Category: Great Fruit
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Acceptance As Awareness: Goldilocks Gets It Just Right
Read time 4 Minutes. Acceptance reframed as awareness. In the ongoing effort to simplify the teachings, acceptance seems—at first glance—like the simplest lesson of all. Familiar, gentle, obvious. Yet if taken too literally, acceptance can lead to confusion or frustration. I know it did for me in the early stages of practice. So let’s revisit…
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Active Awareness: Interested In Everything
Read time 5 minutes. Zen in not disinterested. Disinterest numbs. Active Awareness sharpens. Last week, while looking at acceptance, we discovered how easy it is to slip into subtle bias. We may force a kind of enthusiasm that isn’t really there, and when we can’t maintain it, frustration follows. Neutrality offers relief—but if we swing…
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Silliness: The Wisdom And Presence Of Playfulness
Read time 4 minutes. Silliness as presence. Lately I’ve been hearing a car commercial with Elaine Stritch singing “Are You Having Any Fun?” Maybe you’ve heard it too—it’s hard to miss. The song is striking in its playfulness, but also loaded with wisdom: “Are you having any fun… laughs?” Or the sharper question: “Who cares for what you’ve got if…
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Stillness and the Path To Transformation: The Butterfly Cause
Read time 2 minutes. In this article we explore the benefits of embracing quietude and stillness. Caterpillars, butterflies and transformation. This metaphor is a bit tired, a bit worn out. It needs, yes, some new life. There is a bridge between the old and the new, the familiar and the unknown. That bridge is not…
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A Taste of Awakening: The Moment That Everything Changes
Read time 2 minutes. Mini-awakenings teach us and provide motivation. This is the first stand alone article in our series on awakening. We begin life in ignorant bliss. But then, one day—on a walk, sitting on the porch, lying in a blooming meadow—something shifts. In a flash, it washes over us, unexpected and undeniable. Clarity.…
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Peak Experiences: The Suddenness of Seeing
Read time 2 minutes. When you create gaps in the noise, peak experiences come in and fill them. This stand alone article is part of our series on awakening. That moment when nature swallowed you whole. Breathtaking. It was more than your breath that was taken. That moment when the music struck like lightning. Timeless. It…
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Micro-Awakenings: The Rhythm of Letting Go, Again and Again
Read time 2 minutes. An exploration into micro-awakenings. Create a gap and allow clarity to emerge. This stand alone article is part of our series on awakening. Is it possible to achieve something without really doing anything? What if resolving a problem didn’t involve coming to any sort of resolution? We’re conditioned to believe effort is…
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Dig, If You Will, An Ego: The Shape of You
Read time 3 minutes. Pretend the ego is a ballon and awakening is a ‘POP.’ This stand alone article is part of our series on awakening. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called—self. If you have been following along, then you are aware that, from time to time, we experience mini-awakenings—momentary…
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The Sound of Awakening and the Cosmic Snooze Button
Read time 3 minutes. This is the final stand alone article is part of our series on awakening. What is the sound of awakening?Each night before bed, we set the alarm. We enter a dream state. Then, abruptly, the sound wakes us up. Unless, of course, we hit the snooze button. As you read this, what…