by Abby Mushin Terris | Oct 14, 2023
When the Buddha taught that with awakening comes the cessation of grief and lamentation for the world, he was commenting on the world of India 3,000 years ago, marked by disease, old age and warfare. There was warfare, power struggles and hostilities then that led to...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Oct 7, 2023
Have you noticed how Zen practice brings back to us a sense of wonder, a sense of awe? Without an intentional practice of being in the undivided present, really all here, many little details of ordinary routines and responsibilities can blind our eye to wonder. Wonder...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Sep 30, 2023
Ordinarily when something exactly matches what we’ve wished for, we might say “Perfect!”, invoking the ordinary sense of “perfect.” And as such, when it’s perfect, it’s perfect, “yes, thank you, that’s just what I wanted!” But when it’s not, it’s imperfect, “I’m so...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Sep 23, 2023
If we don’t persist steadily over time in a daily practice, we lose our life – the wholeness, the vitality and ripening that zazen brings to the daily world. If you sit zazen, you know this for yourself. Each day we start anew streaming along in the present...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Sep 16, 2023
In his Receiving the Marrow by Bowing Dogen Zenji says, “…retreat from the world and make the Way your abode.” Ordinarily we might understand this as saying that practice is separate from the ordinary daily round. But Dogen is prompting us here to realize that the...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Sep 9, 2023
Living according to the Bodhisattva Vow to awaken for the benefit of all beings, is an endlessly demanding and mysterious undertaking. This Sunday we celebrate the Precept Ceremony, adding our support to those in the sangha who are entering into this mysterious...
