Meditation

Loss is Gain

Sawaki Kodo Roshi, a 20th century Japanese Zen Master, talked about Zen as the “Study of loss.”  What I like about this is how unappealing this sounds on the surface.  In a culture that values unending growth and gain, who wants to study about loss?  Kodo Roshi, in fact, says in Japanese, “Son wa toku, toku wa son” =  “Loss is gain and gain is loss.”

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Saving All Sentient Beings without Becoming a Superhero

I grew up watching TV shows and movies that portrayed superheroes like Luke Skywalker and Yoda defeating supervillains like Darth Vader.  I’m still attracted to these kinds of movies, but I also know that we don’t need to be super-human, saintly, or even to become a Buddha to be of service to others or to save the world.

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Have No Designs

Improvement or “transformation” modes of practice have their merit and may be viable for us in some ways and at some times.  I genuinely respect these approaches.  However, Soto Zen meditation is different from other schools of Buddhism, Hinduism and secular meditation in an important respect.

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What is Meditation?

It can be helpful to remember why we came to meditation in the first place.  For many of us, anxiety and stress are big issues. 

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Enjoy Your Practice

Racing is what I did for a living. I raced to get to the swimming pool. I raced in the water. I raced to get my homework finished. I raced against my classmates for the best grade. When I sat down to rest, my thoughts raced. I watched fast paced movies, gorging on violence, sex, bodies crashing into each other, and the noise of gunfire. None of this was real, but it was a reflection of the reality of some parts of our world, certainly parts of my own mind, and so it felt real, and I felt connected to others through that “tele – vision.” Yet like Prince Siddhartha prior to seeing the four sights (a sick man, a senile man, a corpse and a sage), I knew there was something missing.

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Normality on Retreat

Guest Blog by sangha member, Keith Knapp

Logically and with all certainty the online dictionary defines normal as “…conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern: characterized by that which is considered usual, typical, and routine.”

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Pleasure and Pain

What’s the way out of the pleasure/pain torment we find ourselves constantly navigating? Buddha suggests not just meditation.

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Identify Your Cows

What or who prevents us from experiencing real inner freedom? Is it our stuff, our relationships, our own perceptions, or perhaps a combination? Daishin shares his own wrestling with these questions.

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A Dharma Doorway

Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them. Children have been by far my best teachers.  Jesus said that if we can learn to have

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Where is my mind?

In our culture there is a major split between mind and body.  Generally speaking, the body gets treated one way and the mind another.  We

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