True Education
It is always difficult to keep simple and clear. The world worships success, the bigger the better; the greater the audience the greater...
Lead Not Dominate
From the dawn of human society up to the present time, we have been bedeviled by a persistent curse: the compulsion people feel to...
Compassion in Action
When we look at the vast sadness and suffering in the world, we often experience intense pain in our hearts. The suffering so often...
We Practice Forever
Charlotte Joko Beck's rules to help her students with their practice (ironically, or perhaps not, all these rules are directly...
Totality Not Perfection
The very idea of perfectionism drives people crazy. The perfectionist is bound to be a neurotic, he cannot enjoy life till he is...
Start Where You Are
We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips that we lay on ourselves--the heavy-duty...
One Sip of An Answer
All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and What am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul...
Trees Don't Compare
A samurai, a very proud warrior, came to see a Zen Master one day. The samurai was very famous, but looking at the beauty of the Master...
Work Like a Master
The whole gist of this teaching is that you should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do slave's work....
Hermits in New York
Let's take hermits. People today think being a hermit is a very unhealthy thing to do. Very antisocial, doesn't contribute anything to...
Simple Living, Simple Joy
A friend of ours here in North Carolina recently lost her beautiful 19-year-old son to suicide. She told us he was the sixth among a...
Disturb the System
Think about how we generally have treated information. We've known it was important, but we've handled it in ways that have destroyed...