Category: Zen Meditation
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SEWANEE ZEN OPENS APRIL 2, 2023
Sewanee Zen will open for the first time on April 2, 2023, with an Introduction to Zen Practice at the new Stone Nest Dojo at 3818 Sherwood Road in Sewanee, Tennessee. The three-hour workshop will provide the basics of Zen practice: zazen (sitting concentration), kinhin (walking concentration), and dojo etiquette. Background on Zen Buddhism and…
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DECIDE!
A talk given at the sesshin, 13 May 2023, New Orleans Zen Temple, by Richard Reishin Collins, Abbot Sometimes we have to be a sangha of one. We hear all the time about the Three Treasures: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. These can be very abstract terms, however, so I always encourage you to nail those down…
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Do One Good Thing (Dharma Talk)
I discuss strategies for coping with suffering and the importance of focusing on positive actions that we can take in this present moment. If you enjoyed this Dharma talk, you’ll love my books!
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Sitting with Buddha and Fixing my House
Two years ago, I bought an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. I was tired of the noise and congestion of city life, and I wanted to be closer to nature. More than that, I wanted to use the skills I’d learned by apprenticing on organic farms across the country. I wanted to build…
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The Art of Mindful Living | Awaken the Living Awareness Within ∞ AWARΞNΞSS ∞
~ ∞ ~ The Art of Mindful Living – Awaken the Living Awareness Within ~ ∞ ~ In the previous chapter, we explored something called Lucid Living. As a supportive chapter, rather than a comprehensive one, this chapter introduces the reader something called the Art of Mindful Living, or short, just mindfulness. There are lots…
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The Art of Lucid Living | Awaken the Living Awareness Within ∞ ΛWΛRΞNΞSS ∞
~ ღ ~ Living Awareness ~ ((( ॐ ))) ~ The Heart of Living Life ~ ღ ~ Perhaps it is best to start this chapter by highlighting what Lucid Living is. The term itself goes hand in hand with the idea of Living Awareness – it is the implication of experiencing deeper levels of…
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Does barbie have buddha nature?
Having at last succumbed to the barrage of Barbenheimer mania, I can now share my thoughts on the two films from a Zen perspective. (For now, though, I’ll restrict my remarks to Barbie.) My first reaction to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was that it was the story of the Buddha. Like Siddhartha, she begins life (if…
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Integrity
A talk given at Stone Nest Dojo by Richard Collins, 28 May 2023 An integer is a positive natural number or a negative number, with no fractional part, and includes zero. One thing that we see in the Zen masters whom we read about from long ago is that they had integrity. This doesn’t mean…
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Love the Fight
No one ever talks about the connection between homesteading and crisis management. If one goes to Instagram and searches for #homesteadlife or #hobbyfarm, they’ll be greeted with pictures of happy chickens, well-groomed garden beds, and barns that look like they came from a magazine. The message is that growing food and caring for animals is…
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Living a Holy Life
In the meditation hall, I have an altar dedicated to Amida Buddha and the bodhisattvas Kannon and Jizo. It contains three statues, which bear their respective images along with candles and an incense burner. The statues are of good quality, but they aren’t that different from other figurines. They’re white, standing approximately six inches tall.…