Every Day Zen
This week’s #LongerView looks at failure. I’m still “sitting” through the experience so I may be here on the swinging bench for a few days this week. Maybe not. I am no longer on deadline. When things fall apart--as Pema Chödrön teaches me repeatedly--is yet another opportunity to define the indestructible. As I say in... Continue Reading →
Today’s #LongerView looks into the caverns of the heart in “No Ground Beneath My Feet.” Mostly, it considers letting go from the perspective that the action has already occurred. It is in the acceptance that we struggle but need we? I’m just not so sure about that anymore. I read your thoughtful comments carefully. If... Continue Reading →
In meditation, Pema Chödrön advises that I look around--find out what is happening--so, I do. My mind evens out. A breeze of equanimity continues to clear my brain fog; when necessary, it takes a broom to the cobwebs. This airing out of thought allows me to be in the moment, my only real frame of... Continue Reading →
I can suffer or I can sit in chaos. I choose chaos. It’s where I take my seat in Zen while the world whirrs. In some moment, I will be swept up. There’s no immunity nor should there be. Life is an experience. The seat of Zen keeps me in the moment I have and... Continue Reading →
A lot of people turn away from activism because who can save the world, anyway? Maybe the better question is who would even want to try? I’m not sure activism has ever been about saving anyone or anything. What seems more likely is that effecting change is equated with saving or being saved, especially in... Continue Reading →
We characterize our experiences as love, courage, fear, emptiness, or mindfulness. The labels fit until they no longer do. And then the bottom falls out. Boundaries are breached, chaos ensues. We are in a free fall, groundless, and that is frightening. And isn’t that what impermanence is? Isn’t that being alive? Our bodies are flesh... Continue Reading →
Light seems to shine only in slivers these days but there is enough to wend my way through “the big squeeze” as Pema Chödrön calls it. We’ve all been between a rock and a hard spot, “caught with both the ‘upliftedness’ of our ideas and the rawness of what’s happening in front of our eyes.”... Continue Reading →
Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity. Pema Chödrön Equanimity is a two-way street. We must face our fears; in... Continue Reading →
I woke up weary. It happens. If I’m not mindful, the day will get lost in “if only”--escape scenarios--unsettled energy, swirling first in one direction then another, a day of chase. I am reminded of Pema Chodron’s observation regarding Buddhist teachings: they keep telling us we “don’t have a lot of time to waste.” That... Continue Reading →
