More information and courses available at The International Center for Reiki Training website.
Author: Eric Mendelman
Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation or TM is a very personal and effective tool for working with one’s mind. As a mantra based meditation, it offers a quick and effective method for deeply developing the mind and enhancing ones being and quality of life.
Learn more at the Transcendental Meditation® website.
Stephen Heine: Existential and Ontological Dimensions of Time in Heidegger and Dogen
A very helpful, albeit dense, work that articulates the fine points of where western metaphysics leaves off and eastern metaphysics begins.
Read Existential and Ontological Dimensions of Time in Heidegger and Dogen by Stephen Heine.
Julia Seton: The Psychology of the Solar Plexus and the Subconscious Mind
George Osawa and the Kushi Institute
Macrobiotics is a powerful diet that heals mind, body and spirit through its foundations in zen Buddhism. Understanding the spiritual nature and qualities of food brings our unbounded, true nature more clearly into focus.
Read more at the What is the Macrobiotic Diet? article.
Body Type Quiz: What’s my Dosha?
Knowing your body type and which foods support your health and which to avoid is fundamental to sustaining wellness.
Take the Body Type Quiz: What’s my Dosha?
The Prime: Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary
The Prime offers us a 4 phase mind, body, spirit reboot following fundamental principles and foods of ayurvedic healing. Completing the 4 phases can change your life!
Read more about The Prime by Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary
LifeSpa: Dr. John Douillard
Dr. Douillard is a prolific source of wellness knowledge that taps the power of synthesizing eastern and western medicine. You can find loads of Dr. Douillards content at the LifeSpa website and on Youtube.
Visit the LifeSpa website
Running a Green Light
Obey the nature of things, and you are in concord with the Way, calm and easy and free from annoyance, but when your thoughts are tied, you turn away from the truth, they grow heavier and duller and not at all sound.
— Sosan Ganchi Zenji, 3rd Patriarch of Zen
When they are not sound, the spirit is troubled, what is the use of being partial and one-sided then? If you want to walk the course of the One Vehicle, be not prejudiced against the six sense objects.
When you are not prejudiced against the six sense-objects, you are then one with the Enlightenment;
When approaching an intersection with a traffic signal, how many of us would ever intentionally run a red light? None of us, right? What about running a yellow light or running green light? Is there such a thing?
Have you ever driven down a stretch of road with several intersections and all the lights were green? Did you ever speed up in order to reach the last light before it turns red? Did you ever think that you ignored the message of each green light- which is to proceed at your normal speed.
A green light does not mean speed up. Doing so is called running a green light!
And when we finally approach the last light and it turns yellow, we speed up even more, completely ignoring what the yellow light means- slow down and prepare to stop. To speed up instead is called running a yellow light!
What about ignoring our stress by nurturing our issues until something changes in our tissues and we feel physical pain? What about thinking of what we want to say next instead of really listening to someone?
Obey the nature of things, Sosan says, don’t ignore what your senses are telling you, and you are then one with the Enlightenment.
Can oneness with Enlightenment be this simple? Or maybe as simple as sitting quietly and following your breath?
Clinging is Out of Bounds
Clinging is never kept within bounds; it is sure to go the wrong way; quit it, and things follow their own courses, while the Essence neither departs nor abides.
— Sosan Ganchi Zenji, 3rd Patriarch of Zen
As I leave the house one hypothetical morning, I am pleased with how centered I am and flowing with the Dharma. Then someone cuts me off in traffic, the person ahead of me in the express line at the grocery store checks out with way more than 15 items, my head is boiling in response to an ignorant Facebook post, and when I finally get to my meditation cushion that evening, I replay all of it as if I needed to suffer even more!
What is happening here? Zazen tells us that if we attach ourselves externally, we have stepped out of bounds of the Dharma Path. In most games, when we step out of bounds, play stops. Time out!
How then can we stay on the Dharma Path when confronted with frustrating grocery lines, chaotic traffic, and narrow views? I remember as a boy, running through boulder fields, hopping from rock to rock as fast as I could. I remember how focused I needed to be to keep from falling. To move slowly seemed even more difficult.
What if we received actions of frustrating people and situations as if they were boulders on our path? What if we chose to bounce through this boulder field joyfully instead of dwelling on how uneven the path is?
Where then would the Essence of the Dharma Path be found?