by Abby Mushin Terris | Jun 27, 2021
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 | Jun 17, 2021
A dharma brother who is walking the Pacific Crest Trail sent along a haiku-ish verse that I think is a wonderful koan . . . Of all the virtues only one opens all doors — what is this? What are the virtues referred to here? Do you...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Jun 11, 2021
The onset of warmer summer weather and the beginning emergence from our long COVID sequestration is a perfect time to join in a zazenkai. This is what we call a brief, one-day Zen retreat into silence and concentrated practice. We sit zazen, chant, engage in work...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Jun 5, 2021
Our Buddhist tradition unfolds a dharma about the Two Truths — the truth of life in samsara, a realm of desire and aversion, and the truth of liberation from samsara. In samsara we are all thinking, feeling, reacting, human beings guided by whether we like or dislike...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Jun 1, 2021
The Buddha encouraged us to meditate in the forest in the early morning. We are still (mostly) Earthbound creatures, folded into the rhythms of the Earth. But how often do you experience the sunrise, as a creature of the Earth, with nothing else to do but feel the air...
by Abby Mushin Terris | May 27, 2021
The Buddha encouraged us to meditate in the forest in the early morning. We are still (mostly) Earthbound creatures, folded into the rhythms of the Earth. But how often do you experience the sunrise, as a creature of the Earth, with nothing else to do but feel the air...
by Abby Mushin Terris | May 23, 2021
One of our sangha members recently brought up the term spiritual bypass, so it may be a good time to renew our awareness of what it points to in practice. We can fall into spiritual bypass when we turn away from our experience by thinking we “should” rise above it...
by Abby Mushin Terris | May 12, 2021
There’s a line from Affirming Faith in Mind that says, “When doubts arise, simply say, “not two.” What kind of doubts? Well, our lives bring us to many impasses, situations that feel impossible to find our way through. Emotions that are like a mountain in our way. We...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Apr 30, 2021
Living according to the Bodhisattva Vow, to awaken for the benefit of all beings, is an endlessly demanding and mysterious undertaking. We may understand the meaning of this vow in such a way that it seems out of proportion with our small, immediate life. When there...
by Abby Mushin Terris | Apr 24, 2021
“The self is made of non-self elements.” This is how Thich Nhat Hanh expresses the interdependence teaching of Buddhism. “The self is made of non-self elements.” This applies not only to the “small self”, but to the larger all-inclusive self experienced in the flow of...
