For the past six years, I have been building a beloved community. The community is the Mindfulness in Healing sangha which meets on Wednesday nights at the Pine Street Clinic in San Anselmo, California from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. This beloved community has changed a lot over the years. My original concept when it began […]
Stories
The Perfection Of Wisdom
January 11, 2015 by
You might think that all of the paramitas that we have studied so far lead to this one, the perfection of wisdom. While we have studied them in the order of generosity, ethics, patience, diligence, concentration, and now, wisdom, it is true that the can be studied and practiced in any order. Not only that, […]
The Second Arrow
January 3, 2015 by
The second arrow is a teaching from the time of the Buddha. The Buddha was giving a teaching to an assembly of his monks and nuns. He asked, “If a person is struck by an arrow, is it painful?” The monks and nuns replied, “Yes, it is.” The Buddha then asked, “If the person is […]
Compassion and Empathy
December 17, 2014 by
Roshi Joan Halifax is one of the most prominent female Zen masters of our day. We have known each other since we met at a retreat with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1997. This was during the summer of my first episode of muscle invasive bladder cancer. […]
The Gift of Justice
December 13, 2014 by
Mary Talbot wrote an interesting article on the gift of justice (No Justice, No Peace) on Tricycle.com. The article is about lawyers and judges who practice the dharma. Mary Talbot’s articles appear frequently in Tricycle Magazine. The current issue (Winter 2014) has an interesting article titled, “The Joy of No Sex” which I enjoyed very […]
Grief that Brings Us Back to Our True Home
December 10, 2014 by
This poem by Alice Walker appeared on Tricycle.com. She teaches us about the grief that brings us back to our true home. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh teaches the our true home is living in the present moment. This is accompanied by the insight of interbeing, which is the interconnectedness of all things and the […]
Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
December 6, 2014 by
In the words of Jesus, we are taught to love our neighbors as ourselves. These days, many people are so miserable that they don’t love themselves. Instead, they find someone else to blame and go off to create more misery for other people. The are caught in a self-destructive cycle of self-hate and don’t even […]
Refuge Beyond Time
November 30, 2014 by
A few days ago, we had an article about Huineng, the sixth patriarch of Zen. Tomorrow, we will have another. In these words of wisdom we hear from a later Chan (Zen) Master, Hongzhi, writing about the refuge beyond time. The refuge beyond time occurs “where the three times cease.” This is the place where […]
A Story About Gandhi
November 26, 2014 by
This is a story about Gandhi. It came to me a while ago from my dharma brother, Paul Tingen. Read the story then take a look at what I have learned about sugar and cancer. A mother came to Gandhi and asked him: ‘Dear Gandhi, can you please tell my son not to eat sugar […]
The Healing Power of Equanimity
November 22, 2014 by
These words of wisdom from Darlene Cohen, a long time teacher of Buddhism, on Tricycle.com demonstrate the healing power of equanimity. She learned this lesson the hard way, having to deal with the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. Unfortunately, she passed away in 2011 from ovarian cancer. No Goal | November 21, 2014 Just as a […]
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