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CRESTONE, Colo. -- Belinda Ellis' farewell went as she wanted. One by one, her family placed juniper boughs and logs about her body, covered in red cloth atop a rectangular steel grate inside a brick-lined hearth. With a torch, her husband lit the fire that consumed her, sending billows of smoke into the blue-gray sky of dawn. The outdoor funeral pyre in this southern Colorado mountain town is unique. Funeral and cremation industry officials say they are unaware of any other place in the nation that conducts open-air cremations for people regardless of religion. A Buddhist temple in Red Feather Lakes, Colo., conducts a few funeral pyres, but only for its members. ( Article by Ivan Moreno of the Associated Press ) James : I have long told family and close friends that my wishes upon death are to have my body cremated and the ashes spread through the four elements of nature: earth, fire, air and water. It is my hope that those ashes will be of benefit to the natural world th...

With palms together, Good Morning Everyone, Soku Shin, Suki, and I just got back from a 2.6 mile desert hike. Suki did what Sukis do, and gave chase to the myriad rabbits inhabiting the desert. Soku Shin did what Soku Shins do, talked with friend Caiti along the way. I did what I do, walked residing in my thoughts. My thoughts are in a bit of a turmoil this morning. My Teacher who has always been a bit of a challenge for me, has sparked some conflict again. It has set me to wondering about the role of Teacher as we advance along the way. A friend recently asked me what being a roshi meant to me. I was taken aback by the question as I had never really given it much thought. He is in a position to have that honor bestowed upon him and he is concerned about it. Rightly so. I feel it is rather like when I finally was awarded a PhD and a license to practice independently as a clinical social worker. Oh my, big, deep breath. What are the expectations? Can I meet them? And on and on In Americ...

"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

In an email exchange with a friend the topic of "intuition" came up. It ties in deeply with the things I have been trying to capture in my studio lately (eek, capture, that sounds a bit like I'm chasing a fly around the house). As part of a project on "seeking authentic voice" I have been turning my attention to "listening" and patience during my studio time. I have had mixed success with both. Given I'm not a particularly patient person (who, moi, as Miss Piggy would say) I expected patience and listening to happen right away! I learned these are skills that, well, get this, take patience to develop. (Duh, as Homer Simpson would say) Where do these guys come from?? But when my friend talked about intuition, I began to revisit the "listening" aspect of practice. Gasp, I learned I'm not the greatest listener! I recognized that cultivation of that "still small voice" requires the willingness to just sit and be with t...

"Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

When it comes to being healthy and living a vibrant and energy filled life, sleep seems to be one of the most elusive aspects to conquer. Certainly we know that getting a good nights sleep is important - crucial, even, to good health . But its not as simple as just deciding that you are now going to start sleeping better. At least thats how it often seems. Want to eat healthier or with more variety? All it takes is some planning and follow-through. Want to exercise more ? Its just a matter of making time for even 10 minutes a day, and scheduling it in. But you want to sleep better? Well thats another story, isnt it? Isnt it time to say enough is enough? Allow me to share with you the things that I have found to be most powerful when it comes to regaining your control over the night. The following points have worked wonders for me (certainly some more than others, or for different periods of time), and I trust theyll be of benefit to you. 10 Ways To Improve Your Sleep And Take Back...

Failure has become a faithful friend throughout the years. Early on in my life I thought failure was my mortal enemy. But lifes experience has taught me that Professor Failure is on the academic staff of my personal University Of Success that I attend. He is a vital necessity for my training, in order to become someone who will reach his full potential, and even go beyond what he personally thought possible. And why is that? Because I have learned to ask a simple question of my professor after every failure, What is the most important lesson that I can learn from this mistake? Those lessons then become the building blocks for the success I have experienced to date, and the success that will accompany me for the rest of my days. So please allow me to share with you just 5 lessons that Professor Failure has taught me about success. The Importance Of Obsession If you ever want to make your mark on this world, you are going to have to break free of mediocrity and be obsessed. If I was ...

I am beginning to believe, with the exception of the Buddhist academic world, that most Buddhist practitioners (not all!) are intellectually lazyI mean why bother with the Pali or the Mahayana canon? Here is something I found on Zen Forum International which fits with what I just said. By the way, the brackets are mine. Anatman [lit. not the self] is an antidote the the assumption of a subjective essence. The assumption that there is an ultimate experiencer of experiences is deeply rooted. Anatman is an antidote to that. Anatman is used up in resolving this erroneous assumption. Anatman and Atman are both dropped in practice The author misses the essence of the Buddhas teaching by a nautical mile. Anatman is not an antidote for the assumption of a subjective essence; it is the fact that what is impermanent and suffering, such as the Five Aggregates, is not the self or the same, not our true self. Nor should we assume that the Buddha denied the self. Above all, the Buddha didnt want us ...

