The opposite of stealing (or taking what is not given), is to give, unconditionally. Not stealing means not stealing time, but taking it and giving it back. It means giving as much time as is necessary to the task. It means not trying to cheat time by half-hearted multitasking, or by whiling time away with …
Category: Zen & Dharma
What’s so zen about Zen?
What’s so Zen about Zen? I think, what makes Zen uniquely Zen is its insistence that everything is innately perfect and complete, with no need for adornment or improvement. Those stock-photo images of a smooth stone, a bamboo stalk, a dew drop on a leaf… they are zen clichés, but they do tell a story. …
I am watching my breath
I imagine my mind as a door: a light screen door, swinging back and forth in a gentle breeze. The breeze is my breath, blowing in, blowing out. My mind is the swinging door. I am watching my breath. There’s a deep pain in my hip. My stiff neck. A conversation with my old lover, …
Remembering Tammy Fudge
I remember Tammy Fudge. That really was her name. As if that wasn’t enough, Tammy was gangly and awkward and kind of funny looking. She had no friends. If you sat beside her you wouldn’t have any friends either. You knew that in that dangerous and delicately balanced pre-adolescent universe, to befriend Tammy Fudge would …
Meeting the buddha on the road
Spine extended, shoulders back, chin slightly tucked. Elbows out and relaxed, like holding an egg gently in each armpit. Trying, but not trying too hard. Going for the sweet spot between effort and ease. On the uphill watching breath, on the downhill, watching breath. In the rhythm of the ride mind spins off into cadence …