Zen Wisdom for Your Everyday Life

Send us Fan Mail We are all searching for the perfect place to visit, live in, spend time. It seems as if things will go better somewhere else. Or go better in a different relationship. Even when we are in one place, so much time is spent dreaming of another. Waiting for our journey there. But this episode differs. It shows us how where we are right now is perfect, and the beauty that can be found...

Send us Fan Mail We enter Zen practice the way we enter our lives, trying to do it well, figure it out, please our friends and teachers. We judge and push ourselves endlessly, determined to Master the Way. But this is the opposite of true training. The Way Masters us, whether we like it or not. The Way is Our Master and as we train, we simply let go of our mad need change the world, dominate other...

Send us Fan Mail We all want things to work out exactly as we want them to. When they don’t we try again, or develop new strategies. If that doesn’t work, we start blaming others, or ourselves. The great Zen teacher Joko Beck said that practice only begins when you’ve been disappointed enough. When that happens, you’re willing to give up all your strategies,  stop imposing your will on life and to...

Send us Fan Mail We all want life to be perfect, work as as we wish. We will do anything possible so that we can experience a perfect afternoon, relationship or venture. And all the time we do not see that life is perfect as it is. Instead we hold fixed notions about how everything must work out. When it doesn't grief arises, shame, sorrow, anger. These fixed notions not only ruin our lives,...

Send us Fan Mail Life presents many different kinds of moments and situations to us, but there is basically On Way to respond. In zen practice we bow a great deal. Sometimes we bow to the floor, making an offering of ourselves to life. Other times, we bow to our cushions, another person, a flower or to a moment of kindness we have received. Bowing says many things. It says thank you deeply, it say...

Send us Fan Mail The Great Way is all around us, and as we walk on it, we cannot stumble or get lost. Zen practices takes us right there, clears the weeds from the other paths we follow, opens our eyes, our minds and hearts. Especially in times of uncertainty The Great Way is a deep refuge from pain. It opens the door to life as it is, removes pointless daydreams and fantasies and helps us see wha...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the world as we’ve known it suddenly vanished and much of what we’ve held onto for security and identity slips away? This is a great Zen moment. An opportunity to look deeply at where true security waits and what the world really is. Then as a new moment arises we can be at home wherever we are. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Usually we feel it's up to us to make everything right. We have something to say about everything, decide what is and isn't right. But as we interfere, we often take actions that get in the way and mess things up. In this beautiful, simple step, we learn how to take our hands off, step back, not interfere. We stay present, do not withdraw, but allow the natural intellige...

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Send us Fan Mail In the midst of our endless rush to do something, change life, stay safe and protected, there is one within who is "not busy", not rushing around. And yet this one, takes care of everything. It hears all our cries, meets all our needs, allows us to see clearly and respond constructively. Zazen practice takes us directly to the one who is not busy, as we stop our mad dash...

Send us Fan Mail Zen koans are a wonderful way to address problems. We cannot understand them logically or figure them out. Just like the times we are now faced with, we must find a new way to respond to them. To discover an answer that frees us all. The koan above is a homegrown koan, for today. When a mountain of fear, difficulty or unknown pain accosts us, when we handle it in the usual way, mo...

Send us Fan Mail It is said that the real cause of all suffering and hardship is that we are not able to be in a room alone with ourselves for an extended time. How easy it is to see that now that the usual routines of our lives have been disrupted. Much that we have depended upon is being taken from us now. Not only are we forced to live more simply, but also see who we truly are. A lot of panic...

Send us Fan Mail The big joke of practice, is that the simpler it is, the harder for us to grasp and live it. We yearn for difficulty, challenge, obstacles to prove how smart and strong we are..Zen practice, which is the plainest and simplest practice of all, makes this dilemma apparent. It returns us to the simple moments and facts of our lives. Rather than follow the mad mind within, we turn our...

