Thanksgiving: Nourishing the Grateful Heart
By Sunya-roshi In the U.S. we make a big deal out of Thanksgiving, our annual tribute to gratitude, football, and overeating. Don’t get me wrong – I love Thanksgiving, with its relative freedom from religious trappings and over-the-top consumerism. With its theme of gratitude, it’s a perfect fit with our Zen practice, ceremonies and celebrations. […]
Memorial Zazenkai — Autumn Reflections
November: A time of inward-turning as the darkness increases–when the great teaching of Death and Dying vividly plays itself out all around us. Leaves flying and falling and covering the ground; dark, bare branches appearing; the gorgeous colors of early autumn now shifting into a more somber palette of brown and grey and olive green — […]
Early Autumn Reflections
Here at Windhorse we ushered in the new fall season with a 7-day sesshin. So many forces, seen and unseen, came together to support our dharma efforts! Perfect weather, with warm days bright with tall plumes of goldenrod, dreamy white-mist-in-the-mountains mornings, and cool, clear, starry nights, with the shimmering stripe of the Milky Way clearly […]
Late Summer Reflections at Windhorse
by Sunya-roshi Oh that my monk’s robe were wide enoughto gather up all the suffering peoplein this floating world — Ryõkan What a time we find ourselves in! When has it ever been more important, this dharma practice, and the support of others to help keep it alive? Surely no one needs it spelled out […]