I began this year every morning saying a prayer I wrote asking for liberation, whatever it takes. When people asked me what I meant by liberation, I said I wanted to release anything and everything that blocked my awareness and experience of union with the divine. I recommitted myself to my practice of allowing, trusting, …
Many of us have had the experience of hearing our name called as a teacher or group leader goes down the list. The typical response is usually “Here!” or “Present!” Sometimes this is accompanied by a raised hand to help identify ourselves. The person calling the roll is not asking anything of us at that …
The journey from teaching about love to allowing myself to be loved proved much longer than I realised. ~Henri Nouwen As a spiritual practice, “allowing” is often described as an acceptance of what is. We sometimes think of this acceptance of reality as not struggling against something that we don’t like. But we overlook the …
My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened. ~Michel de Montaigne I must be getting old. Several people in the last year have asked me to offer some wisdom or insight gained over decades of living. It has proven more challenging than I might have anticipated. Indeed, the more I …
I was practicing with some taiji buddies yesterday, and we got to talking about the custom of bowing in martial arts. Students and teachers bow, sparring partners bow, everyone bows when entering or leaving the practice area. Our discussion expanded to other bowing customs. Some people bow in greeting or farewell, children bow to elders, …
If a problem has a solution, there’s no need to worry. If a problem doesn’t have a solution, there’s no need to worry. ~The Dalai Lama Sometimes I get caught up in my thoughts. The thoughts that often hook my attention are fretful, anxious, impatient thoughts. Maybe I’m worried about kids or grandkids, or irritated …
Years ago I attended a Fourth of July party at the US ambassador’s residence in Paris. Before you start making assumptions, let me clarify that I did not warrant an invitation to this shindig; I was a tagalong guest of someone who did. So there I was in the midst of diplomats, political and economic …
Most of us have heard the saying that it takes a village to raise a child. After today, I’m pretty sure that all of us need a village, maybe not to raise each other, but to care for each other. The beginning of this story is that my zippered wallet containing my money, credit cards, …
In the last post, I wrote about the idea of having a “burden bowl,” where we can lay our burdens down and be free of them forever, or at least until we decide to pick them up again. I left a lot of burdens behind on New Year’s Eve. I wanted to walk into the …
When our contemplation group used to meet in person, I sometimes placed a bowl by the door. As we settled in, I invited people to place in the bowl anything that was weighing them down, distracting them, keeping them from being fully present – worries, anxiety, should’s, judgments, have to’s, and so on. “Don’t worry,” …
No one tells you There is a sadness When all is left behind Although shed willingly Touch lingers A last caress Of what was once a treasure There is no going back Nor would you want to Yet there were moments When happiness kissed your lips And longing stirred your soul When the dream sang …
As a person who often advocates “practice,” I’ve been exploring what it means to practice something. We might have lots of practices. I practice martial arts, for example. Some of us practice mindfulness, meditation, yoga, loving-kindness, and more. When we have an intention to cultivate or develop a skill or a habit, we devote time …
Some of you are familiar with the Zen story of the university professor who went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor pontificated about Zen, holding himself forth as an expert on the topic. The master poured the visitor’s cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The …
This chapter starts with a description of a small country with few people. They live simply and in harmony with nature. (This chapter could have been the model for the back to the land movement of my younger years. Reading it brought back wonderful memories of living in a shack in the mountains of Montana!) …
Under heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water Yet nothing is better for overcoming what is hard and stiff As we approach the end of the Tao Te Ching’s 81 chapters, the text returns to the theme of water. Water is the most common metaphor for the energy of Tao. It flows …
For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12 When we read this verse, we might yearn for that time of seeing face to face, when all things become clear and we see things as they really are. We don’t often pause to wonder if we will like …
Summer is the season of pure yang energy. Its element is fire. Its organ is the heart. Yang energy is active, hot, rising, powerful. When someone is wildly successful, driving forward, dominating the competition, unstoppable, we might say, “Wow, she’s on fire!” Our western culture highly values yang energy. Idle hands do the devil’s work, …
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. ~C. S. Lewis As the tectonic plates of culture alternately drift further apart and then crash into each other with increasing violence, I am reminded of blog posts of the past, written in times of heart pain …
You think you know yourself until things start happening, until you lose the insulation of normality. ~Robert Wilson The photo above shows a label on the side of a jigsaw puzzle box. I was immediately intrigued. “Specification colors …
When people do not fear powerGreat power appearsThese first two lines have been translated and interpreted so many ways, it’s difficult to find any footing in a particular meaning. Like many passages in the Tao Te Ching which seem to address governance, this couplet could refer to actual political government, and could also refer to …
