The Practice of Zen

Zen can offer something very simple, very direct and readily accessible to anyone seeking inner peace, seeking healing in some form, or seeking answers to questions such as ‘Who am I?’ ‘How can I find meaning in my life?’ ‘How can I live in a most authentic way?’

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New Year’s Greetings, 2011 New Year’s Greetings, 2011

Dear Friends and Fellow Practitioners at MKZC,
As we welcome the New Year 2011 in the Western calendar, the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese Zodiac, I invite everyone first of all to take a …

Dogs and Cats Know it, Zen Students Do Not! Dogs and Cats Know it, Zen Students Do Not!

By Lee Ann Nail
I am amazed that if you ask someone about their dog or cat their hearts and minds open instantly. It’s like saying ‘Open Sesame!’ It can be anybody, Zen student or not. …

Honoring Teachers Past and Present Honoring Teachers Past and Present

By Ed Brickell
In my earliest days of running, when I was chosen for my elementary school’s relay team, I was guided by our coach—a haunted-looking history and gym teacher with small, sad eyes like brown …

Dialogue With Eastern Religions Dialogue With Eastern Religions

Since we are social beings we ourselves are in communion: ontologically, relationship, fellowship, with others. There is actually no living person apart from others. So we discover ourselves, realize ourselves only in the meeting with others; the deeper the meeting, the more we find ourselves and blossom into persons. From a Christian perspective we are even more so created to be in communion, reflecting as we do the very “being-one-together” of the divine Persons in the Trinity, that ultimate secret of God’s life, as shared with us by Jesus.

Morning Treasures Morning Treasures

Here’s Hakuin again: “Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes. This earth where we stand is the pure lotus land! And this very body, the body of Buddha.” And this, this very practice, is where I come to meet myself-in the morning.

Reflections on Kennedy Retreat Reflections on Kennedy Retreat

Attention is key. Here, for me, is an important synthesis. To what am I paying attention? To what cannot be named or imagined or understood, to “no thing”. I remember that Jesus said the wheat must fall into the ground and die or it cannot give life. That seems the same as saying there is no self. It makes perfect sense even while it makes no sense. It is a hard saying, but I believe it is good to bear it