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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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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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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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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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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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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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Spontaneous Mind: The Paradox Of An Actively Passive Existence
Read time 4 minutes. Spontaneous Mind is a stand alone article in our series regarding paradox. Former pro quarterback Hugh Millen once told a story about John Elway, who gave him a deceptively simple piece of advice: “You don’t want to be thinking out there. You just want to be reacting.” At the highest level of the…
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Unknowing Into The Peace of No-mind: Who Knows?
Read time 7 minutes. Unknowing is a stand alone article in our series regarding paradox. We have been winding our way through the endless dualities that rise up in Zen thought and practice. Each step reveals how overlapping, how intertwined, these ideas actually are. Such is the case with today’s topic: no-mind. I like to think of…
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Wu Wei: Self-reliance As Radical Liberation
Read time 6 minutes. Wu Wei is a stand alone article in our series regarding paradox. Wu wei is one of Taoism’s most vital and misunderstood concepts. Often translated as non-action or effortless action, it can sound like passivity. But that’s not it. Wu wei is not about avoiding action—it is about action so attuned to Tao that effort disappears.…