The world has stopped. Well, it hasn’t really. But a whole lot of things have. My kids are out of school for the year. This year school ended during Spring Break. I’m not sad about this time at home with them, but I’m nervous about going back to work. I’m working from home, and I’m one of the lucky ones. Some people are having to go to work during an outbreak. Other people have lost their jobs. It’s a really... Read more
I did a series of daily talks during the Covid-19 lockdown. I wanted to do something during this crisis, something to try to help others (and myself). At first I thought it might be too ambitious to give talks every day, but I made it work and I’m pretty proud of the series. I had intended for it to end right at the end of the lockdown here in Kansas City, but the lockdown has been extended. I’ll try something... Read more
I heard this story from Bodhidharma‘s childhood recently and I wanted to share it. As a child, Bodhidharma was the third son of a king in south India. His father was deeply interested in Buddhism. The king invited a famous dharma teacher named Hannyatara to the palace to give teachings many times. One day the king was really impressed with a teaching and he gave Hannyatara a beautiful jewel. Hannyatara showed this jewel to the sons of the king. The... Read more
I’m here to provide encouragement because we could all use some. The truth is that meditation is hard and you have to work at it. People that are trying to sell you things may try to convince you that it’s easy. It’s not. What’s easy is finding ways to avoid doing it. I think of it as like flossing. It’s something we know is good for us that we don’t really want to do. Having a plan helps in a... Read more
“Separate yourself from disturbance and face whatever appears before you.” –Hongzhi Sometimes our being is described as like a mirror. There are several conditions that a mirror can be in. A dirty mirror might reflect what’s in front of it in a distorted way. A broken mirror might be even worse. But a mirror that is clear and clean is going to give you an accurate representation of whatever you put in front of it. We often see the... Read more
“The practice of true reality is simply to sit serenely in silent introspection.” “Here you can rest and become clean, pure, and lucid. Bright and penetrating, you can immediately, return, accord, and respond to deal with events. Everything is unhindered, clouds gracefully floating up to the peaks, the moonlight glitteringly flowing down mountain streams. The entire place is brightly illumined and spiritually transformed.” “If you accord everywhere with thorough clarity and cut off sharp corners without dependence on doctrines, you... Read more
2,550 (or so) years ago today a man sat under a tree. He saw a really divided world, where people struggled and argued and fought with each other, often over trivial things. He saw people who valued greed over kindness, He saw people who valued hate over love, He saw people who valued lies over the truth. And he saw that these people were not happy. He saw people not finding fulfillment in their lives. He saw people railing against... Read more
“The Great Way is gateless, Approached in a thousand ways. Once past this checkpoint You stride through the universe.” This is the opening of the famous Zen text “The Gateless Gate”. It sounds like weird hippie nonsense. A lot of old Zen sayings like this are a little hard to unpack because sometimes they seem so weird. I think it’s worth a second look. The Great Way is the path we’re on. The path inspired by the Buddha, the... Read more
Some teenagers came to my door recently. They were Christian missionaries. I didn’t invite them in, but I also didn’t slam the door in their faces. In my estimation there are much worse things teenagers could be out there doing. They asked me if there was anything they could pray about for me. And when I told them there wasn’t they asked about the Buddha statue on my porch. So I told them that I’m a Buddhist. They said they... Read more
It was the 5th century. About 1000 years after the Buddha’s death. And Buddhism was in decline in India. The teachings of the Buddha had had a rough time. In those thousand years many Buddhist teachers had left. Many had spread the teachings far and wide and never returned. This was the world Bodhidharma lived in. And he left India too. He had heard rumors that Buddhism was flourishing in China and he wanted to go see for himself. When... Read more
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