“But what about your savings for when you retire? Aren’t you concerned about your future?” My father and I were standing in the kitchen arguing about my decision to train in a Zen monastery. I’d been there for over two years and every time we’d see each other, we would…

I didn’t decide to train in a Zen monastery. I didn’t say to myself one day, “I think I’d like to give up everything I have and go train as a monk in a Zen monastery for 14 years.” Before I discovered Zen, I had no interest in anything even…

So, someone famous suddenly dies (no name needs to be mentioned). And after years of abject obscurity (suffering abject obscurity, I might add)… There’s an avalanche, a flood — a tsunami — of love, kind words, appreciation, and support. Likely, profits coming in from their past work too. Love, kind…

“Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher’s help.” — Bodhidharma Every so often, I’ll run into someone who will disagree with my point that a teacher or a master is essential to proper training. This person will typically argue by saying, “I’m my own guru. I…

You are a buoy in the ocean.

“For a few minutes at a time, instead of being the one who does the desiring, imagine instead that everything desires you: Your morning coffee really wants you to taste it; The trees are yearning for you to notice the bright green of their leaves; The breeze wants you to…

One of the most unfortunate lies people believe is that they beat themselves up. I hear it all the time. It will inadvertently come out of people’s mouths while I’m talking to them. “I want to work on my project, but I don’t, and then I beat myself up for…

“Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.” —Deepak Chopra I’m a huge fan of finding out how I typically handle a situation and then trying something different. Not…

Imagine a world that had a unique problem: Everyone was falling into a hole. Over and over, people kept falling into this hole. It was misery. No one had a good solution. One guy beat himself up for falling into the hole. He assumed that the beating would prevent him…