Using the Empty Chair to Move Beyond Us-and-Them Thinking
In a season of vitriol, council with an empty chair may help us all win. Updated April 23, 2024 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch At the 2012 Republican National Convention, Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood did something unusual: he spent over 12 minutes speaking to an empty chair as if it were then-President Obama. Commentary flooded social media and dominated news […]
Bearing Witness to the Night
March 2024 Many mornings, as something of a ritual affirming my connection to a Home Place, I log on and connect to a webcam feed from Big Sand Lake in northern Minnesota. Over a cup of coffee 600 miles away, I can look east from a webcam mounted on a pole at a resort—the same […]
Get Out of Your Head
When we project conditioning from our past onto the present, we turn a benign moment into something else. Understanding the “five conditions” can help us get back to reality. By Sean Murphy Like many others, I’ve always found traditional Buddhist formulations of the five “aggregates” (Skt., skandhas ) difficult to put into practice in […]
Beloved Community
Beloved Community Into the circle of all beings we have come With sunshine and tree and raven and coyote and deer and rabbit and stars And precious moonlight. May our feet walk gently in the sands of time Echoing purpose and peace and creative caring throughout this land of dreams. Beloved community Our […]
I can write again – It becomes concrete
08. Nov 2023 Bernie Glassman and Zen Peacemakers/The deep meaning of begging for malas/street retreats In 2007 I must have heard about Zen Peacemakers, probably through the Dharma teacher Werner Heidenreich, who told me about a meeting in Germany, perhaps in Solingen. I remember being fascinated, I had never heard of anything like it. Among […]
A Pilgrimage to Rüdesheim
Eine Pilgerfahrt zu Hildegard von Bingen rund um meinen Geburtstag: 13.-15.4.2023 von Monika Winkelmann | 20. Aug 2023 | 0 Kommentare Die Heilige Hildegard von Bingen – Erste Deutsche Dichterin und Kirchenlehrerin Vom 13.-15. April diesen Jahres reiste ich mit meiner buddhistischen Freundin und Schreibstudentin Teresa Jansen als einziger Teilnehmerin nach Rüdesheim. Eine Kleingruppe hätte ich mir vorstellen können, […]
Everything is Practice
Dharma Talk 24/07/23 – Richard Warner For the Dharma talk this week I wanted to take up a phrase teacher Richard Herps used in his talk last week. If I remember correctly Roshi Cecilie asked him a good Zen question: ‘What is practice?’ to which he replied: ‘Everything is Practice’. This struck me as a […]
Slow Walking
Camino de Santiago, Astorga, Spain (26.06.2023) On pilgrimage, on walkabout, the destination isn’t really the point. There’s no goal. It’s a conversation with the land, it’s peaks and rivers, the flowers, weather, history, rocks. It’s a conversation with the interior landscape. Slow walking holds not knowing. To race to a destination invites injury and alienation. […]
Fury & Faith
Fury & Faith by Amanda Gorman You will be told this is not a problem, Not your problem. You will be told now is not the time For change to begin, Told that we cannot win. But the point of protest isn’t winning; It’s holding fast to the promise of freedom, Even when fast victory is not […]
Taking Action with Eon Zen
Serving Dinner at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless Serving and engaging in community is fundamental to Zen practice. The Third Tenet of the Zen Peacemakers is taking action. The action that arises from this practice is a caring action that serves everyone and everything, including yourself, in the whole situation. Through the practice of […]