With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Temple Beth El.  I teach three classes in a row: Jewish Spirituality, Jewish History, and Advanced Jewish Spirituality.  By the end of the day I am swimming in Judaism. Not a bad thing, really. but cause for a period of rest.  I was reading a book by Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi the other day and he presented me with a wonderful tool. He calls it "making a ten minute Shabbot (S...

With palms together,Good Morning Everyone, If you want to live an authentic life, you must be willing to live completely.  This means living with your mind, heart, body, and environment so thoroughly integrated that there is only one. By environment, I include Big Mind, the Absolute, i.e., God. In Judaism we practice Hitbodedut in order to experience Ruach HaKodesh, the spirit of God, which, like Big Mind, is everything.  In order to experience this we must open our...

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Waking up in the morning, I am aware of just how precious a new day is: it should not be taken for granted.

 

We can chose to just get through it, doing what we do to take care of ourselves.  We can chose to do something for the world, to make it a better place . We can chose to live as if each moment were a blessing in itself.  

 

So, what will I do with this day?  What will you do wi...

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

This morning I plan to go for a run of sorts with my friend, Katie.  It will be a desert trail run and I'm looking forward to it.  I have not been training as hard as I should of late, so maybe today I'll be able to kick it a bit. Maybe a few hill repeats are in order.

 

Consistency is vital. Habit energy is the strongest sort of human energy, I think. Like the proverbial ball rolling is hard to stop, so too, its ha...

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

On this Passover, a note on liberation:

 

There is an old joke about the Buddhist monk who says to the hot dog vendor, "Make me one with everything!"

 

We smile and dismiss the phrase as ubiquitous pablum.  

 

To be one with something means being without self and being without self is more than counter-intuitive, it seems impossible. Yet, we are without self everyday.  When we ride a ...

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

My dreams are worrisome.  I keep dreaming of Zen services, chanting sutras, inviting bells to ring, gracefully offering incense, and I wake. It has been several months now since I left the Zen Center.  I feel as though something is slipping away. Perhaps this separation is an opening of my hand of thought.  Perhaps I am fading away. Perhaps my dreams are a closing of that hand, grasping for what was. Better to let it go. ...

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

This morning's air is delicious!  Cool, fresh, and still. I know that by this afternoon it will turn into the winds common in our spring here in New Mexico. For now, in this moment, though, it is still.

 

One of the things I so appreciate about morning is its stillness.  I hear some birds singing along with the occasional coo and hoot of desert birds. Its a wonderful thing.  Most of our neighbors are retired an...

 With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,  According to Hasidism, the very qualities which makeus what we are constitute our special approach to God andour potential use for Him. There is nothing so crass or basethat it cannot become material for hallowing. “The profane,”for Hasidism, “is only a designation for the not-yet-hallowed.”Hallowing transforms the “evil urges” by confronting themwith holiness and making them responsible toward wh...

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

On the Zen Living list, we have been discussing emotions, particularly anger, and there have been some particularly good comments made about it.  One sangha member suggests Zen teaches that "true stillness is to be found only in action".  I like that perspective and see its truth. It reminds us of the third pure precept, to bring about good for all beings.

 

Yet, Zen is, in a sense,  really more about the ...

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Last night was wonderful.  We had the distinct pleasure of attending the "Red & Black Ball" introducing the Pam American Dance Institute, an aspect of the New Mexico State University's Dance Department to the Las Cruces community. Throughout this elegant evening we were treated to hors d'oeuvres, drinks, a wonderful dinner and delightful dance performances, as well as live music and dancing with Bob Burns and the Mike Cara...

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

The morning air is a little chilly.  I did my evening practice period with my home zendo window open and as I entered the room this morning, it was pretty nippy in there.  I have a penchant for fresh air, I think, and this gets me into trouble at times.  I almost always would rather have a window open than closed and really dislike air conditioning systems as they require closed windows.

 

There is something ex...

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

It is a beautiful morning here in southern New Mexico.  I am always appreciative of the sun's light and our deep blue skies.  On the way home from Memphis Tuesday I noticed I was beginning to feel under the weather, yesterday a full blown cold emerged and today I feel a bit cloudy with the symptomatic treatments of aspirin and benadryl.  I'm also taking Zicam and drinking plenty of water.  In spite of this I did go t...

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

We are in a chilly, overcast Memphis. I forgot just how cold damp air can feel. So, now I'm reminded and it can go away anytime!

This morning's mail brought up a few things for me. It seems we all like to learn and one of the ways we learn is by reading. Some of us read to gain a certain feeling, create an internal environment such as the warm, fuzzy sort of thing we get from reading Thich Nhat Hanh.

Some of us read to get something hopeful, ...

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Zen is the practice of living your actual life as it actually is.  Many of us live our life as if we think it should be something else,  better: more money, more love, more peace. But this is not the Zen way.

 

In an effort to live the Zen way, though, we think we should know what this "Way" is, so we pick up a book and read, learning about what others say the Zen way is.  We think we are inadequate to kno...

With palms together,Good Morning Everyone, We returned from the Refuge yesterday afternoon after a wonderful two days of retreat. During this time I studied Master Dogen's Eihei Shingi, a collection of standards for the monastery (which includes Tenzo Kyokun, his Instructions for the Cook), as well as a rather large book on the history of the Jews. I noticed both groups sought methods for creating purity, by which it seems they meant somewhat different things i...