What is your career? Are you a carpenter? A bus driver? A doctor? Practicing the Way should be what we consider our career. It is the one that will give us the deepest satisfaction. It rewards us for our hard work with great pay. Pay in the sense of peace and contentment. It provides a [...]
Zen masters of old had both sentimentality and toughness. The same master who could write a beautiful haiku about nature could just as easily be harsh on a student. What this shows is that we need balance and we need to know when to use what. There is a time to be soft and a [...]
Maybe it is time to do some housecleaning. Get rid of what you do not need. We think we need more than we do. We want to have everything. Simplify instead and do without. Get things in order. Sometimes we let chaos rule our home, but we need to organize, sort, classify. It has been [...]
Sometimes in our practice we may feel bogged down or that we are not living up to the ideals of Buddha or Lao-Tzu. In this case, it is best to throw out Buddha and Lao. If we can practice without the idea of expectations, we are sometimes more likely to have success without a sword [...]
One problem I see with some walkers of the path is a tendency to be overly pious. Do what you can to help all sentient beings, but do not spend time worrying about accidentally stepping on an ant. Worrying about karmic issues of insignificant events only muddies the mind. Those who fret and warn about [...]
If we want the Way to make an impression upon us, we must have a soft mind. That is, one that is willing to take the imprint of the teachings. If we have hard mind, the teachings will just bounce off and we will not take anything with us. With a soft mind like clay, [...]
In the course of our life, we may call many things home. We may think of the place we grew up, or the place we live now. But those are not really homes. Our home is ourselves. We want to have a comfortable home; one that is filled with love and peace. When we practice, [...]
When we sweep leaves, we sweep them and then we are done. However, we are only done temporarily. The next day or even in the next few minutes, more leaves may fall. Then we have to sweep again. The cycle goes and goes. Sitting is like sweeping. We sweep the mind instead of the path [...]
We often hear about the benefits and hear the plaudits of people being hard workers. Moving heavy stones in a garden requires hard work. There are many things that require hard work. However, sometimes the call is for smart and easy, not hard and stupid. We work harder than we need to. This may be [...]
There are many things that pass for education. We often think of a college degree as meaning someone is highly educated. But are they? Perhaps, but being book smart may not translate to being street or practice smart. We have to be smart enough to know we need to follow the path. Once we get [...]