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Yao Xiang Shakya

Ulterior Defenses

People buried in their egos – victims of their own poisonous anger, lust, or ignorance – find release only when they can spew that venom onto others. It’s the only catharsis they get. We hear them on moonless nights, stalking the land, targeting anyone within spitting range.

To avoid the mess during these Nights of the Living Dead, the rest of us have to find a Refuge… and wait for sunrise. It helps to understand – if not the source of their venom – at least the display of it. Sometimes we encounter it “in kind” and sometimes “in degree.”

It is when we do take time to reflect upon moral issues that we need to consider the motivation of those who so vehemently question other people’s morality – and this includes our own outcries as well. Ming Zhen covers a lot of ground — stay with her — the last bit is worth the effort.

Indeed, Everything Comes to Awaken Us!

The current situation in the nation of separating children from their parents and the following turn around is a case in point. It was a misstep. A mistake. A failure. But the President seemed unable to admit any misstep. Any mistake. Any failure. Instead, he made it into a photo opportunity; a show of words of compassion by signing an executive order to stop a policy that he instituted. On the footsteps of the turn around of the policy he declares a dictum to the Attorney General to file legal proceedings in California to alter the longstanding 1980’s Flores settlement that protects unaccompanied minors (children) crossing the border.

No Sides! No Sides! —- FREE E-BOOK —-

a contentious time when everything seems unreliable where everything is up for grabs Ming Zhen Shakya offers us an opportunity to practice the pull for this and the push for that. She goads us, lures us, all the time getting ready to pull the rug out from under our beliefs and opinions. At the edge of thinking something is right or wrong she goes beyond and leaves us up in the air….uncomfortable, in the lap of the Zen Buddhism. FREE E- BOOK

Two Leashes: Narcissism or Humility

Imagine entering every moment, every encounter with what comes into your life with a realization of not only not striving, not knowing but with the attitude of being ready and flowing out below the radar. In this essay, Fashi Lao Yue looks at the definition of humility from a number of angles and suggests humility is a force that strikes us — nothing to be toyed with — but requires a self-exam…..

Where Suffering Cooks UP

Although Pandora’s box was really a jar, when she, who was made of clay, took off the the lid out came all the evils and troubles for the world. We do the same thing. When we open the My, Me, Mine, I, letting the ego escape from the Pot we let all our troubles out. This pot is our very own version of a Pandora’s box.

In the Bardo: Uncertainty as Refuge

Brilliant! Both the novel, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders and this spiritual illumination of his work by Getsu San Ku Shin. “A bardo is the transitional space between death and re-birth, filled with spiritual tasks and meaning. Bardos arise within our lives, when a mind state of relative clarity disintegrates, and we are thrown, sometimes momentarily, sometimes for years…. We may enter a bardo when we lose a job, move to a new city, have a baby.  9-11 was a bardo for many of us….those times when the printer breaks down, or a major project in which we have been immersed is over. Getsu San Ku Shin helps us navigate this realm with clarity. Well-worth a read, maybe even two or three….

Think Differently!

Think Differently!
There is Nothing in the World and  Everything All at Once
Nothing is separated as the jet rolls across the sky and the “I” is at once everything hearing its own roar. The sound comes but where is the ear that heard and what is heard?

A Deeper Embrace

Are you in a spiritual crisis?
Don’t forget the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS….a monk in training reminds us of the power of these teachings.

On Shi Ke Two Minds in Harmony

An inspiring elucidation of two masterpiece’s by Shi Ke. Ming Zhen helps us see beyond the obvious in Master Shi Ke’s figure painting into the spiritual magnificence of Shi Ke’s depiction of the Nirvanic Void, A must read!