Remember the first of the Ten Grave Precepts?  “Do not kill.” While this translation is easier for Western people to grasp, the Japanese word “fu” actually means “non” so the correct rendering is “non-killing.” You see Eastern view is that life does not end but changes form or is reborn.  The notion of killing or ‘death’ presupposes the substantial reality of that which is killed and that which kills.  But in the standpoint of the world of Zen, there are no such separate obje

Yesterday was December 7, 2013 Pearl Harbor Day a fortuitous day in American History and a day of silent meditation for those who lost loved ones on both sides of the sea.  I remembered them all as I was moving through my ordination as a Zen Buddhist priest/monk with the Southern Palm Zen Group in Boca Raton, FL. December 8th is traditionally the day Buddhists focus on as the day of “awakening” when Shakyamuni Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) saw all existence as it really was. Af

In Thai, they have a word for practice–patibat–which also means looking after someone, to attend to someone’s needs.  In the practice of the Dhamma you’re looking after your own mind, attending to your own mind’s needs.  It’s not so much that you’re learning about Buddhism.  You’re learning about your one mind, looking after your own mind.  That’s when the meditation really starts showing its value.  it rearranges all the power balances  in the mind so that truth begins to ta