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“Awakening to the Unobstructed Path: The Mystery of Our Taku’s 無礙之一道 (Muge no Ichido)
By Kaz The Sound That Awakens When you join us for zazen, one of the first things you’ll notice is a clear, distinct sound at the beginning of our meditation. This sound is the taku. The taku originated in China and Japan’s Zen tradition, used in temples to mark the start of activities—especially meditation—so that…
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Finding My “Intentional Pause” in a Non-Stop World
By Ewa Like many of you, I’ve led a very busy life. As a mom of two with a demanding career, I learned to multitask, to plan far ahead, to anticipate problems, and to worry about every possible bad outcome. That mindset helped me survive and even succeed for decades in Silicon Valley. But there came…
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Becoming: Lessons from My Teachers
By Ann This morning, I want to share a few thoughts on the word “becoming”—a word that holds a special place in my Zen practice. When I separate it—“be-coming”—I notice how “be” is about presence, and “coming” is about movement. That contradiction is at the heart of Zen: being exactly where you are, while also…
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Finding Presence in Community: My Meditation Journey
By Jing Z. I’ve been coming to our Sunday meditation sessions, a habit I started sporadically last summer and have committed to more regularly over the last couple of months. This morning, even though I was the last to arrive, I was lucky enough to get my favorite spot—bathed in gentle sunlight. My mother would…
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Finding Freedom: Lessons from The Courage to Be Disliked
By Dongmin In my recent coaching sessions, I’ve been working on identifying my core values. One value that keeps surfacing is freedom. It shows up in a lot of my daily thoughts and conversations. I started asking myself: What is freedom? What does it really mean to me? Is it the ability to change my…
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Wherever You Go, There You are
By Nan Good Morning! I have been a part of Hakone Zendo for over three years, and I also attend meditation with other centers. Last January, I had the opportunity to attend a week of noble silent retreat at a farm with another local meditation group. This experience reminded me of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s saying, “Wherever…
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