Category: Meditation For Success
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still here
I had already waited three months for the approval that was supposed to take 30 days. My Social Security application was in some kind of paper purgatory. It was understandable. Thousands of employees had been fired. Offices, closed. The phone system was jammed and the computer system was down. As DOGE tore deeper into the…
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here for you
For a few months I’ve been hearing this phrase—here for you—in unlikely places. The words have stayed with me like a thrum beneath the sickening roar of our civic dismantling. Someone is here for me. Someone is here for me in my forsakenness; someone stands ready to help. It started in the still, small quiet…
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Toward a Naturalistic, Pragmatic, Eudaimonic, and Cosmopolitan Buddhism
The Buddha lived prior to the discoveries of modern physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy. There are lots of things we know now—cell biology, genetics, evolutionary theory, relativity, quantum mechanics, astrophysics—that the Buddha had no way of knowing. On the other hand, during the Buddha’s lifetime there was active speculation and debate about the…
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Zhaozhou’s “Wash Your Bowl!”
Last week I had to share my understanding of Book of Serenity Case 39 and defend it in dharma combat as part of a shuso hossen ceremony. I am particularly fond of Case 39, and thought I would share some thoughts about it here: Case: A monk asked Zhaozhou, “I have just entered the monastery:…
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how to be decent
Among all the things people have said about Pope Francis after his death, this one summed it up for me: “He was a very decent man in an age of indecency.” To be sure, decency is a rare thing these days. It relies on commonness. Pope Francis was a common man among common men…
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evil on its face
The silence grows louder every day. Fired federal workers who are worried about losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name. University presidents fearing that millions of dollars in federal funding could disappear are holding their fire. Chief executives alarmed by tariffs that could hurt their businesses are on mute. — The…
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Review of Mike Slott’s Mindful Solidarity
Mike Slott’s Mindful Solidarity: A Secular Buddhist Democratic Socialist Dialogue (Tuwhiri, 2024) lays out the arguments in favor of Secular Buddhism, why social engagement is necessarily a part of it, and how a Marxist analysis can complement the Buddhist analysis of suffering’s causes and amelioration. Mike is a long-time political and labor movement activist who…
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back home where we belong
Everything is always with oneself at any time. — Maezumi Roshi A fellow Zen student recently told me that she no longer felt like she fit in with her community of friends, neighbors, and some of her relatives. This, in spite of being a community leader, volunteer, and close with her family — a person…
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the day after mother’s day
I don’t want to deprive anyone of that one special day to remember and appreciate mothers. But I want to talk about the days after, the days before, and the days of mothering that go unnoticed. I want to talk about the regrets, the fear, the trust, the hope, the hard lessons and the wisdom…
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Buddhists Organize to Defend Democracy
This is a brief blog post to inform readers of a new non-sectarian Buddhist organization representing Buddhists from many lineages and traditions and holding a broad spectrum of political views who are united in acting to preserve democractic norms, institutions and processes in this time of peril. Why do we need a new…