Zen Wisdom for Your Everyday Life

Most of our lives are spent in disappointment. We complain about everything, try to turn things to our liking, constantly. But even if we succeed, something else arises to disappoint us again. The gr…

Especially on holidays, memories of past years return strongly, including remembering those who are gone. It’s easy to compare one year to another, our lives with others, and wish we were somewhere e…

How do we heal the inner confusion, distraction, and conflict we live with? In Zen practice the answer is startlingly simple. Not only do we pay radical and loving attention to whatever appears in ou…

We all strive to be better and better to live up to an ideal or image of how we should be, or what we want in the moment. When conditions change, and we cannot achieve it, we fight what is present, r…

t's so easy to react to the endless changes we go through day by day. Some changes are wonderful, others distressing. When something comes along that we don't like, we'll fight it to fiercely, trying…

We think that Zen practice is mysterious and difficult, requires that we sit still for hours and become more and more enlightened. But zazen is only part of it. The very heart of Zen is to "Pick up c…

Most of our lives we are searching for something we haven't quite found. The search goes on endlessly, and others tell us, "Not Yet", or "Keep Searching," - one day you'll make it. Yet, seated on a d…

We all long to be close to someone we care about, belong to a group of place of meaning. An endless search goes on in our lives to be welcomed and invited in. To find the person, teaching or place wh…

It's easy to get caught in the whirl of changing conditions, one minute we're praised, the next blamed. We receive wonderful gifts and then they're taken away. But a wonderful teaching from the great…

We are all so incredibly impatient to get where we’re headed, (even though we have no idea what is waiting for us there). Our days, actions and attention are deeply focused upon where we’re headed.  …

We all search for answers relentlessly, hoping to be guided about what our problem means, how to procede, what's right or wrong to do.There's no end to the instruction we look for. And yet, none of t…

When we're hungry and go into a restaurant, no matter how long we read the menu, it does not fill us up. We must order the food, eat it and be satisfied. Same with our lives, just thinking  about lif…

It's easy to go over the same inscrutable problem or question, again and again. Doesn't seem to have an answer. These are called koans. Using our logical mind, we create plans, strategies and hopes t…

These days there is so much confusion and what is true and real. Yet the more we think and dwell upon it, the more confused we can become. There is another way to find our direction and live clearly …

We love what is beautiful and reject what is ugly, not realizing that all appearances are flashes across the sky of our lives. But, instead of grappling with what happens, trying to change and fix it…

Night and day we strive for perfection, fear making a mistake or doing something wrong. These fears can freeze us in our tracks, stop us from moving forward and living a fulfilled life. But Zen pract…

All summer long, coming and going. All our lives long, coming and going, but what is our ultimate destination? What do we hope to find when we get there, and what actions will be beneficial as we tra…

There are so many ways we get trapped in life, take the bait. We all want so much from others, and when we give there's always the thought of what will come back. This craving to get something in ret…

We all want to do what we feel is important and meaningful, will make our life worthwhile. Along with goals of all kinds, we have endless to do lists. But no matter what we achieve,  it is never enou…

We all cling to something, hoping it will make us feel safe and secure. But the opposite is true, the more we cling, the more we crush whatever is in our hands. And holding on never stops the endless…