The Vows of Kishitigharba (Jizo) Bodhisattva

To awaken we must awaken with the world. With this teacup in your hands, with this unresolved decision, with this aging body. In relationship with all things we practice, grow, learn, fall short, and try again… The Vows of Kishitigharba (Jizo) Bodhisattva: Infused by...

Faith

You don’t have to have it all figured out. Well, maybe the next few steps. Maybe the plan for today, maybe even the plan for next year. But when it just plain looks like things are going to turn out badly, it’s time to throw out the future and just put one foot in...

What Is Practice?

Every weekday morning after our morning zazen the small group of us have tea around the kitchen table at the Zen center. The guiding teacher (usually Soten) offers a prompt for discussion. This past Monday I offered the prompt, “If you were to substitute another...

Meeting Your Life

From Shinei… How do you meet your life? This life right now? Are you meeting it as a task to be accomplished? A problem to fix? As an opponent to brace yourself against? Right now, you have a choice. Take a deep breath, relax the body and drop all notions of...

The Light of Dawn

You can hear the day’s activity start up in the dark of mid-winter dawn, even before the dim light of the emerging day swells slowly in the cloud-choked sky. This moment on Earth, filled with the clouds of war, flood, and growing violence brings us all to the...