Tag: meditation
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The Difference Between Knowledge and Knowing
The piece highlights the difficulty of truly grasping and embodying common advice like “be present.” It explores the temptation to trade present experiences for future ones, illustrating how knowledge does not necessarily lead to real understanding. Meditation is suggested as a means to pause and discover deeper fulfillment in the now.
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The 30 Seats
By Claudia L I’ve been coming here for almost a year now. I have heard many of the stories you have all shared, and I can say that, just like many of you, I tried meditation because I needed something to calm my mind. I was having a lot of thoughts; it felt like a…
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Small Courage, Small Steps
By Kaz Today, I want to share two simple ideas that have been on my mind: Small Courage and Small Steps. We often imagine that to change our lives or deepen our practice, we need “Great Courage.” We think we need to be fearless warriors. But in Zazen, we truly only need Small Courage. Small…
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The Sacred Act of Being Bored
By Ann (The following is a synopsis of the actual article found on the Substack Link to the original article) I think we are all lucky to be here together this morning. I’ve been reflecting on a challenge we often face on the cushion—one we don’t talk about enough: boredom. I recently came across a…
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The “Toe Handshake”: A Surprising Secret to Zen Stability
by Kaz For several years, I have closely followed the current Abbot of Engaku-ji—listening to his daily broadcasts, reading his books, and making it a point to sit at Engaku-ji whenever I visit Japan. During a visit there just last week, I joined a sitting that perfectly illustrated his modern approach to the path. Before…
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What Is Dog?
By Lakshmi I don’t know if any of you have heard of a dog named Bunny—the one who learnedmore than a hundred words by pressing buttons.After learning all that vocabulary, Bunny started asking, “What is dog?” and later, “Whydog?” People started to feel that the dog was having existential angst. But I wondered if dogseven…
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I am who I am
By Peter The Buddhist concept of “no‑self” does not imply non‑existence or illusion. Instead, It emphasizes impermanence. Impermanence is not mystical and it is not abstract. It is something we can observe directly in our daily life. This teaching is grounded in causality: all phenomena arise from causes and conditions, and when these conditions change,…
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Am I Actually Living, or Am I Just Busy?
By Chloe In my professional world of AI and technology, everything is about optimization—speed, scale, accuracy, cost, and reaching the next milestone. We build systems that learn, rank, predict, and automate. We watch dashboards the way pilots watch instruments. And without noticing, we start living the same way: always monitoring, always adjusting, always looking forward.…
Hakone Zendo 