LEARNING TO PRACTICE LOVING KINDNESS  OR METTA In our Western culture, we find it difficult to direct loving-kindness and compassion to ourselves.                                       We may feel that we are unworthy, or that it is too egocentric or […]

 How to cultivate resilience during tough times.                   All of us can feel the impact of challenging times. What we cannot control doesn’t mean we’re powerless. When we’re up against change, uncertainty, anger, grief, worries, and stress, resilience is the key to navigating life and emerging with more […]

Meditation as a Tool for Dealing with Distraction Being distracted is part of the human condition. Our monkey minds are often unfocused and trapped in thoughts and wanderings. Worse yet, modern life has added to our distractedness with its enticing baits, from scrolling on social media to binge-watching on Netflix. Although distraction is not new […]

 Dialogue between a little dog named Maya and myself. or Zen Buddhism in a nutshell. Without having an exciting life, I could not understand Maya’s  ongoing happiness, even serenity  so, one morning, I took her for a one-on-one chat and asked her:   “Maya: tells me how can you be so happy and serene all the […]

  Not Knowing: being at ease with not knowing, and why that? Zen is teaching us to let go of our addictive preoccupation with accumulating knowledge, opinion, and judgment. He is asking us to embrace an attitude of “don’t know mind” or “not knowing” This “Not knowing ”does not mean stupidity, laziness, confusion, or rudeness. We […]

   Giving up defining yourself A Zen approach  “ Be yourself. It will help you feel better” said my former teacher Yanguil Sunim.  He met: stop posturing, stop creating a persona that is not you. When we do not play roles which is rare, it means there is no self (ego) in control of our thoughts, […]

  What is Ignorance?   A Zen perspective   Ignorance with desire/attachment/clinging (I want), dislike/hatred (I don’t want) is one of the so-called 3 poisons causing suffering.  There is a difference between ignorance in the common sense of the word and the Zen Buddhist meaning. In the Zen Buddhist the sense of the word, rather than a […]

The figure we know as the Buddha was a real person, Siddhartha Gautama. He lived and he died, as all humans do. He was not a god or born of a god. But his discoveries about how we experience reality are practical, profound, and groundbreaking, and over the ages, people have felt compelled to share […]