by Abby Mushin Terris | Apr 3, 2022
In this spring season, all that died away and went back to earth last fall is now reborn as spring’s garden. What was returned to the Earth was received, digested and carries on in emerging, new life. In this way there is no end to possibility. Dying, leaping,...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Mar 27, 2022
As all the world around us in the valley buds and flowers, we see before our very eyes a delightful manifestation of pure dana, generosity. With nothing withheld and nothing to gain but sunshine, rainwater, air and the full unfolding function of beauty, the tulips...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Mar 20, 2022
The first chapter of the Tao Te Ching begins, The Way that can be spoken is not the eternal Way. Then what IS the eternal way? This is the question that we bring to practice each day, each moment, actually. A way that neither begins nor ends and cannot be taught and...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Mar 11, 2022
Zen Master Takuan taught, “Not attaching the mind anywhere at all is the main matter, what really counts.” He’s cautioning us here not to get caught up in any one impression, any one interpretation, any one spot, but to keep the mind open, aware, move with wonder and...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Mar 10, 2022
As we work, we’re tending the dust and disarray of ordinary life – unfinished, needing our full attention. We tend the living body of our home, whether that’s where we live, our office, our community, our lab, studio, garden – all the places that tend us in their own...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Feb 28, 2022
With the approach of our sesshin on the Bodhisattva precepts, I am reflecting on the phrases that cap the ceremony, Respect the buddha. Unfold the Dharma. Nourish the sangha. Even before having much of a sense of what these phrases mean, we are practicing with them...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Oct 22, 2021
There’s a practice that Chozen Roshi used to assign during the summer Grasses and Trees sesshins: to walk out in the fields and sit down by a flower, a blade of grass or perhaps a tree branch or down by the stream. And open all the sense gates. Listen. Really.. . . ....
by Abby Mushin Terris | Oct 9, 2021
In addition to meditation and ethical precepts, our spiritual tradition includes study. As we study the full Sunday’s chanting service, we learn about the teachings, as well as the teaching lineage that we inherit in this sangha. You notice that we chant in English,...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Aug 9, 2021
Some of you have mentioned that you’ve let go of the habit of daily meditation this summer and realize how busy your mind has become as you attempt to re-up zazen again. This experience is familiar to anyone who’s been sitting for any length of time. And the antidote...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Aug 5, 2021
The heart of living according to Buddha’s teachings is guided by the Buddhist Precepts for a Healthy Life. They are both ordinary and profound, and are reliable guides for the myriad choices of how to speak and act each day. There is no end to these precepts as we...
