Author: Kaz Kihara
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Two Approaches to Happiness
Talk by Lakshmi There are, we could say, two basic approaches to manifesting a happier, more fulfilled life. The first and most familiar to us is to try to maximize the quality of our day-to-day experiences and circumstances as best we can. However, one of the inherent challenges of trying to engineer or control our…
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Be with the desire
We had a discussion on desire led by Chris. Have you watched the groundhog day movie? You wake up and
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Your mind and how you are with this world is the answer…
Aaron shared a podcast by Questlove & Will Smith. Will Smith talked about why he wrote a book about his life. Here is the link to the podcast. Aaron played a clip roughly 20:32 – 24:55 of the podcast. The garden is blooming. Here is the photo Chris took yesterday.
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wa kei sei jaku 和敬清寂
This sign used to hang outside of our gate to the zendo. “Wa, Kei, Sei, Jaku,” famous Sado (tea ceremony ) word describing four essential elements of Sado. 和(Wa) Harmony 敬(Kei) Respect 清(Sei) Purity 寂(Jaku) Tranquility So why this word for tea ceremony relates to zen? It is believed that Eisai, who established the Rinzai…
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wabi-sabi 侘び寂び
Jia found this pottery in the clearance section because of imperfections. He loves this piece. We talked about wabi-sabi. In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi is a world view centered on accepting transience and imperfection.
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How do I stay in the present moment when it feels unbearable?
Garden started to bloom. Sue shared Thich Nhat Hanh’s video recording answers the question How do I stay in the present moment when it feels unbearable? Here is the video from Thich Nhat Hanh.
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照顧脚下 shouko kyakka
This zen word is used at many zendo. Direct translation means “look at your feet.” Before entering zendo, take your shoes off and line up shoes at the entry neatly. This is the way how we get ready for meditation at the zendo. How about your zabuton and zafu? Are they neatly placed?
Hakone Zendo 