July 8, 2015

“When do you find time for your spiritual practice?” I hear this all the time. It is a similar cadence when we ask people to go to the gym. The typical reply is, “I just can’t find the time.” This refrain rings hollow among those of us who are dedicated to either a spiritual life, a gym life, or both. We find time for what we truly want to do. The mistake most of us make, is separating our practice... Read more

June 30, 2015

I have often thought of giving up my priesthood. Not because I want to drink and smoke and have unmeaningful sexual encounters; I can do that either way. I have thought of giving it up because of the emotional baggage we bring to it. “Aren’t you a priest?” “You can’t do this, or that, or the other thing.” “Aren’t you suppose to be some holy weirdo?” “You shouldn’t be watching cartoons, or making jokes, or, or, or..” I often wonder... Read more

June 24, 2015

Cottonwood puffs float over the lawn like tumbleweeds. The sun is beginning its descent and the temperature with it. I kick my feet back and forth and twiddle my thumbs like my great grandmother did, as I watch my daughter jump and splash in the pool. It feels like a commercial; all I need now is a Corona sitting on the arm of the chair as the camera pans out. Instead, the dog pants underneath my chair, and the baby... Read more

June 18, 2015

My fingers bit into the carpet as my body tensed. “I can’t breathe!” Panic started racing through me as I felt my body fighting to stay awake. Try as I might, I could not fill my lungs; it was like breathing through water and my chest just wouldn’t fill. As I was wheeled into the ER I heard them shouting as they stuck oxygen in my nose and IV’s in my arm and hand. “Pulse ox is 88%, heart rate... Read more

June 10, 2015

What is the future of Buddhism in America? Does Buddhism even have a future as we head deeper into an age that identifies more and more as non-religious? These questions seem more pertinent than ever before and as a Buddhist, and I would be remiss if I wasn’t honest with myself and those who come to me for advice. The teachings of the Buddha were never intended to be Buddhism. A revolution in social conscience, the path of wisdom, later... Read more

June 3, 2015

I open the text app on my phone and gingerly type out a message to a friend and fellow priest, “Do you have another priest you go to when you’re overwhelmed?” I wait for his reply, fingers clicking on the table, tap tap tap tap. My phone lights up with his reply. “No, I’ve pretty much lost all of my connections in that world.” I sit back. That wasn’t the answer I had been looking for. “So you just drink?”... Read more

May 31, 2015

Ten years as a bouncer in downtown nightclubs exposed me to all kinds of human…vice. I’d busted fingers, noses, heads and even had my own attitude handed back to me in spades on occasion. That’s how it goes though—you win some, you lose some. As a bouncer, you want to win more than you lose though. They weren’t paying me to get beat up. They were paying me to be heavy handed enough to scare off unwanted elements. I liked... Read more

May 24, 2015

  Anyone familiar with Mahayana Buddhism, is probably also familiar with the idea of the six realms of existence. In traditional setting of Buddhism (think Asia) these are easily accepted as literal realms of existence that interplay with the process of samsara and reincarnation. Understanding the western mindset and its lack of acceptance of reincarnation, the famed Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa presented these realms as states of psychological or emotional existence within the human experience. While I am no Chogyam... Read more

May 20, 2015

  I watch the rain come down slowly, like wet gossamer sheets. Rain drops kiss flower petals that bounce back up like cymbals on a drum set. Soft purple pulp, filled with new life and color—so fragile yet so strong. Chubby little digits come down and pull it up from its earthen bed and hand it to me, “Look daddy, I got you somefin.” I am struck between the love and innocence of the gesture and the wish that she... Read more

May 12, 2015

Both formerly and now, it is only suffering that I describe, and the cessation of suffering. Buddha The spiritual practice is not bright and sunny. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something. It’s a confrontation with the truth as it is, not as we wish it to be. It becomes a healing process not because we paint the sun over the clouds but because we stop clinging to a notion that only the sun brings happiness. It was not the... Read more

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