by Abby Mushin Terris | Jun 3, 2023
I dreamed that I woke up and all excitation was gone. And in its place was a wonderful silence. What is found at the seam of silence and speech? Is there anything behind the curtain? We look into this in zazen. What happens to how you perceive when you truly open into...
by Abby Mushin Terris | May 27, 2023
Our moment to moment lives are made up of the little things, unfolding along as we go. When we are relaxed and at peace with ourselves, the little things get the attention that they need. Cooking a meal, listening to a child, bathing the dog, greeting an aged neighbor...
by Abby Mushin Terris | May 20, 2023
Sitting on the altar in front of the back zendo windows is a brightly tessellated Buddha that you may not have noticed. To Buddha’s left on that altar is Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Great Wisdom, who sits on a lion and holds a sword that cuts through delusion. On...
by Abby Mushin Terris | May 6, 2023
When our happiness is entirely dependent on conditions, we experience the suffering that Mother Teresa described as a poverty of spirituality. In our Buddhist spiritual tradition, we examine how our lives are shaped by causes and conditions. Causes and conditions...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Apr 30, 2023
When we come to Dharma with our ordinary mind, we tend to be a language fundamentalist. We take the words of the teachings to be real and concrete, forgetting that they are intended to turn us back in the direction of our own intimate, all-embracing embodiment right...
