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Friendship, Sickness, Aging and Death

Friendship, Sickness, Aging and Death is common to us all. Especially during this worldwide pandemic. Venerable Lao Huo Shakya offers us a personal and traditional Buddhist response to those who lose a loved one. The tradition asks us to write a letter – one for each week of the period of grief. Venerable Lao Hue’s generosity is a boon to us all.

Om Om Om Peace, Peace, Peace

Dogen’s Fifth Awareness: Unfailing Recollection

Dogen’s Fifth Awareness: Unfailing Recollection Unfailing: without error or fault; reliable or constant Recollection: action of remembering something Ah…but what are we to remember without error or fault? Our Social Security number? Our birth date?.… 

Work and the 4th Awareness of Dogen

As Freud said, “Love and work..work and love.. what else is there really?” He also was overwrought about death. “Why am I looking at Freud?” Because we are living in a heightened awareness of the… 

An Encouraging Word or Two

  Happy Birthday & A Feast Day    This past week we celebrated the day considered to be the birth day of Shakyamuni Buddha and the feast day of Julian of Norwich, a Christian mystic. Many… 

Quietude. Dogen’s 3rd Awareness

Quietude – a state of stillness; calmness, and quiet in a person or place
Really, quietude is not about noise or sound or silence. It’s not a drugged state either.
Some stories come to mind…

See, Seek Not

Often in spiritual life we find seekers rather than seers. It comes out of our misunderstanding of Reality. Below there are two stories that show us when we seek, we get worn out and feel as though we are a ‘failure.’ When this happens we have fallen into the common mental formation of “measuring and comprehending.” I know this may be a surprise. Most of us have been trained to seek liberation rather than see it. It’s time to see it.

Heave To —- by Lao Di Zhi Shakya

Heave-to is a sailing maneuver used to slow a boat down in heavy seas. It is done by adjusting the sails and dropping the ship’s anchor in a storm. This maneuver keeps the boat from traveling with the high winds.

Who is in Charge?

Spiritual life is a battlefield.  Over time, the battle worsens for the serious spiritual adept – threats along the path are more ominous. The path narrows. The dangers more perilous. Hazards multiply. The demons of…