Christian Dillo on a contemporary Zen approach to awakening and what meaningful transformation actually looks like.
Tag: Suffering
Jane Hirshfield – All The Difficult Hours and Minutes
In Hirshfield's poem, calamity turns to calmness when things turn into themselves, a principle that goes to the heart of transformative practice.
Everything is Made of Mind: Norman Fischer on the Playing-Out of Impermanence and Eternity
"Life is the wind. Life is the water. As long as life appears as phenomena there will be the stirrings of delusion. Delusion is in fact the movement, the stirring, of awakening." - Norman Fischer In this 2019 essay featured in his new book, When You Greet Me, I Bow, Zen teacher and poet, Norman… Continue reading Everything is Made of Mind: Norman Fischer on the Playing-Out of Impermanence and Eternity
Buddhism’s Most Basic Teaching: Everything Changes
Shunryu Suzuki on our inability to accept the truth that we and everything around us are in a state of constant flux.
Issa – This Dewdrop World
Written shortly after the death of his daughter, Issa's haiku touches deeply on the heart of the human condition.
The Culture of Healing: Louise Glück on Art’s Restorative Power
Louise Glück's essay condemns current trends of pathological optimism, as well as the tendency towards 'the pornography of scars.'
The Absolute Nature of Suffering
Zadie Smith asks whether the discourse about privilege still applies in the same way when we consider the suffering of individuals.
Staying With the ‘Ouch’ – Tara Brach
Why is self-acceptance so hard and self-criticism so deeply wired in us? Psychologist and teacher of meditation Tara Brach reminds us that self-love is one of the most neglected areas of our psychic landscapes.
Wandering in the Desert: This is our Life
Charlotte Joko Beck was an American Zen teacher who insisted that Zen training must directly address our conditioned reactions, and that meditative awareness was the key to understanding the emptiness of ego. She also underlined the value of bringing practice insights into daily life by living compassionately and with recognition of the interconnectedness… Continue reading Wandering in the Desert: This is our Life
“The Violence in Our Minds Manifests in the World” – Thich Nhat Hanh on Smiling Away Your Anger
"Author Cuong Lu recently told me that the greatest lesson his teacher Thich Nhat Hanh gave him was to believe in him: "He kept trusting me. That was his power, his insight and his love." What I find comes across in Thich Nhat Hanh's books is that same sense of confidence, but on a global… Continue reading “The Violence in Our Minds Manifests in the World” – Thich Nhat Hanh on Smiling Away Your Anger