Here’s the recording of the webinar presentation and discussion from today. Click here (after it gets going, click View and Video). Three points: Help does not have a fixed positionMeeting suffering as meeting the truthFour methods of guidance (giving, kind speech, beneficial action, identity action).  Below is the announcement for the upcoming introduction to our online practice community and 90-day practice period. More information will be posted soon. If you’re interested, please contact me at [email protected]. Introduction to Online Practice Community, Saturday,... Read more

May we all play full out in our practice and throughout our lives in 2010. Happy New Year Everyone!  Thanks, Nintin, for this. Read more

  I stayed up last night reading some excerpts from a priest from San Francisco Zen Center, Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler’s, Two Shores of Zen: An American Monk’s Japan. Jiryu and I spent a little time at the same monastery in Japan, it turns out and he asked me to review his work. I’ll do that in an upcoming blog and I very much enjoyed reading the excerpts that he sent and even had a good dose of nostalgia. For now,... Read more

This morning’s sunrise above. The colors created by sun, snow, eyes and mind were quite spectacular and I tried to capture it for you, greased pig as it is to “capture” something! I’ve got a few days now with my teenagers at their mother’s to dig back into writing.  Oh, and I’ll be preparing for the online talk via Webex this Saturday, 10am-11am CST (-6 UMT), “Making Manifest the Great Earth’s Gold: Zen and Service.” There are still plenty of... Read more

  This week I’m off from my day job and delighted to be working on some dharma projects in addition to time with my kids. I’ve finally gotten some traction on the book that I’ve been warming up to write for about six months. I realized yesterday morning that I was trying to write this book as if it were the first book. In order to move ahead, I had to drop some background idea about what needed to be... Read more

Here’s the last session of the Genjokoan 100 Days. Click here (and when Webex gets rolling, click View and Video). Thanks to Steve for all the screen shots and to all the participants for their bravery and openheartedness!We conclude with Dogen’s call to take responsibility for this great earth and all it’s snarly inhabitants: The wind of the Buddhism makes manifest the great Earth’s goldenness and makes ripen the sweet milk of the long rivers. If you’d like to explore... Read more

This from an email from one of the 100-day practitioners: “There is no goal … but at the same time there seems to be something to be had…which is it?” Neither. It is necessary to strive for the truth of dharma. A willy-nilly zennish understanding “it’s already perfect blah blah blah” – is just another belief system and has no power to “ripen the sweet milk of the long river” or even free ourselves for a moment. On the other hand, all... Read more

Sometimes students here are kinda picky. For example, they want consistency! In this last sesshin, I got caught speaking out of both sides of my mouth.  Our focus during the sesshin was this passage from Genjokoan the great “one doing!” lion’s roar of Soto Zen:  …When a person does practice-enlightenment in the buddha way, as the person realizes one dharma, the person permeates that dharma; as the person encountersone practice,the person practicesthat practice.  I summarized this with Katagiri Roshi’s frequent... Read more

I’m reflecting tonight on service following a conversation with a young man at work today who told me about his difficulty with his parents who have abandoned him, his lack of role models, and about his depression and hopelessness – all with unusual openness and sensitivity. I listened and was touched by his words but my words didn’t seem to find him.  I’m left wondering how I could have connected, what could have helped. Meanwhile, in my Zen life, sesshin... Read more

That’s really all I’ve got to say today. The photo was taken with G’s cell phone so you see what you see. Goodness, I love that doggie! But while I’m at it, another little item that has been up recently is about the upcoming “Dharma Encounter” on December 17 here at the wild-fox house and December 19 at the webinar (said portion not to be recorded, me thinks at present) with which we’re going to end both modes of the... Read more