Dear True Nature Members, Please join me to practice, reflect, and connect tomorrow, Saturday, July 25th, at 7 am Pacific/10 am Eastern for our monthly True Nature sitting group and sangha meeting. This is a schedule change from our usual Sunday meeting in order to accommodate members who are
“It is fine to investigate what others have said or written in books. But to say, “I’ve understood something that I didn’t understand before,” that is not Zen practice.” - Sekkei Harada Roshi [all unattributed stanzas in this essay are from the poem Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver] You
Here is my secret: I don't mind what happens. - Jiddu Krishnamurti This essay has been edited from its original form, first published to the True Nature community on April 17, 2025 Earlier this month, a couple dozen of us gathered at Daishu-in West for the annual memorial
“If it isn't good, let it die. If it doesn't die, make it good.” - Ajahn Chah This story may sound like it’s about forgiveness, but it’s really about grace. When I began to see through some of the foundational stories in my family of
“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere.” - attributed to Guatama Buddha This essay has been edited from its original form, first published to the True Nature
“Is there anything you have not experienced? For example, staying put in a single place and really trying to experience something deeply?” – Soko Morinaga Roshi ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I looked in every direction for fulfillment. If my compass rose was anchored by achievement, relationships, creative expression, and spiritual growth, I also scanned between
“Every enemy is your medicine - your beneficial alchemy and heart healing.” - Rumi This essay was first published to the True Nature community on January 31, 2025. A couple of weeks ago, I thought I would continue to flesh out the “most important thing” theme we considered and discussed in our
“There is just a mysterious tacit understanding and no more.” - Zen Master Obaku (Huang Po), On the Transmission of Mind The copies of this book you’ll find, even the one at the temple, are all entitled The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of Mind, but Huang
“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.” – Rainer Maria Rilke This essay has been edited from its original form, which was published to the True Nature community
Q: “Which part of the future is real and which is not?” A: “The unexpected and unpredictable is real.” – Nisargadatta A little over a week ago, seven of us were sitting here meditating in my living room (“the zendo” whenever we have a residential retreat). I noticed my cat Izzy
All men, without exception, sit in the front row. – Kodo Sawaki Roshi This essay has been edited from its original form, published to the True Nature community on December 20, 2024. I’ve recently returned from a 2 week training period at Daishu-in West, my teacher’s temple in
I know you’re tired, but come. This is the way. - Rumi In September of 2013, I made public vows known as “taking the precepts” and “taking refuge.” This involved chanting in Pali my promise to do my best personally to uphold a set of ethical values, and to look
“We have a choice, we can continue to give in to that impulse of wanting to get away, looking for comfort elsewhere, looking for solutions in other places, or . . . we can develop a close, intimate relationship with that which is right here. That’s what practice is about.” – Ursula Jarand
Friendship means little when it’s convenient. – “Shimazu Koji,” John Wick 4 On a long flight last fall, I watched John Wick 4 after recently discovering for myself that the John Wick universe is more like Harry Potter than it is about serious assassins and revenge. Everyone in a John
You want to be on both sides of the wall at the same time. You can, but you must remove the wall. – Nisargadatta This essay has been edited from its original form, published to the True Nature community on October 22, 2024 At the fall, 2024 CCE women’s retreat,
"Cut off all present thoughts And do not follow successive thoughts. This is sufficient. There is no need to torment yourself over the past Or concern yourself with the future." -Da Hui (12th Century) This essay was originally published to the True Nature community on September 8, 2024.
Earlier this fall, I spent ten days in Turkey & Greece. I saw layers upon layers upon layers of empires - civilizations built literally on top of civilizations. It’s so recent in human history that we’ve begun in earnest to look closely at who we’ve been so far
“Fearlessness is trust.” – Ursula Jarand This essay was originally published to the True Nature community on August 1, 2024. The timing to publish again here seems apropos, as I started another week of training at the temple yesterday, November 25. Here’s hoping some of what I learned last year
“Which part of the future is real and which is not?” “The unexpected and unpredictable is real.” - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj Edited from original publication on July 1, 2024 to the True Nature community I thought I might be writing about the retreat I just finished managing, or my favorite talk
This essay has been modified from the version first published to the True Nature community on June 3, 2024 Earnestness: /ˈərnəs(t)nəs/ sincere and intense conviction When my youngest went to Washington D.C. for his 8th grade class trip, my movie-buff 17 year old (at the time
Recently I caught a clearer glimpse of a phrase that’s supposedly been front-and-center for me for many years now: “pay attention.”
A note from Marcy: This essay was first published for the online CCE community, True Nature, in April 2024. As the opening essay there, it seems again like an appropriate introduction to a new audience, and an opportunity to revisit an important meditation theme for continuing members. I picked up
Welcome, friend - This Quakeresque greeting comes immediately to mind when I consider how to welcome people I have met and not met alike, but all of whom are drawn to some degree by what we’re offering here at the Center for Contemplative Enrichment. You are my friend before I