A Year of Zen
Daily (well, almost!) writing prompts, exercises, inspiration and commentary by Zen teacher Bonnie Myotai Treace. Author of A Year of Zen (pub October 2020), as well as many other books and articles, Sensei offers brief daily encouragement to practice one’s life with wisdom, compassion and creativity.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 6 minutes
- Episodes
- 46
- Years Active
- 2020
Let’s Get Physical: Being a Body that Awakens
Episode 26: Bonnie Myotai takes up the gifts and frustrations of our being physical beings. How does spiritual practice invite coherence and peace?
00:08:08 |
Mon 14 Sep 2020
Stopping Time
Bonnie Myotai shares an arrow to the heart, a teaching on time, art and excellence. Includes a writing prompt for September 12.
00:03:29 |
Sat 12 Sep 2020
Gassho: Two Being Realized as One
In Episode 24, Bonnie Myotai reflects on how tragedy can bring us back to what is really important. 9/11 in NYC remembered, 19 years later.
00:06:54 |
Fri 11 Sep 2020
Meeting Eyes: Tenderness in Practice
In Episode 23 of A Year of Zen, we are introduced to “dokusan,” meeting intimately, and asked to bring compassion to the confusion that often makes us look away.
00:05:34 |
Thu 10 Sep 2020
Circle Back
In Episode 22, Bonnie Myotai summons her mom, and the spiritual practice of a cup of tea. (And also says it is Friday, when alas, it is Tuesday...!)
00:05:16 |
Tue 08 Sep 2020
Your Real Work
Episode 21, given on Labor Day, asks that we look beyond our jobs into our real work. How might Zen practice enable not being so subject to the vulnerabilities of work and engage what we’re really he…
00:03:12 |
Mon 07 Sep 2020
What to Say When: Right Speech
In episode 20 of A Year of Zen, Myotai Sensei introduces the Five Considerations that the Buddha taught to help discern what to say when...and when to stay silent.
00:08:37 |
Sat 05 Sep 2020
Autumn: Writing with Spent Leaves
Myotai Sensei offers a reflection on the vulnerabilities and beauty of Autumn, and a writing/contemplation on letting go, losing center, and coming home.
00:07:44 |
Thu 03 Sep 2020
What You Notice
In Episode 18 of A Year of Zen, Bonnie Myotai offers a teaching of the Buddha, and a writing/reflection on how we are nourished by noticing.
00:03:13 |
Wed 02 Sep 2020
Complete Enjoyment: A Zen Writing Practice
In Episode 17, Bonnie Myotai asks that we consider the blank page (and the meditation hall) as both the biggest deal, and no big deal. Includes a writing/contemplation exercise on enjoyment, childhoo…
00:06:11 |
Mon 31 Aug 2020
Solitude: Seeing the Wholeness
In episode 16 of A Year of Zen, Bonnie Myotai offers a contemplation on solitude, reads a bit of Rilke, and proposes these are holy days.
00:04:55 |
Sat 29 Aug 2020
Finding Our Belonging
Bonnie Myotai offers a meditation on old age, sickness, death ...and finding where we truly belong.
00:07:17 |
Sat 29 Aug 2020
Emotions and Karma: Making a Big Space
Bonnie Myotai offers a reflection on how a daily practice of quieting the mind helps when emotional storms blow though. Followed by a writing/contemplation prompt.
00:06:05 |
Thu 27 Aug 2020
Being Perfect: Student Mind
In Episode 13 of A Year of Zen, Bonnie Myotai asks that we consider our experiences of being a student, whether of Zen or any other thing, and if we've ever felt "lesser than" because a teacher sets…
00:02:04 |
Wed 26 Aug 2020
The Ship is Going Down: Now It’s Up to You
In episode 12 of A Year of Zen, Sensei reminds us that though we are not alone there is a solitary discernment to make as “the ship goes down.”
00:05:23 |
Mon 24 Aug 2020
Attention to Sky not Weather
Sensei invites a bigger context, a shift in our attention from passing weather to the sky itself. Writing and/or contemplation prompt for Sunday, August 23,2020.
00:02:18 |
Sun 23 Aug 2020
Not Being Special: Finding Your Frog
A fun Saturday writing and practice prompt, with Myotai and Suzuki Roshi, sleeping spouses and frogs.
00:06:30 |
Sat 22 Aug 2020
The Worm of Happiness is Here
What if life isn’t actually hostile? What if you have everything you need to be content? Bonnie Myotai reads from Colin Wilson’s “Poetry and Mysticism,” offers a reflection and writing prompt.
00:05:39 |
Fri 21 Aug 2020
Summer Dewdrops: Waking Up
Write or just contemplate with Sensei Bonnie Myotai, as she points to the true nature of summer, and gives a writing prompt to bring it home.
00:04:20 |
Wed 19 Aug 2020
Letting Go of Pain
A bit of Emerson at the end of a hard day, and a writing prompt to encourage acknowledging and letting go.
00:03:12 |
Wed 19 Aug 2020
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