Each of us individually cannot really do all the necessary things in life. At some point we accept the need to call the plumber or the dentist. No human is an island never has been - we beings and the great earth are the "One Body" as Bernie Glassman called it. Same as in practice. In the forms of practice like zazen, kinhin, bowing, lighting incense, chanting and memorizing sutras, and understanding and explaining the wisdom all require different natures.   Not one is above

Unfathomable reality arises as the universe dreams the universe. But who can deny that bell? The bell collaborates with us, we with it and all of us with the great Earth simultaneously achieve the Way. This is the Dream. This one moment arises and rolls along Awareness knows. In my life, the more I rely on simple awareness the more compassion and empathy arises naturally. Can I trust the non-personal view without a perspective of right and wrong or good and bad? Being this un

The 40th Zen Ancestor Tongan Daopi had anxiety about obtaining "it" until Yunju told him, “you are already such a thing.” "If you want to acquire such a thing, you must become such a person. Since you are already such a person, why be anxious about such a thing?" Togan woke up! It has to be this exact being, here and now. My feet are cold over by the kitchen. In Keizan’s Teisho he says; “The winds of discrimination cannot enter this place of knowing.”  The "knowing by be

We all need the dark side and the bright side to be whole. It seems ones who have faith in the dark, cynical and protective posture live...

Oh boy, MAGA is correct.  The People have to stop demonizing ICE agents. Don’t get me wrong, ICE is, in fact, out of control and abusive...

Allowing this whole life to naturally unfold.. is liberation. It feels like a great weight is lifted and the fog evaporates. Going...

The sun stained sky bleeds onto the water I hear myself yelling at my old dog Down on the cold ground, in the wind It’s the wrong name,...

I’m coming along the trail we walk everyday and I hear my brown and white dog, Magic, beside me about 50 yards away running side hill....

The darkness never felt so ominous in me as I drove away from my 18 year-old daughter 15 hours away from home. Now is change. Being now...

Right now, for me personally, is a time of looking back. I'm cleaning out five decades of accumulated memories, emotions and identities....

Yanking on two corners, in one motion, the star quilt unfurled in the sky and settled around my shoulders as the air breathed out of its...

The pellet stove's light glows in the corner shining through the windowed door. Its light rises up and falls down with the flames and...

A nest of pillows has been evolving on my couch. Sitting zazen period after period. My breath falls to the floor like tears, still, I...

"You know him," says Karen, a candidate for the state house at a small sign-waving event along the road in Eaton the other day. He flies...

All-of-a-sudden there was a hush to the hum of my world and I sunk down into the floor. It sounded like someone closed the door to a loud...

Standing in the chilly morning air looking through the young beech trees and fallen white pines, the sky is slate grey behind the...

I'm feeling attached. Not everything is bothering me but a lot of things are. It's like somehow the things of the world are leaving a...

"Mom, look! Look at me! Mom, Dad, look at me! Watch this!" The exclamation points skimmed across the surface of the lake hitting the...

The lanky grass was dry under the maple tree and the ground sloped downward perfectly toward the west and facing away from the humming...

"I'm not afraid Linda and I wear a mask. Wanna try me!" shot out of me like an arrow made of angry words hitting the bullseye on the...