Summertime Schedule

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Friends, For the last few years, I have been taking the month of August off for some personal time. This year, it will be September. I will be in North Carolina from August 25, 2025, through September 28th, 2025. There will be no OZS Practice sessions during this time. Our in-person and Zoom practice sessions will continue in October. I will also be scheduling our yearly fall Silent Retreat at Myakka River State Park on a Saturday in November. I […]

I have no words, a walk down the road of habit

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 I have no words. There’s nothing I can give you that you don’t already have. There’s nothing I can add to what you already are. So we use words because we’ve forgotten who we are in our ignorance. We walk down the road of habit energy, it drags us along like a chain, and we struggle. As we go down the path of getting to know ourselves, we discover that there are options for us that we didn’t think we […]

Bearing Witness Is Bodhi

The non-outflow of the six perfections. The Six Perfections (or Pāramitās) are the core practices of the bodhisattva path.

Tracks Of The Ox,

A willful nature is hard to tame. A tangle of thorny bushes: the faint murmur of running water. But here and there are footprints—is this the right path?

The Stone Lions Roar

The first Picture of the 10 Ox Herding Pictures and cultivating the way through the practice of meditation.

Don’t Make

The simple, difficult teaching. Don’t make Zazen just sit.

Not two!

Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch says, “one day a shopkeeper ordered a load of firewood brought to his store. After he took the delivery and paid me, I walked toward the door and met a customer reciting the Diamond Sutra out loud. As soon as I heard the words, my mind felt clear and awake, and I asked the man, ‘Where did you get this scripture you’re reciting?” And so began the journey of one of Zen’s most revered teachers.