Emptiness is one of the core teachings of Mahayana and Zen Buddhism. I have found that within Zen communities emptiness is often misunderstood. Because emptiness is misunderstood it can also be avoided.

We can come to practice looking for relief, ease, calm and/or stability in our lives and find that meditation helps with that–without realizing that there is more to the path. Genuine insight into emptiness can help us know a freedom beyond conditions, the inherent rightness in being itself!

The three poisons: greed, hatred and delusion, obscure our access to clear-seeing and functioning from love. And yet, these poisons are part of human life. In this post I explore three ways from the Buddhist tradition to meet, embrace and find freedom within these poisons: they are replace, transmute and non-abide. Read more to discover these practices for yourself.

Hongzhi says, alertly seeing through confusion is the way of silent illumination

Alertly seeing through confusion.

What does this mean for you? How do you do it…

First–how do you recognize confusion? And what practices help you come back to present moment experience, to a moment of thought-free awareness, to the silence, spaciousness, stillness and brightness of this!

Dreams come from the wilderness, the mystery, the unknown. Dreams invite us to see that all is part of this wilderness, this mystery, this unknown. Things are not as they appear.

We receive dreams all the time. The presence of a cosmos flower, the eye of a cat, a touch, a cricket chirp. The dream of the world is knocking on the self-centered dreaming, saying--hey you what are you doing? We are in this together, dreaming the great dream of all beings.

The climate crisis asks us to confront the basic existential questions, who are we? What are we? Why are we here? What is life? What are we doing with this life? It also asks us to feel. Part of being human is loss. We are all initiated into the human soul through loss. As we learn we don’t always get what we want, as we grieve the loss of loved ones--died too early, unexpected and sometimes in ways we can’t understand or justify…