Month: January 2021

• January 7, 2021

  Be Your Own Zen Socrates

  Imagine a cake consisting of three layers: the bottom layer, the middle layer, and the top layer. Now label the bottom layer “hurt,” the middle layer “ignorance,” and the top layer “presumption.” In simplified form, this schema depicts our ordinary minds. Presuming that we know is laid overtop actual ignorance. Actual ignorance, situated above the…
• January 4, 2021

  Escape Total Work! A 4-Week Course Starting In February

  “Escape Total Work” is a 4-week course running from February 7th to February 28th. The course will likely be capped at 12 people. Here’s what one past participant had to say about her experience: This course gave me a signal to wake up and be curious about my life in a deeper sense, to look…
• January 2, 2021

  Self-emptying Or Self-improvement?

  In Philippians 2:7, we read that Jesus “made himself nothing” (NIV). Kenosis suggests the emptying of self-will to the point at which one is nothing but a vessel for the divine will. My will be Thine; Thy will be mine. This is the heart of meditation: it is the very emptying out of the self…
• January 1, 2021

  Right Now, You Are The Man Hiding From The Bandits

  Chan master Yeng Shen concludes one of his Dharma talks with this potent story: In one of the sutras, the Buddha tells a story about a man who was being chased by four bandits who wanted his belongings and his life. As he was running, he came across a well and thought it would be…