Send us Fan Mail How do we find the balance, harmony, health and love we are all seeking. Usually, we struggle, scramble and feel it is up to us to make everything right. Yet to find a state of true love and oneness, that kind of doing is not necessary. All that is necessary is to deeply center ourselves and say No, to the waves of panic, anger and obstacles we usually get swept into. It is a stat...

Send us Fan Mail Our entire lives are organized around avoiding suffering. We grab moments of happiness and demand more. When things don't go our way we declare ourselves failures, and are in pain. As if we were in charge of how things go. Yet, it is entirely possible to live a life of happiness and enjoyment, even in the midst of pain. It is not what happens to us that hurts so much, but the...

Send us Fan Mail From the time we are born we want stimulation, enjoyment, distractions of all kinds. Our whole life becomes about playing with toys, winning at the game of life. As we get older our toys change and we throw away the broken ones. Our games also grow more complicated and dangerous. Soon, we live in anguish, struggling not to be a loser, trapped in the game we ourselves have chosen t...

Send us Fan Mail Here we are at Valentine's Day, many wondering who their Valentine is, if they are loved, wanted or special in anyway? Or will they ever be? And all the time love is all around us, just waiting to be welcomed into our lives, to have the opportunity to come alive. What is it that keeps this love away? How do we get caught going around and around on a merry go round of relation...

Send us Fan Mail We come to life and relationships hoping all will be well, beautiful, just as we want it. When, despite all our efforts, things do not go as we wish, it's so easy to lapse into disappointment, anger, blaming of ourselves and others or the craving for temporary comfort. Instead of doing this, it is fascinating to realize that we've simply been handed a bitter pill. A pill...

Send us Fan Mail We all want to be powerful, strong, in charge. Life often seems to overpower us, and in response we fight it off, try to change, control, or dominate it. We want things to go as planned, are frightened of unexpected events, or change. This kind of power is Self Power, exerted by the will. Although we can get our way at times, the price we pay for a life like this is great. The bat...

Send us Fan Mail It's so simple to be drawn in to the voices, demands and excitement of the world. We turn to others for so much, for comfort, clarity, and help. Yet, there is a deeper source of wisdom and well being, just waiting for us to be with it. As we leave the tangled mass of voices that call us, and learn to listen to the voice within, we cannot be deceived any longer or lose our way...

Send us Fan Mail Most of our lives we grapple with problems, going back and forth, hitting our heads against one obstacle or another. It is as though we were locked in situation with no way out. Why can't we stop a moment to go to the door and realize it is open. We can walk right through. The way to see the larger picture, the way to a life giving solution is waiting for us right where we ar...

Send us Fan Mail In our world of confusion and holding on, we long for things to stay stable. We need to know what we can count on, what is real and dependable. Yet Zen practice tells us to look beneath the appearance of things if we want to find what we can truly count on. That which comes must go, that which appears, changes. Constant change is inevitable and as we accept it and live as change i...

Send us Fan Mail As the New Year  approaches, we review the year, make lists of how we succeeded and what went wrong. We  list our failures, and resolve to improve next year. We do not see that it is not what went wrong that made us unhappy, it is our endless judgments of ourselves and others. And our ceaseless demands that everything turn out the way we like it. When we can learn, enjoy and be gr...

Send us Fan Mail As the year ends and the days grow darker, holidays come to bring light and love into the world. We do all we can to light candles, give gifts, decorate the world with . We crave the warmth and glow of light. And yet, the deepest light we all search for, the light that sustains us through all our lives, is who we basically are. Let us taste, shine and share the light of our being...

Send us Fan Mail We think our everyday lives are ordinary, nothing much going on. Yet Zen practice tells us that right in the middle of our days, we are being given a huge koan. A koan cannot be figured out, or explained rationally. Yet when we discover how to be with our koan, to keep it warm and play with it, it blooms and comes to live. Then every moment becomes a wonder. We become fully alive....