The Zen of Conflict
The Angst — the essential disappointment, comes from the pain of realizing that it is impossible have the same perspective as another. You really, really have to get this one. It’s not that you haven’t found, or are not in relationship with, the right person. It’s that we, by definition see everything differently.
Cheerful Melancholy
Society tells us that we should be happy. So, we struggle. This article discusses other approaches, that have much to do with dealing with the present moment.
Personal Self Responsibility
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Essential Zen Lessons - part 3
I’m thinking that, for the summer at least, I’ll write some lists that fit the survey results from a month or so ago. There [...]
Learning and Living Zen
Coiming into presence is the key focus of Zen, and is accomplished in Zazen and “simply noticing. Here we begin to explore the foundations of building an “attentiveness practice.”
The Zen of Insight
We sit, and observe, and suddenly the background mental chatter is right there, as plain and obvious as can be. It’s largely crap, and consists of half-formed stories that serve like the little images in a DVD index. We see the little image, get all intrigued, and push “PLAY.”
Except that we are the director, writer, and cinematographer, and all the work happens as we push the PLAY button.
None of it exists until we make it up.
Self-less Expression
This “joining” approach is what begins the healing process — joining together the parts of ourselves into a coherent whole. And here’s the weird piece — We recognize, as all good Zen practitioners know, that not only are we whole, but that the only place we exist is in the here and now. We also know that, in a very real sense, each of us is the totality of the universe itself.
Zen Based, Present Living



