How do you use this day?

by | Feb 22, 2021

I’ve been thinking a lot about freedom and slavery and who’s in control? Which is not exactly the same as, but is related to, who’s responsible. Who’s responsible for your life? Are you responsible for your life or is someone else? Zen practice is always pointing us...

A life of Zen as a life of wholeness.

by | Feb 12, 2021

     It is common in any center that trains in Zen practice to ask serious students over the course of their training years to assume each of the roles that help maintain the center. In addition to the roles for conducting formal practice in the zendo and...

We may begin Zen practice with …

by | Feb 5, 2021

We may begin Zen practice with a wish for bliss, a wish for peace. We do taste these in practice at times and more so in long practice, but we may also discover once we get into it, more deeply-seated grief, shame or fear. Feelings and mind states that have never been...

Wake up to Subjectivity

by | Jan 29, 2021

Coming across a quote that I share with you here from the journalist, Walter Lippman, clarified something for me about the practical importance of the precepts and may be of help to you too:      “The right to freedom of speech is no license to deceive, and...

First Thought

by | Jan 23, 2021

First Thought What is your first thought of the day? Practicing awareness from the very first moment is a challenge and one step, first step, of walking the path of the Way, right from the start. Have you noticed what you’re aware of when you open your eyes in the...

Letter from the San Francisco Zen Center

by | Jan 15, 2021

So much light comes through the practice of holding steady and looking deeply. Light that can help us at a time like this. Since we have been all aswirl in the current events and violence in our nation and held by the pandemic in an odd sort of Zen retreat, we can...