today I get to practice loving kindness to the woman who ran into my car and then was disingenious when reporting the facts to her insurance company, which in turn denied my claim.

huh.

is it working?

yeah.  but a little less quickly than normal.

I hope she has a safe and healthy holiday season.
I hope we all do.

Pai-chang wished to send a monk to open a new monastery. He told his pupils that whoever answered a question most ably would be appointed. Placing a water jug on the ground, he asked: "Who can say what this is without calling its name?"

The head monk said: "No one can call it a wooden sandal."

Kuei-shan, the cooking monk, tipped over the jug with his ( Read more... )

Not so much a ramble about working out, as dealing with fear.

( and so on. )

( Recovery )

( vice as a motivator )

1.  Back to the gym this morning after a prolonged absence. When I started dropping pounds and inches without trying at the end of last year, I stopped going to the gym  because I didn't want to lose any more weight. I was feeling bony and brittle. Now that I've been able to regulate my blood sugars and iron levels, I've put on a few of the pounds ( Read more... )

hosted by the Drinking Gourd Dharma Circle/ The Toledo Zen Center, this weekend I attended an "Introduction to Zen" workshop retreat. What a wonderfully nourishing, exhausting and beautiful experience!  There were some distinct lessons I brought home with me, but they are still being processed by the backbrain, so perhaps I will wax poetic on them ( Read more... )

Spent an hour or so mucking around in the dirt tonight, breaking up big chunks of dirt into little chunks of dirt. Planted a few rows of onions and a few of carrots using seeds I bought last year, so my expectations for their development are low. Found a big (big!) honkin' spider (the evil lookin kind) hanging out in one of the beds ( Read more... )

An entire series of discussions and workshops on the Zen Arts this summer!  For more information, or to register, check out their webpage:  http://toledozencenter.wordpress.com/

“The arts of Zen are not intended for utilitarian purposes, or for purely aesthetic enjoyment, but are meant to train the mind, indeed, to bring it into contact with ( Read more... )

Good morning and Namaste, y'all ( Read more... )