With palms together, Good Morning Everyone, Events in distant lands are troublesome. Political unrest, religious oppression, killing, all seem rampant. There is a degree of inhumanity and intolerance that just seems plain wrong. I read a story of the brutal stoning deaths of a couple in Pakistan, the hanging of a woman in Iran, and the beating death of a gay man in Africa. Of course, we in the US have our share: the killing of a father and daughter in Arizona by vigilantes, and this morning, I read about a mother who shot and killed her teenaged daughter and son because they would not stop mouthing off. Violence has always been a part of our worlds landscape and living in the self-righteous, often squeeky clean, dreamscape we create for ourselves, it is difficult for us to imagine such things. Yet, there they are. I read with a sense of horror on the one hand and compassion on the other. I want to understand the killers so that I will somehow be able to make sense of their actions. On ...

"The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit. And the habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care. And let it spring from love, born out of concern for all beings." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

With palms together, Good Morning Everyone, So decadent, I am tying sitting in a tub full of hot soapy water. Actually, I am treating a bunion and two corns that have appeared on my feet of late. Painful, they are getting in the way of my training for the Bataan Death March at the end of March. I have already decided to take the short course, 15 miles is about all I can get up to between now and then, but even this is being threatened by these little toe tigers biting me. On my runs/hikes lately, I have been practicing running meditation. The thing is to get into a rhythm of breathing, syncing breath with footfalls. Usually it comes to two steps with each in breath; two steps with each out breath, exception being running up hills. The synchronicity is rather like a mantra. Free to consider each new breath with a new view, a new thought, a new feeling, the miles fall away. This is one of the things I have missed about distance running and am so happy to be able to experience again, if n...

By Mary Jaksch When Charity Tillemann-Dick, a brilliant young opera singer, was told by her doctors that she would never sing again and would most likely die very soon Charity was determined to prove them wrong. The video below is a moving testament of the power of passion, and the miracle of determination. (If you cant see the video, click here to watch it ). I cried at the end. What about you? If you enjoyed this article, please click below to get free updates delivered to your inbox (PLUS receive my FREE eBook, Overcome Anything!) Click here to Download your FREE eBook Overcome Everything Hopeless? How a Brilliant Young Singer defies Medical Odds and Performs Again

Sing it now - "You're own - digital - Buddha..." Ok. So, it's been awhile since I have seen discussion about the online Buddhist practice/in the flesh Buddhist practice divide. Yesterday, Brad Warner offered his standard rant against the internet as a practice venue. Computers are very good at producing simulations of reality. But simulations are not the real thing. A zendo in Second Life is not a real zendo. Your time spent reading blogs about Zen, including this one, is not real time spent with a Zen teacher. There is some validity in this view. People are very good at hiding behind computer screens, chatting away intellectually, but not actually applying the teachings in their everyday lives. However, I think Brad's view is missing something. This is what I wrote in response to his post: I'm with you on concerns about the impact of over-dependence on technology on relationships and communities. Collectively, we aren't skilled with using the internet, c...

"The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

With palms together, Good Morning Everyone, Master Dogen taught that to study the Way is to study the self. This study is the act of burning away the construction we call self, allowing the pieces to fall away, and supporting what remains as that which was not born and that which will not die: our true nature. This is the universality of everything, the Great Breath, not one, not two, just this. How do we get there? Simple, we get out of our own way. We realize we are already there, that there is no there, and that the desire to get there, the imagining of a there in the first place, is all part of the delusion. We practice stillness. This is the practice of just coming and going, the practice of breathing in and breathing out, the practice of practice itself: zanmai o zanmai. The Samadhi that is the king of Samadhi. Does raw land allow our plants to grow or do we need to till and otherwise care for the field? Do we need to weed and water? Do we need to fertilize? For our crop to be pl...

If you're the kind of vegetarian, like myself, then you aren't a purist; preferring only the taste of vegetables. Even after 9 years of being vegetarian; I miss the taste of meat--yes, I know, a lot of vegetarians think that is blasphemy but it's purely about flavor. I don't want to kill or be complicit in the killing of animals for my food but I never hated the taste of meat. However, I do dislike the smell of cooking meat but I think that's from the animal fat burning. Anyway, so, I eat faux meat products--in other words, fake meat products, to get my meat taste fix. These products are usually made from soy bean protein and wheat protein. A lot of the synthetic meat products on the market today are surprisingly close in taste--unlike in decades past. The product I am reviewing today is Boca brand's meatless chicken nuggets; the actual name is, "Boca Original Meatless Chik'n Nuggets." I like to use them to make meatless buffalo wing chicken nugget...