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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.
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Unconditional Trust: A Leaping Embrace Into Uncertainty
Read time 6 minutes. Unconditional Trust is a stand alone article in our series regarding paradox. Today we turn again to paradox. Specifically, the paradox of being and becoming, and how this dance reveals the deeper presence of trust. In doing so, we must also recall the earlier lesson of simplicity and complexity—because unconditional trust, like
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Koan Practice: Self-discovery And The Virtue of The Unknown
Read time 6 minutes. Koan Practice is a stand alone article in our series regarding paradox. We’ve been exploring the role paradox plays in cultivating a stable Zen mindset. Each paradox nudges us out of conventional thinking and into a new way of being. Today, let’s pause and step back. What is paradox, truly, in practice?
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Impermanence and the Paradox of Being/Becoming
Read time 5 minutes. Impermanence is a stand alone article in our series regarding paradox. In our last lesson, we explored the paradox of everything and nothing, of absence and presence. Today we turn to another paradox: presence itself—not as the presence or absence of a thing, but as it relates to time, to this fleeting
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Everything and Nothing: The Paradox of Empty, Pure Potentiality
Read time 5 minutes. Everything and Nothing is a stand alone article in our series regarding paradox. Let’s continue to dissect paradox in its many forms. Today: the paradox of everything and nothing. Nothingness holds the potential for everything. Yet if we fixate on that potential, we’re still lost in illusion. The two are aspects of
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Paradox: Embracing Simplicity To Make Room For Complexity
Read time 5 minutes. This is the first stand alone article in our series regarding paradox. Looking back on the lessons we’ve explored so far, I am once again struck by the power of simplicity. The teachings can be intricate—sometimes overwhelming in their complexity. Yet within simplicity lies a capacity that meets everyone where they
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Resonance With Life: Symmetry, Synchronicity And Flow
Read time 4 minutes. Resonance With Life is a stand alone article in our Blocked Energy series. We often construct walls inside ourselves that prevent the natural processing of experience. When we step into the seat of the neutral observer—when we stop resisting and start going with the flow—we begin to experience resonance with life. Recently, I
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Triumph And Disaster Or Uncompromising Truth: One Or The Other
Read time 6 minutes. Triumph and Disaster is a stand alone article in our Blocked Energy series. Right now, some people feel as though the world is ending. Others feel on top of it. Every so often I find the need to have what I playfully call a come to Buddha conversation. This lesson is for those