Secure Your Mask Before Helping Others
I’m on retreat right now and can’t post. Here’s a rerun of an article I wrote for Suicide Girls dated August 8, 2011 * * * A few people have responded to my blog by comparing me to this or that teacher and saying those guys are much better because they encourage their […]
Pure Awareness?
I’m on retreat and can’t post. Here’s a rerun of an article I did on my older blog, posted May 12, 2012 * * * My name is Brad and I subscribe to Deepak Chopra’s Twitter feed. Hi Brad! I don’t even really “get” Twitter. I’m not sure just what you’re supposed to […]
That Which Has a Beginning and Ending in Time is Not Real?
I did an event at a Finnish sauna last week. In Finland saunas aren’t just places weird health-nuts go and sweat by themselves. They are communal gathering spaces. People have parties in them, get spiritual in them, all kinds of stuff. I met one Finnish guy who was born in a sauna. This particular Zen […]
The Responsibilities of Being a Zen Student
A Zen teacher is someone who has done zazen for a long time and allows — tolerates may be a better word — others to join their practice. A few years ago I did a talk at a Zen center in New York City where several people seemed to be hostile to what I had […]
Greed for Good
In one of my dokusans at my recent retreat in Lammi, Finland a guy named Larri made an interesting observation. In a talk at the retreat I’d mentioned the formula used by Buddhists to talk about the three poisons. They are usually listed as “greed, hatred and delusion” or sometimes “greed, anger and delusion.” There are a few […]
