so easy to get caught in endless mixed messages, hopes and dreams and not know what to believe, or where to go. But Soen Roshi told us that it is easy to step out of confusion, and showed us how. First step is not to be confused by your confusion, see it what it is. Then he showed how to return to this very moment and our original guidance and experience. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Most of our lives are spent in disappointment. We complain about everything, try to turn things to our liking, constantly. But even if we succeed, something else arises to disappoint us again. The great surprise and gift of life comes, when we let all that go, and become fully available for everything, just as it is. No fights, no complaints, only deep appreciation, acknowlegment...

Send us Fan Mail Especially on holidays, memories of past years return strongly, including remembering those who are gone. It’s easy to compare one year to another, our lives with others, and wish we were somewhere else now. But we are always where we belong, in the perfect place for us right now. Each encounter is the one which can bring us the most growth and joy. . Support the show

Send us Fan Mail How do we heal the inner confusion, distraction, and conflict we live with? In Zen practice the answer is startlingly simple. Not only do we pay radical and loving attention to whatever appears in our lives, we take good care of it. When we take off our shoe, rather than throw them helter skelter, we carefully place them just where they belong. Same with everything in our lives, i...

Send us Fan Mail We all strive to be better and better to live up to an ideal or image of how we should be, or what we want in the moment. When conditions change, and we cannot achieve it, we fight what is present, reject it, demand things go our way. But the heart of a joyful life is being what we are fully moment by moment, no matter how we wanted things to turn out. Not only accepting it, but e...

Send us Fan Mail t's so easy to react to the endless changes we go through day by day. Some changes are wonderful, others distressing. When something comes along that we don't like, we'll fight it to fiercely, trying to change or fix whatever happens. Or agreeing with it. But there is another way to receive whatever comes along. This other way keeps us centered, lively, joyous even,...

Send us Fan Mail We think that Zen practice is mysterious and difficult, requires that we sit still for hours and become more and more enlightened. But zazen is only part of it. The very heart of Zen is to "Pick up coat from the floor and put it where it belongs. Take care of our life, notice when something, or someone has fallen down and pick them up, put them and ourselves where we belong....

Send us Fan Mail Most of our lives we are searching for something we haven't quite found. The search goes on endlessly, and others tell us, "Not Yet", or "Keep Searching," - one day you'll make it. Yet, seated on a donkey, we search for a donkey, do not see that all we are searching for is right here, where we are. Once we stop searching, life changes and we can enjoy...

Send us Fan Mail We all long to be close to someone we care about, belong to a group of place of meaning. An endless search goes on in our lives to be welcomed and invited in. To find the person, teaching or place which will put our longing heart at ease. But when a monk finally found a great teacher, inside a hut and begged to come in, the teacher wisely said, "You Are Not Outside."  Su...

Send us Fan Mail It's easy to get caught in the whirl of changing conditions, one minute we're praised, the next blamed. We receive wonderful gifts and then they're taken away. But a wonderful teaching from the great Zen Master Hakuin, shows us how to receive whatever comes wholeheartedly, and not get caught in the pain of change. Whatever happens, he remarks, "Is that so?&quot...

Send us Fan Mail We are all so incredibly impatient to get where we’re headed, (even though we have no idea what is waiting for us there). Our days, actions and attention are deeply focused upon where we’re headed.  Some days we Pass, other days, Fail, in our estimation. Nevertheless we keep rushing uncontrollably, piling up one task after the next.  But, there is a larger timing in which everythi...

Send us Fan Mail We all search for answers relentlessly, hoping to be guided about what our problem means, how to procede, what's right or wrong to do. There's no end to the instruction we look for. And yet, none of this brings the true insight and aliveness we crave. After one problem seems to be solved, it pops up again in a different form. As we discover a totally different way of app...

Send us Fan Mail When we're hungry and go into a restaurant, no matter how long we read the menu, it does not fill us up. We must order the food, eat it and be satisfied. Same with our lives, just thinking  about life, fantasyzing, analyzing, hoping, imagining, leaves us empty and alone. Instead, Zen practice leads us to taste our lives directly, receive the nourishment and discard the waste....

Send us Fan Mail It's easy to go over the same inscrutable problem or question, again and again. Doesn't seem to have an answer. These are called koans. Using our logical mind, we create plans, strategies and hopes that only bind us further. By embarking upon the great art and joy of Zen Play, we learn not only how to engage with koans, but how to make our entire life a Zen koan, discove...

Send us Fan Mail These days there is so much confusion and what is true and real. Yet the more we think and dwell upon it, the more confused we can become. There is another way to find our direction and live clearly with that which is beneficial for all. As we learn to throw away thoughts of imaginary things, the real appears all by itself.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail We love what is beautiful and reject what is ugly, not realizing that all appearances are flashes across the sky of our lives. But, instead of grappling with what happens, trying to change and fix it, make it benefit us, if we step back and see the vastness of the larger pattern a miraculous thing happens, we see the beauty and perfection of all. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Night and day we strive for perfection, fear making a mistake or doing something wrong. These fears can freeze us in our tracks, stop us from moving forward and living a fulfilled life. But Zen practice shows us how to make friends with our mistakes, how important and precious they are. Wrong turns to right and the other way around. And ultimately we see the great harmony of our l...

Send us Fan Mail All summer long, coming and going. All our lives long, coming and going, but what is our ultimate destination? What do we hope to find when we get there, and what actions will be beneficial as we travel along? When we open to the vastness of our lives, to the great mystery we are embedded in, as we walk along, we Ring The Bell, take clear, full hearted, spontaneous action that ari...

Send us Fan Mail There are so many ways we get trapped in life, take the bait. We all want so much from others, and when we give there's always the thought of what will come back. This craving to get something in return actually hooks us in another direction and ruins the joy available in just giving with open hands. No thought of receiving anything back. In Zen practice, we learn how not to...

Send us Fan Mail We all want to do what we feel is important and meaningful, will make our life worthwhile. Along with goals of all kinds, we have endless to do lists. But no matter what we achieve,  it is never enough. We push ourselves again and again without feeling complete. This is because our focus has been mistaken. What you are doing right now is most important. There are no significant or...

Send us Fan Mail We all cling to something, hoping it will make us feel safe and secure. But the opposite is true, the more we cling, the more we crush whatever is in our hands. And holding on never stops the endless flow of life and change. There is a great art of letting go, of trusting life and welcoming all that comes and all that goes. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail  As the seasons turn, year after year, we experience so many change. Many experience a sense of loss, as if something precious has vanished. Where has it gone? How can we find it again? But the coin lost in the river is found in the river. It is not lost really,  can always be found. The river will return it to us. All we must do is stop looking everywhere else for it and return t...

Send us Fan Mail All of us try so hard to become enlightened, wise, all knowing. But there are no enlightened men or women, only enlightened moments. Come find out how to live a life of true clarity and joy, whatever moments come, and to stop struggling unnecesssarily. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail The Fourth of July celebrates freedom and independence, something we all long for. Most feel we have to fight for this, oppose others, struggle for power and control. But this very state of mind keeps our freedom and independence from us. It binds us and prevents the joy and fullness we desire. However there is a different way of approaching life that turns that all around. We can...

Send us Fan Mail The heat turns up in all our lives in so many ways. Usually we seek cool breezes, comfortable conditions, good friends and ease. But  rather than be on edge and try to always adjust conditions to keep ourselves comfortable, why not jump in. Jump into the heat, rather than resist life, become one with whatever comes. Don't run from anything. Be at home wherever you are. Right...