“The brighter your light, the darker your shadow.” Carl Jung If this is true, my light must be piercingly bright, because one of my darkest shadows is murderous rage. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I write murder mysteries, especially as I continue to deepen my spiritual practice. Why do I love watching [...]
Even science can agree with our consensus; the benefits of meditation are undeniable. "Researchers at the University of Massachusetts have documented changes in the brains of novice practitioners who took an introductory eight-week class and meditated as little as 15 minutes a day. Sroka said the techniques can become second nature. In times of stress, [...]
When I arrived last Thursday at Garrison Institute for a four-day Contemplative Care retreat and learned that there would be 108 participants, I gulped that number in and took a stroll outside to soak in the beauty and quiet before they all arrived. As I watched them stream in, I exclaimed out loud, out of [...]
This past weekend I attended the Garrison Retreat with New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. It was a rich and heart-opening experience that I will write more about soon! Until then, enjoy some of the scenery I was lucky enough to see and photograph!
I was once nominated for an Oscar! Well, not a Hollywood Oscar, but a Food Oscar. And to be totally transparent, I wasn’t actually nominated, the cookbook, 3 Bowls, that I co-authored with Zen monk Seppo Ed Farrey, was nominated. And it was Seppo’s amazing recipes that qualified our book to be nominated for the James Beard Foundation [...]
I've been privileged over the years to witness the truth of this and watch as students recover from anxiety and depression by way of meditation. The hardest part for most people is trusting that it can work and then making a commitment to daily practice. It works, it really does! So to recognize world mental [...]
Prior to enrolling in the NYZCCC Foundations course I had a rich, satisfying and rewarding life and wasn’t even sure why I decided to add this work to my full plate. But after twenty-eight years of sobriety and twenty-five years of Zen practice I’ve learned not to resist going where my higher self leads me, and taking on [...]
"A moment in time, a place in time, a breath. A quiet corner can be found anywhere, can be created anytime. It is an attitude, an outlook. It can be found in your particular approach to your particular day. A quiet corner simply needs a slight shift in perspective to emerge. A quiet corner is [...]
The first three weeks of the Buddhist Contemplative Care training have been rich, deep, and amazing, so I thought I’d share some of what struck me from the books we’ve read so far. More to come in future posts. "We all must deal with conditioning. The sense of ourselves as separate is what we are contending with [...]
