Resources for BCAN

These resources are for the 2022 BCAN summit meeting attendees to provide information that was offered in a concise and convenient place for future reference. Most of the major ideas from the presentation on Mindfulness In Healing are right in this article with links and referrals to other documents and teachings. These are provided as […]

The Power of Presence

The power of presence was brought home to me this year as I had one of the most severe heath years of my life. I would up in the hospital because of kidney failure due to blockage arising out of bladder cancer. Nephrostomy tubes were placed in my kidneys to relive the pressure and I […]

My Life with Thay

My life with Thay (Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh) began in a small church in Berkeley, California in 1984. By some strange coincidence, I happened to sit next to him is the second row before he was introduced to speak. I became a solo practitioner in Thay’s tradition on that day. I was shy and […]

Healing with the Seven Principles of Mindfulness

Seven Principles of Mindfulness in Healing The Seven Principles of Mindfulness in Healing have been formulated over the past 38 years – ever since my son was stricken with metastatic kidney cancer at the age of seven. Up until now, they have been implicit in everything I did for my son and for myself. When […]

10 Things You Need to Know About Breast Cancer

I came across this article on 10 things you need to know about breast cancer. Having been living with bladder cancer for almost 18 years now, I have heard about most of these before. In fact, they apply almost unchanged to just about any form of cancer. Just last week, I was notified that there […]

Don’t Freak Out About Dying

I first met Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in 1972 at the Lama Foundation near Taos, New Mexico. I was there with my ex-wife and son and Zalman also had a young son. The two boys ran around the compound and had a lot of fun. Alan Ginsberg was also there I think with Bhagwan Das. It […]

Walking Meditation For Healing

These words of wisdom come form Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, known as Thay by his followers. One of the central teachings of Thay and the practices in the Plum Village tradition is walking meditation. I remember vividly the experience I had on my first retreat with Thay in 1997. After the morning dharma talk, […]

3 Minute Cancer Cure

This is the week of Thanksgiving and we are all thinking about what we are grateful for. If you live in the United States, you probably had a humongous meal on Thursday and are wondering why you still feel stuffed. As long as you are still thinking about gratitude, what are you most grateful for? […]

What Happened To Medical Choice?

When I had bladder cancer more than sixteen years ago, I was told that the “gold standard” of medical treatment for this type of cancer was radical cystectomy.  This is a surgical procedure that removes the cancerous bladder and replaces it with an artificial bladder. One of the surgeons I consulted said, “It’s a piece […]

Meditation Helps Cure Cancer

The January Newsletter from Break the Norms has an article by Sarah Anne Stewart about how meditation helped a father cure cancer. This story is similar to mine in many ways. I had bladder cancer 16 years ago. During one of my meditation sessions, I came up with the following poem: Lying still, Breathing in, breathing […]