The other morning, while practicing meditation, I noticed a moment free from the constant demands of my work, travel, and incessant mind-chatter, the pain body. In that moment I heard — among the traffic noises, and sirens…. the day waking … Continue reading →

Today our group explored roadblocks to Compassionate Presence. “….Compassion, sometimes spoken of as the “heart’s quivering” is the natural and intelligent response of our Being to the presence of suffering.” “A reasonable question to ask is….if compassion arises in response … Continue reading →

So enjoying today’s small group calls with our Meditation & Inquiry sangha. We were exploring the value of a “hands off relationship” in meditation practice. When we relax our efforting we see that awareness knows through the immediacy of sensing, … Continue reading →

Sweet conversation with Ram Dass today exploring the many ways love shows up in the dying process. Love is the holding that enables us to trust and move beyond previous limitations. Love as the aspect of total receptivity that allows … Continue reading →

This mornings meditation instruction begins with a careful loving attention to the breath. Breathing is a non-conceptual process, a present time process, like a symphony that can be experienced directly without a need for thought. A living process of constant … Continue reading →

This evening we began to bring death into the meditation hall and explored its clarifying power. I find that when I keep death close at hand….I say I love you more often. I take myself a little less seriously and … Continue reading →

December 4th was the anniversary of Suzuki Roshi’s death. One of my favorite stories of great zen master centers on his diagnosis. At first it was thought that he had hepatitis. Concerned about contagion his food was prepared separately and … Continue reading →

Ran into my friend Lew the other day. He is a longtime Buddhist practitioner who sometimes teaches at the Metta Institute. He shared a short teaching with me which helped in a conversation I had with an injured friend. “Without … Continue reading →

Dharma talk on mindfulness of the body….John O’Donahue the wild Irish poet wrote, “We need to come home to the temple of our senses. Our bodies know they belong…it is our minds that make us homeless.” When we say “just … Continue reading →

Writing to a friend this morning about ordinariness I said, “I am in awe not of our capacity to expand but of our ability to shrink the vastness of who we are into such a small identity.”