Meditation as a Tool for Dealing with Distraction Being distracted is part of the human condition. Our monkey minds are often unfocused and trapped in thoughts and wanderings. Worse yet, modern life has added to our distractedness with its enticing baits, from scrolling on social media to binge-watching on Netflix. Although distraction is not new […]
Dialogue between a little dog named Maya and myself. or Zen Buddhism in a nutshell. Without having an exciting life, I could not understand Maya’s ongoing happiness, even serenity so, one morning, I took her for a one-on-one chat and asked her: “Maya: tells me how can you be so happy and serene all the […]
Not Knowing: being at ease with not knowing, and why that? Zen is teaching us to let go of our addictive preoccupation with accumulating knowledge, opinion, and judgment. He is asking us to embrace an attitude of “don’t know mind” or “not knowing” This “Not knowing ”does not mean stupidity, laziness, confusion, or rudeness. We […]
Giving up defining yourself A Zen approach “ Be yourself. It will help you feel better” said my former teacher Yanguil Sunim. He met: stop posturing, stop creating a persona that is not you. When we do not play roles which is rare, it means there is no self (ego) in control of our thoughts, […]
What is Ignorance? A Zen perspective Ignorance with desire/attachment/clinging (I want), dislike/hatred (I don’t want) is one of the so-called 3 poisons causing suffering. There is a difference between ignorance in the common sense of the word and the Zen Buddhist meaning. In the Zen Buddhist the sense of the word, rather than a […]
Why is it so hard to meditate every day? Our Western culture, education, and social profile are imposing on us to be busy. Our ego also loves to be busy because it may imply “ I am indispensable, important, I am not lazy, and I don’t want to be bored”. To the question “ How […]
The figure we know as the Buddha was a real person, Siddhartha Gautama. He lived and he died, as all humans do. He was not a god or born of a god. But his discoveries about how we experience reality are practical, profound, and groundbreaking, and over the ages, people have felt compelled to share […]
Present Moment: How to be in the Now: few tips Please go to the last Dharma lecture “ NOW: the magic of the present moment “ as introduction. Being in the present moment as often as possible has been stressed over and over by all Zen spiritual leaders for the last 2,000 years or so. […]
