One Zen monk from Japan who was visiting a Zen retreat center in America observed the enthusiasm and numbers of meditators with astonishment. "How do you get them to meditate without beating them?"
Lewis Richmond | Posted 11.26.2011
Most religion, including Buddhism, offers an escape from reality, rather than a transforming insight about it. But Dharma is not like that. It is about what is true and real.
Lewis Richmond | Posted 09.17.2011
I meet many Buddhist meditators these days who say to me, "I've been meditating for decades. When I was young it was fantastic. But it doesn't seem as helpful or useful as it once did."
Lewis Richmond | Posted 08.09.2011
I ponder what the Dalai Lama said that day in Los Angeles: "If something is serious ... you have to take countermeasures." Was he referring to what I am calling "horror"?
Jesse Kornbluth | Posted 08.06.2011
Marcus Aurelius was Rome's last great emperor, but there's nothing regal about him. He snatches time to write without once mentioning his primary task -- leading the most powerful army in the world.
Lewis Richmond | Posted 07.13.2011
My Zen colleagues may object that it is a stretch to call Zen meditation "prayer," or to describe it as a method "to reach our divine nature." But we must never stop trying to find common ground.
Lewis Richmond | Posted 06.05.2011
What a startling thought: that the very evanescence of things can be a cause for joy, and a way to see this ever-changing, ever-aging world as a thing of beauty.
Michael Sigman | Posted 11.17.2011
Modern technology reveals that play lights up the brain in such desired areas as clarity and memory. Common sense tells us that if we've been encouraged to play as a child, beginner's mind comes more naturally as an adult.
Kay Goldstein | Posted 11.17.2011
I have been noticing what happens when one expresses her opinion about anything political. You've heard of REMs (rapid eye movements). I call politic...
Lewis Richmond | Posted 05.02.2012