Zen Wisdom for Your Everyday Life

Send us Fan Mail It's natural to think that we must guard what we have, hold onto it tight and be careful not to lose it. No matter how much we hold on though, everything changes and we experience loss. It's as though nothing remains, and we are left bereft and lonely.  This is the perception of the small child within, who screams and cries, throws tantrums and demands the world always r...

Send us Fan Mail The question "What's Next?" is heard over and over. We finish one project and search for the next.  Big changes take place in our life and we immediately dwell upon how we will go on, or what to do or say next. .A relationship ends and we're hungry for another.  It may  even seem as if there is nothing  ahead for us. This can create deep despair, along with fee...

Send us Fan Mail We live our lives with the feeling that something important is missing. We may have had it for a little while, but right now, it's gone. So much of our time is then spent searching for what it is we're longing for. And even if we find it again, briefly, the sense of fullness doesn't last long.  As we engage in Zen practice, though, a moment comes when we realize tha...

Send us Fan Mail We  feel we are trapped in routines, doing the same thing again and again. So many things are repeated in our lives, including in our relationships. A sense of drudgery and boredom can take over our lives. Where is the joy, where is the fun? Am I doomed to repeat the same thing again and again? we ask. But Zen practice turns this all around. As we realize that each moment, each st...

Send us Fan Mail Where do we turn when in the midst of confusion, upset, noise or danger?  When the Mad Mind starts to sing, it can seem as if the whole world turns around, leaving us upset, dislodged and unable to step forward.  Many feel lost and lonely. At those times it appears as if we have nothing to hold onto. There's no clear direction or place to go. But Zen practice tell us otherwis...

Send us Fan Mail We look for sanity and balance all over the place, thinking there's something wrong with who we are right now.  We think our everyday life, needs, and desires must be transcended, rejected, in order to become "enlightened".  Beneath this is the fundamental idea that there is something wrong with us, just as we are. That life itself as we know it, is deficient,  dest...

Send us Fan Mail We have all kinds of ideas about what love is and wat it is not. Usually there's a very strong standard we live with, about whether or not we are loving. But as Rumi said, "A feeling here one minute and gone the next, cannot be called love." As we look into the simple, unadorned practice of Zen and actually practice it not only on the cushion, but in our lives,  the...

Send us Fan Mail All of us are searching for a place of rest, warmth and unconditional love and acceptance. We are searching for that which cannot be lost or shaken no matter what happens. In Zen Practice this experience is described as a child returning to its mother. What a surprise to realize that this mother we are searching for, is always waiting for us, right here. And it waits within oursel...

Send us Fan Mail All of the pivotal practices in Zen are incredibly simple, and only take a moment. In one moment  everything turns around. Fear turns to compassion, anger to sorrow, hate to love.  And, these pivotal moments are simple, too simple perhaps for us to take to heart. We yearn for that which is complicated, challenging, impossible to do. But Zen is the Art of The Possible, planted righ...

Send us Fan Mail Alongside the endless ocean Coney Island is filled with thrills, chills, rides, and houses of horrors. In one particular section there used to be a mirror which, when we looked into it, distorted our bodies first one way and then the next.  Looking for ourselves in the mirror, we didn't know who we were anymore. One minute we were long and thin, the next moment wide and short...

Send us Fan Mail This podcast explores liberation from constriction. Leaving the straits and entering the open spaces of our hearts and lives, Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Life presents endless questions and contradictions that seem to have no answer. We go round and round trying to figure things out, creating strategies, going over the benefits and costs. And still a true solution can't be found. In a sense life is presenting us koans again and again. In Zen practice is an unanswerable question we are given to grapple with. When we run out of...

Send us Fan Mail So much of the struggle, upset, anger and difficulty we experience comes when life presents something we did not expect. Of course this happens many times a day. How could this be happening? we ask, as a sense of failure or great disappointment arises.  We may blame others, or life itself. Sometimes these feelings become so intense, we lose trust and meaning and feel that life its...

