Zen Mind Archives - Bhavana Learning Group

Discover Self Through Practice

I recall the time when I relived the experience of practice. It was 2005, and I had registered to live in a Zen monastery for a month. Having studied for five years I presumed an understanding of Zen. I spoke with a monk, sharing my perception of a Zen concept. He smiled and simply asked, how often do you sit?

In that moment I got clear that whatever I thought I knew, it wasn’t Zen; the knowing of which comes from direct experience through practice.

Practice and Performance

That Zen moment transported me back to my adolescence as a DOWNLOAD PDF

Summer Reads; Venturing East

In 1999, research and enduring questions pulled me East in study and practice. The turn of the century was for me the turn of a leaf. I kept coming across terms and concepts from the East that better described my experiences. Authors, thinkers, and mentors introduced concepts such as suffering (beyond a diagnosis), unlearning, intention, awareness, nonduality, internal states, emptiness, impermanence, attachment, letting go, commitment, compassion, wisdom, being present, being versus doing — all ideas that motivated my journey East to Buddhism.

Opening to the East

Venturing East — in study and practice — opened me to a fuller understanding of the DOWNLOAD PDF