Send us Fan Mail We all have pre set visions of how our lives are supposed to turn out, where we're headed and what we're supposed to achieve.  Much of our upset in life is due to the fact that the reality of how things go, do not match our images. Again and again we judge ourselves, discard activities and people that were important, sink into a sense of futility. Rather than  focus upon...

Send us Fan Mail Many of us feel stuck in our lives these days, unable to move on and take the next steps. Then we become restless, frustrated or depressed. But in truth, it is impossible to be stuck. An experience is being given to us that is for our benefit, whether we realize it or not. Where we are at the moment is exactly where we belong. Believe it or not, it's the perfect place for us....

Send us Fan Mail When we go to visit and knock on someone's door, we often call out, "Is Anyone Home?"  How badly we want someone to be there, greet us, offer a  smile, hug, a real connection. Not many want to walk into an empty house. Yet, how many are truly home, present and available? It may seem that we are, but so often our greetings and words are automatic, and our true mind a...

Send us Fan Mail Many of us are swimming in a sea of confusion, not knowing what to believe, what is right or wrong. Or, how to move on. The ground beneath us is shaking and we fear that wherever we put our foot down will turn into quicksand. In Zen practice we learn how to walk along even quicksand becomes steady and firm. When we see through delusion and imaginary happiness, nothing can shake ou...

Send us Fan Mail We all want things to work out "perfectly", exactly as we hope and imagine. Much of our energy and attention goes to trying to control events, changing them, and exerting force to have outcomes meet our demands.  We can become some obsessed with the "right" outcome, that we entirely miss the day. We can go on like this forever, and miss our relationships and li...

Send us Fan Mail We are all so upset at the prospect of making a mistake. We'll do anything to hide it up and pretend it never happened. Or punish ourselves or others for it endlessly. But mistakes are inevitable, the are natural and come to teach us how to live, what's important and what is not. Dogen Zenji goes even further, he says that "life is one continuous mistake".  Rat...

Send us Fan Mail We all want to know how to live a life that is right  and true. All through the centuries the question comes, "Where the Way is and how do I enter it. This question has been echoed in many forms, including what do I do now? How in the world can I proceed?   Practices of all kinds have been established to answer that question and  point to the way to live. Many of these practi...

Send us Fan Mail It's so easy to get lost in the whirl of confusing messages, thoughts, and beliefs. There's no end to the different ways we get stuck or lost not knowing what is or isn't so. However, Zen practice comes to put an end to this. As we stay with the simple facts of our lives, pay attention to them,  and live them, we leave the ever twirling pitfalls of the thinking mind...

Send us Fan Mail A great deal of our sorrow and disappointment are due to the false promises of Samsara, how we live for them, grip them, and are so shocked when they don't fulfill our needs. However, a deeper Zen teaching tells us that Samsara IS Nirvana, the joy and fulfillment we constantly seek. This podcast explores how to make every moment beautiful as it is. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail There was a man who searched constantly for the perfect dewdrop, feeling that when he found it, his life would be complete. However, no matter how many dewdrops he stared at, there was always something missing. None matched the image he held in his mind. He rejected  so many dewdrops. Like him, we search and search for that which will make our lives complete, rejecting or judging...

Send us Fan Mail Uchiyama Roshi has said we are like travelers on a train, who get caught by the scenery again and again. Rather than be able to take the trip in peace and gratitude, we become embroiled by all kinds of scenes that pass by. Often we, even get pulled off the train and forget where we were head. Lost among the passing scenery, it can be hard to move along. This is also a wonderful de...

Send us Fan Mail Although so many of us feel separated, and disconnected during this holiday season, the practice of Zazen tells us that this is not so. Even when we cannot see those we care for, even when we cannot go to a familiar place, the sense of oneness, connection and deep wholeness is available every moment of the day. As we practice, we discover that when we do not reject any moment or e...